Mitchells & Butlers Unwinds Sale Leasebck of 1,300 UK Pub Portfolio

Telegraph - January 29, 2008

Mitchells & Butlers' finance director has resigned and the chief executive has offered to go after an attempt at a complex financial plan went wrong in the face of the credit crunch, costing the owner of the All Bar One chain £274m.

Tim Clarke, M&B's chief executive, also offered to resign, but the offer was rejected. All executive directors, including Mr Naffah, have agreed to forego their 2007 bonuses.

The losses were made when M&B decided to close interest rate and inflation hedges that were put in place to protect plans for a property joint venture that was shelved with the onset of the credit crisis. The property deal would have seen M&B sell about 1,300 pubs into a specially created company and then lease them back.

The idea was to give M&B a cash windfall from the sale of property to return to shareholders. On the advice of bankers from Citigroup and Royal Bank of Scotland, Mr Naffah opted to take out inflation and interest rate hedges to protect M&B against the extra debt it was taking on to do the deal and to hedge against long-term rises in pub rents.

The trouble was that recent turmoil in the financial markets has meant that long-term expectations for interest rates and inflation have shifted. M&B expected long-term inflation to fall and interest rates to rise.

In a sign of how rapidly M&B's position got worse, post-tax losses associated with the hedges stood at £180m in early January, but as economic conditions worsened and the expectation that interest rates will be cut has grown, the loss has escalated to £274m in a matter of days and weeks. Sphere: Related Content

Santander Completes EUR 605 Million Sale Leaseback of HQ Near Madrid

Reuters - January 25, 2008

Spanish bank Santander (SAN.MC) will make a capital gain of 605 million euros ($886 million) from a leaseback deal on its headquarters at Boadilla del Monte on the outskirts of Madrid, sources said on Friday.

Santander confirmed the 1.9 billion-euros deal with a consortium led by property investment firm Propinvest which will lease back the complex to Santander for 40 years with the bank having an option to purchase at that time.

The bank has already made disposals which produced 2 billion euros in profit, after selling 1,152 bank branches and other buildings in Spain to a company owned by British insurer Pearl Group in November, a deal leading to a capital gain of 860 million euros.

The same month, Santander sold 10 buildings to an investment vehicle owned by Armancio Ortega, the founder of retail group Inditex (ITX.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), for 458 million euros, making a capital gain of 216 million euros.

The headquarters complex, known as "Santander Financial City", has more than 400,000 square metres of office space plus other facilities such as a hotel and an 18-hole golf course.

The bank said the headquarters deal concluded the sale of its real estate assets through sale and leaseback deals which have totalled nearly 4.4 billion euros and generated a net capital gain of 1.7 billion euros. Sphere: Related Content

Berry Plastics Enters $87 Million Sale Leaseback for Three US Facilities

CoStar Group - January 23, 2008

Berry Plastics sold its headquarters and three facilities to affiliates of W.P. Carey & Co. LLC in an $87 million sale-leaseback deal. W. P. Carey’s REIT affiliate, CPA(R):16-Global, and fund, CPA(R):17-Global, acquired more than 1.4 million square feet in flex/industrial space in Indiana, Maryland and Kansas.

The portfolio includes:

Berry Plastics’ headquarters and largest production facility at 101 Oakley St., a 96-year-old, 552,000-square-foot, Class B flex building in Evansville, IN;

A manufacturing plant at 1810 Portal St., a 25-year-old, 244,000-square-foot, Class B industrial facility in Baltimore, MD; and,

2330 Packer Road, a 37-year-old Class C industrial property in Lawrenceville, KS.

Berry Plastics, a plastic packaging products manufacturer, leased back all three properties on a long-term basis. The deal allowed the manufacturer to raise needed financing.

"The sale-leaseback of these three facilities allowed us to raise funds for an add-on acquisition," said Ira G. Boots, chairman and CEO of Berry Plastics Corp.

Another W. P. Carey fund, CPA(R):15, completed a $33 million sale-leaseback with Berry Plastics five years ago. Sphere: Related Content

White Water Auto Care Center Seeking $92.5 Million Sale Leaseback of 15 Car Washes in CA

CSP Daily News - January 23, 2008

A dozen full-service car-wash and convenience-store sites in Southern California hit the sale market at an asking price of $92.5 million, as reported in a CSP Daily News Flash yesterday, as White Water Auto Care Center prepares to access some of the capital tied up in its real estate.

The 12 sites—nine in Bakersfield, two in Ventura and one in San Fernando—include full-service car washes, convenience stores and gas pumps at all the sites, and quick-lube services at seven of the sites and quick-service restaurants at two sites.

The centers range from 4,650 to 16,800 square feet. The gasoline stations sell national brands such as Union 76 and Chevron, with a number of other national brands, such as Circle K and Jiffy Lube Quick Lube, as part of the operations.

"The company is indeed selling its real estate in a sale-leaseback transaction," Greg Landry, managing director of Trefethen & Co., Scottsdale, Ariz., who serves as the investment banker for Whitewater Auto Care Center, told CSP Daily News. "But the operating company will remain in the hands of John Aminpour, who has long been the owner and operator and will continue to be the owner and operator of these locations."

The properties are all on 25-year triple-net leases and in locations that historically have attracted high investor demand and aggressive pricing, Glen Kunofsky, senior associate at New York-based Marcus & Millichap, told GlobeSt.com.

Kunofsky and Lior Regenstreif, senior vice president in Marcus & Millichap’s Encino office, are representing the seller.

Regenstreif said the 25-year triple-net leases are all new, having commenced in September. He said investors are likely to be drawn to the “very strong backing offered by both a corporate and personal guarantee from the tenant with a net worth well over $100 million.”

The seller is offering the properties to be acquired either individually or as a customized portfolio of three or more centers. Prices for individual stores range from $4.2 million for a 4,650-square-foot store on less than half an acre to $13.7 million for an 8,104-square-foot store on 1.26 acres (2007 net operating income: $943,032). Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

Best Buy Leases 517,000 SF Distribution Center in NJ

CoStar Group - January 15, 2008

Consumer electronics and appliance retailer Best Buy has pre-leased a 517,000-square-foot distribution center being developed by Morris Cos. in the Amboy Corporate Center.

Best Buy will fully occupy the facility when construction completes in July. The property is located in Perth Amboy, NJ, south of the New Jersey Turnpike and just across the river from Staten Island. It broke ground in mid-2006 and includes 140 industrial trailer parking spaces.

Doug Bansbach of Colliers Houston represented Morris Cos. in the lease, and Mindy Lissner of CB Richard Ellis represented the tenant.

Amboy Corporate Center is slated to total more than 1.1 million square feet on about 64 acres. U.S. Foodservice has signed on to occupy more than 450,000 square feet at the center.

Best Buy operates more than 1,200 retail stores across the United States, Canada and China. Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

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." Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

Ebrex France Enters EUR 30 Million Sale Leaseback of 13 Refrigerated Warehouses Across France

PropertyEU - January 4, 2008

French property company Fonciere LFPI has acquired a portfolio of 13 refrigeration warehouses across France from logistics provider Ebrex France for EUR 30 mln. The portfolio represents all of Ebrex's warehouses in France, and covers more than 42,000 m2 of logistics space built on an area of 248,000 m2. The transaction reflects a net initial yield of over 7%. Ebrex France is leasing back the assets on a 12-year lease contract.

The assets are located in the cities of Lyons, Le Mans, Orleans, Reims, Toulouse, Niort, St Lo, Clermont-Ferrand, St Pierre des Corps, Lorient, Bourges, Nantes, and Narbonne.

Atis Real Bruxelles and Immoeuropean acted as advisors in this transaction. Credit Foncier de France is providing the financing.

Ebrex France was created in May last year from the merger of DKTrans, a pan-European logistics provider, and the French food logistics provider Nexia Froid. Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

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. Sphere: Related Content

Flextronics Completes Sale Leaseback of 500,000 SF Industrial Complex in Silicon Valley

Commercial property News - December 28, 2007

Westcore Properties L.L.C. has snapped up a nine-structure manufacturing complex in Milpitas, Calif., owned by electronics manufacturing services provider Flextronics International USA Inc. Flextronics will stay put as the sole occupant of the buildings, which account for an aggregate 499,200 square feet of industrial space, under a 10-year lease agreement with the new owner.

Carrying addresses on Gibraltar Dr., the multi-structure complex occupies 33.5 acres in Silicon Valley's South 88 Corridor, less than nine miles from San Jose. Singapore-based Flextronics came into possession of the buildings, which average 15 years of age, when it acquired rival Solectron in a $3.6 billion deal earlier this year.

Westcore, which purchased the property through its Westcore Milpitas L.L.C. entity, relied on Bank of America for financing for the acquisition and turned to CPS/CORFAC International for representation in the deal; CPS/CORFAC also represented Flextronics. Specific terms of the sale and lease agreements have not been disclosed; however, the average asking rate for manufacturing space in Milpitas is $0.73 per-square-foot, triple-net, according to a third quarter report by real estate services firm NAI BT Commercial.

Flextronics' decision to leaseback the space as opposed to leasing elsewhere was a practical one, according to Dan Hollingsworth, senior vice president & principal with CPS/CORFAC. "These are nine individual buildings; that's a campus," Hollingsworth told CPN today. "To find a campus of 500,000 square feet--that you (typically) can't find." Sphere: Related Content

SEB Group Completes EUR 185 Million Sale Leaseback of 54 Properties in the Baltics

CNW Group - December 28, 2007

Homburg Invest Inc. announces that it has finalized its acquisition of the “Baltic” portfolio consisting of 54 properties located in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (the “Baltic’s”) from SEB Group (“SEB”). The transaction was previously announced on April 26, 2007, when SEB and Homburg Invest entered into an agreement to acquire the Baltic portfolio. Due to the exercise of pre-emptive rights by third parties for certain of the properties, the acquired portfolio consists of 54 properties instead of the original 63 properties previously announced. With respect to the properties, 39 are occupied by SEB under long-term leases and 15 properties are primarily leased to other tenants or have short-term leases with SEB.

The transaction was completed at an aggregate purchase price of approximately CAD 268,250,000 (EURO 185,000,000) with a long-term debt financing of CAD 194,100,000 (EURO 134,000,000) from SEB Merchant Bank with the remainder of the purchase price being paid in cash. Sphere: Related Content

Amazon.com Enters 1.6 Million SF Build-to-Suit for New Headquarters in Seattle

Cityfeet / GlobeSt - December 27, 2007

Amazon.com has inked a 1.6-million-sf headquarters deal with Vulcan Inc. and Schnitzer West. The deal calls for the online retailer to occupy 11 new buildings to be built on six blocks located immediately north of the Seattle CBD in the South Lake Union area.

Amazon.com expects to begin moving into its new office space in mid-2010, with full occupancy in 2011. The company said in an SEC filing that it will pay as much as $1.5 billion over 16 years to occupy the full 1.6 million sf, and that is also has options for additional space. An Amazon executive was not immediately available Thursday morning for further comment.

The developers are billionaire Paul Allen’s real estate investment arm Vulcan Inc., which controls some 60 blocks in the South lake Union area, and Schnitzer West, a partnership Schnitzer Investment Corp. of Portland, OR, and Dan Ivanoff of Seattle. To help seal the deal, the City of Seattle approved increased building heights in the immediate area and the developers agreed to contribute $6.4 million for affordable housing in the area.

Amazon.com’s new headquarters will be anchored by three 12-story, 160-foot high buildings on one-and-a-half blocks bounded by Terry and Boren avenues and John and Harrison streets. The buildings are known as Interurban Exchange II, IV and V.

Vulcan and Schnitzer West will jointly develop the buildings to a LEED Silver or Gold standard as the project’s first phase. The other eight buildings are slated to be developed exclusively by Vulcan. In addition to the office space, the buildings will hold about 100,000 sf of street-level space for restaurants and shops.

The company’s headquarters complex will be on the city’s new Streetcar line, which will connect to the city’s bus and light rail systems. Tim Halladay, vice president of real estate and finance operations at Amazon.com says proximity to public transit was an important factor in the selecting the location, as was the opportunity to enhance employee collaboration and productivity by consolidating employees on larger floor plates in fewer, adjacent buildings.

Amazon's current headquarters is located in a 16-story former hospital southeast of the Downtown core in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. It would vacate the hospital and several other leased locations around the city when it consolidates operations in the South Lake Union area. In total, the company reportedly occupies approximately 650,000 sf in the city. Sphere: Related Content

FBI Enters $100 Million Build-to-Suit For Denver HQ

CoStar Group - December 26, 2007

Alex S. Palmer & Co. has emerged as the winner of a $100 million contract with the General Services Administration (GSA) to develop a new office building in Denver for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The Nashville-based development group was awarded the contract after a more than six-month competition with national developers including Hines International, Opus Group, Highwoods Properties and CB Richard Ellis.

"A competitive procurement was conducted by GSA that included several other distinguished developers from across the country," GSA Contracting Officer Mark Pearce said in a statement.

Under current plans, Alex Palmer & Co. will develop a 216,322-square-foot office building with expansion rights up to 292,034 square feet, as well as an adjoining parking garage. The new facility will sit on a 10-acre FBI campus at the former site of the Denver Stapleton Airport. It is expected to achieve LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The FBI has signed a 20-year lease with Alex Palmer & Co., which will own the building. Ground breaking is planned in the second quarter of 2008, with completion slated by the end of 2009.

The building is part of a broader effort to replace outdated FBI offices in several cities with state-of-the-art facilities. Its glass exterior and energy efficient design also signify another step toward more modern and eco-friendly government buildings.

Peter Ruggiero, a partner with Chicago-based Skidmore Owings & Merrill and the designer of 7 World Trade Center in Manhattan, will lead the design team for the project. Bovis Lend Lease will serve as lead contractor.

Alex Palmer & Co. has built other federal buildings in recent years including the Veterans Administration building in San Diego, a government office building for the County of Alameda in San Francisco, and the IRS building in Fresno, CA. Sphere: Related Content

Metro Completes EUR 243 Million Sale leaseback of 12 Hypermarkets in Germany

Property Week - December 23, 2007

Israeli investor Delek Real Estate has bought a chain of retail properties in Germany from retailer Metro for (£176m).

Delek Real Estate is carrying out the German purchase through its sub-subsidiary Delek Global Real Estate, which is listed on AIM. The company is also seeking a partner to take a 20% stake in the deal.

Delek Global is buying 12 hypermarkets located on the outskirts of towns, mainly in the Rhine-Main area around Frankfurt. Ten of the hypermarkets were formerly owned by Wal-Mart and converted into the Real format. Real is the largest hypermarket group in Germany.

The purchase is being financed by non recourse debt of E230m (£167m) and the rest in cash. The gross rental income is E16.05m (£11.6m) a year. Sphere: Related Content

Nippon Oil Agrees to $370 Million Sale Leaseback of Seven Buildings

Bloomberg - December 27, 2007

Nippon Oil Corp., Japan's biggest petroleum refiner, said it will sell and lease back all of its buildings for 42.3 billion yen ($370 million) as the company seeks to improve its balance sheet.

Tokyo-based Nippon Oil by the end of January will sell seven buildings, which will then be securitized, the company said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. Nippon Oil will take a gain of 10 billion yen from the sale for the year ending March 31. The company said it won't change its earnings forecast. Sphere: Related Content

Alimentation Couche-Tard Completes $131.4 Million Sale Leaseback of 83 Convenience Stores Across US

Alimentation Couche-Tard Web Site - December 21, 2007

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., Canada's leading convenience store operator with over 5,600 stores, announces that it has entered into, through its subsidiaries Circle K Stores Inc. and Mac’s Convenience Stores LLC., a sale and leaseback transaction with Cole Credit Property Trust II, Inc. relating to 83 properties sold for total gross selling price of US$131.4 million. The proceeds will be used for namely reduce Couche-Tard’s term revolving unsecured operating credit. Sold properties are located in several States and are subject to leases agreements with an initial average term of 20 years to which are attached renewal options for an additional 45 years.

“I am very satisfied with this transaction which is part of our long term financing plan and improves our short term financial leverage”, indicated Richard Fortin, Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer. Sphere: Related Content

Foster's Completes $41 Million Sale Leaseback of Property Portfolio in Melbourne

The Sydney Morning Herald - December 21, 2007

Charter Hall announces that its managed fund DPF, has acquired in joint venture with the Perth based Wyllie Group, a $41 million portfolio of properties located within the inner city Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford.

The publicly listed Fosters Group has leased back the portfolio of 10 properties for 10 + 5+ 5 year periods. The properties are located adjacent to or nearby to the Fosters Abbotsford Brewery and the adjoining Yarra River. The buildings are predominantly used for offices, visitors and display centre together with open car parks used to accommodate staff working at the brewery.

“Abbotsford continues to be gentrified and we believe the long term outlook for these investments will provide both capital growth and secure, growing income returns with the benefit of 3.75% per annum rental increases” according to Charter Hall’s Joint Managing Director, David Harrison. The properties were secured on an initial yield of 7.12% and comprise a total of 20,000m2 of land area and a combined lettable area of buildings that are developed of approx 12,000m2.

The properties will be owned by a jointly owned trust managed by Charter Hall which intends to hold the assets over the medium to long term and may look to expand its jointly owned property holdings.

Colliers agents John Marasco and Nick Rathgeber negotiated the sale. Sphere: Related Content

Mannesmann Plastics Machinery GmbH Completes €113 Million Sale Leaseback of Three Facilities in Germany

SEGRO Web Site - December 21, 2007

SEGRO has agreed a sale and leaseback with MPM (Mannesmann Plastics Machinery) on three industrial sites in Germany, at Munich, Nuremberg and Hanover. The leaseback is for a minimum term of 15 years and the transaction represents a net initial yield of 7.1%, this yield will increase with indexation. The value of the Munich site is approximately two thirds of this portfolio and marks SEGRO’s first move into this target market.

MPM is leading in the production of machines for the plastics and rubber compounding and processing industries. The company was split out of Mannesmann following its purchase by Vodafone in 2000.

The Munich site comprises 130,649 sq m of production / logistics space and 23,488 sq m of offices on 24.1 ha of land and is made up of a campus of high quality construction workspace units. This high potential site is well located to the northwest of the city within the motorway ring and within easy access of an important S-Bahn train station link. Part of the site, about 30,000 sq m, is sublet to a third party on a lease. As well as providing 15 years of secured income at an attractive yield SEGRO will be able to generate additional returns by building out parts of the site for future occupation by MPM. As well as opportunities on the site sublet to a third party when their lease expires, SEGRO will potentially be able with MPM to secure commercial zoning rights for adjoining land.

The sites at Hanover and Nuremberg respectively comprise 28,772 sq m of built area on 7.3ha of land and 31,669 sq m of built area on 5.1 ha of land. Both sites are in attractive suburban locations and will become part of SEGRO’s portfolio of trading properties.

(Note: In March of the year, MPM completed a simmilar sale leaseback transaction involving three facilities in the US.) Sphere: Related Content

Accor Agrees to €518 Million Sale Leaseback of 57 Hotels in France and Switzerland

Accor Web Site - December 20, 2007

As part of its real estate management strategy, Accor has announced the signature of a memorandum of understanding to sell 47 hotels in France and 10 in Switzerland to a Real Estate Consortium including Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations and two investment funds managed by AXA Real Estate Investment Managers (European Hotel Venture & Alternative Property Income Venture). The Novotel, Mercure, Ibis, All Seasons and Etap Hotel properties involved in the transaction represent a total of 8,200 rooms.

The €518-million transaction includes a €52-million renovation program at the new owner’s expense. On top of this amount, extensions to two of the existing properties will be financed by the owner for a total of €30 million. Accor will continue to operate the hotels under the same brands through 12-year variable leases, whose rents are based on an average 16% of revenue a year with no guaranteed minimum. The leases are renewable six times, for a total of 84 years. Based on estimated 2007 revenue, the variable rent would amount to €29.6 million (a 5.71% cap rate), net of €3.7 million in insurance costs, property taxes and structural maintenance capex, which are now at the owner’s expense.

This transaction is part of the € 1.9 billion asset disposal program as presented by the Group in September 2007. Accor continues to deploy its innovative asset management strategy designed to both reduce earnings volatility and emphasize the focus on hotel operations.

From a financial standpoint, this transaction will enable Accor to reduce its adjusted net debt by approximately €350 million in 2008, of which € 300 million of cash impact, and will add around €5 million to 2008 profit before tax. Sphere: Related Content

Daimler Agrees to Sale Leaseback of Office Space at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin

Daimler Web Site - December 14

Stuttgart, December 14, 2007 - Daimler (stock-exchange abbreviation DAI) has sold the “Quartier Potsdamer Platz” to SEB Asset Management, based in Frankfurt am Main. The complex comprises a total of 500,000 square meters of floor space above and below ground with 19 buildings. 42% of the property is high-quality office space, 22% is used for retail purposes, and the rest consists of apartments, hotels, entertainment and catering facilities. Half of the office space at Potsdamer Platz will continue to be used by the Daimler Group on a long-term basis. The transaction is expected to be closed by the end of the first quarter of 2008.

Dr. Ruediger Grube, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG for Corporate Development and Real Estate, stated, “We are delighted that with SEB Asset Management we have found an investor with a long-term orientation that will continue to develop and enhance one of the most attractive sites in Europe”.

The transaction is subject to the approval of the antitrust authorities. The sale is part of the ongoing measures being taken to optimize the Group’s portfolio with the goal of focusing on the core business and improving value added.

(Spiegel reports that the sale price for the entire complex was was around €1.2 billion.) Sphere: Related Content

Station Casinos Completes $70.3 Million Sale Leaseback of Las Vegas HQ

Las Vegas Business Press - December 14, 2007

The Cole Cos. recently acquired Station Casinos' corporate headquarters in a purchase-leaseback transaction. The Phoenix-based firm paid $70.3 million, or $507 per square foot, for the three-level Class A office building at 1011 S. Pavilion Center Dr. in Summerlin. The 138,558 square-foot structure, designed by Gensler of Nevada, rests on three acres adjacent to the Red Rock Casino Resort.

Station Casinos signed a 20-year, triple-net lease to occupy the building. Rental rates were not disclosed. The new glass, steel and stone structure cost $64.2 million to construct earlier this year, with occupancy starting in September. The sale gives the locals gaming company a much needed cash infusion after going private in an $8.9 billion transaction last month.

Las Vegas employers are on track to add 11,200 positions this year for a 1.2 percent overall job growth. Class A space, meanwhile, had the lowest vacancy rate of all local office products in the third quarter, reports Applied Analysis, a local economic advisory firm. It also commanded the highest rents at $2.86 per square-foot or 48 cents more than valley-wide average.

"The valley's west submarket had only seven Class A office buildings in the third quarter, totaling less than a million square feet," said Brian Gordon, principal of Applied Analysis. "It has created a pent-up demand for that area resulting in a low 4.1 vacancy rate." Sphere: Related Content

Orior Completes EUR 61 Million Sale Leaseback of Swiss Real Estate Portfolio

PRNewswire - December 13, 2007

ThreadGreen Partners LLP today announced the sale and subsequent leaseback of the real estate portfolio of Orior Ltd, comprising six commercial properties spread across Switzerland, to ThreadGreen Industrial Limited. The properties, with overall usable area totalling approximately 68,221 squared metres of office, distribution, production and cold storage space, were sold for CHF 103 million (approximately EUR 61.6 million) to the Guernsey Fund.

Orior is the largest independent convenience food company in Switzerland with leading market shares in all segments of its product offerings. The Company dates back to 1929.

The Facilities comprise substantially all of the manufacturing operations of the Company and the majority of the Company's revenue is generated from the Assets. Furthermore, the Company has invested over CHF 200 million in the maintenance and modification of the assets over the past ten years. The assets are in good condition and considered of strategic importance to the industry which Orior serves. Given its strong market position, it is expected that the Company will continue to realize historical levels of profitability moving forward. Sphere: Related Content

Miro Radici Completes €55.5m Million Sale Leaseback of 13 Property Portfolio in Germany

Property Week - December 6, 2007

Sellar Property Group has completed a sale and leaseback purchase of a 13-strong German portfolio for €55.5m (£40m).

The properties, which total 700,000 sq ft over 40 acres of land in the Ruhr Valley were purchased from an undisclosed seller. They are let to Italian-based textile company Miro Radici Group on 12 year leases, generating an annual rent of €4m (£2.8m).

The purchase brings Seller’s investment in German investments to approximately €130m (£93.7m), taking it closer to its target of €250m (£180m) within the next 12 months. Sphere: Related Content

CVS Caremark Nearing $600 Million Sale leaseback of 163 Drug Stores in 29 US States

Moody's Investors Service Web Site - December 7, 2007

Based on information received through December 5, Moody's Investors Service assigns a provisional (P) Baa2 rating to $593.1 million of CVS Caremark Lease-Backed Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2007, to be issued by a trust that will acquire 163 first-priority lien commercial mortgage, credit-tenant lease loans. The loans will be secured by newly constructed and existing drug stores and related realty that will be triple-net leased to subsidiaries of CVS Caremark Corporation. Each of the leases will be bondable and guaranteed by CVS Caremark Corporation, and bankruptcy-remote, special purpose borrowers will own each of the fee or ground-leased properties. The loans mature in January 2030. Fixed net rent under the leases, plus a pre-funded interest reserve, will be sufficient to pay in full all interest and principal of the loans. The 163 drugstores are located in 29 states.

Moody's determined that, among other factors, the dark value of the collateral is sufficient, assuming a bankruptcy of CVS Caremark and rejection of leases, to support the expected loss consistent with the Certificates' rating. The rating of the Certificates is primarily based on the senior unsecured debt rating of CVS Caremark Corporation, which is currently Baa2, stable outlook; therefore, the Certificates' rating will change as the senior unsecured debt rating of CVS Caremark Corporation may change. The rating of the Certificates was also based on the overall structure and legal integrity of the transaction. Sphere: Related Content

DnB NOR Bank ASA Agrees to $650 Million Sale leaseback of 22 Bank Buildings in Norway

DnB NOR Bank ASA Web Site - December 7, 2007

DnB NOR Bank ASA has entered into agreements on the sale of a further 22 bank buildings, thus concluding the sale of the bank's own commercial property portfolio announced in the spring.

The total sales price for the 22 buildings is NOK 3.6 billion ($650 million.) This will give the bank a gain of more than NOK 1.4 billion before tax. As several of the properties in the portfolio are owned by companies, the tax charge will be relatively low. The buildings were sold with an average yield of 5.62 per cent.

"We are very satisfied with both the price obtained and with the buyers. The latter is important as we have entered into long-term lease agreements for the sold properties," says Bjørn Berg, chief investment officer in DnB NOR, who has managed the sales process on behalf of the bank. He adds that the new lease agreements have a duration of between seven and ten years. The agreements will imply no significant changes in the bank's operating expenses over the coming years.

Oslo Pensjonsforsikring has bought 18 of the properties, Sparebankstiftelsen DnB NOR (the Savings Bank Foundation) has bought two properties, Odfjell Eiendom AS bought one property and Petter Myhre and Mohsen Shahabi bought one property.

The bank's first property sale in 2007 was DnB NOR's head office at Aker Brygge in Oslo, which was sold to the property company Norwegian Property ASA for just over NOK 1.7 billion during the summer.

DnB NOR Næringsmegling AS and Catella Corporate Finance AB (Stockholm) have been advisers for DnB NOR Bank and acted as brokers throughout the sales process. Sphere: Related Content

CNL Income Properties Agrees to $301 Million Sale Leaseback of 28 Golf Course Properties

SEC Edgar Database - December 6, 2007

We entered into an asset purchase agreement on October 29, 2007 committing to acquire 28 golf course properties from American Golf Corporation and certain of its affiliates (collectively “AGC”) for a purchase price of $301.0 million. On November 30, 2007, we completed the acquisition of 22 of those golf course properties for a purchase price of $244.0 million.

We leased our interests in these properties on a long-term, triple-net basis to Evergreen Alliance Golf Limited, L.P. (“EAGLE”) to operate on our behalf. The leases have a 20-year initial term, with four 5-year renewal options and are cross-defaulted with each other and with the 15 other leases for our golf course properties that are operated by EAGLE. The minimum aggregate annual rent for the properties is approximately $20.7 million in the initial year (i.e. an 8.5% cap rate.)

We have agreed to acquire the remaining six properties, all of which are leasehold interests, by April 17, 2008. Sphere: Related Content

Santander Receives Bid of EUR 1.7 Billion for HQ in Spain

Forbes / Thomson Financial - December 3, 2007

Banco Santander SA has received offers of more than 1.7 bln eur from JP Morgan and Metrovacesa for its Boadilla del Monte headquarters, El Economista reported, citing unnamed sector sources.

Santander could book 1 bln eur in capital gains from the operation, the newspaper said, noting that the sale is set to be closed before Dec 20.

Santander would enter into a 30-year lease-back contract of the property while retaining its right to repurchase, it added. Sphere: Related Content

Billia Planning $85.5 Million Sale Leasback of Two Property Portfolios in Denmark and Sweden

Billia Web Site - December 3, 2007

In January, Bilia, the leading Nordic car dealer and service provider in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, will be presenting a prospectus relating to the sale of real estate in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Mälardalen, Sweden. The sales process is expected to be complete at the end of the first quarter of 2008.

The sale of the real estate in Denmark is dependent on Bilia utilising the option it obtained in 2005 in connection with the Scaniadam deal to acquire the A/S Selandia Ejendomsselskab real estate company. The book value of the Danish holdings is estimated after the acquisition at approximately SEK 300 M.

The acquisition of the Hans Persson Group included real estate holdings and the plan now is to dispose of these holdings by selling Hans Persson Fastighets AB. The book value of these real estate holdings is approximately SEK 250 M. Bilia will be signing long-term rental agreements for most of this real estate. In Bilia’s view, the sale will result in a not insignificant capital gain.

Bilia has commissioned the services of Catella Corporate Finance as an adviser to complete the sale.

Bilia, headquartered in Sweden, has 3,500 employees and an annual turnover of SEK13.5bn. Bilia is listed on the Nordic Exchange in Stockholm. Sphere: Related Content

Citigroup Agrees to $1.575 Billion Sale Leaseback of Manhattan Office Towers

Reuters - December 3, 2007

Office property owner SL Green Realty Corp (SLG.N) has reached an agreement to buy Citigroup Inc's (C.N) downtown office complex for $1.575 billion, a source familiar with the deal said on Monday, underscoring the health of the Manhattan property market, despite turmoil in the lending markets. Canadian real estate investment firm SITQ also will take a 47.5 percent stake in the complex at 388-390 Greenwich St. when it closes later this month, said SL Green, which will retain a 52.5 percent stake. The two buildings total 2.6 million square foot, translating the deal's price to $598 per square foot, SL Green said.

The flow of securitized loans used to finance much of the debt-heavy purchases of U.S. buildings or to develop property has slowed to a trickle of what it was just six months ago. Fears stemming from from the troubles of the U.S. housing market, crossed over to the commercial market, chasing buyers of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) out to the sidelines. Sales of buildings, such as the Citigroup building, demonstrates that other lenders, such as European banks have been willing in many cases to step in and fill in part of the void left by the stoic CMBS market. It also highlights the change in real estate buyers, from individuals using loads of securitized debt to real estate investment trusts, such as SL Green and pension funds, which use more cash and other sources of debt financing.

Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank AG, the real estate lending arm of German lender WestLB AG (WDLGgb.F), and PB Capital Corp., the commercial real estate financial arm of Deutsche Postbank AG (DPBGn.DE), provided the mortgage financing, SL Green said.

The deal calls for the tenant to lease back the building and cover the costs of operating and maintaining it for 13 years, SL Green said. The complex houses Citigroup's investment banking arm. Over that period, Citigroup also will to vacate the building in stages, which will leave SL Green as a low-cost provider of office space downtown and an alternative to the World Trade Center, Fasulo said.

Citigroup declined to comment on the pending sale. A representative from SL Green was not available for further comment, nor was one available from Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick-Goldman, which arranged the financing. The initial rental rate reflect a first-year return of 6.3 percent, SL Green said. Sphere: Related Content

CIMB Mulling Sale Leaseback of Retail Bank Branch Portfolio in Malasia

Business Times - December 3, 2007

CIMB Group, Malaysia's biggest investment bank. is mulling a third sale and leaseback exercise on some buildings that house its operation and bank branches as part of its plan to manage capital more efficiently, its chief said.

Group chief executive Datuk Nazir Razak said it has done two such exercises to its current head office Bangunan CIMB, and Menara Bumiputra-Commerce, its new retail banking headquarters on Jalan Raja Laut which is still under construction.

"We still own a lot of branches, the Jalan Tun Perak building (which houses the retail banking operation now), Menara SBB. It could be a third sale and leaseback exercise involving the rest of the portfolio," he said yesterday.

"We have embarked on it and done two buildings, there is most likely to be a third portfolio, where we will put the other buildings inside," Nazir added.

He said modern banks of today should not engage in other things such as building ownership and management. Lenders are better off renting the buildings, release the capital and plough it back to the business. By selling and renting back Menara Bumiputra-Commerce for example, the bank will have the capital to write RM3.6 billion in new loans, he said. Sphere: Related Content

Hafslund Enters $125.7 Million Sale Leaseback of 34 Properties Throughout Norway

Hafslund Web Site - December 3, 2007

Hafslund, Norway's largest power distribution utility, has sold 100 percent of the shares in the company Hatros II AS to the Oslo Pensjons Forsikring AS, for a total of NOK 728 million, equivalent to a property value of NOK 694 million. The company is a single purpose company with 34 properties in Oslo and Akershus. The properties mainly consist of transformer stations with surrounding areas.

Hafslund Nett AS will lease back the main part of the properties for a period of 15 years, with an option for extension, and will be responsible for the technical and building related maintenance of the properties during the period.

The sale gives an accounting profit before tax of about NOK 500 million. Sphere: Related Content

CIMB Group Agrees to $137 Million Sale Leaseback of New HQ Tower in Kuala Lumpur

CIMB Group Web Site - December 3, 2007

CIMB Group today entered into agreements with Pelaburan Hartanah Bumiputera Berhad (PHBB) for the sale and leaseback of Menara Bumiputra-Commerce, the Group's new retail banking headquarters on Jalan Raja Laut, Kuala Lumpur.

Under the sale and purchase agreement, Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd (BCHB), the listed owner of CIMB Group, will sell the 39-storey building to PHBB for RM460 million or RM730 per square foot. CIMB Bank Berhad will then lease the building from PHBB for an initial period of ten years.

In his speech at the launch, Dato' Mohd Shukri, Executive Director of BCHB, said that the Group decided to build Menara Bumiputra-Commerce three years ago to house its scattered retail banking operations in one location. He also noted that the Group would not be making effective use of its capital if it owned its buildings. "As a banking and financial services group, CIMB Group's strategy is to be asset-light, and employ our capital efficiently towards the core business," he explained.

Dato' Shukri said that the Group was pleased to have PHBB as a partner and was confident that PHBB will be a "buy and hold" investor. He added: "This is also an opportunity for CIMB to form a long-term relationship with PHBB, and to explore areas in which we can create synergies through working with each other."

Menara Bumiputra-Commerce is being constructed by IJM Corporation Bhd and is expected to be completed by the end of 2008. Sphere: Related Content

Arcandor Nearing $1.18 Billion Sale Leaseback of of Property Portfolio

Wall Street Journal - December 1, 2007

The real-estate investment arm of Deutsche Bank AG and Pirelli Real Estate are close to acquiring a property portfolio from Arcandor AG, a German mail-order and department-store company, for €800 million ($1.18 billion), according to people familiar with the matter.

The deal with Deutsche Bank's Rreef and Pirelli Real Estate, in which tire maker and broadband-services company Pirelli & C. SpA owns a 52% stake, is expected to be announced early next week.

Arcandor's head of communications, Jörg Howe, confirmed the company is in the "final stages of negotiations" to sell a portfolio that includes 85 Karstadt stores -- including Europe's biggest department store, Berlin's KaDeWe -- as well as 12 Karstadt Sport stores and some offices. As part of the deal, Rreef and Pirelli Real Estate may acquire a minority stake in Arcandor's retail business, according to people familiar with the deal.

Karstadt, Arcandor's department-store division, will lease back the buildings on 15-year leases, with an option to extend the leases by an additional 15 years, Mr. Howe said. Rreef and Pirelli Real Estate declined to comment.

"Arcandor's properties are prime retail properties in good locations, so they would be very popular with investors," said Gerhard Kemper, managing director of Kemper's Deutschland GmbH, a real-estate agency specializing in retail property, in which Cushman & Wakefield Inc. owns a stake. "This will be the biggest retail sale of this kind this year in Germany and I think it will send a signal to the market that big deals are possible, even in the current climate," he added. Sphere: Related Content

Clearstream Agrees to €350 Million Sale Leaseback of HQ in Luxembourg

Clearstream Web Site - November 28, 2007

Clearstream International S.A., Deutsche Börse Group’s securities settlement and custody provider, is to sell its headquarters in Luxembourg for € 350 million to the real estate company IVG Immobilien AG, Bonn. A corresponding contract was signed today. At the same time of the sale, Clearstream entered into a lease agreement with the owner of the buildings.

The Luxembourg buildings are the only properties actually owned by Deutsche Börse Group, which rents all of its remaining office space. The sale and leaseback will allow the company to benefit from the very positive current market environment for commercial real estate in Luxembourg.

All four buildings in "The Square" complex in the Kirchberg area of Luxembourg City are to be sold; the lease agreement only applies to the two buildings used by Clearstream itself. The sale price is considerably higher than the book value of around € 230 million. Deutsche Börse AG will receive the book profit over the course of 2008 via dividend payments from Clearstream. The transaction is expected to be concluded by the end of the year, and still requires approval by the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Börse AG.

The sale will be conducted via the disposal of four companies whose assets consist of the office buildings rented to Clearstream and third parties. The lease agreement between Clearstream and the related real estate companies who own the buildings has a 10-year term with two 5-year extension options. Sphere: Related Content

AIB Agrees to EUR 30 Million Sale Leaseback of Bank Branch Portfolio in Ireland

Irish Independent - November 28, 2007

A private investor has agreed to acquire a portfolio of AIB properties in Munster in a major sale and leaseback transaction.

AIB had brought the 12 properties to the market last month, seeking offers of around €35m through Savills Hamilton Osborne King. But the ultimate agreement is believed to be significantly below this level.

Nevertheless the sale will provide a boost for the investment market, where deals have slowed since the credit crunch. However, the slowdown is believed to have taken its toll and the deal eventually may have been closer to €30m.

The original guide price indicated a net initial yield of approximately 4.25pc. But experts believe the yield was pushed out towards 4.5pc and maybe even beyond as bidders struck a harder bargain than similar transactions before.

AIB's Munster portfolio includes branches in strategic locations in towns such as Ennis and Limerick. Each property will be let to AIB with guarantees on a 20-year FRI lease with upward-only rent reviews every five years. The tenant has a break option in year 15.

Total initial income for the portfolio is €1,664,000, with individual properties generating rents of between €77,500 and €415,000.

The major banks have capitalised on their property portfolios, through lucrative sale and leaseback deals. However the credit crunch and higher interest rates have slowed investment activity across the board.

The strong AIB covenant nevertheless makes the Munster portfolio a cut above most regional properties, even though some might be considered less 'prime' than those snapped up in previous bank disposals over the past year.

The identity of the buyer is a closely guarded secret. But only investors with proven credentials are able to raise funds on the scale required to secure such a large deal in the current, more exacting financial environment.

The Munster portfolio has a total net internal lettable area of around 7,148sqm. Sphere: Related Content

Santander Agrees to EUR 2.04 Billion Sale Leaseback of 1,173 Bank Owned Properties Throughout Spain

Property Week - November 22, 2007

UK pension fund manager Pearl Group is set to complete the biggest European real estate deal of the year with the E2bn (£1.4bn) purchase of more than a thousand properties owned by Spanish bank Santander, the largest bank in the euro zone by market value.

Pearl, led by entrepreneur Hugh Osmond has entered into an exclusivity period to buy Lot 5 – a portfolio of 1,173 properties, consisting predominantly of high-street banks. The portfolio generates a yearly rental income of approximately E101m (£72m), reflecting a yield of about 5%.

The portfolio forms the largest of five property packages placed on the market by the bank in the summer to help fund its joint bid with Bank of Scotland and Fortis for Dutch bank ABN Amro. The total value placed on all-five lots was E4bn (£2.87bn).

The lots initially received numerous bids over the course of the sale process, including bids for the entire portfolio, however the credit crunch reduced bidding numbers considerably and by October those bidding on all the properties either reduced their bids or joined forces opting to cherry-pick preferred assets.

The sale will be warmly received by a European investment market that has seen little in the way of large transactions, particularly since the liquidity crisis. A sale means that Santander will be left with Lot 1 - the bank’s headquarter scheme on the outskirts of Madrid – left to sell.

Last month, Zara-owner Pontegadea agreed to pay E500m (£359m) for Lots 2-4 which consists of 11 large commercial properties across nine cities. The deal is said to have reflected a yield of less than 5%. The sale will reportedly generate a capital gain of EUR 860 million.

None of the parties involved in sale would comment. Sphere: Related Content

Kia Motors Considering $268.7 Million Sale Leaseback of Production Assets

Reuters - November 24, 2007

Kia Motors Corp (000270.KS), South Korea's No. 2 carmaker, plans to sell some domestic and overseas production lines and lease them back in the first half of next year in a deal that could fetch up to 250 billion won ($268.7 million), a Korean newspaper said on Saturday.

"To improve financial soundness, (the company) is seeking to sell part of Kia Motors' assets, including production lines, to a leasing company and secure cash," the Chosun Ilbo daily quoted an unnamed senior official at the automaker as saying.

Kia Motors could not immediately be reached for comment.

The report added GE Capital, a financial unit of U.S company General Electric Co (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), was the most likely buyer of the assets.

In October, Kia, an affiliate of top South Korean auto company Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS: Quote, Profile, Research), had posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly net loss due to weaker sales and said it would miss its 2007 operating profit target as costs swelled.

Kia, which has factories in China and Slovakia, is building a $1 billion plant in the United States. ($1=930.3 Won) Sphere: Related Content

Sainsbury Completes $78.5 Million Sale Leaseback of Two UK Regional Distribution Centers

Property Week - November 23, 2007

Sainsbury’s has sold the second of four distribution depots it put up for sale earlier this year, completing two deals in two weeks which represent 1m sq ft in floorspace and just under £80m.

Canada Life has paid £40m to buy the 560,000 sq ft shed at Radial Park in Stoke on Trent. Sainsbury’s has taken a 25-year lease on the property at a net initial yield of 5.65%, again with RPI-linked rent reviews.

The other sale-and-leaseback, signed last week, was to BAE Systems Pension Scheme, which has bought the 425,000 sq ft warehouse in Tamworth for £38.5m and leased it back to the supermarket on a 30-year lease at a net initial yield of 5.5% with RPI- linked rent reviews.

The other two warehouses, in Hams Hall in the West Midlands and Haydock in Merseyside, are still on the market but interest is thought to be strong.

Peter Winfield, head of business space investment at Cushman & Wakefield which acts for Sainsburys, said: "These deals clearly demonstrate that there is institutional demand for high quality property in the current market which reflects the most challenging trading conditions in recent years."

Kitchen La Frenais Morgan acted for BAE, and Atisreal acted for Canada Life. Sphere: Related Content

Royal Bank of Scotland Awards $1.7 Billion Sale Leaseback of 63 Properties

Financial Times - November 23 2007

Royal Bank of Scotland has found a buyer for an £800m ($1.7bn, €1.1bn) portfolio of 63 properties. The price is about 10 per cent lower than originally expected but indicates that real estate deals are possible in spite of the credit squeeze. The preferred bidder on the RBS portfolio is understood to be Prudential, the insurer, which has joined forces with William Pears, a private family-run investment group.

The sale and leaseback agreement comes after several other property deals have been abandoned in recent weeks, including the attempted sale of Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield by British Land. But the price of the assets has been cut to £800m from an initial asking price closer to £900m in a sign of the weakening market.

William Pears and Prudential beat competition in the final round from Nick Leslau, the private property entrepreneur, working with HBOS. Other interested bidders had included Moorfield and Delancey, both private companies.

The 63 properties cover 2.1m sq ft and produce about £47m of annual rent, making a yield of 5.5 per cent. They include the Strand head office of Coutts, one of RBS’s private banking operations, and other branches including 1 Princes Street in Edinburgh and 28 Cavendish Square in London’s West End. RBS was advised by Cushman & Wakefield. The Scottish bank had put the portfolio up for sale to help raise money for the joint takeover of ABN Amro, the Dutch bank. Sphere: Related Content

Microsoft Signs Long Term Lease for $500 Million Data Center Near Chicago

Cityfeet / GlobeSt.com - November 9, 2007

Microsoft Corp. has signed a 15-year lease for a 550,000-sf data center at 601 Northwest Ave. The data center is being developed by a partnership of information technology company Ascent Corp., based in St. Louis, and property management company Koman Group, based in Creve Coeur, MO. The estimated cost of the project is $500 million.

The two-story building will be constructed on a 14-acre site near Interstate 294 and Interstate 290. The joint venture had acquired the slightly more than 14 acres and planned to construct a speculative building between 430,000 sf and 475,000 sf, says Phil Horstmann, president and CEO of Ascent. “Our original vision for the project was a purpose-building, speculative, multi-tenant data center,” Horstmann says. Microsoft’s lease rate was not disclosed but Jones Lang LaSalle had been marketing the building with an asking lease rate of $36 per sf, triple net.

The building was expected to have at least 200,000 sf with a raised floor and have 21-foot ceilings. The building was expected to have 40 megawatts of power with the ability to expand to 60 megawatts and, with working on the plans for the building with Microsoft, “The capacity has grown,” he says. The joint venture will also have its own power substation on the property.

The building is expected to be completed in the spring and open in April, according to a press release from Microsoft. The building will house “tens of thousands of servers providing information and web-based applications to Internet users worldwide,” according to the press release. Sphere: Related Content

Sodexho's New HQ in Paris Sold for €100 Million

King Sturge Web Site - November 19, 2007

On behalf of Custom House Capital, King Sturge, Paris and Knight Frank Ganly Walters, Dublin have purchased from Sefri-Cime and AXA REIM two office buildings, Panorama Seine and Dockside near Paris in Issy-Les-Moulineaux for more than €100 million.

Sodexho will be occupying both buildings on a 12 year lease and this will become their International Headquarters.

Panorama Seine comprises 7,893m² (84,959ft²) with 71 car parking spaces, due to complete in February 2008. Dockside comprises 2,128m² (22,906ft²) with 27 car parking spaces due to complete in April 2008.

Simmons & Simmons and Le Breton & Associés acted on behalf of Custom House. Sefri-Cime was advised by Pardieu Brocas Mafféi and Wagny Katz. The financing was done by Aareal Bank, who were advised by notaries Allez & Associés. Sphere: Related Content

Harleysville National Bank Agrees to $38.8 Million Sale Leaseback of 16 Retail Bank Branches in PA

SEC Edgar Database - November 19, 2007

On November 19, 2007, Harleysville National Bank, a wholly owned banking subsidiary of Harleysville National Corporation, entered into a definitive agreement (the “Agreement”) to sell sixteen properties to American Realty Capital, LLC (“ARC”) in a sale-leaseback transaction. The properties are located throughout Berks, Bucks, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, and Carbon counties. The total sale price is expected to be approximately $38.8 million.

In the Agreement, the parties each make customary representations and warranties to each other. The finalization of the transaction is also contingent upon the completion of a 30 day due diligence period.

The agreement provides that the leases will be institution-quality, triple net leases with initial annual aggregate base rent of $3,003,838 (a 7.75% cap rate) with annual rent escalations equal to the lower of CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers) or 2.0 percent commencing in the second year of the lease term. As tenant, the Bank will be fully responsible for all costs associated with the operation, repair and maintenance of the properties during the lease terms.

The agreement provides that each lease will have an initial term ranging from 5 – 15 years, commencing on the closing date for the Agreement, with options to renew on various terms for periods aggregating up to 45 years. The Agreement is expected to close on or before year-end 2007. Sphere: Related Content

Whirlpool Signs 10 Year Lease for 1.7 Million SF Distribution Center in CA Inland Empire

Trading Markets - November 19, 2007

Whirlpool Corp. has signed a 10-year lease to occupy the Perris Distribution Center, a 1.7-million-square-foot warehouse-distribution facility at the northeast corner of Perris Boulevard and Morgan Street, said Sam Foster, senior vice president with Jones Lang LaSalle, a Los Angeles real estate firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Foster negotiated Whirlpool's lease with the building's developer, IDS Real Estate Group in Los Angeles. The building was the largest speculative warehouse-distribution project ever built in the United States, said Murad Siam, IDS Real Estate's co-chief executive officer.

All of the employees are being moved from two warehouse-distribution facilities in Ontario and one in Mira Loma. Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool leased more than 1.5 million square feet of logistics space in those three cities, Foster said.

Whirlpool, which purchased Maytag Corp. for $1.79 billion on March 2006, is building 10 large warehouse-distribution facilities, including the Perris operation, in North America. The Perris facility will serve the southwest United States, Foster said.

Whirlpool officials originally wanted to build their own distribution facility on 80 acres that was served by rail, but changed their plans when such a site became too difficult to find. "It's almost impossible to find a site like that anywhere in the Los Angeles area," Foster said. "We looked in Barstow, but by then Whirlpool decided they would be better off locating in the basin." Sphere: Related Content

Netcare Mulling $5.9 Billion Sale Leaseback of UK & South African Hospital Portfolios?

Business Report - November 20, 2007

Netcare could sell its South African property business, worth R9.5 billion, to unlock more value for shareholders, Richard Friedland, the chief executive, said yesterday.

Friedland said there were at least four or five options the company could explore when the properties were sold. Those included leasing back the hospitals and allowing shareholders to have a stake in Netcare and the property portfolio. Friedland would not be drawn into the time frames of when this could be finalised.

He said there were no discussions taking place around the issue at present, but it was an option the company knew could yield a great deal of value. Netcare manages 56 hospitals in South Africa. It owns 44 of those.

Two months ago, Netcare said it could sell its UK property, which was valued at more than £2.2 billion (R30.2 billion). Peter Nelson, the group's chief financial officer, said those plans were on hold. "We are still open minded to the sale, but the interest rates are very high in the UK right now and we need that to settle down a bit," Nelson said . "At the right time and for the right price we will sell, but it is not our main focus as we stand here today." Sphere: Related Content

The Great Escape Completes $89.5 Million Sale Leaseback of Midwest Store Portfolio

McHenry County Business Journal - November 2, 2007

The Great Escape, the largest home leisure retailer in the Midwest with 21 stores, has sold all of its stores. The Great Escape will continue selling its assortment of home recreational products for the foreseeable future, as the retailer has agreed to a 20 year leaseback of the properties.

This month, South Holland-based Great Escape sold all its store sites, including one at 2421 S. Randall Road in Algonquin, to Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Spirit Finance Corp. for a total of $89.5 million. Records show the Algonquin store sold for $9.8 million.

Representatives of The Great Escape and Spirit Finance Corp. declined to discuss the transaction. Sphere: Related Content

Houghton Mifflin Completes $25.8 Million Sale Leaseback of Chicago Area Warehouse

Cityfeet / GlobeSt.com - October 25, 2007

Inland Real Estate Exchange Corp., based in Oak Brook, has acquired a distribution center at 1900 S. Batavia Ave. The sales price was $25.8 million. The 513,512-sf building was acquired from Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Co. in a sale-leaseback.

Inland Real Estate Acquisitions Inc. negotiated the sale on behalf of Inland Real Estate Exchange Corp., both of which are affiliates of Inland Real Estate Group of Cos. Inc. Houghton Mifflin was represented in the transaction by Cushman & Wakefield. The cap rate was nearly 7.8%.

The textbook and educational publisher has signed a 12-year lease for the building, which was constructed in the late 1970s with a series of additions in the 1980s and a small addition in the 1990s. The lease rate is $3.90 per sf, net, with escalations each year, says Joe Cosenza, vice chairman of the Inland Real Estate Group of Cos. Houghton Mifflin only has two distribution centers, with the other being in Indiana. The Indiana facility distributes college textbooks while the Geneva facility distributes textbooks for students in elementary and secondary schools, which is the more profitable of the two areas of the company, Cosenza says. Sphere: Related Content

DHL Agrees to €160 Million Sale Leaseback of 26 Logistics Buildings Across France

Segro Web Site - November 15, 2007

Segro has agreed the purchase of a portfolio comprising 26 logistics buildings across France via a sale and leaseback with DHL. The total purchase costs are €159.8m and the portfolio will provide a total annual income of €11.2m representing an attractive net initial yield of 7.0%.

60% of the portfolio is in the Paris region, 10% in Lyon, 12% in Marseille and over 5% in Lille – with the remainder located in Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes, Orléans and Strasbourg.

The portfolio totals a built area of c210,000 m² on 70ha of land and comprises distribution and logistics centres used by the DHL Supply Chain and small cross-dock facilities used by DHL Express. All properties will be subject to new, nine year leases with DHL, 20 of them with 6 year break options and 6 of them with 3 year break options

9ha of land has been identified as having immediate development potential and it is estimated that a further 10,000m² of built area can be added in these locations. Sphere: Related Content

Penn West Petroleum HQ in Calgary Sold for €253 Million

Allianz Global Investors Web Site - November 16, 2007

In a joint venture with Homburg Investment Inc., the property fund company DEGI Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immobilienfonds mbH is making its first investment in Canada. For its DEGI INTERNATIONAL fund, the company acquires an office project featuring a total area of around 57,900 m² for around €253 mln.

The Homburg-Harris Centre.The “Homburg-Harris Centre” will upon completion rank among the most modern and advanced office buildings in the central business district (CBD) of Calgary. The seller of the office project is the international property and project development company Homburg Invest Inc., which as joint venture partner owns a 10 % holding in the newly established property holding company, and will by its Canadian subsidiary be handling local management for the property.

The Homburg-Harris Centre is situated in an extremely central location, Downtown Central Core, with very convenient links to urban public transport. The building complex consists of two linked office towers. The office space of 20,000 m² in the ten-story Tower 1 has already been let in its entirety to the energy company Penn West Petroleum Ltd. before the tower is completed in January 2008. The retailing areas on the ground floor will be used as a restaurant. For the 20-story Tower 2, completion is scheduled for 2009. The Homburg-Harris Centre also features underground parking for 400 cars. The purchase price will be paid in instalments as construction work progresses. Sphere: Related Content

Citigroup Nearing $1.6 Billion Sale Leaseback of Manhattan Office Tower

New York Post - November 14, 2007

Shorenstein Co. is slicing through complicated negotiations to sign a $1.6 billion contract to purchase 388 and 390 Greenwich St. from Citigroup, sources say. As we advised last week, Shorenstein was leading the pack of bidders for what would be one of the largest deals this year. Citi will be leasing back a chunk of the building for the next 15 years.

Shorenstein, which has investments in 125 Park Ave. and the Starrett-Lehigh Building on West 26th Street, declined to comment, as did Cushman & Wakefield's capital markets group, which has been leading the marketing efforts for Citi. Sphere: Related Content

Cramo Mulls Sale Leaseback of Property Portfolio in Finland

PropertyEU - November 13, 2007

Cramo, a major service provider to the construction industry in Northern Europe, is investigating the possible disposal of its real estate assets in its home country Finland in a sale-and-leaseback transaction during the first half of 2008. In a statement on Tuesday, Cramo said it has given the assignment to Catella Corporate Finance. Cramo will continue as tenant in most of the facilities if a sale is arranged. 'At this stage it is difficult to estimate the profit impact of the possible sale,' Cramo said.

Cramo specialises in construction equipment rental and the sale and leasing of modular space from 260 outlets in 10 countries spread across the Nordic region and Central and Eastern Europe. The equipment hire business has 62 depots in Finland, while its modular hire division operates one office, two factories and 3,500 modules and site huts.

The company is listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Helsinki and realised a consolidated operating profit of EUR 68.6 mln on sales of EUR 402 mln in 2006. Sphere: Related Content

Station Casinos Completes $3.1 Billion Sale Leaseback of Four Las Vegas Casinos

Sec Edgar Database - November 7, 2007

On November 7, 2007, Station Casinos, Inc., a Nevada corporation completed its merger with FCP Acquisition Sub, a Nevada corporation, as part of transaction to take the company private.

A number of wholly owned unrestricted direct and indirect subsidiaries of the Company entered into a mortgage loan in the principal amount of $2.050 billion and related mezzanine financings in an aggregate principal amount of $425.0 million (collectively, the “CMBS Loans”), for the purpose of financing the consideration payable to the Company’s stockholders upon consummation of the Merger.

Palace Station, Boulder Station, Sunset Station and Red Rock (collectively, the “CMBS Property”) were sold to the CMBS Borrower. Immediately following such sale, such CMBS Property was leased back to the Company pursuant to a master lease with an initial term of fifteen (15) years and extension terms for an aggregate of ten (10) additional years. The Company in turn subleased each parcel of the CMBS Property back to the Operating Subsidiaries, with each such sublease having the same term as the master lease.

Interest on the CMBS Loans is equal to the LIBOR plus 2.3% per annum. In addition to paying interest on outstanding principal under the CMBS Loans, the CMBS Borrower is required to reimburse the lenders for securitization and disbursement expenses in an amount not to exceed $2,730,000.

The maturity date of the CMBS Loans shall be November 12, 2009, subject to three one-year extensions. The CMBS Loans may be prepaid in whole or in part during the initial two-year term with an initial prepayment fee equal to 1.00% of the principal amount prepaid with the prepayment fee declining after the one year anniversary of the closing date on a straightline basis to 0.0% on the two-year anniversary of the closing date. The CMBS Borrower will be required to hedge the LIBOR interest rate such that it will not exceed 5.5%.

At the commencement of each Renewal Term, if any, Base Rent shall be reset to be equal to the greater of (a) the annual Fair Market Rental for the Leased Property and (b) one hundred ten percent (110%) of the annual aggregate interest payments payable on the then-existing Landlord’s Debt. Tenant shall maintain a reserve (“FF&E Reserve”) for capital and FF&E expenditures in the amount of 2.5% of gross revenues

The CMBS Loans include $740,000,000 for Boulder Station; $1,170,000,000 for the Charleston Station;$471,000,000 for the Palace Station; and $725,000,000 for the Sunset Station. Sphere: Related Content

S&P Rates C$1.23 Billion in Bonds Financing Canadian Govt Office Portfolio

TD Waterhouse Web Site - October 26, 2007

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today assigned its preliminary 'AAA' senior secured debt rating to Royal Office Finance LP's C$1.23 billion senior secured amortizing bonds due October 2032.

The preliminary 'AAA' rating assigned to the issue of senior secured bonds by Royal Office Finance LP (ROFLP) reflects the creditworthiness of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) and the federal government; the certainty of a rent stream fixed for 25 years; triple net leases with limited setoff and termination rights; bankruptcy-remote sole-purpose special purpose entities ( SPEs) established for the transaction; and a minimum 1x debt service cover through the 25-year term. These strengths are somewhat counterbalanced by the risk associated with refinancing C$425 million at term-end; and a minor amount of appropriation risk.

The bonds are secured by an absolute assignment of rent payments from PWGSC, a ministry of the federal government. Canadian Leaseback LP (CLLP) and ROFLP are formed by Larco Investments Ltd. PWGSC is the ministry of the federal government responsible for providing support to federal ministries and agencies by purchasing goods and services and providing office accommodation and technology services. Larco is a successful privately-owned real estate operator and developer based in British Columbia.

(Note: Private Placement Letter reports that the bonds were bought by 43 Canadian investors at 86 basis points over Canadian Government Treasurys, for a coupon of 5.209%.) Sphere: Related Content

FNV Vastgoed Completes Sale Leaseback of Four Properties in the Netherlands

PropertyEU - November 5, 2007

FNV Vastgoed, the property unit of the largest union confederation in the Netherlands, has divested four offices with a total area of 27,500 m2 via a sale-and-lease-back transaction with UBS Global Asset Management. The financial details were not disclosed.

The offices are located in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Groningen and Bergen op Zoom. FNV, headquartered in Amsterdam, is leasing back the real estate assets on a long-term basis. Epac Property Counselors advised FNV on the transaction, while UBS Global Asset Management was advised by Cushman & Wakefield. The FNV has 16 affiliated unions representing 1.2 million members. Sphere: Related Content

FBI Enters $60 Million Build-to-Suit for Regional HQ in Knoxville, TN

Knoxville News Sentinel - November 6, 2007

The FBI has outgrown downtown Knoxville and plans to leave in favor of a new, three-story regional field office in West Knoxville that will cost nearly $60 million.

Last month, a Cleveland, Ohio-area developer purchased 9 acres of land in the Dowell Springs Business Park off Middlebrook Pike that will eventually be home to a 99,130-square-foot office building for the agency.

In addition to employees from the Duncan building, the Dowell Springs office also will be home to employees from the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force that is in a West Knoxville office building and counter-intelligence agents in Oak Ridge. Lambert said the building should be finished in March 2009 and will house approximately 150 people.

The building will be developed by Carnegie Management and Development Corp. of Westlake, Ohio. According to a news release from the General Services Administration, the project has a 15-year lease value of $47.4 million.

Robert Berryhill, an executive with Carnegie, said his firm will own the building and the government will lease it for that amount. Berryhill said the total construction cost will be $58 million, and his firm plans to break ground in January. Sphere: Related Content

Bertelsmann Planning £50 Million Sale Leaseback of Publishing Division HQ in London

Estates Gazette has reported that media giant Bertelsmann has hired CB Richard Ellis to offer a 15-year sale leaseback of the 58,500 sq ft London headquarters of its Random House publishing division. The asking price is reportedly £50m which would provide a yield of around 5%. Sphere: Related Content

Bendon Seeking $20 Million Sale Leaseback of Auckland HQ

National Business Review - November 5, 2007

Fashion underwear company Bendon's new head office in the Airport Oaks subdivision in Auckland goes on the market as a sale-and-leaseback this week with expectations of a $20 million-plus price tag.

Bendon moved its office from comparatively primitive quarters in the East Tamaki industrial zone when the new headquarters building was completed in 2004. The distribution centre followed early last year.

If the property achieves the anticipated price bracket, it will stamp an international seal of approval on the industrial estates around the airport, with a yield in the low 7 per cent range, firmer than the office market in the central business district was managing two years ago.

The Bendon site occupies 1.64ha and has three road frontages, backing on to Airpark Drive for warehouse access. The head office area of 2167sq m has a rental rate of $250 a square metre and a small part of it a rate of $255. The high-stud 3818sq m section of the warehouse has a rental rate of $110 a sq m. Including a fitout rental for the eight-and-a-half years of the initial Bendon term, total passing rent is just under $1.65 million. Bendon has two six-year rights of renewal. Sphere: Related Content

Pep Boys Agrees to $166 Million Sale Leaseback of 34 Stores Across US

Philadelphia Inquirer - November 3, 2007

Pep Boys - Manny, Moe and Jack, the Philadelphia automotive repair and parts chain, said yesterday it had agreed to sell and lease back 34 of its 592 retail stores.

The $166.2 million sale will reduce the company's debt, which is $560 million, Harry Yanowitz, chief financial officer, said. He said the properties being sold are at randomly selected locations across the nation.

The sale-and-lease-back program, announced last summer, is part of a turnaround strategy that began with the appointment in March of chief executive officer Jeffrey C. Rachor, 45. The chain, with locations in 36 states and $2.3 billion in annual revenue, has lost money in three of the last five years. Since June, its shares have fallen from a 52-week high of $22.49 to as low as $12.48.

The company was founded in 1921 in West Philadelphia. It grew rapidly, aided by Henry Ford's sale of Model T's without such essentials as headlamps - an effort by Ford to create an aftermarket industry that would promote and support automobiles. Two years after opening the Philadelphia store, two of the founders, Manny Rosenfeld and Moe Strauss, took a research trip in a Model T to Los Angeles, where they began acquiring properties. The company today owns properties, on both coasts and in major cities, that have increased greatly in value. It is seeking to convert that to cash to reduce its debt and fund change and growth.

When the pending deal closes later this month, the company will begin work on another batch of store sales. As a store is sold, it will be leased back for 15 years, with four five-year renewal options, Yanowitz said. No decision has been made on how many stores to sell or how far to reduce debt, Yanowitz said. Sphere: Related Content

Deutsche Woolworth Agrees to EUR 400 Million Sale Leaseback of 100 Stores in Germany

Trade News / Financial Times Deutschland - November 2, 2007

Argyll Partners, the UK investment firm, is acquiring Deutsche Woolworth, the German low-cost retailer, and intends to pass the outlets which the retailer actually owns, numbering around 100 and valued at around 400m euros in the 2005 balance sheet, to the US investment firm Cerberus, according to company sources. A sale-and-lease-back is reported to have been decided for several of the properties. The seller of the German company is the UK investment firm Electra.

Argyll has indicated that the sale will finance the restructuring of Deutsche Woolworth, through which a strengthening of operative business and a return to profitability are targeted. The German retailer, which operates around 340 branches in Germany and Austria, generated turnover of 1bn euros in 2005. Sector experts have expressed surprise that the operative business is being taken over alongside the property which, until now, has been regarded as the only valuable asset of the German business. Sphere: Related Content

Neurocrine Biosciences Enters $108 Million Sale Leaseback of San Diego HQ

Neurocrine Biosciences Web Site - November 1, 2007

Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: NBIX) announced today that the Company has entered into a sale and leaseback agreement with Veralliance Properties for its real estate assets, with an expected closing date before year-end 2007. Total consideration to be received by Neurocrine for the properties is $108 million. Concurrently with the closing of the transaction, Neurocrine will lease back its corporate headquarters under a lease with a 10 year term. Neurocrine has certain options to repurchase all of the properties included in the transaction during the term of the lease. Under the terms of the asset purchase agreement, Neurocrine anticipates that it will receive cash of approximately $60 million net of fees, expenses and existing indebtedness.

"Owning the properties that Neurocrine occupies has been a highly profitable strategy for the Company and our shareholders, allowing us to benefit from the appreciation in the San Diego commercial real estate market," said Timothy P. Coughlin, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Neurocrine Biosciences. "Improving our strong financial position at this time in a non-dilutive manner provides us with the financial flexibility to advance our clinical and research programs and build equity in our pipeline."

Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. is a product-based biopharmaceutical company focused on neurological and endocrine diseases and disorders. The product candidates address some of the largest pharmaceutical markets in the world including insomnia, anxiety, depression, endometriosis, irritable bowel syndrome, pain, and diabetes.

(NOTE: According to the just released 10-Q report, the property was sold at a 7.0% cap rate with 3% annual rental increases, subject to a 10 year net lease with landlord roof & structure risk. The purchase option is at the greater of market or the then escallated base rent capped at 6.75%.) Sphere: Related Content