Colony Capital Gets Involved in Mills Project
Colony Capital Acquisitions said it has agreed to provide up to a $500 million loan to Mills Corp. for construction of a 4.8 million-square-foot shopping, sports and entertainment complex in New Jersey called Xanadu. Los Angeles-based Colony joins Arlington, Va.-based Mills and German real estate investor Kan Am as partners in the $2 billion project. The transaction is expected to close by Sept. 21. Mills, which is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible accounting errors, saw its shares climb as much 14 percent on Tuesday to $19.12.
Public Storage Completes Acquisition
Public Storage Inc. said it has completed the purchase of Shurgard Storage Centers Inc. for $5.5 billion. All shares of Shurguard, which was delisted Tuesday from the New York Stock Exchange, were converted to 0.82 shares of Public Storage stock. Public Storage also said it has assumed nearly $2 billion in debt in the deal, which gives the company an ownership interest in more than 2,000 storage facilities in 38 states and seven European nations. The Glendale-based storage company also said that Gary E. Pruitt joined the board of directors effective Tuesday and has been named to the board’s audit committee. Pruitt, 56, the eleventh member of Public Storage’s board. serves as the chief executive officer of Univar N.V., a chemical distribution company based in Bellevue, Wash. Shares of Glendale-based Public Storage were down 1.7 percent to $86.64.
Live Nation Sells More Sports Divisions
Live Nation said that it has sold its SFX Television and SFX Events divisions to private equity firm Blue Equity LLC. The Louisville, Ky.-based private equity firm purchased the SFX Tennis division in July, a division that represents Andy Roddick. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Live Nation also sold sports-related properties earlier this year and according to chief executive officer Michael Rapino, the sales are all in line with a strategy to focus on its core business: live music concerts, venue management and Web site brand development. Los Angeles-based Live Nation has booking rights for 153 venues worldwide and produced more nearly 30,000 events last year.
