WestLB AG Seeks to Sell Loan Portfolio

NNN Lease Market News

Troubled German bank WestLB AG is marketing a portfolio of loans backed by a diverse collection of hotels and resorts that include a ski lodge in Utah, a boutique hotel in lower Manhattan and a beach resort in Miami, according to the offering memorandum.WestLB was among a number of European banks that began lending aggressively to U.S. developers during the final years of the property market boom.

John Fox, a hotel analyst at Colliers PKF Consulting, said WestLB's lending may seem more risky because, unlike some foreign lenders, the German bank provided financing for more speculative resort projects
"Some of the overseas banks got into markets they didn't know as well as the urban markets," he said.
A spokeswoman for WestLB declined to comment. A hotel broker at Jones Lang LaSalle, the firm running the sale, also declined to comment.

http://online.wsj.com/article/

Office Owners Seek to Cash In as Prices Boom Market

NNN Lease Market News

Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II Inc. is under contract to buy the iconic Market Square complex at 701 and 801 Pennsylvania Ave. NW for about $615 million, and the price, at $904.7 per square foot, sets a record for office building sales in the District.

The seller, Beacon Capital Partners LLC of Boston, put the property on the market in January after lenders reportedly encouraged Beacon to sell some assets to pay down its debt. New York-based Eastdil Secured LLC represented the seller.Beacon also is considering bringing to market 1211 Ave. of the Americas in coming weeks, for which the company would look to retrieve well above the $1.5 billion that it paid in 2006, according to people familiar with the matter.
Building owners in some office markets contrast sharply with the residential market, where home prices have declined for months.

 http://blogs.wsj.com/developments

The Net Lease Market and Urban Investments Seem Set to Grow

NNN Lease Market News

The net lease market such as retail, sale leasebacks and urban investments seem set to grow. Numbers and analysis from the first quarter of 2011 point to better days and more opportunities ahead.

Retail

Retail sales in the first quarter 2010 are up 1.9% over the previous year. Retail transaction volume totaled $3.1 billion for the 1Q 2010, which is a steady improvement from $2.2 billion in the same period last year. Furthermore, according to a major commercial real estate magazine “investors are showing strong interest in well-stabilized retail properties that generate consistent cash flows”. This description fits perfectly with net lease investments, which are defined by their stability.

Sale Leasebacks

It has been estimated that there is at least $1 billion in corporate owned essential real estate and according to RW Baird “strong corporate demand for sale-leaseback transactions”. If only a fraction of this $1 trillion were to enter the market, it would be a huge boon for net leases. Sale-leasebacks, which are almost always structured as net leases, offer corporations a chance to pull vital equity out of their real estate and enhance current operations. The real estate is sold and a long term lease is signed which leases back the property. Sale leasebacks have already provided the basis for many net lease transactions in the last two years and that trend looks to continue to pick up steam.

Urban Investments

There has been a lot of talk about the upward trend in urban investments. Walgreens purchased Duane Reade and their 258 New York metro area locations for $1 billion and those leases have been recently valued at $74 million. The German group, GLL Real Estate Partners also entered the urban market by purchasing 14,000 sq. ft. of New York retail condominiums from Hines. The urban market is one the most attractive today because it ensures a properties close proximity to large populations. As a result, net lease urban properties have increasingly been in demand.