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.
Takeovers
* Brookfield Asset Management Inc. closed on the $11.4 billion acquisition of Forest City Realty Trust Inc. through its real estate investment fund. The deal for the diversified real estate investment trust was announced in July.
Buy & Sell
* Troubled retailer Sears Holdings Corp. tapped Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. to market a portfolio of about 500 department stores in the U.S. The move comes amid former Sears CEO Eddie Lampert's $4.6 billion offer to buy the chain through ESL Investments Inc.
* Beacon Capital Partners LLC partnered with the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Board and Allianz Group's real estate arm Allianz Real Estate to buy the 40-story, 1.24 million-square-foot Exchange Place office tower at 53 State St. in Boston for $845 million, the Boston Business Journal reported, citing State Treasurer Deb Goldberg.
* CBS Corp. agreed to sell its 25-acre CBS Television City property and soundstage operation to Hackman Capital Partners LLC for $750 million. The transaction is expected to close by early 2019.
* Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust will sell 41 multifamily properties in the Netherlands, comprising 2,091 apartment units, to European Commercial REIT in a C$634 million deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2019.
* Blackstone Group LP affiliate EQ Office sold roughly 350,000-square-foot office-and-retail building at 114 W. 41st St. in Manhattan, N.Y., to Clarion Partners LLC for $282 million, The Real Deal reported, citing Newmark Knight Frank.
* TIAA Henderson Real Estate Ltd. and Taconic Investment Partners LLC purchased the 18-story building at 440 9th Ave. in Manhattan's Far West Side for $269 million from Japanese company UNIZO Holdings Co. Ltd., the Commercial Observer reported. The sale is part of the Japanese company's strategy to off-load its over $1 billion portfolio in Manhattan.
Developments
* Apple Inc. will invest $1 billion to build a new, 133-acre campus in North Austin, Texas. The company also plans to set up new sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City, Calif., and expand in cities across the U.S., including Pittsburgh, New York and Boulder, Colo., over the next three years. Further, Apple intends to invest $10 billion in U.S. data centers over the next five years, with $4.5 billion slated for 2018 and 2019.
* New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to sell $1 billion of New York City Housing Authority unused air rights to developers as part of the NYCHA 2.0 plan to improve public housing in the city, Crain's New York Business reported.
Fun-raising
* JP Morgan Asset Management raised $1.3 billion for its European Opportunistic Property Fund IV from international investors. The oversubscribed fund will target office, retail, industrial and residential markets in the European Union, with a focus on the U.K., Germany and France.
* L&M Development Partners Inc. has raised $500 million in private equity over the last year to develop affordable housing through a workforce housing fund, The Real Deal reported.
Efforts for Environment
* Boston Properties Inc. entered agreements to reduce its carbon footprint by over 55,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, and to reduce the carbon intensity of its Massachusetts operations by approximately 78% as compared to a 2008 base year.
List me
* NexPoint Hospitality Trust Inc. applied to list an undisclosed number of its units on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol NHT at a public price of US$15.00 apiece. Raymond James Ltd. will act as the agent for the IPO.
Conference coverage
Conference Chatter: Retail real estate will endure more pain before settling into new normal
Conference Chatter: Landsec CEO: No-deal Brexit could force landlords to shut down buildings
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