Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Voit Completes Two Industrial Sales Totaling $6.2 Million in Orange County, CA



Orange County, CA – Seth Davenport (top right photo) and Mitch Zehner (middle left photo) of Voit Real Estate Services’ Anaheim office have completed two industrial transactions in Orange County encompassing 54,078 square feet for a total consideration of $6.2 million.

“Both buyers and sellers are now benefitting from increased activity in the OC industrial market,” said Seth Davenport, a Senior Vice President in Voit’s Anaheim office.

 “Because mid-sized industrial product is in short supply, pricing is on the rise. This motivates buyers to move quickly to acquire product within their desired areas, while also helping sellers to more easily dispose of product they wish to sell.” 

Transaction #1


Seth Davenport and Mitch Zehner of Voit’s Anaheim office completed a $3.3 million, 26,033 square-foot industrial sale located at 4100 E. La Palma Ave. (top left photo) in Anaheim, Calif., on behalf of the buyer.

Voit’s Anaheim office represented the buyer, DG Performance, a manufacturer of aftermarket motorcycle exhaust pipes. DG Performance will fully occupy the building for its operations.

“Our challenge in this deal was to identify a property that could accommodate DG Performance’s manufacturing, while remaining within the city of Anaheim,” explained Davenport. “With industrial inventory running low in Anaheim, we drew upon our local resources to identify this property, which met our client’s manufacturing needs, while staying within their ideal geographical area.”

The seller, Simon Ozkan, was represented by Derek Paul of Ashwill Associates.   

Transaction #2  


Voit’s Anaheim office directed the $2.95 million sale of a 28,045 square-foot industrial building located at 1240 N. Red Gum Street (middle right photo) in Anaheim, Calif., on behalf of the seller. The buyer, La Jolla Leasing M&A, LLC, a nutraceuticals company, plans to fully occupy this building to expand its manufacturing operations.

Seth Davenport and Mitch Zehner, an Executive Vice President in Voit’s Anaheim office, represented the seller, Frances Seiford, in the transaction.

“This sale demonstrates how buyers are increasingly more flexible in their property demands,” noted Davenport. 

“Our client’s property was ideally located for the buyer’s needs, with access to two major freeways.  However, the buyer was not originally in the market for a two-story building with 13,806 square feet of office space.

“ We were successful in communicating the opportunity to use the space for future expansion, and ultimately negotiated a deal that was beneficial to both parties.”

La Jolla Leasing M&A, LLC was represented by Scott Seal of Lee & Associates.

  Contact:

Jenn Quader/ Judith Brower
Brower, Miller & Cole
(949) 955-7940

CalPERS Names Douglas Hoffner to Top Post for Operations and Technology



SACRAMENTO, CA – The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) today announced that it has selected Douglas Hoffner as its Deputy Executive Officer for the pension fund’s operations and technology.

Hoffner will be responsible for CalPERS support and operational functions, advising the senior leadership team and Board on issues, including human resources, fiscal planning and budgeting, enterprise strategy and performance, information technology, and facilities management.

For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

External Affairs Branch
(916) 795-3991
Robert Udall Glazier, Deputy Executive Officer
Brad Pacheco, Chief, Office of Public Affairs

Hard Rock International And Aabar Properties Announce Development Of Hard Rock Hotel Abu Dhabi



ORLANDO, FL /PRNewswire/ -- Hard Rock International announced an agreement with Aabar Properties, a subsidiary of aabar Investments PJS for the development and management of Hard Rock Hotel Abu Dhabi (top left photo) a five star international hotel located in the United Arab Emirates' capital city of Abu Dhabi.

The 378-room luxury hotel will be ideally situated within the picturesque seafront of the Corniche and just a short distance from the modern city's bustling financial district, marking Hard Rock Hotels' exciting entrance into the Middle East.


Overlooking the turquoise waters of the Arabian Gulf, Hard Rock Hotel Abu Dhabi will feature an assortment of signature restaurants, entertainment and meeting facilities, including the renowned Hard Rock Cafe.

Other key attractions include a beautifully appointed Sky Lobby on the fifth floor podium, spectacular Lobby Bar with outdoor entertainment deck and hookah lounge, as well as a 37(th) floor Sky Bar with swimming pool.

With more than 12,000 square feet dedicated to wellness and spa facilities, the resort will host the Body Rock® fitness center and signature Rock Spa®.

Additionally, guests of the hotel will enjoy the convenience of the state-of-the-art events and meeting facilities, as well as the business center, accompanied by six meeting rooms and a 5,200 square foot ballroom.

For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact:

Jennifer Jackson, jjackson@zimmerman.com, or
 Samantha Schmidt, of The Zimmerman Agency, +1-850-668-2222

Berger Commercial Realty Corp. Announces Three New Lease Transactions


 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Berger Commercial Realty, a full service commercial real estate firm based in Fort Lauderdale and serving clients around the state, announced new deals from brokers Judy Dolan (top right photo), Keith Graves (middle left photo), Greg Milopoulos (middle right photo) and St. George Guardabassi (bottom left photo).

Dolan, Graves and Milopoulos represented Oakland Center Associates, LTD in the lease of a 2,142-square-foot flex space, located at 3215 N.W. 10th Terrace in Fort Lauderdale, to Cardinal Scale Manufacturing Company.

Dolan and Guardabassi represented East Port Center Joint Venture in the lease of a 11,670-square-foot office space, located at 1885 State Rd. 84 in Fort Lauderdale, to Periodic Products, represented by Robert J. Simeone of Atlantic Properties International.

Dolan represented Trustee Sara Baxt in the lease of a 2,040-square-foot restaurant/retail space, located at 1931 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, to Three Heads Group, LLC, d/b/a Cinquecento.


Contact:

 Marielle Sologuren
Pierson Grant Public Relations
(954) 776-1999, ext. 226

Kevin Rude Joins Colliers International South Florida as Director of Property Management Services



MIAMI, FL - Kevin K. Rude (top right photo), RPA, CCIM, has a reputation for expanding property management portfolios for some of the country's top commercial real estate firms.

Kevin is now the newest member of the Colliers International South Florida team. As the Directory of Property Management Services, Kevin will be responsible for all operations of the property management arm of the firm, including a portfolio of properties of office, retail, industrial and multifamily assets.

 "I am extremely excited to be joining Colliers South Florida to oversee the property management team," says Kevin. "We are unique among our competitors because we customize delivery to meet our clients' needs. As a result, we will be able to leverage our strong brokerage presence in the market to offer clients a full range of best-in-class real estate services."

For a complete copy of the company’s news release, please contact::  

 Crystal Proenza
Vice President of Marketing
Colliers International South Florida
Commercial Real Estate Services
Tel: 305 476 7138

Residents, Veterans at Del Webb Stone Creek in Ocala, FL raise new flag and flag pole to mark community entrance



OCALA, FL. – The entrance to Del Webb Stone Creek off SW 80th Ave. in Ocala has a patriotic new look thanks to residents and local veterans.

Michael Finley, general sales manager for Del Webb Stone Creek, said more than 75 residents — most of them veterans — were on hand Flag Day to raise a new flag pole and a new 12 by 18 foot American Flag.

“We have many veterans in our community and they suggested we ought to have a more noteworthy commemoration at the entrance to the community,” Finley said.

“We thought they were right,” he said.

After the formal flag raising ceremony participating residents headed for the Reunion Center for coffee, juice and donuts.

Del Webb Stone Creek is one of the homebuilder’s largest communities in the U.S. featuring the Reflection Bay and Elan Spa clubhouses and 29 acres of gardens, the Stone Creek Grille and an 18-hole championship golf course.

 For more information, visit delwebb.com/stonecreek  or call 877-333-5932.

For more information,  contact: 

 Lyndsey Patterson, Director of Marketing Del Webb/ PulteGroup North Florida Division, 407-661-2150 ext 1416 2301 Lucien Way, Suite 400, Maitland, FL 32751; lyndsey.patterson@pultegroup.com;

 Sean C. Strickler, Vice President Sales, Del Webb/PulteGroup/North Florida, 407-661-1461 sean.strickler@pultegroup.com;    

 Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications 407-644-4142 lvershelco@aol.com   



REITs Poised to Continue Recent Run of Success




ATLANTA, GA– Despite the overall hardships of the commercial real estate market and the grinding economy, real estate investment trusts (REITs) have performed well in recent years and appear poised for continued success.

Those were some of the points made by show host Michael Bull (top right photo)and his guests on the most recent episode of “America’s Commercial Real Estate Show,” which provided an enlightening look at the recent history of REITs and the factors that will influence their performance moving forward.

Over the last three years, the compound annual return for REITs has been about 40 percent, compared with 22 percent for the stock market overall, noted Brad Case (middle left photo), senior vice president with the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts. “You’ve had much stronger performance during the upturn for the REIT industry relative to other stocks,” he said.

Part of the reason for REITs’ success is the caliber of their portfolios, noted Bull, president and founder of Bull Realty. “REITs have a great quality of properties generally - Class-A, institutional-quality properties – and those help you recover a lot faster as well,” he said.

REITs currently enjoy “tremendous and wonderful access to capital” and are also benefitting from improving real estate fundamentals, said Steven Marks (middle right photo), managing director, REITs, for Fitch Ratings.

However, the agency isn’t entirely bullish on the REIT sector, Marks explained. Headwinds in the economy are cause for concern, and “we think the sector remains over leveraged despite the degree of equity capital that’s been raised over the last three years,” he said. “We still think the sector has a ways to go before we would think about upgrading the sector [from ‘stable’] to ‘positive.’”

By contrast, Brad Thomas (lower left photo), vice president of capital markets for Bull Realty who also writes about REITs for Seeking Alpha and Forbes, applauded REITs for their “very conservative management practices.”

“We’ve seen pretty low leverage balance sheets as compared to the private sector and the developers who all were highly leveraged,” he added. “Coming out of this recession, we’ve seen REITs perform much better [than private real estate firms simply because of the conservative capital.”

Like the other guests, William Kahane (lower right photo), CEO of American Realty Capital, expressed optimism about the health of commercial real estate markets and REITs moving forward, and he also noted that his retail REIT is seeing higher quality tenants and improved income streams.

“We are seeing sales growth among our retail tenants … ,” he said. “We’ve got a very durable income stream. We now derive over three-fourths of our rents from investment-grade-rated tenants.”

The entire REIT Market Update episode is available for download at www.CREshow.com.

The next “America’s Commercial Real Estate Show” will be available June 21 and will provide a look at the latest commercial real estate technology.

Contact:

Stephen Ursery
Wilbert News Strategies
Office: (404) 965-5026
Cell: (404) 405-2354