Commercial Real Estate Blog

Though it seems a final deal has yet to be finalized, it seems JP Morgan Chase will be suitor for Washington Mutual, or at least a portion of its operation according to multiple reports. Washington Mutual put itself up for auction last week, and a number of banks came forth to evaluate it, including Citigroup, HSBC, and JP Morgan Chase.

Washington Mutual, despite being mired in bad debt and writedowns still is a bank with a strong and well-located branch network. It was clear that to anybody looking to “head west” and establish themselves in key markets like California, Washington Mutual would be a likely target. What exactly Chase will be acquiring will remain to be seem, but it is very likely that the retail branch network, at least in key west coast markets, will be a part of that deal.

GVA Kidder Mathews, the Seattle-based brokerage firm has announced that it is acquiring Santa Clara’s Wayne Mascia Associates. The new firm will be renamed to the ridiculously long GVA Kider Matthews Wayne Mascia.

GVA recently opened a Redwood Shores office and has now made its foray into the south bay through this acquisition. The buy essentially doubles the number of brokers GVA has in the Bay Area.

What will be interesting to see is if brokers from Cornish & Carey’s nearby Santa Clara office will make the jump to the newly formed GVA Kidder Mathews Wayne Mascia office to take advantage of the aggressive commission splits GVA tends to offer its brokers.

In what is one of the most fantastic days in modern financial history, Lehman looks to be headed into bankruptcy as potential suitors Barclays and Bank of America have walked away. Meanwhile, Bank of America has reached an agreement to acquire Merrill Lynch.

These two moves likely won’t be the last as attention will likely next turn to Washington Mutual in the coming next week or two. Attracted to Washington Mutual’s strong and well-located branch network, it’s likely a suitor will be found to take over. My money is on JP Morgan Chase to do that deal.

Brocade (NASDAQ:BRCD) today offered to acquire Foundry Networks (NASDAQ:FDRY) in a $3B deal. The two companies together represent roughly 800K square feet of silicon valley office space. Brocade recently executed a deal to acquire a 562K SF Build to Suit to Sale on North First Street. Foundry Network currently occupies 110K SF on Gold Street in San Jose/Alviso on a lease through January 2011. In addition to this, Foundry retains a 141,000 SF headquarters facility in Santa Clara under a lease through May 2010.

Under the terms of the @First purchase Brocade signed in May, it has the right to an additional 4-acre parcel at a cost of $26M. This merger likely means that Brocade will be exercising that right so that it can construct the necessary facilities to be able to bring the Brocade and Foundry teams together in one project by the time Foundry’s leases expire.

Roche (ADR: RHHBY) has offered $44B for Genentech (NYSE: DNA). The two companies both have a presence in the Bay Area, with Roche having offices in Palo Alto, and Genentech being headquartered in South San Francisco.

Genentech currently occupies 48 buildings in South San Francisco. 13 of those are owned with the balance being leased.

If this transaction is successful (which it is likely to be given that Roche already owns a significant portion of Genentech), then this would represent the second time Roche has owned Genentech.

Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) has completed the acquisition of Staubach. The terms of the agreement were covered previously in this post.

We previously reported that the deal was essentially done, but Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) confirmed today that it is in fact buying Staubach. Jones Lang LaSalle is paying $613M for Staubach over 5 years, with $100M in stock and $123M in cash up front at the closing. An additional $114M in earnouts will be paid to Staubach depending on whether it meets certain performance goals, bringing the total acquisition price potentially to $727M.

The deal is expected to close by the third quarter. The acquisition caps on and off rumours of an acquisition. We indicated on June 9th that it was a done deal, and more details trickled in over the following week.