VeriSign Seeking Sale Leaseback of Silicon Valley HQ

Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - January 21, 2008

VeriSign Inc. has put its Mountain View corporate headquarters up for sale. According to offering documents, VeriSign will entertain several purchase options, including the sale of the entire campus to a single buyer or the sale of its "North Buildings," to one party and the sale of its "South Buildings" to another.

The North Buildings consist of a 32,500 square-foot data center, two matching office buildings with a total of just less than 100,000 square-feet and a four-story parking garage with 454 stalls, all on nearly 11 acres. The South Buildings consist of two office buildings with nearly 160,000 square feet on 10.6 acres.

The company intends to lease back the offices in the second pool for the next 10 years but is guaranteeing that it will occupy the data center only through March 2013 and the two office buildings in the same pool only through March 2010.

Because the site is close to light rail, the site could be expanded with an additional 173,000 square feet of new office development.

VeriSign acquired the property from Cupertino's Sobrato Development Cos. in the second half of 2001 for approximately $885 a square foot, the largest commercial real estate transaction in the preceding year. The sale brought Sobrato more than twice as much per square foot as the next-largest sale in that time frame, according to Business Journal research.

VeriSign is in the security-services business for both data and voice networks.

Swedish Gov't Signs Build to Suit for $102 Million Detention Facility Near Stockholm

Skanska Web Site - January 9, 2008

Skanska will be responsible for a total solution, including planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the new detention facility in Sollentuna, north of Stockholm. The construction project is valued at an estimated SEK 650 M and is being included in order bookings for the first quarter.

A 25-year lease has been signed with Kriminalvården (Swedish Prison and Probation Service) for the new detention facility. The 23,600-square-meter facility will house 10 floors with 240 detention cells and an administration section.

Construction will be carried out by Skanska Sweden and begins in January 2008, with completion scheduled for spring 2010. The new detention facility will be located adjacent to the existing police station and the new Attunda courthouse, which is currently under construction by Skanska in a similar type of project.

In similar projects, Skanska has developed, built and been responsible for leasing of premises in Sweden to the police, the public prosecutor office and correctional authorities in Uppsala, Växjö, Flemingsberg and Malmö.

Ponto Frio Completes $62 Million Sale Leaseback of Four Distribution Centers in Brazil

Gazeta Mercantil - January 9, 2008

Bracor real estate investment company bought four distribution centers (CDs) of Globex Utilidades - which controls the retail chain Ponto Frio - for R$109 million.

The operation was carried out through the sale-leaseback system, in which the owner sells the real estate and rents it by means of long-term contracts. In this case, the rent contract closed between Bracor and Globex has an initial term of 180 months or 15 years, renewable for the same period. The CDs purchased by Bracor are located in Guarulhos (São Paulo), Irajá (Rio de Janeiro), Brasília (Federal District) and Goiânia (Goiás).

'It is a trend that has been growing every year in Brazil,' observed Ricardo Betancourt, director of Colliers International no Brasil, a Canadian consulting company specialized in administering real estate properties. He noted the maturing among companies of the concept of focusing investments on primary activities and not immobilizing capital. 'In the United States and Europe, only 20% of companies own their own buildings. Here approximately 80% of them do,' he said.

Another indicator of the expanding practice is the length of the contract, 180 months, renewable for equal and successive periods. 'That's equivalent to 15 years. Until recently, contracts were not closed for periods of more than ten years,' said Betancourt. The stability of the economy has contributed positively to this trend.

BVIC Group Signs EUR 80 Million Sale Leaseback of New Building in Athens

BVIC Group Web Site - January 9, 2008

BVIC Group is pleased to announce that a sale and leaseback agreement for €80 million was signed with Emporiki Leasing and ATE Leasing. The 20 year sale and leaseback agreement covers all of the lettable area, and common area, as well as the parking spaces of the development under construction at 340 Syggrou Avenue. Specifically, it covers 4,587sqm of office space, 9,185sqm of retail space and 2,133 sqm of storage space, as well as 400 parking spaces.

The Group has already signed a lease agreement with Media Markt for 81% of the retail space and 86% of the storage space. The total annual rental revenue for the space that has already been leased is € 2,340,000 for the first year leased. The remaining retail space is under negotiation and is expected to be let before the development is completed in July 2008. The completion of 340 Syggrou Avenue is expected to contribute circa €1.6 per share to our NAV, to be booked in Q3 2008.

This sale and leaseback agreement reaffirms BVIC’s strong ability to raise financing, as well as the confidence placed by major financial institutions in the quality of the Group’s projects, and the secure leasing agreements it obtains with blue chip tenants.

Home Depot Enters $41 Million Sale Leaseback of Distribution Center in Virginia

The Winchester Star - January 12, 2008

The Home Depot Distribution Center at Eastgate Commerce Center has been sold to a private equity firm as part of 10-year lease-back agreement that will keep the massive warehouse operating in Frederick County for at least another decade.

Equity Industrial Winchester LLC and Equity Industrial Winchester LP, both based in Needham, Mass., bought the 842,000-square-foot warehousing facility for $41 million, according to Frederick County’s electronic property records.

Home Depot USA bought the 60-acre property at Eastgate Commerce Center, on U.S. 522 South and Tasker Road, in 2003 because of its proximity to the Virginia Inland Port in Warren County.

The port provides a central location to transfer goods to and from the Virginia Port Authority’s marine terminals in the Hampton Roads region to warehouses in Winchester, Front Royal, and beyond.

Anne Manning, senior manager of field communications for The Home Depot’s southern division, confirmed that the company entered into the lease-back agreement.

The building has 40-foot ceilings and about 350 truck bays. When it opened in January 2004, it featured a fitness room, training classrooms, showers, lockers, and a recreation with table games such as ping-ping and air hockey.

Gambro AB Agrees to $62 Million Sale Leaseback of Properties in Germany

Trading Markets / Nordic Business Report - January 9, 2008

Swedish property company AB Sagax said on Wednesday (9 January) that it has signed a SEK395m property sales and lease-back agreement with the Swedish medical technology group Gambro AB.

The agreement, based on an option agreement initially announced in December 2007, covers Gambro's properties in Hechingen, Germany.

Sagax, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, acquires, develops and manages mainly warehouse and industrial properties. The company's property portfolio comprises 98 properties of a total of 742,000 square metres. Sagax is listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm.

California Pacific Medical Center Signs 10 Year Lease For San Francisco Office Building

The Swig Company Web Site - January 9, 2008

A 171,000-sf office building here being vacated by Wells Fargo at the end of the month has been scooped up by the city’s largest hospital, California Pacific Medical Center, which signed a 10- year lease for the entire building. Built in the mid-1960s at 633 Folsom St. and renovated twice in the 1990s, the seven-story structure is owned by Swig Co., a locally based real estate company.

CPMC says it will begin moving some of its administrative operations into the building early this year. While the negotiated lease rate was not disclosed local industry sources tell GlobeSt.com that CPMC likely received a break from the asking lease rate of $45 per sf per year because it will occupy the space largely as is, saving the building owner the cost of tenant improvements, which are typically built into the asking rate. At $40 per sf, the value of the lease would be approximately $68 million.

The lease is related to CPMC’s effort to comply with state seismic requirements by 2013. A CPMC source tells GlobeSt.com that the lease will allow the hospital to consolidate a good portion of its administrative operations in a single building while also freeing up other locations for redevelopment.

Ogilvy New York Signs Long Term Lease for 554,800 SF HQ Building in Manhattan

Ogilvy Web Site - January 9, 2008

Ogilvy New York will move its entire New York agency and New York-based operating units to 636 Eleventh Avenue in 2009. Ogilvy will occupy all of the 11-story, 554,800 sq. ft building that encompasses the entire eastern block on 11th Avenue between West 46th and West 47th Streets in a long term lease signed with owner, The Hakimian Organization and its partners Peykar Brothers Realty & Gorjian Properties.

The building will carry the "Ogilvy" name and offers unobstructed 360 degree window views of the Hudson River and Midtown Manhattan. Ogilvy has hired award winning architect, Gensler, to reconfigure and design the space according to the agency's specifications. The building will house all of Ogilvy's New York based companies and employees in one building, including Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, OgilvyOne, OgilvyInteractive, Neo@Ogilvy, OgilvyPR, OgilvyAction, the Brand Integration Group, RedWorks and Ogilvy Healthworld.

Ogilvy expects to move to the new space in the spring of 2009. The location is close to a long-proposed extension of the number seven New York Subway Line and several new developments including a luxury hotel by Kimpton.

The building at 636 Eleventh Avenue was built in 1913 and originally housed the Auerbach Chocolate factory. Ogilvy is calling its new space the "Candy Factory." It has high ceilings on the first floor, a courtyard and a roof-top terrace that Ogilvy plans to design as a garden space.

The agency will work with Gensler and other partners to bring the best energy efficient attributes to the space. "Sustainability is a key priority for Ogilvy," said Gunther Schumacher, Ogilvy's Chief Business Operations Officer. "We are working very closely with The Hakimian Organization to make the 'Candy Factory' a green building and get it LEED certified."

Future Electronics Signs 10 Year Lease For New UK HQ

Property Week - January 8, 2007

Future Electronics, a global electronic company, has agreed terms to move its European headquarters to one of Staines’ most prominent office buildings. The company has taken the entire 68,000 sq ft Aura building, owned by GE in partnership with Steve Morgan and Trevor Silver’s Landid.

Future Electronics will pay £29/sq ft on a 10-year lease for the refurbished building following a two year search. The deal completed just before Christmas.

It is vacating its Colnbrook HQ. CB Richard Ellis acted for the landlord and Colliers CRE acted for Future Electronics.

GE Energy Signs Long Term Lease for New HQ in Stamford

The Advocate - January 5, 2008

GE Energy Financial Services plans to move into the 275,000-square-foot former Xerox Corp. headquarters at 800 Long Ridge Road in Stamford about a year from now, the building's owner said yesterday.

Norwalk-based Building & Land Technology said GE Energy Financial Services will begin its 15-year lease in January 2009, when renovations are scheduled to be completed.

GE Energy Financial Services, the growing energy investment arm of Fairfield-based General Electric Co., will remain at 120 Long Ridge Road in Stamford for another year, Building & Land said.

The landlord and developer also owns the 300,000-square-foot office complex on 60 acres at 120 Long Ridge Road that formerly housed GE Commercial Finance, the parent unit of Energy Financial Services.

In October, Xerox relocated its headquarters and 330 employees from Stamford to a Building & Land-owned office structure at 45 Glover Ave. in Norwalk. Xerox, the world's largest copier company, had been in Stamford for 38 years. The company moved to Norwalk because it no longer needed a building of the size it had in Stamford, where it used to employ about 600 people.

An affiliate company of Building & Land Technology bought the Xerox property a year ago for $54.8 million.

Nokia Siemens Networks Closes Sale Leaseback of Office Complex in Finland

Aberdeen Property Investors - January 4, 2008

Aberdeen Real Estate Fund Finland L.P. has acquired the Hatanpään valtatie 30 property in Tampere, Finland. The property was built in three phases between 1998 and 2000 with a total area of approximately 50,000 square metres. The transaction is structured as a sale and lease-back transaction involving the Fund, Nokia Siemens Networks and Nordea Finance Finland Ltd. Nokia Siemens Networks will continue to use the space as tenant.

AT&T Completes $275 Million Sale Leaseback of Chicago Office Tower

Crains Chicago Business News - January 2, 2007

A New Jersey real estate firm has purchased the 31-story West Loop office of AT&T Inc. for $275 million in a sale-leaseback deal.

Kushner Cos. closed on the purchase Friday of 225 W. Randolph St. from the San Antonio-based telecom giant, according to a source familiar with the matter. AT&T signed a 15-year lease for all the office space in the building, which is roughly 900,000 square feet.

The purchase marks the first in Chicago for Florham Park, N.J.-based Kushner, which was primarily a residential developer in the Northeast but is now buying office properties in major metropolitan markets nationwide after selling its residential business last year. The company financed the deal with $40 million in equity and a short-term temporary loan that it plans to replace with permanent financing possibly as soon as this week.

A Kushner executive declines to comment, and a spokesman for AT&T didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

AT&T hired the Chicago office of CB Richard Ellis Inc. to market the building in the summer. AT&T or a predecessor had owned the building since it was built in 1966.

Banco Popular Completes $26 Million Sale leaseback of Five Bank Branches in New York City

CoStar Group - December 28, 2007

MLM Partners LLC has acquired a portfolio of five New York properties owned and occupied by financial services firm Banco Popular for a total of $26.25 million, or about $690 per square foot.

The properties are at 2927 3rd Ave. and 1046-50 Southern Blvd. in the Bronx, 162-66 E. 116th St. in Harlem, and 918 Seneca Ave. in Flushing. The deal also included a parking lot adjacent to the Flushing building, at 1734 Hancock St.

Banco Popular has leased back the facilities for a 20-year term. The Puerto Rico-based bank operates in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, and has approximately 46 branches in New York and New Jersey.

Goodyear Agrees to 20 Year Lease on New Build-to-Suit HQ in Akron, OH

Site Selection Online - December 31, 2007

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said Wednesday it plans to sell its headquarters to a firm that would redevelop the site and lease a new office to the nation's biggest tire maker. The tentative deal would keep Goodyear's corporate offices in the city where it was founded in 1898.

Goodyear's new 450,000-sq.-ft. (40,500-sq.-m.) world headquarters will be built by California developer Industrial Realty Group (IRG.) IRG, which has a history of remaking old industrial sites across the country, will buy the Goodyear property, build the new headquarters and lease it back.A

n estimated $700 million of private capital will go into the project, which is linked to an array of public incentives. The redevelopment plan will also include other office buildings, an industrial park, hotels, stores and restaurants, said Stuart Lichter, president and senior managing partner of IRG, based in Downey, Calif., near Los Angeles. State and local governments will provide an additional $200 million.

Goodyear seems set to stay in Akron for decades. The company will sign a 20-year lease with IRG on its new headquarters, followed by 11 five-year renewal options. (The financial terms of the lease haven't been made public.) In addition, the assistance that the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved, which is valued at about $30 million, includes a clawback provision that Goodyear must stay at the new location for 30 years.