Zell’s Timing Bells
(Dec. 10, 2009) Sam Zell is often criticized for buying media powerhouse Tribune Co. at the top of the market. Or rather (and even worse), just as the newspaper business was already plunging straight down the economic toilet. Very un-Zell-like indeed.
When it comes to his real estate dealings, however, there is ample recent evidence to suggest that his prescient timing to sell Equity Office Properties Trust for $39 billion to The Blackstone Group at the height of the real estate market keeps paying dividends.
Turns out Morgan Stanley is formally turning over the keys to five San Francisco office buildings it purchased from Blackstone in May 2007, right after the EOP sale. Morgan’s deal was the largest commercial real estate transaction in San Francisco history.
The properties are part of Morgan’s MSREF V US opportunity fund. They encompass 1.2 million sq. ft. and include One Post St., 201 California St., Foundry Square 1, 60 Spear St. and 188 Embarcadero
AREA Property Partners, an arm of Apollo Global Management, a New York private equity firm, is in the process of taking control of the buildings.
