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     property

This page considers commercial and residential real estate (including property portfolios and commercial 'trophy' buildings) as benchmarks for acquisitions and disposals during the telecommunication booms and busts of the past twenty years.

A discussion of real estate bubbles, notably the Japanese bubble of the 1980s, features elsewhere on this site.

One US observer quipped that

For all their downsides, trophy buildings offer CEOs a form of immortality. Few of the cars built by Walter Chrysler in the '20s survive, but the art deco spire he commissioned still looms majestically over Manhattan. You'll never make history for moving your employees into a nondescript suburban office building.

     landmarks

Recent landmarks include -

2008

• HSBC buys 8 Canada Square (Canary Wharf) from Metrovacesa for £838m
• Boston Properties, Goldman Sachs, Qatar and Kuwait buy General Motors Building in New York from Macklowe Properties for US$2.9bn
• Abu Dhabi buys 90% stake in Chrysler Building for US$800m
• Russian billionaire pays £392m for Villa Leopolda on French Riviera.

2007

• Westbrook Partners pays £490m for Shell-Mex House in London
• HSBC sells 8 Canada Square to Metrovacesa for £1.09bn
• Quinlan consortium buys Citigroup building at Canary Wharf from Royal Bank of Scotland for US$2bn
• Morgan Stanley agrees to buy Investa Property Group of Australia for $4.7bn
• Tishman Speyer sells New York Times building for US$525m
• Swiss Re sells London 'Gherkin' skyscraper to Evans Randall and IVG Immobilien for £600m
• Blackstone Group buys Equity Office Properties Trust for US$39bn
• Blackstone sells 36 office buildings to Beacon Capital Partners for US$6.35bn, 17 properties to Shorenstein Properties for US$1.2bn and eight buildings to Macklowe Properties for US$7bn
• Kushner family pays US$1.8bn to Tishman Speyer for 666 Fifth Avenue (cash flow from existing rents covers only 0.65% of debt service)

2006

• Shorenstein sells John Hancock Center (100 storey skyscraper) in Chicago for US$385m
• Victor Hwang sells Battersea Power Station for £400m
• Mirvac buys Walker Corp property portfolio for $1.27bn
• Blackstone agrees to acquire Equity Office Properties Trust for US$36bn
• Derwent Valley agrees to buy London Merchant Securities for £1bn
• Tishman Speyer and BlackRock pay US$5.4bn for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village
• Broadway Partners pays US$3.43bn for 10 building property portfolio (inc John Hancock Tower, Boston) from Beacon Capital
• Broadway pays US$550m for 340 Madison Avenue, NY City
• Grupo Martinsa agrees to buy Fadesa Inmobiliaria for US$5.1bn
• SL Green Realty agrees to buy Reckson Associates Realty for US$4bn
• Liberty buys Covent Garden for £421m from Henderson Global Investors and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership
• Beacon Capital Partners agrees to buy 1211 Avenue of the Americas for US$1.5bn
• Australia's Centro Properties announces acquisition of US-based Heritage Property Investment Trust for US$1.8bn
• Equity Residentia agrees to sell its Lexford Housing division to affiliates of Empire Group Holdings LLC for $1.09bn
• Grupo Inmocaral buys 39.37% stake in Inmobiliaria Colonial from La Caixa for €3.7bn
• Brookfield Properties and Blackstone Group buy Trizec Properties and Trizec Canada for US$8.9bn
• Strategic Hotels & Resorts buys Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel for US$330m
• Hotel del Coronado, San Diego sold for US$745m
• Strategic buys St Francis hotel, San Francisco for US$440m
• Stellar Management and Rockpoint Group sell 522 Fifth Avenue at 44th Street, NYC to Broadway Real Estate Partners for US$420m
• KarstadtQuelle agrees to sell property portfolio to joint venture with Goldman Sachs for US$5.4bn in 2006
• Newbridge Capital consortium buys Myer flagship store in Melbourne for $400m in 2006
• Blackstone Group agrees to buy CarrAmerica Realty for US$5.6bn
• Public Storage agrees to buy Shurgard Storage Centers for US$3.1bn in 2006
• Fortress buys 47,600 homes from city of Dresden for €1.7bn
• Tamir Sapir pays US$40m for Duke Semans mansion at Fifth Avenue & 82nd Street, New York

2005

• E.On sells Viterra real estate arm (over 150,000 dwellings) to Deutsche Annington, controlled by Terra Firma Capital Partners, for US$8.3bn
• General Electric agrees to buy Arden Realty for US$3.2bn
• Metrovacesa buys Gecina for €3.8bn
• Grosvenor Estate pays €50m for Paul-Bert and Serpette flea markets in Paris
• Dubai royal family pays US$705m for 230 Park Avenue (Helmsley Building and New York Central Building), New York - previous sale US$225m in 1998
• Brookfield Properties and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board buy O&Y Properties for C$2bn
• DRA Advisors pays US$1.7bn for CRT Properties
• FirstCal Industrial 2 buys Duke Realty portfolio for US$1bn
• Stewart Rahr buys Burnt Point estate in East Hampton for US$45m
• ING Clarion Partners buys Gables Residential Trust for US$3.6bn
• ING buys Scottish Mutual and Scottish Provident property portfolio from Abbey National for £1.3bn
• Dubai royal family pays US$440m for Essex House, New York (previous sale US$250m in 1999)
• MetLife sells 'PanAm building' at 200 Park Ave. to Tishman Speyer Properties and partners for US$1.72bn
• Citibank tower in Long Island City sold for US$470m
• Rupert Murdoch buys Laurance Rockefeller’s Fifth Avenue 20-room triplex apartment for US$44m

2004

• Bank of America Center, San Francisco - US$825m
• MetLife sells Sears Tower, Chicago - US$840m
• Equity Office Properties Trust pays US$505m for 80% of 42-storey Verizon building at 1095 Avenue of the Americas, New York City
• Lakshmi Mittal buys London mansion for US$128m
• Ronald Perelman sells Palm Beach estate Casa Apava for US$70m
• Cerberus and Goldman Sachs buy 66,000 units in Berlin for US$2.5bn
• Gagfah sells 80,000 apartments in Berlin to Fortress for US$4.4bn

2003

• Conseco gets US$1.4bn for 767 Fifth Avenue (General Motors Building), New York - acquired for US$878m in 1998
• Beacon Capital pays US$910m for John Hancock Tower, Boston
• MetLife sells 1 Madison Ave. to SL Green Realty for US$918m
• Calvin Klein buys Francesco Galesi's Hamptons estate for US$28.9m
• Tchenguiz consortium pays £327m for Shell-Mex House in London

2002

• Shorenstein pays US$250m for 500 W. Monroe St, Chicago
• Citigroup sells its 39-storey tower at 399 Park Ave. to Boston Properties for US$1.06bn

2001

• Oprah Winfrey pays US$50m for mansion in Montecito
• Craigend bought by Bruce Davey for $16m from One.Tel founder Jodee Rich

2000

• Nomura International consortium acquires 114,000 German railway worker flats for DM7bn
• Jamestown pays US$600m for 1211 Avenue of the Americas
• Tishman Speyer and TMW pay US$518m for 666 Fifth Avenue

1999

• CIBC Development Corporation sells property portfolio for C$2bn
• British Land buys Sheffield Meadowhall shopping mall for £1.17bn
• Martin Zweig buys Hotel Pierre penthouse for US$21.5m

1996

• Granada sells George V Hotel in Paris to Prince al-Waleed bin Talal for £104m
• Principal Finance Group acquires 57,000 unit married quarters estate from UK Ministry of Defence for £1.7bn

1991

• Hideki Yokoi buys Empire State Building, New York, from Prudential Insurance for US$42m

1990

• David Geffen pays US$47.5m for Beverly Hills residence of producer Jack Warner

1988

• Mary Fairfax pays US$12m for Hotel Pierre penthouse

1986

• Union Carbide sells headquarters building for US$345m

1981

• MetLife buys 58-storey, PanAm building at 200 Park Ave. from Pan American Airlines for US$401m

1978

• 666 Fifth Avenue in New York sold for US$80m

     property management and sales

Property investment, management and services landmarks include -

• Apollo Management agrees to buy Realogy (Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and Sotheby's International Realty) for US$9bn in 2006
• Agnelli family's Ifil pays US$563m for Mitsubishi's 67.5% stake in Cushman & Wakefield in 2006
• Macquarie Goodman Group (Australian industrial REIT) agrees to buy UK property manager Arlington Securities for US$350m in 2005

     studies

A supplementary note points to studies on M&A in the real estate industry and to the history of individual enterprises.

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