S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of U.S. real estate news stories and more published throughout the week. Please note that some entries may have links to third-party sources that may require a subscription.
DC to NYC
Columbia Property Trust Inc. and Allianz Real Estate teamed up to acquire an office building in Washington, D.C., and Columbia Property individually acquired two office buildings in New York City for a total of $935 million. Columbia acquired the Manhattan, N.Y., office buildings, which have tenants including Twitter and Red Bull, from New York REIT for $514 million. New York REIT plans to use some of proceeds to cover $348 million of a $760 million loan that was cross-collateralized by the properties, netting the company $146.2 million as it moves to liquidate its assets.
Columbia acquired a 55% stake in Washington, D.C.'s 1800 M St. NW for $421 million and will be responsible for property management and leasing activities at the building, which is 94% leased to tenants including Berkeley Research Group and Zuckerman Spaeder.
Data dump
Hyatt Hotels Corp. reported that between March 18 and July 2, customer credit card data was hacked by a third party that inserted a malicious software code onto certain information technology systems at the company's managed sites in Hawaii, Mexico, Guam, Puerto Rico, China, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. Hyatt said it estimated the data breach affected a small percentage of credit cards, but it was unable to identify individual cards that may have been hacked based on available data.
Lawyering up
Activist shareholder Sandpiper Group is considering turning to the courts in its push to have Canada's Agellan Commercial REIT hold a special shareholder meeting. Sandpiper, which holds 11.5% of Agellan's shares, is calling for the replacement of certain board members with its own nominees and a shareholder vote on the company's proposed management internalization, which would involve a C$15 million payout to Agellan's external manager.
Merger moves
Parkway Inc. completed its $1.2 billion merger with an affiliate of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Parkway shareholders are set to receive a per-share consideration of $23.05, which consists of $19.05 per share, plus a $4.00-per-share special cash dividend paid Oct. 10.
Equinix Inc. finalized its €215 million all-cash deal to acquire Carlyle Group LP's Itconic data center business in Spain and Portugal and the company's Cloudmas subsidiary.
Office space
Japan's UNIZO Holdings Co. made its sixth purchase in New York City with the acquisition of the 31-story 685 3rd Ave office tower in Midtown Manhattan from TH Real Estate.
Vornado Realty Trust sold 800 Corporate Pointe, a four-story class A office building it owns in Culver City, Calif., to Northwood Investors for $148 million.
SL Green Realty Corp. is looking to unload its 600 Lexington Ave. office tower in Midtown Manhattan, Real Estate Alert reported. The 36-story building is valued at roughly $305 million, the report noted.
In the woods
Weyerhaeuser Co. redeemed its 21% interest in Twin Creeks Timber LLC for $107.5 million. Weyerhaeuser also agreed to sell 100,000 acres of timberland to the joint venture for $202.5 million.
A light at the end of the tunnel
Sun Communities Inc. reported that all three of its Florida Keys properties suffered significant damage from Hurricane Irma and will need to be fully redeveloped. However, insurance is expected to cover the entire bill, the company said.
Defined benefits
An unnamed pension fund and L&L Holding Co. are forming a joint venture to spend $4 billion on property deals in New York City, The Real Deal reported.
Teacher Retirement System of Texas and Blackstone Group LP's Blackstone Real Estate Partners are joining forces to form a $400 million fund focusing on opportunistic U.S. property deals, IPE Real Assets reported. The pension fund also committed $150 million to AEW Capital Management LP.
Oak Street Real Estate Capital LLC raised $1.25 billion for its latest fund from the Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois, Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund and an undisclosed Middle Eastern investor.
The Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana will give $200 million each to Brookfield Investment Management Inc. and Dimensional Fund Advisors LP to invest in real estate investment trusts globally, allowing the pension fund to meet its REIT investment target of 2%, IPE Real Assets reported.
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