JLL Capital Markets advises partners on $100m US acquisition

JLL Capital Markets has advised a joint venture equity partnership on the $100 million acquisition of a mixed-use facility in the Milwaukee suburban community of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

JLL worked on behalf of Bascom Group to arrange the partnership with The Capital Trust Group - marking its first acquisition in the US in over 20 years - and placed a 10-year, 65-percent, LTV, CMBS, fixed-rate $63.7 million loan with Citigroup. 

"We are delighted to be re-entering the US real estate market after a prolonged period of focusing on Europe and the UK,” says Raney Aburdene, head of Investor Relations and Business Development with Capital Trust Group. "The asset we have secured provides attractive risk adjusted returns for our investors in a challenging market."

The facility, used to design test and produce naval and marine products for the US Navy, was delivered in July 2020 as a build-to-suit for Leonardo DRS’ naval division, which already occupied the adjacent three-story office building beginning in 2019. Alongside the research and testing facility, the deal covers an adjacent 118,620sq ft corporate office.

The JLL Capital Markets team that advised the partnership and arranged financing was led by Managing Director Claudio V. Sgobba in JLL's London office and Senior Director Christopher Knight in JLL's Chicago office.

"This long-term, single-tenant net lease is exactly what Middle East based investors are seeking: A United States-based, safe, yield-generating income stream held for diversification and capital appreciation purposes,"said Sgobba.