BPG's record $251m buy.

BPG Properties, Ltd. (BPG), the operating affiliate of Berwind Property Group, Ltd., has paid a record $251,250,000 for the Parker Lincoln Portfolio in North Carolina.

The 66 building portfolio totaling more than 4.2 million square feet of flex, industrial, and office space as well as land allowing for additional development of 530,000 square feet, was purchased from affiliates of The Jack Parker Corporation for $251,250,000.

The portfolio is located throughout Raleigh-Durham, the fifth fastest growing major metropolitan area in the United States, and is currently 88% occupied.

The purchase was made on behalf of a joint venture between BPG Investment Partnership VII, L.P. (Fund VII), a fully discretionary private equity fund with total equity commitments of $550 million, and AEGON USA Realty Advisors, Inc., who is also an investor in Fund VII. BPG will be the venture's operating partner.

According to Ben W. Kilgore, senior vice president with CB Richard Ellis, BPG's acquisition of the Parker Lincoln Portfolio is the largest real estate transaction in North Carolina in the last ten years.

This acquisition also represents the largest in BPG history, a distinction previously held by the 2003 acquisition of a $240,000,000 multifamily portfolio from DEC Investment Group which contained seventeen properties totaling 5,037 units located in Colorado, Arizona, Texas and Kansas.

"The acquisition of the Parker Lincoln Portfolio provided us with the unique opportunity to acquire a large and well-located R&D industrial portfolio within the rapidly-expanding Raleigh-Durham area," commented Roy C. Perry, senior vice president of BPG, who along with David Barndt, Vice President of BPG and George Haines, project executive of BPG, directed the acquisition. The portfolio is primarily comprised of smaller, approximately 50,000 s/f, light industrial buildings of tilt-wall construction, 20' ceiling heights,and finished office space. 49 of the 66 existing buildings are located in five master planned business parks while the remaining buildings include a mix of stand-alone service center retail, bulk distribution and mixed use properties.

"We believe that the Portfolio will benefit from BPG's signature handson operating approach to management and operations," explained David Barndt, who will oversee the asset management of the portfolio for BPG.

"We are optimistic about our prospects to quickly fill the current vacancies and create lasting relationships with the existing tenants. BPG will open a regional property management firm to actively manage the 65 existing properties integrating a majority of the existing management and leasing personnel who previously worked with the Seller."

Mark Shoenholtz of Eastdil in New York represented the Seller in the transaction.