Hines Global REIT Inc. has added the Campus at Playa Vista, a 325,000-square-foot office complex in the Playa Vista neighborhood of West Los Angeles, to its portfolio. The REIT acquired the premier, well-leased asset from Tishman Speyer for $218 million.

It was, roughly, a half-cash, half-debt deal for Hines, which financed the acquisition of the property with proceeds from its it public offerings and a mortgage loan of $115 million.

Developed by Tishman, the Campus at Playa Vista sprouted up on seven acres in the nearly 1,100-acre Playa Vista master-planned community in 2009, offering four four-story office buildings with the addresses of 12015, 12025, 12035 and 12045 East Waterfront Dr. The complex garnered a great deal of attention from the start. In advance of the property’s completion, lead tenant Belkin International Inc. staked its claim to 150,000 square feet for its corporate headquarters in an agreement that will keep the technology manufacturer in its two-building home until fall 2021, and the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technology followed with a deal for 103,200 square feet  under a lease scheduled to expire in 2020.

Today, with a roster of seven predominantly tech-industry tenants, the Campus at Playa Vista is 97 percent leased. It’s a feat that belies the current state of the Playa Vista submarket where, according to a report by commercial real estate services firm Transwestern, the total vacancy rate in the first quarter was 33.4 percent. The vacancy rate for West Los Angeles is 16.4 percent, and in metropolitan Los Angeles it was 16.4 and 18.7 percent, respectively.

“We were attracted to this property due to its strong tenancy, recent construction, excellent access and long-term prospects for this emerging West L.A. submarket.” Doug Metzler, managing director with Hines, said in a prepared statement. “The Lower West L.A. submarket is one of the most attractive office markets on the West Coast.”

The entertainment, media and technology firms take to West Los Angeles like bees to honey, which has led to a steady increase in rents, while rates remain flat for metropolitan Los Angeles, per the report.

And investors are willing to pay the big bucks for West Los Angeles assets. The average office sale price during the first quarter was $300 per square-foot in metropolitan Los Angeles; the average price for the four leading building sales in West Los Angeles was just over $482 per square-foot. The Campus at Playa Vista sold for approximately $670 per square-foot

In a $68.3 million deal, PrivatePortfolio Group LLC of Seattle has acquired Crown Court Apartments, a 416-unit multi-family property in Scottsdale.

Tyler Anderson, Sean Cunningham and Asher Gunter of CBRE Group Inc.’s Phoenix office represented the seller and structured the transaction. The property was 95 percent occupied at the time of closing.

Completed in 1987, Crown Court Apartments is located at 7900 E. Princess Drive, adjacent to the Scottsdale Fairmont Princess Resort and the TPC Scottsdale golf course. Upscale shopping and dining destinations are nearby. Each unit is equipped with fully-appointed kitchens, full-size washers and dryers, and walk-in closets. The community offers two resort-style swimming pools, a designer clubhouse, 24-hour fitness center, a media/theater room and lighted sports courts.

In other commercial news, AZRE Magazine reports that the Hub on Campus, a $40 million student housing complex and one of the largest projects under development in Arizona, is on track for delivery in August. Beal Derkenne Construction is building the 19-story complex (pictured at right) near the Arizona State University campus at 323 E. Veterans Way in Tempe.

The property will house more than 600 residents on 17 residential floors. Additionally, the building will feature 25,000 square feet of retail space and 6,550 square feet of restaurants.

Amenities will include indoor and outdoor study areas and conference rooms, a resort-style pool, private cabana areas with TVs, an LED outdoor video wall, a volleyball court and a state-of-the-art fitness center. The Hub on Campus will be a candidate for LEED Silver certification.

Rendering of the Hub on Campus courtesy of Core Campus

Recent real estate market reports regarding Nevada’s housing situation indicate that the long-awaited recovery could be postponed as average prices have dipped for the last few months. Residents and developers are waiting for a way out of this situation and a serious initiative is now under discussion.

A piece of legislation passed back in 1986 called the Low Income Housing Tax Credit is a national program that aimed at encouraging the development of low-income housing. The law offers tax credit to developers planning to construct low-income housing. According to The Las Vegas Sun, a number of developers have voiced their concerns over the fact that this type of legislation is outdated and needs reworking. Tax credit should be offered to a different type of venture than that of simply constructing new housing units as market oversaturation may be in sight.
The Sun also mentioned that a preferred scenario would be that in which a new legislative initiative would drive developers to already existing residential units. State help would be involved only in the sense of incentives for developers that acquire and rehabilitate homes before turning them into rental units. The supply of homes lost to foreclosure would ensure the project’s starting point.

The housing authority’s response is that it has placed acquisitions and rehabilitations higher on the scale of priority and it is now easier for developers that have this type of project to receive tax credits. Another argument presented by Charles Horsey, the administrator of the housing division who was quoted by The Las Vegas Sun, is that an oversaturation of affordable housing is not as near as its seems. He also said that market rate housing could suffer from that phenomenon while there still is a market for apartment developments aimed at those who can’t afford homes from the current supply.

WinCo Foods is about to open two brand new stores in the Las Vegas area with a tentative opening slated for March of this year. One of the two stores is being rapidly developed at the Stephanie Street and Wigwam Parkway location. The Las Vegas Sun reports that the new stores will open with a number of 150 to 200 employees each.
The Stephanie St. store is being constructed according to plan and will most likely open the 92,000 square feet to customers at the beginning of March. Another WinCo Foods store is set to open in a location at the Las Vegas Beltway and Decatur Boulevard. WinCo Foods handles fresh produce, meats, fish and goods at discount prices.
In other real estate news, statistics indicate that 2011 has set a new record for home sales as 2009’s 46,879 transactions were overtaken during last year’s market. However, the new record, of 48,186 sales is no indication of an improving market. In fact, new home sales have taken a very serious fall from 2006 when 39,000 new homes traded hands. In 2011, only 4,000 deals were perfected for new homes.
2011’s figure is, according to BusinessInsider.com, the lowest new home sales have seen ever since tracking by the Home Builders Research first began in 1988. Las Vegas still is the national leader in terms of foreclosures and the fact that this is the year with more transactions than at the height of the bubble is telling to the peculiarity of the Vegas housing market, Business Insider pointed out.

180 Brisbane

Japanese developer Daisho Group has recently broken ground on a $300 million office tower in Brisbane, the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland.

According to Architecture & Design, the 34-story commercial project will bring the first speculative high-rise on the city’s skyline since the start of the global financial crisis. Colliers International and Knight Frank are the project’s leasing agents.

“As Watpac begins principal construction works, local and interstate companies are showing keen interest in becoming tenants of 180 Brisbane when it is completed in late 2015. These include mining and resource companies, professional service firms and others looking to establish or expand their presence in the Brisbane CBD,” said Yasuo Iwasaki, Daisho Group’s general manager.

Designed by Crone Partners, the new building at 180 Ann St. will offer approximately 630,000 square feet of space, including large floor plans, ground floor retail, a food court, an on-site management office and basement parking. Amenities also include direct escalator access off Ann Street, extensive landscaping, generous lounge and meeting spaces, secured bicycle storage, along with jogger and cyclist changing rooms, showers and lockers.

One of the most notable architectural features of the 180 Brisbane tower will consist of a distinctive river-shaped graphic wrapped around the building’s façade.

The project aims to achieve a 6 Star Green Star and 5.5 Star NABERS rating. Environmentally sustainable design features include reduced water and energy consumption, increased levels of fresh air, as well as a creative use of glass that maximizes natural lighting inside the building.

“Daisho has owned 192 Ann St. since 2001 and 180 Brisbane will be another high-quality addition to the city and Daisho’s long-term investment here. It will also rejuvenate the CBD by forming a new hub. which links key parts of the city’s center,” Iwasaki added.

Headquartered in Japan, Daisho Group is an international property developer with offices in Malaysia and Brisbane. Since it was founded in 1986, the company has amassed a portfolio currently valued at more than $1.5 billion.

Mill Creek Residential Trust, of Dallas, will hold a groundbreaking ceremony in Morristown, N.J., today for the 268-unit first phase of Latitude, a luxury apartment development. The project reportedly is the first large-scale residential development to be undertaken in Morristown in almost four years. The building’s cost has not been disclosed.

The 258,300-square-foot first phase will comprise studio and one-, two- and three-bedroom rental homes and a 350-space parking garage incorporated into the structure. The project’s location, at Early Street and Speedwell Avenue, is walking distance from downtown Morristown.

Apartments will feature 9-foot ceilings, walk-in closets, patios/balconies (in select residences), lofts (in select residences), washers and dryers, granite countertops and energy-efficient stainless-steel appliances. Amenities planned for Latitude include a fitness center outfitted for cardio, strength, spin and yoga; a rooftop deck; lounge with fireplace; business center; and game room.

Despite the community’s upscale nature, 26 deed-restricted, affordable rental apartments also will be part of the first phase.

Initial occupancy for Latitude is planned for next year.

The project’s second and third phases will add more residential units, as well as non-residential uses, both designed to blend with the existing architecture along Speedwell Avenue, Rich Murphy, managing director with Mill Creek, told Commercial Property Executive.

Latitude is roughly half a mile from the Morristown station on New Jersey Transit’s Morristown (Green) Line; commuter trains run from there to Hoboken Terminal or directly to New York’s Penn Station.

When the New Jersey Department of Transportation established its Transit Village Initiative in 1999, Morristown was one of the first municipalities to join.

The median age of Morristown’s approximately 18,500 residents is not quite 35, and one-third are foreign-born, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The median household income is estimated at $62,600, though 13.2 percent of Morristown residents are below the poverty line.

Surging demand, new retail concepts and stirrings of new development were the talk of the Las Vegas Convention Center on Monday during the first day of RECon, the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual spring convention. It is impossible to tell how many deals will emerge from the event, but as thousands of real estate professionals roamed the vast halls of the 3.5 million-square-foot facility, participants reported a sense of renewed optimism about the market.

“Going into the show, we have more meetings this year than last year,” said John Bacon, vice president of marketing with Cole Real Estate Investments. As of Monday morning, the firm’s acquisition team had scheduled about 240 meetings and the leasing team had about 110 meetings on the calendar. “Our leasing people were getting calls as late as Friday night” from attendees hoping to schedule meetings at the last minute, Bacon added.

Conversations with a variety of attendees revealed optimism fueled by stepped-up interest in investment sales, leasing and development. “The net-lease industry as a whole is hot,” said Stan Johnson Co. managing director Harold Briggs Monday morning at the firm’s booth in the convention center’s south hall. The company’s net-lease retail transaction volume posted a 50 percent year-over-year increase during the first quarter, outperforming the company’s office and industrial sales growth by a considerable margin. One noteworthy net-lease retail trend is the participation of institutional investors, particularly in the $50 million to $100 million range, Briggs reported. “You’ll see five or six institutional buyers compete for portfolios of 15 to 20 assets,” he said.

Owners exhibiting at the show confirmed on Monday that renewed tenant interest is pushing them to adjust their tactics. Scott Prigge, senior vice president of property operations for Regency Centers Corp., said that pet supply stores, fitness centers and fast-casual restaurants are leading the way. Quick-Service restaurants, said Prigge, “can’t get enough space.”

Underscoring his point, a variety of fast-casual restaurant brands like Subway, Smashburger and Jersey Mike’s are using RECon as a bully pulpit to bring attention to their expansion programs and identify suitable space for new locations. Demand for space in desirable locations has improved to the point that Regency aims to backfill a vacant space with the best possible tenant. This year the company is also rolling out a company-wide campaign to review best practice in customer service.

Other restaurant niches besides are commanding the attention of RECon attendees. Chef-driven restaurants are catching on, especially as part of redevelopment in core urban areas that appeal to members of Generation X and Generation Y, according to James McCandless, director of retail for Streetsense, a diversified Bethesda, Md.-based consulting, design and development firm that is a member of the X Team network of service providers and consultants. Another X Team member, Legend Retail Partners, recently rolled out its new Urban Legend affiliate in an effort to tap into the growing chef-driven restaurant market, reported Legend partner David Larson.