W.P. Carey Affiliate in $21 Mil Buffets Headquarters Deal

EAGAN, MN-W.P. Carey & Co. LLC, says it paid about $21 millionto buy the 100,000-sf headquarters facility of BuffetsInc., a restaurant operator with 400 locations, onbehalf of Corporate Property Associates 14 Inc., apublicly held, non-traded real estate investmenttrust.

Along with the class A office building, theW.P. Grace affiliate also bought the 15-acre site inEagan, which has access to Interstate 35-E, a majorartery into St. Paul. Under the terms of thesale-leaseback transaction, the facility will beleased to Buffets Inc. under a 20-year, bond-type netlease.

The sale-leaseback transaction with BuffetsInc. was done as a part of the financing of themanagement buyout of Buffets, in which Caxton-IsemanCapital, a New York investment firm specializing inbuyouts, was the equity provider.