Thursday, February 28, 2008

Sony Agrees to $1 Billion Sale Leaseback of European HQ in Berlin

February 28, 2008 - Reuters

Japanese consumer electronics maker Sony Corp said on Thursday that it has agreed to sell its European headquarters and entertainment complex in Berlin to a consortium led by Morgan Stanley-run funds.

Sony said it will remain as the main tenant in the eight-building Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz, which draws more than eight million visitors per year.

Morgan Stanley and Sony both declined to comment on the size and terms of the sale and leaseback, although a spokeswoman for Sony said the initial cost of the development was 750 million euros ($1.13 billion).

Reports put the size of the deal at between $940 million and $1.13 billion. Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Saint Vincent Signs 15-Year Lease for 64 Residences For Hospital Staff in Jersey City, NJ

Multi-Housing News - February 25, 2008

Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers (Saint Vincent’s), the umbrella organization for several hospitals and healthcare facilities, has signed a 15-year lease with SK Properties, a Bridgewater, N.J.-based real estate company, for 65 apartments at Grove Pointe in downtown Jersey City, N.J. The lease is worth $34 million.

The residences in the 30-story luxury rental building, developed by SK Properties, is to be occupied by resident and intern physicians, doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel.

“Saint Vincent’s was unable to find a building in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, close to the hospital facility, which is why they started looking at Jersey City,” says Jonathan Kushner, a principal of SK Properties.

Grove Pointe is a studio, one- and two-bedroom apartment complex accessible by the PATH trains from Saint Vincent’s location in Manhattan.

“We were very pleased to find an adequate number of residential units to meet our needs at Grove Pointe,” says James Woods, senior vice president, Real Estate Services at Saint Vincent’s. “The building is a short commute to the hospital.”

Rents for the studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments start at $1,950.

Amenities include outdoor landscaped deck with a pool and sundeck, fitness club, yoga studio, game room with billiard table, private screening room and catering kitchen. The building also has a 24-hour doorman and concierge, on-site parking garage, and 20,000 sq. ft. of ground-floor retail space that is expected to include a Starbucks, Duane Reade Pharmacy and Valley National Bank. Sphere: Related Content

Friday, February 22, 2008

Coca Cola Enters $80 Million Sale Leaseback of Distribution Facility in Sydney

The Age - February 20, 2008

Goodman International Ltd says it has secured a 15-year commitment from Coca Cola Amatil Ltd (CCA) to develop its new western Sydney storage and distribution facility for $80 million.

The purpose-built CCA centre will be developed on a 9.25-hectare site at the 150-hectare M7 Business Hub at Eastern Creek. The CCA property will be owned by the Goodman Australia Industrial Fund (GAIF).

CCA purchased the land and has now has entered into a sale-and-lease back agreement for an initial term of 15 years on the 31,225-square-metre facility. The distribution centre is the second such facility Goodman has secured from CCA in recent years. The previous commitment included the initial development of a 27,399-square-metre storage and distribution facility in Mentone, Melbourne Sphere: Related Content

Monday, February 18, 2008

Greek Govt Planning $1.3 Billion Sale Leaseback of State Property Portfolio

Kathimerini - February 16, 2008

A plan by the Ministry of Finance is entering its final stages for the exploitation of a major part of state-owned properties. This will be done under a sale-and-leaseback scheme worked out by the Greek Public Real Estate Corporation (KED).

According to reports, KED has already finalized the list of state-owned properties that will make up the basic core of the specific portfolio. Its value is expected to amount to some –1.3 billion. The plan involves 26 properties, some of which are still under construction.

The main objective of KED is to include buildings “of a younger age,” currently occupied by state services, ministries, tax offices and police offices. The young age of a property is envisaged as making the relevant bids more attractive to private investors.

Each bid is to be drafted according to the special features of each property. In some cases, the model to be selected will be “lease and leaseback,” while others would follow the “sale and leaseback” model.

Property market operators are looking forward to the program’s commencement, stressing that it will almost certainly draw much interest from firms specializing in property investments, given that the specific product offers all of the desired qualities for such companies, and in addition guarantees steady and secure leases.

Eurobank Properties, according to reports, is to be among the first private companies to claim involvement in the scheme, when implemented.

Properties making up the sale-and-leaseback portfolio include buildings used by the ministries of Tourism and Culture, a Transport Ministry building on Mesogeion Avenue, the building occupied by the Press and Media Ministry, as well as the National Statistics Service building.

The portfolio’s final composition is to be decided next month, and its overall value is expected to be higher by at least –500 million, compared to the initial planning. Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Jones Lang LaSalle Counts £7.7 Billion in Sale Leaseback Transactions in 2007

Property Week - February 15, 2008

The 2007 Jones Lang LaSalle Portfolio Market Review, published last week, showed that the volume of sale and leasebacks peaked in 2007, as growing numbers of occupiers looked to extract value from their property portfolios. The report identified a total of £7.7 billion in sales in 96 portfolios – up from £6.7 billion in 72 portfolios in 2006.

The report said: ‘Despite recent market conditions, these continued to sell where positive sentiment towards the leaseback covenant existed.’

Sale and leasebacks accounted for 43% of transactions, whereby corporate occupiers sold £3.3bn of property assets. The remaining 57% were investment property portfolios.

The most sizeable transactions the £400m Macdonald Hotels portfolio, the £400m Thistle Hotels portfolio and the £680m Capio Healthcare portfolio all took place in the first two quarters of 2007.

JLL states that, although the third quarter appeared to confirm a decline in activity as the credit crunch took hold, ‘the Royal Bank of Scotland’s £800m Acorn Portfolio bucked this trend and the year drew to a close with optimism for 2008’.

Mark Cotterall, head of global real estate for BT and CoreNet Global UK Chapter board member, said: ‘The reason corporates do sale and leasebacks is to release asset value.

Richard Shepherd-Cross, a director at Jones Lang Lasalle, said: ‘The portfolio market appeared to buck the trend of reduced market turnover, which we were seeing across the board last year this was a result of corporate sale and leasebacks, which propped up sales. Ignoring corporate sale and leaseback activity general market turnover in the portfolio market was down 20% in 2007.

He added: ‘Whereas corporate sale and leasebacks accounted for only 20% of portfolio sales in 2006, they accounted for over 40% in 2007. Of this, it was the banks and hoteliers who contributed to over 40% of the sale and leaseback activity.’

Shepherd-Cross predicted that ‘2008 will see a reduction in sale and leaseback activity as current market yields make it less attractive to the corporate owner’. Sphere: Related Content

Friday, February 15, 2008

$A50 Million Supermarket Portfolio Coming to Market in Melbourne

Business Spectator / Australian Financial Review - February 13, 2008

A portfolio of five supermarkets will be auctioned in Melbourne in late February 2008. Three Woolworths supermarkets in three states and two Coles supermarkets in New South Wales comprise the $A50 million portfolio. The properties will be offered for sale and leaseback on terms of up to 60 years. Capitalisation rates are forecast to soften in 2008, but investors continue to have confidence in quality properties with secure leases. Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Stanchart Signs Build-to-Suit for Office Building in Singapore

The Straits Times - February 12, 2007
Standard Chartered Bank (Stanchart) has signed a $206 million deal to lease a customised building at Changi Business Park to house its backroom operations from 2010.

The deal, involving a 15-year lease, puts Stanchart's total spending on relocation and consolidation projects over the next 10 to 12 years at over $1 billion.

The six-storey building will have 225,000 sq ft to house up to 2,000 backroom staff. As the bank's business grows, it could add a second and third phase to increase its space there to 700,000 sq ft.

This move to an industrial location - after it leased 24 floors at the yet-to-be completed Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC) last April - is to accommodate the bank's mid- to long- term expansion.

'The two properties will accommodate a projected increase in headcount from about 4,700 to over 6,000 by 2010,' said Stanchart chief executive Lim Cheng Teck on Tuesday.

These leasing deals allow the bank to lock in a significant chunk of future costs, giving it the opportunity to grow at a much faster pace, he said.

'There will always be cyclical challenges. We are very bullish on Singapore, which is why we are investing ahead,' he said.

When Stanchart moves to the new premises, it will vacate all its current office premises, apart from its 6 Battery Road location where it has a 30-year lease of the 10th floor due to expire in 2020.

The MBFC premises will be Stanchart's main business centre.

Mr Lim said the bank's business has performed strongly on the back of robust economic growth in Singapore and the region.

'We will build on the momentum to capture in-country and regional opportunities.'

The Changi Business Park building will be built by Ascendas. Stanchart will lease it for 15 years from late 2010, with a review every five years and an option to lease it for another 15 years. Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

UK Govt Office Building in London Pre-Sold for $263 Million

PropertyWeek - February 11, 2008

Private clients of HSBC Private Bank have bought UBS’s 160 Tooley Street for around £135m. The price paid for the office development which is let to Southwark Council reflects an initial yield of around 5.25%.

Southwark Council will take occupation early next year and has signed a 25-year lease at £38.50/sq ft. UBS Global Asset Management put the building up for sale in November for around £140m. The rental income from Southwark Council at the 200,000 sq ft building is around £7.5m a year.

Tudor Toone advised UBS and Whitmarsh Holt Young advised HSBC private bank. Sphere: Related Content

UBS Completes $263 Million Sale Leaseback of London Office Tower

Reuters - February 11, 2008

UBS Global Asset Management said on Monday it has sold an office building near London's City financial district to HSBC Private Bank for 135 million pounds ($263 million) and a rental yield of around 5.3 percent.

Richard Tanner, director of UK property funds at UBS (UBSN.VX), said local government was poised to move into the new 200,000 square foot (18,580 sq metre) property in the London Bridge area, across the river from the City, on a 25-year lease.

"It's a quasi-bond type asset and the market is reasonably liquid for these types of assets," he told Reuters. "I wouldn't say the market is hot for all types of properties but, for London offices on reasonably good terms and solid covenants, there seems to be a fair degree of liquidity."

Benchmark data showed a 12 percent drop in average UK commercial property values from their summer peak to the end of last year -- a peak-to-trough fall which may yet grow to 25-30 percent in 2008/2009, according to the property derivatives market.

UK commercial property transactions have slumped as buyers and sellers adjust to a more bearish climate, and were 60 percent down in January compared with the same month last year.

Tanner said the London Bridge office sale was on behalf of UBS's 600 million pound South East Recovery Fund, a specialist office fund, out of a total UK property portfolio worth around 3 billion pounds.

He declined to comment on whether the asking price of the Tooley Street office was cut to secure a sale, although earlier media reports said it had been put on the market in November for 140 million pounds.

Tanner said UBS expected to buy and sell a few more UK property assets this year with a reasonably stable income.

"Accepting there is a very uncertain economic backdrop, there are a variety of areas of the property market which look attractive at current pricing and a couple of areas which look a bit sparky," he said.

HSBC Private Bank could not be immediately reached for comment. Sphere: Related Content

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Raben Group Completes Sale Leaseback of Two Distribution Centers in Poland

PropertyEU - February 7, 2008

Pramerica Real Estate Investors has acquired two logistics centres in Poland on behalf of its open-ended fund TMW Immobilien Weltfonds from European logistics company Raben Group. The Polish investment team of Jones Lang LaSalle, which acted for Raben, described the dual deals as the 'first institutional quality sale-and-lease-back transactions' in Poland for the logistic sector.

JLL said the centres, totalling 70,500 m2, are strategically located in Gadki (near Poznan) and Grodzisk Mazowiecki (near Warsaw) on the main TIR routes. A 10-year lease was signed by Raben for 100% of the premises. Poland-based Raben carried out the transaction to generate additional financial means for expansion. Raben operates in Estonia, Holland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. It has over 260,000 m2 of warehousing space spread across a network of terminals in Europe. Sphere: Related Content

NuVasive Enters Long Term Lease for HQ in San Diego

Cityfeet - February 7, 2008

Medical device maker NuVasive Inc. has signed a $113 million, 15-year lease to relocate the company's headquarters to 143,614 sf of class A office and R&D space at Veralliance Properties Inc.'s Sorrento Summit life sciences campus. The new lease will approximately double the amount of headquarters space occupied by NuVasive, which designs, develops and markets products for the surgical treatment of spine disorders.

According to Daniel J. Ryan, principal with San Diego-based Veralliance, NuVasive will occupy the 143,614 sf in two existing buildings at 7473 Lusk Blvd. (71,112 sf) and at 7475 Lusk Blvd. (72,502 sf). NuVasive also has options to lease additional space in a third building that will begin construction in January 2009 and add approximately 125,000 sf to the Sorrento Summit campus.

NuVasive will pay base rent of $2.43 per sf, escalating at an annual rate of 3% over the 15-year period of the lease, according to public filings by the company, which is listed on Nasdaq. Relocation to the new facility is expected to be completed in phases in the first and second quarters of this year.

NuVasive says that the agreement with Veraillance provides for facility expansion rights to an aggregate of more than 300,000 leased sf, under terms of which the medical technology company is required to make minimum lease payments, including operating expenses, of $2.4 million in 2008, $6.1 million in 2009, $6.4 million in 2010, $6.6 million in 2011, $6.8 million in 2012 and $84.9 million thereafter for a total of $113.2 million over the 15-year period.

In the lease with Veraillance, NuVasive was represented by Jeff Manley of Cresa Partners West Inc. The building owner was represented by Chad Urie of Colliers International and Brian Driscoll of Grubb & Ellis|BRE. Sphere: Related Content

Friday, February 08, 2008

Continental Tire Agrees to 29.4 Million Sale Leaseback of HQ in Charlotte, NC

Tire Review Online - February 6, 2008

The sprawling Continental Tire North America headquarters site in Charlotte, N.C. will soon be re-born as a business complex following its sale to a developer.

Philadelphia-based Patriot Equities, a company specialising in the purchasing and leasing back of corporate buildings, has agreed to acquire the tyre manufacturer’s offices and former factory for $29.4 million.

CTNA has taken out a 10-year lease on a portion of the site, and will continue its tenancy there in a reduced capacity. Of the 1.7 million square feet of commercial space contained in the site, the company will now lease and occupy 600,000 square feet.

During January 2008 CTNA made the significant disclosure that its North American operations, in the red for several years, seem likely to have broken even in 2007. It is not clear if, or to what extent, the proceeds from the headquarters sale have contributed towards this return to the black. Sphere: Related Content

Thursday, February 07, 2008

ANZ Seeking $100 Million Sale Leaseback of 47 Bank Branches

Sydney Morning Herald - February 5, 2008

ANZ Banking Group Ltd will sell and lease back 47 branch sites and three commercial office buildings across Australia as part of its long-term property strategy.

The 47 branches are the only remaining fully owned retail sites of ANZ's 800-plus national branch network.

The bank's global property head, Jane Hamilton, said the branches would remain an important part of ANZ's network.

The bank has opened more than 80 new branches since 2004 and chose to lease rather than purchase the sites outright, in line with its long-term property strategy, Ms Hamilton said.

The sale and lease back of the ANZ portfolio will be managed by Jones Lang LaSalle and has a potential end-value of more than $100 million.

Auctions will be held on March 18, 19 and 20 in Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane.

(Link to the property offering web site) Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

UnitedHealthcare Services Completes Sale Leaseback of Office Building in St. Louis

Commercial Property News - February 4, 2008

Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II has taken UnitedHealthcare Services’ five-story office building in suburban St. Louis, the fund has reported. The deal is a sale-leaseback, and UnitedHealthcare has signed a long-term lease for 100 percent of the property.

The building has 188,500 square feet on five floors, and was built for UnitedHealthcare a decade ago in Riverpor-Earth City, the area’s largest mixed-use business park, northeast of St. Louis. The park offers direct access to Interstates 70 and 270, and is just five minutes from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

No other terms of the deal were disclosed. Sphere: Related Content

Friday, February 01, 2008

National Grid Agrees to 20-Year Build-to-Suit HQ Near Boston

The Boston Globe - January 20, 2008

National Grid has taken a 20-year lease on an entire building at the East Campus of Reservoir Woods in Waltham. Reservoir Woods is being developed by Davis Marcus Partners of Boston.

The 312,000-square-foot building at 40 Sylvan St. will hold a high Gold environmental rating from the US Green Building Council, an industry group, according to the council. The building was designed by ADD Inc. of Cambridge. Jones Lang LaSalle represented National Grid, the energy provider.

CB Richard Ellis represented David Marcus Partners. The three-story building is expected to be ready for occupancy in mid-2009. Sphere: Related Content

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