S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of U.S. real estate news stories and more published throughout the week.
Betting on properties
* Blackstone Group Inc. sold an approximately $3 billion logistics portfolio with more than 100 properties to the TIAA-owned Nuveen Real Estate. The portfolio comprises approximately 29 million square feet of urban infill, light industrial and bulk logistics assets spread across 12 markets.
* Separately, the private equity giant sold the office building at 100 Summer St. in Boston to Rockpoint Group in September for $806 million, completing the sale of a property portfolio formerly owned by Equity Office Properties Trust, which Blackstone bought for $39 billion in 2007, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing city property records.
* A Brookfield Asset Management Inc. affiliate is in talks to sell the 1,000-room Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Fla., to property developer Jeff Soffer, Bloomberg News reported, citing unnamed sources. Any deal for the property, owned by Brookfield Property Partners LP, would value it at less than $1 billion, including debt, the report added.
* Summit Industrial Income REIT is acquiring a 37-property light industrial portfolio encompassing more than 3.3 million square feet in Alberta for about C$588 million, with closing expected on or about Nov. 1.
* Piedmont Office Realty Trust Inc. is selling the 967,000-square-foot office building at 500 W. Monroe St. in Chicago to Spear Street Capital. Bids on the property were in the range of $415 million to $425 million, Real Estate Alert reported, citing market experts.
* JP Morgan Asset Management and Samuels & Associates Inc. are looking to sell the Fenway Triangle property at 180 Brookline Ave. in Boston, with the asset expected to receive bids of more than $325 million, Real Estate Alert reported.
* Liberty Property Trust is selling a portfolio of 100%-owned office properties at the Philadelphia Navy Yard at an estimated $300 million, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.
* Carlyle Group LP purchased the 648-unit Sofia Los Angeles apartment complex for $272.5 million, The Real Deal reported, citing Los Angeles County property records. The property at 1120 W. 6th St. was sold by a joint venture of Holland Partner Group and North America Sekisui House LLC.
* The Related Cos. LP is planning to raise $1.5 billion for a new real estate fund through its Related Fund Management LLC unit, IPE Real Assets reported, citing the Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana.
Merger and strategic matters
* Canada's Partners Real Estate Investment Trust, which initiated a strategic review earlier in 2019, agreed to a buyout deal by property owner and developer McCowan and Associates Ltd. for 78 Canadian cents per unit in cash, with closing expected in the fourth quarter.
* Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT II completed its acquisition of Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT Inc., boosting its portfolio to 150 healthcare and data center properties across 33 U.S. states.
* Spirit MTA REIT's board declared a cash liquidating distribution of $8.00 per common share, payable Oct. 23 to shareholders of record as of Oct. 14.
* First Capital Realty Inc. set a shareholder vote on its planned reorganization into a REIT at a special meeting Dec. 10. The company will rebrand as First Capital REIT once the REIT conversion completes, expected on or about Dec. 30.
Macro world
* Latest data from Preqin showed that private equity real estate deals in the third quarter fell to 2,044, with a combined value of $98 billion, from 2,410 deals, with an aggregate value of $120 billion, in the 2018 third quarter. The number of deals in North America dropped year over year to 1,428 from 1,727.
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