Inland REIT Sells Four Office Sites for $271M

Shane Garrison, CIO for the Inland Western REIT, says the properties are in Ontario, Canada; Minneapolis; Phoenix; and Ft. Lauderdale. He wouldn't divulge the exact location of the facilities. However, Inland records show that the company bought eight office properties from American Express in late 2004 and early 2005, in a sale-leaseback transactions for more than $430 million. That purchase included the 541,542-sf 1001 N. Third Ave. South in Minneapolis ($95 million), the 376,348-sf 777 American Expressway in Ft. Lauderdale ($63 million) and the 306,710-sf 101 McNabb St. in Markham, Ontario ($42 million). Two Phoenix properties were included in the 2004 sale-leaseback, but the 337,439-sf 2022 N. 31st Ave. property puts the recent purchase at 1.6 million sf. The Inland REIT still owns the other Phoenix property, and the rest of the American Express-leased facilities in DePere, WI; Greensboro, NC; and Salt Lake City.

Garrison says the REIT wanted to get rid of some of its office properties to concentrate more on multi-tenant retail centers. "We're pushing for obvious growth vehicles," he tells GlobeSt.com. "We still have a few office assets. We'll look at everything opportunistically." He says the sale was a reverse 1031 exchange, and will go toward funding the purchase made a few months ago for two retail assets. The REIT bought Gerry Centennial Plaza in Oswego, IL in October for $33.8 million from RHS Cos. Inc., and bought a large stake in the completed 388,428-sf portion of the estimated 700,000-sf property the Shops at Legacy, a premier lifestyle center in Plano, Texas from the Karahan Cos. in an off-market transaction.