W.P. Carey Buys Kraft Northfield Campus

CHICAGO-Kraft Foods has sold its Northfield headquarters campus to New York City-based REIT W.P. Carey Inc. in a sale-leaseback transaction.

The food giant will lease back the property for a minimum of 10 years. The Chicago Tribune identified the buyer as W.P. Carey of New York City based on an internal memo it obtained to Kraft employees.

No purchase price for the transaction of the massive office complex on 73 acres was revealed. A Kraft spokesman says the leaseback allows the company to reinvest capital from the sale into the company while retaining its presence in Northfield.

"The transformation of our Northfield campus is well underway and we're creating an energetic, dynamic working environment that reflects the startup spirit of the new Kraft," said Basil Maglaris, associate director of corporate affairs for Kraft Foods. "We can't wait to have more of our colleagues under one roof in Northfield."

On Jan. 16, W.P, Carey reported that its 2012 investment volume, financing and leasing activities in 2012 totaled approximately $1.4 billion. However, the firm did not include the Kraft Northfield transaction among its $152 million in investments last year, including the remaining interest in an existing portfolio of 12 Marriott Hotels and five Walgreens retail stores in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Transactions completed on behalf of W. P. Carey's non-traded REITs totaled more than $1.2 billion, encompassing more than 60 properties totaling more than 6 million sf. The majority of these acquisitions were completed on behalf of one of W. P. Carey's non-traded REIT programs, CPA:17 - Global Incorporated, including transactions with: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota; Kellogg Brown & Root; auto dealerships selling and servicing Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Chevrolet, Toyota, Scion, Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep vehicles; and Konzum, a subsidiary of Agrokor of Croatia. See story in the Chicago Tribune.