Friday, May 23, 2008

Grupo Prisa Completes EUR 315 Million Sale Leaseback of Three Office Buildings in Spain

Cushman & Wakefield Web Site - May 21, 2008

Drago Real Estate Partners has today announced the signing of an agreement with Prisa to purchase a portfolio of office blocks comprising 3 buildings, two of these located in Madrid and one in Barcelona, belonging to the communications group. The operation will take the form of sale & leaseback and the amount agreed is 315 million Euros.

In late 2007, the Grupo Prisa announced the running of a competition to sell this property portfolio, comprising two buildings in Madrid: one located at Gran Vía 32 (the head office of the Grupo Prisa) and the other on Calle Miguel Yuste (the head office of the daily newspaper El País and other publications) and one building in Barcelona, located at Calle Caspe, 6 – 20 (the head office of Radio Barcelona). The portfolio includes a total of 71,873 m2 and 344 parking spaces, as well as various commercial premises in the building on Gran Vía, with prestigious tenants such as Zara, Mango, H&M and Sfera.

The purchase is to take place through a consortium led by Drago Real Estate Partners. The financing has been provided to Drago by the Banco Santander and the Bayerische Landesbank. The organisation Gómez-Acebo & Pombo has advised Drago Real Estate Partners, Uría y Menéndez has advised Prisa and Clifford Chance has advised the Banco Santander and the Bayerische Landesbank. CB Richard Ellis has advised Prisa in the sales process and Cushman & Wakefield has advised the buyer.

Drago Real Estate Partners is a property investment company which is managed by Mare Nostrum Capital Managers. Sphere: Related Content

Saturday, May 17, 2008

JC Penney Warehouse Near LA Trades for $36.1 Million

Cityfeet.com / GlobeSt.com - May 15, 2008

A 440,538-sf single-tenant distribution center here has changed hands for $36.1 million, according to industry sources. An undisclosed client of UBS Global Real Estate acquired the 10-year-old development from FR/CAL Beta Northwest, LLC, a joint venture between First Industrial and CalSTRS.

Located near Interstate 5 within Crossroads Commerce Center, the warehouse was built in 1998 and substantially renovated for JC Penney in 2007. The building, 700 D’Arcy Parkway, has 32-foot clear heights and approximately 9,000 sf built out for office use. The 28-acre property includes eight acres of yard area for trailer parking.

JC Penney is currently paying a net rent on the warehouse of $4.23 per sf per year and another $1.19 per sf per year for the trailer parking lot, according to an industry source. The non-cancelable lease runs through 2023 and includes 6% compounding escalations every three years. JC Penney also is paying a 2% annual management fee.

The current net income from the property is $2.27 million. Given the $36.1-million purchase price, the initial cap rate on the transaction is approximately 6.3%.

“We started marketing the property in the September-October timeframe, right after the market had changed, when there was still a tremendous amount of uncertainty,” listing broker Andrew Sandquist of CB Richard Ellis tells GlobeSt.com. “But this is an institutional quality asset in an institutional market that is net leased long term, and investors are still looking for high-quality product and are willing to pay for it. We’re very pleased with the result.”

Sandquist heads up CBRE’s national sale-leaseback group from his office in Chicago. Joining him on the listing were Robert Brennan and Jonathan Wolfe, also from Chicago, and Dave Haggerty of CBRE’s Stockton, CA office, in the disposition of 700 D’Arcy Parkway, Lathrop, CA. Sphere: Related Content

Friday, May 16, 2008

Vedici Group Enters EUR 73 Million Sale Leaseback of Two Health Care Facilities in France

PropertyEU - May 14, 2008

French property developer Icade has acquired two healthcare assets in Nantes for EUR 73 million from nursing home operator Vedici. The company bought the Polyclinique de l'Atlantique in Saint Herblain, France's leading maternity clinic with total capacity of 269 beds, and the Centre de Soins de Suite de Roz Arvor in Nantes with a capacity of 80 beds. The Vedici Group is leasing back the properties under a 12-year lease. Icade has a development portfolio of public and healthcare assets of about 205,000 m2. Other 158,000 m2 of space have already been brought to the market.

The French builder, which is chaired by Serge Grzybowski, added that it has been hired by Crédit Lyonnais’ bank LCL to construct its headquarters in Villejuif. LCL will rent back the Metropolitan office complex, which consists of 60,000 m2 of space across four buildings. The first asset is scheduled to be delivered in early 2009, while completion for the three others is expected for 2012.

In the beginning of May, Icade and its business partner ING Real Estate signed contracts with IVG to develop three buildings within the new Claude Bernard business park in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. The contracts are for the construction of 40,000 m2 of office space across three properties. Construction work is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2009, with completion in 2011. The company posted turnover of EUR 1.5bn in 2007. Sphere: Related Content

Sunday, May 11, 2008

AT&T Completes $275.2 Million Sale Leaseback of Atlanta Office Campus

Commercial Property News - May 9, 2008

Wells REIT II has acquired a five-building, 1 million-square-foot office campus in the Buckhead submarket of Atlanta, through a long-term sale-leaseback with AT&T. The campus will headquarter AT&T Wireless' operations in the city. The transaction's terms were not disclosed.

The property is located in the Lenox Park office park (pictured) on Lenox Park Boulevard, between Peachtree Road and Interstate 85. AT&T Services Inc. and its subsidiaries will occupy all five of the buildings under new leases running from 10 to 15 years. The buildings were constructed between 1992 and 2002 and range from four to 12 floors.

Jay Koster, senior managing director of Staubach Capital Markets, represented AT&T in the deal. Sphere: Related Content

Friday, May 09, 2008

Indian Overseas Bank Seeking Sale Leaseback of Bank Portfolio

Business Standard - May 7, 2008

High property prices have opened up new avenues for state-run banks to shore up their precious tier-I capital.

Chennai-based Indian Overseas Bank is planning to sell its properties to self-promoted special purpose vehicle, thus realising the entire profit and then ploughing it back to its Tier-I capital. IOB will do a leaseback deal of properties that it had sold to the SPV.

According to the bank's estimates, the prices of its property has appreciated nearly 200 per cent over the last couple of years.

IOB has sought the approval of the finance ministry for implementing the idea, according to a top bank executive. If approved by the ministry, the government-owned bank's profit will soar by Rs 6 billion ($140 million) and the amount will be ploughed back to its Tier-I capital.

Banks are allowed to use 40 per cent of the rise in assets valuation to accrue to their Tier-II capital. In the current case, however, the bank will show the transaction as a sale and not revaluation. Hence the entire value of the property is accruable to its Tier-I capital.

The move followed a substantial depletion in the bank's capital adequacy ratio in the previous financial year as it had to comply with Basel-II norms. The capital adequacy ratio of the bank was 11.13 per cent as on March 31 compared with 13.27 per cent in the same period a year ago. The Tier-I capital stood at 7.31 per cent.

Since the government owns 61.23 per cent in the bank, it can dilute its stake to 51 per cent to raise equity capital. However, the bank is not considering a stake dilution at this point of time, the executive said.

Indian laws allow the state-owned banks to dilute up to 49 per cent governmental stake to retail and institutional investors. Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Orpea Ponders Sale Leaseback on Part of EUR 1.2 Billion French Care Home Portfolio

PropertyEU - May 5, 2008

French nursing home group Orpea said it plans to outsource part of its real estate portfolio in the second half of 2008. The company said it is considering different options, including the sale-and-leaseback of some of its development assets to one or more investors, and the direct sale of a number of properties. A third option would be to transfer part of the portfolio to a new OPCI property investment fund in which Orpea would retain a minimum of 60%.

The company added that it has already been approached by a number of French and foreign investors regarding the assets, but would not disclose the name of the interested parties.

Orpea, which made the announcement during the presentation of its results for the 2007 year, said that its property portfolio has a market value of EUR 1.2bn, of which development assets make up for EUR 350mln. The portfolio comprises of 103 buildings, of which 41 are partially owned, located in or near large towns in France.

'This real estate strategy aims to maintain robust margins while controlling the impact of rents on operating performance, in order to pursue the group's value creation policy,' the company said in a statement.

Orpea expects to open 13 new facilities totalling about 1,200 beds in 2008. The company is currently renovating or developing nearly 7,000 beds which are expected to increase its activities by 50% over the next three years. Sphere: Related Content

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Citibank Completes $100 Million Sale Leaseback of 47 Bank Branches in New York City

Property Week - May 2, 2008

Dublin-based Markland holdings, jointly owned by Irish property entrepreneurs Sean Mulryan and Paddy Kelly, has made a $100m (£51m) New York purchase.

The investment and development group has bought 47 Citibank properties, which comprise bank branches and offices, across New York and the wider state that will be leased back to the bank. The price reflects a yield of around 6%.

Citibank will lease back the buildings for 15 years but has the right to occupy the properties for the next 30 years.

Markland Holdings is owned by Mulryan, founder of Ballymore, and Kelly, a fellow entrepreneur. It is run by managing director Aidan Scully. Mulryan first invested with Kelly in the late 1980s in Markland House Properties, before making his fortune with Ballymore in the 1990s.

Last year Ballymore International began equity raising through Irish stockbroker and investment bank Davy to raise more than €1bn (£785m) for overseas development and investments.

New York’s investment market is suffering from a seizure in debt markets and a stand-off between buyers and sellers that has resulted in a dramatic drop in sales – from $28.3bn (£14.3bn) during the first quarter of 2007 to just $5.1bn (£2.6bn) in 2008, according to Cushman and wakefield.

Markland could be trying to take advantage of this buyers’ market where UK and European investors can take advantage of the favourable exchange rate.

Savills Granite acted for Markland. Sphere: Related Content

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