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MCR Development of New York purchased the TownPlace Suites by Marriott at 6595 S Bay Colony Drive in Tucson for[mepr-show rules=”58038″]$7.21 million ($79,176 per suite). The 3-story hotel, (constructed 2008) is 50,371-square-feet with 91-suites. The Tucson Airport hotel offers a pool, complimentary airport shuttle, basketball court, laundry room, free breakfast buffet and fully equipped kitchens in all the suites.

The Tucson Marriott hotel was part of a 26 Marriott and Hilton hotels portfolio that MCR Development acquired from Western International of Dallas, TX for $430 Million.

MCR will own and manage all 26 hotels, each of which will continue to operate under its respective Marriott or Hilton brand affiliations, with long-term franchise agreements in place.

“We are excited to expand our partnership with the Marriott and Hilton brand families. The Western International hotels are built to a very high standard, and stand out amongst the competition. This investment provides great growth opportunities for our team members, and for our company to expand into new markets and continue to deliver high returns to our investors,” said Tyler Morse, CEO of MCR Development.

This portfolio is comprised of 3,002 rooms in four states with an average age of approximately 4 years old.

MCR Development LLC is one of the twenty largest hotel owner-operators in the country and manages a portfolio of 56 premium-branded hotel properties with approximately 7,000 rooms in 15 states. MCR operates hotels under 9 brands and has approximately 2,000 employees.

Morse can be reached at (212) 277-5601. TownPlace Suites should be contacted at (520) 294-6677.[/mepr-show]

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[ismember] Sale date: 10/17/2013. Conventional financing, but no down payment shown on public records. There were no brokers involved according to the local manager at the hotel.[/ismember]

NEW YORK CITY-Having sought unsuccessfully to acquire Cole Credit Property Trust III this past spring, American Realty Capital Properties Inc. will be taking over Phoenix-based Cole Real Estate Investments Inc., the REIT formed from the subsequent merger of Cole Credit III and Cole Holdings. Valued at $11.2 billion, the merger announced Wednesday morning—along with the pending acquisitions of CapLease of American Capital Trust IV—will create a net lease REIT with an enterprise value of $21.5 billion, the largest such company in the space.

The merger has been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close in the first half of 2014. It will create a net lease portfolio of about 102 million square feet, with 3,732 properties leased to over 600 tenants across 49 states and Puerto Rico.

Cole currently owns 41 properties in Arizona and locally, seven of these are in Tucson and a  total of  322,388 sq. ft. Tucson properties are as follows:

• Home Depot at 4302 N Oracle, Tucson purchased Oct. 2009 – 102,732 SF
• Albertson’s at 1350 N Silverbell, Tucson purchased Sept. 2009 – 60,315 SF
• Albertson’s at 6600 E Grant, Tucson purchased Oct. 2010 – 49,491 SF
• Walgreens at 5525 E River, Tucson purchased Nov. 2010 – 15,120 SF
• Walgreens at 1145 S Harrison, Tucson purchased Dec, 2010 – 14,490 SF
• PLS Check Cashier at 6470 S 12th Ave, Tucson purchased Aug, 2011 – 2,550 SF
• Silverado Plaza at 105 S Houghton, Tucson purchased Dec, 2011 – 77,690 SF

Commenting on the transaction, ARCP’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nicholas S. Schorsch said, “Today it is my great pleasure to announce the merger of two leading U.S. real estate companies, American Realty Capital Properties and Cole Real Estate Investments. As a result, ARCP will become the largest net lease REIT and the new industry leader. We benefit by uniting not only two exceptional real estate portfolios, but also by joining forces with Cole’s world-class management team. Going forward, we will benefit greatly from the executive leadership currently at Cole Real Estate Investments.”

Christopher H. Cole, founder and Executive Chairman of Cole Real Estate Investments, stated, “We are pleased to have reached this agreement with ARCP, which we believe provides compelling value and significant equity upside potential for Cole stockholders at a time when we believe the industry is consolidating. My decision and the decision of our board to merge the companies under Nick’s leadership is entirely forward-thinking, namely, our two companies are far better and more powerful together than apart; our union provides immediate and obvious benefits of size, scale and diversification. This transaction represents a major step in achieving our goal of creating the premier real estate company that delivers best-in-class long-term results to our clients. Nick and his team have demonstrated the ability to grow their net lease business rapidly, yet deliberately, realizing value for their stockholders with every carefully mapped step. Our collective portfolio of properties and combined human capital will position the company for outsized growth moving ahead. As I step away from the company which I built and bears my name, I am very proud of and will miss the outstanding people who have helped me construct our world-class enterprise. I am very proud of our exceptional team and am confident that they will become an integral part of the ARCP family.”

For complete investor announcement from Cole see here:
https://www.colereit.com/press/arcp-and-cole-merge-to-create-largest-net-lease-reit.aspx

ARLINGTON, VA – Real estate offices and agents are being warned of a phishing scam that targets them. The messages are fake Better Business Bureau emails that claim the company is being investigated, and threaten legal action if the receiver does not respond with more information. However, links in the emails lead to websites that ask for detailed financial information. Some of the emails contain attachments that may include viruses or other malware.

“Better Business Bureau is frequently spoofed by scammers and other criminals, because we are a trusted source and the recipients are more likely to open the emails if they have the familiar BBB name and logo,” noted Carrie A. Hurt, president and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB). “We have a vigorous program to detect these phishing campaigns as soon as they start, and we have been successful in shutting down more than 175 fraudulent websites in the past 18 months.”

“We are taking an extra step this time to warn real estate agents and offices, because we haven’t previously seen one specific industry targeted like this,” Hurt added. The fraudulent emails have been sent to real estate offices across the United States, from New York to Phoenix, but Clearwater, Florida, seems to be specifically targeted.

CBBB is working with a professional deactivation service to have the fraudulent websites taken out of service, an action that normally takes less than a day and sometimes is as quick as one or two hours.

BBB has taken numerous steps to assure the security of its official email. All 113 BBBs across the U.S. and Canada, as well as the headquarters offices in Arlington, Virginia, and New York City, use multiple authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM and DMARC). This allows BBB to alert internet service providers immediately to reject emails that don’t carry the proper authentication. About half of all ISPs honor BBB’s reject requests, and these represent about 80% of all email traffic.

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month, and BBB recently offered these tips for avoiding phishing scams.