MAY 2007: DEAL WATCH
Powerhouse investor dips into Portland — then flips
The biggest name on Wall Street bought into the Portland real
estate market this year, but the deal didn’t have staying
power. The Blackstone Group — whose March blockbuster IPO
filing has finance junkies salivating — bought out Equity
Office Partners in February for a stunning $39.2 billion. It
was the largest private-equity buyout on record (we wonder how
long that will hold up) and it suddenly made Blackstone the
largest single owner of Portland-area office space with 4.1
million square feet of cubicle acreage.
With alarming speed Blackstone’s real-estate pros in New
York slapped a $1 billion price tag on the 40 Portland-area
properites — which includes pretty much all of Kruse Way
in Lake Oswego, arguably the market’s hottest address
— and found a buyer in San Francisco-based Shorenstein
Properties. The sale closed in late March.
Gary Griff, a veteran office-space broker at Cushman
& Wakefield in Portland, says the speed of the transation
was astounding. “They‘re handling real estate more
like stocks and bonds.”
As for Shorenstein, now the area’s largest office
landlord, Griff doesn’t expect to see much change.
“For the price they paid, they’ve got to be looking
at this as a long-term investment.”
The portfolio includes three developable properties, including
a parcel at the foot of Portland’s Hawthorne Bridge where
Equity was knee-deep in plans to build a high-rise office
tower.
— Christina
Williams
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
|
|
ANNOUNCED
|
EXP. CLOSE
|
BUYER (HQ STATE) / PARENT
|
SELLER (HQ) / PARENT
|
PRICE (TERMS)
|
|
30-Mar
|
Q1 ‘07
|
Motorola (IL)
|
Tut Systems (Lake Oswego)
|
$39m cash
|
|
28-Mar
|
Q3 ‘07
|
Columbia Banking System (WA)
|
Town Center Bancorp (Portland)
|
*$45.1m (42% cash + 58% stock)
|
|
26-Mar
|
Q1 ‘07
|
Littler Mendelson, P.C. (CA)
|
Amburgey & Rubin, P.C. (Portland)
|
ND
|
|
20-Mar
|
ND
|
Integra Telecom (Portland)
|
Eschelon Telecom (MN)
|
$710m (80% cash + 20% assumed liabilities)
|
|
13-Mar
|
Q1 ‘07
|
Knorr Foods Co. / Ajinomoto Co. (Japan)
|
New Season Foods (Forest Grove)
|
ND
|
|
13-Mar
|
Q1 ‘07
|
Ascentium Corporation (WA)
|
Centerlogic (Portland)
|
ND
|
|
13-Mar
|
Q1 ‘07
|
LTC Global Solutions (Medford)
|
Senior Wealth Care Insurance Services (TX)
|
ND
|
|
8-Mar
|
Q2 ‘07
|
The Campbell Group (Portland)
|
Menasha Forest Products Corporation (North Bend)
|
ND (cash + assumed liabilities)
|
|
|
20-Feb
|
Q1 ‘07
|
Bear Mountain Forest Products (Cascade Locks)
|
Smokehouse, LLC (Hood River) / Luhr Jensen
|
ND
|
|
|
19-Feb
|
Q2 ‘07
|
Eschelon Telecom (MN)
|
United Communications (Bend)
|
$13.9m (cash)
|
|
16-Feb
|
Q1 ‘07
|
Country Coach Holdings, LLC (Junction City ) / Riley
Investment Management, LLC (CA)
|
Country Coach Subsidiary (Junction City) / National R.V.
Holdings (CA)
|
$51.75m (75% cash + 25% assumed liabilities)
|
|
14-Feb
|
Q2 ‘07
|
CheckFree Corporation (GA)
|
Corillian Corporation (Portland)
|
$245m (cash)
|
|
*Sell-side advisers: McAdams Wright & Ragen
(financial); Foster Pepper LLP (legal). Buy-side advisers:
D. A. Davidson & Co. (financial); Graham & Dunn PC
(legal).
|
REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
|
|
ANNOUNCED
|
BUYER (HQ)
|
REAL ESTATE (LOCATION)
|
SELLER
|
PRICE
|
|
28-Mar
|
Illig Investment Co. LLC (CA)
|
Two industrial/flex complexes (Milwaukie, Lake Oswego)
|
The Realty Associates Fund VI LP
|
$9.69m
|
|
28-Mar
|
Shorenstein Properties (CA)
|
46 office properties (Portland)
|
Blackstone Group
|
$1b
|
|
28-Mar
|
HR Salem Associates LLC (Salem)
|
Industrial building (Salem)
|
Neilsen Manufacturing
|
$6.17m
|
|
28-Mar
|
SolarWorld AG (Germany)
|
Oregon Technology Center (Hillsboro)
|
The Benaroya Company
|
$40m
|
|
28-Mar
|
Arrington Medical Center LLC & Oleson Medical Center
LLC (WA)
|
Columbia Medical Plaza building (Vancouver, WA)
|
Northwest Columbia Medical Plaza
|
$5.13m
|
|
28-Mar
|
Nike (Beaverton)
|
125-acre land parcel (TN)
|
Belz Enterprises
|
ND
|
|
28-Feb
|
BFP Leveton LLC (Beaverton)
|
Industrial building (Tualatin)
|
Tofle USA
|
ND
|
|
28-Feb
|
Trailblazer Foods (Portland)
|
Dayton Building (Portland)
|
SN Investment Properties LLC
|
$3.83m
|
CAPITAL RAISING
|
|
ANNOUNCED
|
COMPANY (HQ) / LEADERSHIP
|
INVESTOR
|
PRICE
|
TERMS
|
|
29-Mar
|
Calypte Biomedical Corporation (Lake Oswego) / Roger Gale,
CEO
|
International investors
|
$5.2m
|
Private placement (common stock + warrants)
|
|
26-Mar
|
Wellpartner (Portland) / W. Michael Wright, CEO
|
3i and Buerk Dale Victor (co-leads); Integra Ventures;
Mediphase Venture Partners; Greenwoods Capital
|
$7.5m
|
Series C equity
|
|
22-Mar
|
Serveron Corporation (Hillsboro) / Bart Tichelman, CEO
|
El Dorado Investment Company; Nth Power; Cascadia Pacific
Management; Oregon Life Sciences LLC; others
|
$5m
|
Equity
|
|
19-Mar
|
HemCon Medical Technologies (Portland) / John W. Morgan,
president & CEO
|
Camden Partners Holdings LLC; Torch Hill Partners
|
$12m
|
Equity
|
|
19-Mar
|
Vesticon (Portland) / Dr. John Epley & Cathy Epley,
co-founders
|
National Institutes of Health
|
$1.03m
|
Phase II SBIR grant
|
|
14-Mar
|
ProteoGenix (Portland) / Don Mooney, president & CEO
|
NLV Partners (co-lead); TPG Growth (co-lead); Burrill &
Company
|
$20m
|
Series B equity
|
|
6-Mar
|
Platial (Portland) / Di-Ann Eisnor, co-founder & CEO
|
KeyNote Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers,
Omidyar Network, Ram Shriram, Ron Conway
|
$2.4m
|
Series A equity
|
|
2-Mar
|
Nike (Beaverton) / Nick Athanasakos, VP-supply chain
|
Illinois State Board of Investment
|
$27.6m
|
Sale-leaseback
|
List researched by Mark
Druskoff
ND=Not disclosed
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