In conjunction with Brookfield Asset Management’s recapitalization of bankrupt mall REIT General Growth Properties, Brookfield president Steve Douglas has resigned to become executive vice president and chief financial officer at General Growth.

Brookfield has not yet replaced Douglas, the firm said.

General Growth went bankrupt last year. It is now exiting from bankruptcy due to the recapitalization.

“We thank Steve for his invaluable contributions to the success of Brookfield Properties,” Brookfield chief executive officer Ric Clark said. “We thank Steve for his invaluable contributions to the success of Brookfield properties and wish him well as he joins General Growth.”

Brookfield owns, develops and manages office properties, with a current portfolio of 93 properties totaling 70 million square feet in New York, Boston, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Houston, Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa.

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Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT II, Inc. has entered into a $25 million secured revolving credit facility with Bank of America, N.A.

The credit facility, which matures on July 19, 2012, may be extended at the option of Grubb & Ellis for an additional year upon certain conditions. It bears interest at a rate equal to LIBOR plus 3.75 percent or 5 percent, whichever is greater.

“This credit facility further strengthens our ability to execute our business plan and more rapidly expand the portfolio of Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT II,” Grubb & Ellis chairman and chief executive officer Jeff Hanson said when announcing the news. “Particularly for a new REIT like ours, now is an exceptional time in the market cycle to acquire assets and Bank of America is supporting this effort.”

The credit facility may be used for funding property acquisitions as well as for other general corporate purposes.

Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT II seeks to raise up to approximately $3 billion in equity along with acquiring a diversified portfolio of real estate assets, focusing primarily on medical office buildings and other healthcare-related facilities.

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It’s almost a done deal. Toronto, Ont.-based RioCan has waived due diligence conditions and firmed up a contract to acquire eight Texas shopping centers with Oak Brook, Ill.-based Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust Inc. in an 80/20 joint venture agreement. RioCan will plunk down $123.3 million for its majority stake, leaving Inland Retail to hold on to a minority interest in the assets that it acquired within the last several years.

RioCan and Inland Western announced the formation of their institutional joint venture in May. The eight new format and grocery-anchored assets of which RioCan will now acquire 80 percent account for approximately 1.1 million square feet of retail space in the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin markets. The Houston portion of the portfolio includes the 311,300-square-foot Riverpark Shopping Center, the 87,900-square-foot Bear Creek Shopping Center, the 148,000-square-foot New Forest Crossing and the 116,400-square-foot Cypress Mill Plaza. The Dallas-Fort Worth assets encompass Suntree Square, a 96,500-square-foot grocery-anchored shopping center; the 91,400-square-foot Coppell Town Center grocery-anchored property; and Great Southwest Crossing, a 92,300-square-foot new format retail center. Rounding out the portfolio is Southpark Meadows I, a 266,800-square-foot new format retail center in Austin.

The $123.3 million that RioCan will pay for its portion of the joint venture endeavor consists of a $55.1 million net equity investment and the assumption of a $68.2 million portion of existing mortgage debt. For RioCan, the transaction will allow the REIT, Canada’s largest, to continue its quest of acquiring premium quality defensive assets in major markets with growth potential.

For Inland Western’s part, the partnership with RioCan paves the way for the company to make good on one of its 2010 initiatives: execute future accretive asset acquisitions through joint ventures.

The portfolio purchase is on target to close in stages, subject to lender consents, during the third quarter of this year.

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Real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle has enhanced its retail services through the acquisition of bankrupt shopping-center REIT General Growth Properties’ management and leasing responsibilities for properties in GGP’s third-party management division.

The joint venture adds more than 11 million square feet to JLL’s retail portfolio of 84 million square feet in the Americas and 265 million square feet worldwide. Additionally, more than 200 GGP employees will now become JLL employees.

“The opportunity to partner with General Growth Properties and bring these properties into our portfolio allows us to be able to provide our strategic services to new and existing clients, help these owners maximize the value of their assets, welcome more than 200 talented retail experts into our team and expand our portfolio with 18 quality regional malls and community centers across the country,” Jones Lang LaSalle Retail president Greg Maloney said when announcing the news.

Properties involved in the deal include the Alexandria Mall in Alexandria, La.; Branson Landing in Branson, Mo.; Burbank Town Center in Burbank, Calif.; Cherokee Square Shopping Center in Tullahoma, Tenn.; Festival Bay Mall in Orlando, Fla.; and The Shops at Georgetown Park in Washington, DC.

General Growth Properties has asked a New York bankruptcy court to extend its period for filing a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization. The company, which went bankrupt last year, says it expects to file by July 9, but is asking for an extension through Oct. 18.

“While GGP expects to file its plan within the current exclusivity period, the requested extension is integral to GGP’s strategy to maximize value upon emergence,” the company asserted in a prepared statement. “The extension would allow GGP to continue to explore all financing emergence options available to it and to complement or replace existing financing commitments on an exclusive basis.”

Currently the exclusivity period to file the plan and its accompanying disclosure statement is scheduled to expire on July 15. The exclusive period to solicit acceptances of any plan of reorganization is scheduled to expire on Sept. 15. GGP has requested an extension of that date to Dec. 16.

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Leverage notwithstanding, Douglas Emmett Inc. has closed the subscription period to its Fund X with equity commitments totaling approximately $549.3 million. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based REIT has invested $191 million of its own into the institutional fund.

It was in 2008 when Douglas Emmett formed Fund X, which had $300 million of inequity commitments upon its October 2008 initial closing. The REIT kicked off the fund’s portfolio by contributing a group of six premier office properties located in the Los Angeles area. Douglas Emmett had acquired the portfolio, which features 1.4 million square feet of office space, from Arden Realty in March 2008 for a contract price of about $610 million, and funded part of the purchase with a $365 million five-year, non-recourse interest-only loan from a group of lenders led by Eurohypo. Fund X took on that loan upon Douglas Emmett’s contribution of the properties, the majority of which–including the 432,000-square-foot building at 8393 Wilshire Blvd. and the 339,000-square-foot building at 9100 Wilshire–are in the Beverly Hills submarket of Los Angeles.

With part of Fund X’s equity having been used for the acquisition of Douglas Emmett’s six-property office portfolio, the investment vehicle is now left with $267 million of equity commitments to spend on acquisitions. Terms of Fund X call for investment activities to take place for up to four years after the initial 2008 closing, followed by a 10-year value creation period.

Fund X’s hunting grounds will be limited to Douglas Emmett’s core Los Angeles-area submarkets including Beverly Hills, Century City Santa Monica, as well as the valley submarkets of Sherman Oaks/Encino and Woodland Hills. Honolulu is also very much on the radar.

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Dividend Capital Total Realty Trust Inc. today said it has completed the $1.3 billion acquisition of a 32-property portfolio of office and industrial properties. The properties are located in 16 U.S. markets and comprise approximately 11.3 million net rentable square feet.

About 99 percent occupied, the portfolio includes 21 office properties located in 10 markets totaling 4.6 million net rentable square feet and 11 industrial properties in nine markets totaling approimately 6.7 million net rentable square feet. Dividend said most properties are leased to single tenant corporate users with weighted remaining lease terms of approximately 7.6 years.

“We are extremely pleased to acquire this high-quality portfolio of office and industrial buildings,” Dividend president Guy Arnold said when announcing the news. “We feel the acquisition is a valuable addition to our portfolio, further diversifying our commercial real estate holdings by property type, tenant base and geography.”

Tenants include Amazon.com, Sybase, FedEx, Unisys, Goodyear, Nokia Siemens, Avis Budget, DIRECTV, and Google.

Dividend financed the purchase with $859 million in senior and mezzanine financing with a combination of fixed and floating interest rates, with the average interest rate of the loans about 5.4 percent.

“We were able to obtain very attractive financing on the portfolio,” Dividend vice president of finance Lainie Minnick said when announcing the news. “The financing gives us flexibility in our business plan moving forward.”

Based in Denver, Dividend owned 11 properties totaling approximately 24.3 million square feet in 35 geographic markets as of June 25, 2010.

Buying an entire company is a good way to expand a portfolio in one fell swoop and Ventas Inc. is about to do just that. The Chicago-headquartered healthcare REIT has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Lillibridge Healthcare Services Inc., also based in Chicago, in a transaction valued at $300 million to $400 million. The purchase will expand Ventas’s portfolio of owned or managed medical office buildings from  34 properties to 154 properties encompassing 8.4 million square feet in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Lillibridge–the largest fully-integrated private owner, manager and developer of MOBs–has a portfolio of 95 MOBs that consists of a 100 percent interest in 37 assets totaling 1.9 million square feet, a 20 percent joint venture stake in 24 properties totaling 1.5 million square feet, and a 5 percent joint venture interest in 34 properties accounting for 2.3 million square feet. The group of assets has an average occupancy level of 86 percent. Lillibridge also brings to the table its management business, which involves the company’s third-party management of 33 MOBs totaling 1 million square feet.

Ventas, whose portfolio beyond MOBs includes 187 skilled nursing facilities, 40 hospitals and 244 senior housing facilities, will operate the MOB business under the Lillibridge name, and will bring Lillibridge founder and CEO Todd Lillibridge onboard.

For forward-looking investors, the timing is just right for pursuing MOBs. The healthcare real estate sub-sector has weathered the recession better than the traditional office sector, and it is only going to get stronger. According to a report by Fitch Ratings, as healthcare reform is rolled out over the next several years, there will be a significant jump in demand for healthcare-related properties, and MOBs are no exception.

Ventas plans to finance the acquisition of Lillibridge with cash, borrowings under its revolving credit facilities and the assumption of secured mortgage debt.

Ventas CEO Debra Cafaro

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust has wasted precious little time snapping up properties following its December 2009 initial public offering. The Bethesda, Md.-based REIT has just plunked down $90 million for the ritzy Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco. Pebblebrook acquired the 416-room hotel from a partnership spearheaded by The Chartres Lodging Group L.L.C. in San Francisco, which acquired the property in 2005 for $65 million.

Located downtown in the center of San Francisco’s bustling Union Square, the 23-story Sir Francis Drake was originally developed in 1928. The upper upscale hotel features 18,000 square feet of meeting space and is home to a famed bistro, a Starbucks store, a bar and a nightclub. Chartres had invested approximately $23 million in the property during the five years that it owned the property. Eastdil Secured marketed the hotel on Chartres’ behalf, and brought the seller more than a few interested buyers.

“We considered numerous offers,” Robert Kline, president and co-founder of Chartres Lodging said in a prepared statement, “but chose to transact the property with Pebblebrook because they recognized the property’s significant potential given its strong location.”

Aside from plans to invest about $7 million in various upgrades over the next 12 to 24 months, there are no fixed changes in store for the hotel; the property’s manager, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, will continue in its role.

The Sir Francis Drake’s location in the midst of a bevy of chic restaurants and retail stores, and its close proximity to the city’s Financial District and the 2 million-square-foot Moscone Center convention facility have long made it a magnet for the tony leisure and business traveler sets. The global financial crisis thinned both crowds, but the hotel has managed to fare far better than many other luxury lodging properties. In 2009, the occupancy rate at the Sir Francis Drake was approximately 76 percent. The figure surpasses San Francisco’s current average occupancy rate, which, at 61.9 percent, is still respectable enough to place the city at number five on the list of the nation’s largest 13 hotel markets, excluding Las Vegas, according to a first quarter report by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services. The average U.S. hotel occupancy rate is 48.8 percent.

The U.S. hotel market, however, is looking up and Pebblebrook has been combing the top cities–major coastal markets, in particular–for upscale full-service properties that have an upside. Since May, the REIT has entered into agreements to acquire an Atlanta-area hotel for $105 million, a property in the Washington D.C./Baltimore region at a cost of $74 million, and a hotel in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for $74 million.

But Pebblebrook is not alone in its pursuit of such assets at a time when price tags are about as low as they’re going to go for the foreseeable future. Earlier this month, Chesapeake Lodging Trust made use of proceeds from its January IPO by acquiring the renowned 188-room Hilton Checkers Los Angeles, and in April, hotel impresario Ian Schrager became the proud new owner of the landmark 285-room Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago.

Fitch Ratings said this week that it has assigned a ‘BBB’ rating to the newly issued $152 million, 3.0 percent convertible senior notes due in 2029 offered by Health Care REIT Inc. Fitch pegged the rating outlook as stable.

According to a statement by Fitch, Health Care REIT will use the proceeds to repurchase a portion of its 4.5 percent convertible senior notes due in 2026 and 2027.

As of the end of the first quarter 2010, Health Care REIT’s porfolio encompassed investments in 608 properties in 39 states. It invests across the spectrum of senior housing and health care real estate nad provides property management and development services.