Sila to sell data center assets for $1.32B; SL Green to sell NYC asset for $325M

S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of real estate news stories published throughout the week.

Cross-border direct acquisition volume of Manhattan, N.Y., commercial real estate properties fell 79% year over year in the first quarter, and Seattle overtook the New York City borough as the top market for overseas buyers, Real Capital Analytics reported.

International investment in Seattle properties fell, too, by 11% year over year. Still, a high volume of transactions involving Canadian buyers — nearly $1.5 billion of acquisition volume, or more than half of the market's cross-border volume — pushed Seattle into the lead. In San Francisco, the third-most-popular market for cross-border purchasers, deal volume fell by 26%.

The only other time on record when Manhattan fell out of the lead among markets for international property acquisitions was during the global financial crisis, when deal activity dried up across markets, Real Capital Senior Vice President Jim Costello wrote in a note. Part of Manhattan's slide was a result of uncertainty about the city's office properties, typically popular targets for foreign buyers, Costello added.

Among the top markets for overseas investors, Chicago posted the largest gain in deal volume, with a 28% year-over-year increase driven by European and Canadian investors.

The property show

* Healthcare real estate investment trust Sila Realty Trust Inc. agreed to sell all of its data center properties in the U.S. for about $1.32 billion, subject to certain potential purchase price adjustments. The portfolio, which comprises 29 data centers, will be acquired by units of Singapore-based Mapletree Industrial Trust.

* Bell Partners Inc. is looking to sell a portfolio of 11 apartment properties that is likely to attract close to $1 billion in bids, Real Estate Alert reported. The real estate investment firm reportedly tapped Eastdil Secured to market the portfolio, which is located in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Sun Belt.

* SL Green Realty Corp. will sell an office property in New York for $325.0 million to an undisclosed buyer. The property includes two adjoined buildings at 635 Sixth Ave. and 641 Sixth Ave. totaling 267,000 square feet.

* W. P. Carey Inc. invested $170 million in four assets in the U.S. totaling about 1.1 million square feet.

Transatlantic transaction

* Dream Industrial REIT is in advanced discussions to acquire a stake in a corporation that owns a 31-property logistics portfolio in Europe valued at roughly €880 million. The portfolio comprises fully occupied properties mainly spread across Germany, the Netherlands and France, spanning about 8.9 million square feet, with significant excess land totaling more than 1 million square feet.

New REIT on the block

* KKR & Co. Inc. formed a new real estate investment trust that will give individual investors access to income-generating private commercial real estate, prime single-tenant real estate, and private real estate debt and preferred equity interests in the U.S. The private equity giant seeded KKR Real Estate Select Trust Inc. with about $150 million from its own corporate balance sheet.

Merger deals

* Affiliates of Digital Colony Management LLC agreed to acquire real estate and infrastructure acquisition and development company Landmark Dividend LLC, which owns 100% of the membership interest in the general partner of Landmark Infrastructure Partners LP and 13.2% of its common units. Following the acquisition, Digital Colony plans to buy substantially all of the assets of Landmark Infrastructure at a valuation of nearly $972 million.

* An acquisition offer made by funds managed and advised by Blackstone Group Inc. was rejected by Crown Resorts Ltd. The Australian company said the A$12.35-per-share offer undervalues Crown, and it requested additional information from The Star Entertainment Group Ltd. regarding its competing merger proposal.

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