Brookfield Completes $230M Acquisition

ARLINGTON, VA-Brookfield Properties Corp. has closed on its purchase of two office buildings–601 & 701 South 12th St.–from National Retail Properties, a publicly-traded REIT. The assets were acquired for $230 million. Brookfield has assumed a $95-million, interest-only mortgage at 5.4%, which expires in 2013.

Proceeds from the recent sale of two of Brookfield’s Denver assets were used to fund the acquisition of these properties in a 1031 exchange. Craig Macnab, CEO of National Retail Properties, says that proceeds of this sale will be eventually invested in a portfolio of higher yielding retail properties.

For its part, Brookfield is divesting itself of its secondary market assets in order to expand in the Washington-area market, says Ric Clark, president & CEO of Brookfield Properties. The two 12-story office buildings are located in the Pentagon City, a submarket of Arlington County, and total 554,000 sf. The properties are 100% leased to the Transportation Security Administration through 2014.

Brookfield is still in acquisition mode for the DC-area market, the spokesperson says. When the company entered the market 30 months ago it determined it would expand between two million to three million sf. Since then, its portfolio of class A office properties has grown to six buildings comprising 2.3 million sf.

Brookfield began marketing its Denver assets last summer, according to a spokesperson. In the first quarter of 2006 it completed the sale of the Trade Center Denver, for $116 million, booking a gain of $30 million. In November it sold the Colorado State Bank Building for $22 million, with the gain undisclosed.

Brookfield had a third Denver based asset on the market–Republic Plaza–which it recently took off the market, the spokesperson says. “The prices that came in weren’t what we were hoping for. The smaller buildings as it turned out did better than the larger one for that market.”