REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY
PS Business Parks | May 31, 2022
PS Business Parks, Inc. announced the expiration of the “go-shop” period set forth in the previously announced definitive merger agreement with affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate, dated as of April 24, 2022 (merger agreement). Under the terms of the merger agreement, Blackstone has agreed to acquire all the outstanding shares of the Company’s common stock for $187.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $7.6 billion, including transaction expenses. The “go-shop” period expired at 11:59 p.m. (New York City time) on May 25, 2022.
During the “go-shop” period, at the direction of PSB’s board of directors, representatives of J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Eastdil Secured, financial advisors to PSB, actively solicited company acquisition proposals from 43 potentially interested third parties. To date, none of the third parties contacted by PSB or its financial advisors, or any other third parties, have made competing proposals following the execution of the merger agreement.
Upon expiration of the go-shop period, PSB became subject to customary “no-shop” provisions that limit PSB and its representatives’ ability to negotiate competing proposals with, or provide non-public information to, third parties, subject to exceptions specified in the merger agreement.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022, subject to approval by PSB’s stockholders and other customary closing conditions.
Advisors
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is acting as lead financial advisor to PSB and provided a fairness opinion to the PSB board of directors in connection with the transaction. Eastdil Secured is acting as real estate advisor to PSB and is also acting as a co-financial advisor to PSB. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is serving as PSB’s legal advisor.
About PS Business Parks
PS Business Parks, Inc., an S&P MidCap 400 company, is a REIT that acquires, develops, owns, and operates commercial properties, predominantly multi-tenant industrial, industrial-flex, and low-rise suburban office space. Located primarily in major coastal markets, PS Business Parks’ 96 properties serve approximately 4,900 tenants in 27.0 million square feet of space as of March 31, 2022. The portfolio also includes 800 residential units (inclusive of units in-process).
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REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY
Black Knight | June 01, 2022
Black Knight, Inc., an award-winning software, data and analytics company that drives innovation across the real estate and mortgage continuum, announced a strategic alliance with Nashville-based Percy – formerly known as Buyside – a data analytics and marketing company that collects and analyzes real estate consumer behavior using machine learning and artificial intelligence.
The alliance will allow Black Knight to offer clients a new, advanced consumer engagement solution fueled by billions of behavioral datapoints that helps real estate professionals and lenders cultivate deeper customer relationships. Using proprietary machine learning to monitor homeowner behavior "signals" through custom landing pages with engaging content (e.g., property valuations, local buyer demand and market activity, monthly email reports, listing activity on client websites, etc.), Percy helps identify the precise timing that a homeowner is likely to transact.
Percy's predecessor was launched to help brokerages match buyers to listings, but in the time since, it's evolved into an ecosystem that spans mortgages as well as real estate, across both the buy and sell sides of the real estate equation. Today, Percy analyzes billions of pre-buying as well as pre-selling signals in real estate consumers' behavior to empower loan officers, real estate agents and brokers with actionable intelligence."
Charles Williams, Percy founder and chief executive officer
The application creates an engaging experience for home buyers and potential sellers through a personalized digest of insights related to their homes. Providing multiple valuation estimates to increase accuracy, timely and current home equity statements, refinance opportunities and more helps build trust and cultivate deeper, richer customer relationships.
"Today's housing market is categorized by record-low inventory and record-high home prices, which – together with sharply rising rates – continue to put downward pressure on purchase lending," said Black Knight Data & Analytics President Ben Graboske. "As everyone in our industry is aware, generating inventory is key to lessening affordability pressures as well as keeping lender and real estate agent pipelines full. This strategic alliance with Percy will allow our clients across real estate and mortgage to use an AI-powered, big-data-fueled approach to intelligently engage with those customers, to build business while also generating inventory."
About Black Knight
Black Knight, Inc. is an award-winning software, data and analytics company that drives innovation in the mortgage lending and servicing and real estate industries, as well as the capital and secondary markets. Businesses leverage our robust, integrated solutions across the entire homeownership life cycle to help retain existing customers, gain new customers, mitigate risk and operate more effectively.
Our clients rely on our proven, comprehensive, scalable products and our unwavering commitment to delivering superior client support to achieve their strategic goals and better serve their customers.
About Percy
Percy.ai is a data analytics and marketing company delivering more revenue opportunities to real estate brokers and mortgage companies by collecting and analyzing real estate consumer behavior. We use proprietary machine learning and Artificial Intelligence to better understand consumer intent and help companies target the right person at the right time.
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REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Brown Gibbons Lang & Company | June 16, 2022
Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL) is pleased to announce the financial closing of $160 million for the acquisition and development of Auburn 18 Business Park, a 129-acre industrial site in Auburn, Washington. BGL's Real Estate Advisors team served as financial advisor to Industrial Realty Group (IRG), with Oak Street, a Division of Blue Owl, as the capital partner to IRG.
IRG is a nationwide real estate development and investment firm specializing in the acquisition, development, and management of commercial and industrial real estate throughout the United States. IRG, through its affiliated partnerships and limited liability companies, operates a portfolio containing more than 150 properties in 31 states with over 100 million square feet of rentable space.
Oak Street is a real estate investment firm focused on investing in net-leased properties.
Oak Street seeks to form partnerships with best-in-class organizations and real estate developers by creating structures that facilitate our partners' strategic and financial initiatives. We are excited to form a long-term partnership with IRG, one of the leading industrial developers in the country."
Colleen Collins, Managing Director of Oak Street
Auburn 18 Business Park is comprised of approximately 129 acres of land located one mile southwest of the Commercial Business District of the City of Auburn. The property is currently improved with over one million square feet of space, including two large office buildings, seven large warehouse buildings, an operations and maintenance building, and several other small support buildings located throughout the property.
Originally purchased in 1944 by the United States Army as 435 acres of farmland, the site was improved with 20+ dry storage warehouses for use during World War II. In 1962, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) took ownership of a 177-acre portion, with multiple WWII warehouses, three 1950s-era warehouses, an administration office, and a water tower. The remaining U.S. Army property was sold to private developers. During the 1990s, GSA donated land to the City of Auburn for a park and the Auburn City School Bus Depot. An additional 8.4 acres was donated to the City of Auburn for its municipal fire training center.
The disposal of the Auburn complex is part of a larger strategy to evaluate underutilized assets and shrink the federal footprint. IRG acquired the Auburn Federal Complex through an online auction process. Renovations to the existing eight warehouse buildings have begun and include fire and life safety upgrades, lighting improvements, and adding additional loading docks, as needed.
With excellent frontage on C Street, this perfectly positioned site offers prime visibility and easy access to WA-18, WA-167, and I-5. The site is within two miles of the Auburn Municipal Airport and the BNSF Rail Yard, as well as various key supply chain, logistics, and manufacturing facilities, including UPS, Starbucks, Safeway, Behr, Gist USA, Boeing, Amazon, Costco, DHL, and REI.
BGL's Real Estate Advisors Group offers comprehensive real estate investment banking services tailored to the middle market. It provides client-focused solutions with an emphasis on real estate advisory, debt, preferred and private equity placement, financial restructuring, recapitalizations, sale-leasebacks, structured finance, and asset acquisitions and dispositions across all asset classes. The team assists real estate owners and developers looking to form alliances and joint ventures with single-source capital providers to gain local and institutional access for all capital needs.
About Blue Owl Capital Inc.
Blue Owl is a global alternative asset manager with $102.0 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2022. Anchored by a strong permanent capital base, the firm deploys private capital across Direct Lending, GP Capital Solutions and Real Estate strategies on behalf of Institutional and Private Wealth clients. Blue Owl's flexible, consultative approach helps position the firm as a partner of choice for businesses seeking capital solutions to support their sustained growth. The firm's management team is comprised of seasoned investment professionals with more than 25 years of experience building alternative investment businesses. Blue Owl employs over 400 people across 10 offices globally.
About IRG
IRG is a nationwide real estate development and investment firm specializing in the acquisition, development and management of commercial and industrial real estate throughout the United States. IRG, through its affiliated partnerships and limited liability companies, operates a portfolio containing over 150 properties in 31 states with over 100 million square feet of rentable space. IRG is nationally recognized as a leading force behind the adaptive reuse of commercial and industrial real estate, solving some of America's most difficult real estate challenges.
About Brown Gibbons Lang & Company
Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL) is a leading independent investment bank and financial advisory firm focused on the global middle market. The firm advises private and public corporations and private equity groups on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, financial restructurings, business valuations and opinions, and other strategic matters. BGL has investment banking offices in Chicago, Cleveland, and Philadelphia, and real estate offices in Chicago, Cleveland, and San Antonio. The firm is also a founding member of Global M&A Partners, enabling BGL to service clients in more than 30 countries around the world. Securities transactions are conducted through Brown, Gibbons, Lang & Company Securities, Inc., an affiliate of Brown Gibbons Lang & Company LLC and a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC.
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