C/MF Briefs From Fitch, CBRE, Boston Financial Investment Management/Boston Capital

Fitch: Coronavirus Pandemic-Related Demand Drivers Support Growth

Fitch Ratings, New York, said growth for new technology in corporate IT, remote work initiatives, e-commerce, digital content and entertainment accelerated data center demand in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In U.S. Data Center REITs Dashboard: Third-Quarter 2020, Fitch said it expects these shifts to remain largely permanent and forecast they will continue to support secular demand drivers. Strong quarterly bookings continued into the third quarter at $171 million or 2.8 percent of rental revenues, though they were below second-quarter levels–the period with the strongest absolute booking volume since 2014, at $249 million or 4.1 percent of rental revenues.

CBRE Named Fund and Property Administrator for GLP Capital Partners’ New Industrial Fund Launch

CBRE has been selected to provide fund and property accounting services for a new U.S.-based Industrial Fund managed by GLP Capital Partners, one of the largest industrial real estate fund managers in the world.

CBRE’s Fund and Property Administration group offers integrated real estate design and construction accounting, property accounting and fund administration services to developers, investors and asset managers in more than 40 countries and over 16,500 properties. The group supports simple to complex fund structures including closed and open-ended funds, public and private REITs, JVs and separate accounts, expanding across all asset classes, along with property and design and construction accounting.

Boston Financial Investment Management Acquires Boston Capital Affordable Housing Fund Portfolio

Boston Financial Investment Management acquired Boston Capital’s low-income housing tax credit fund portfolio. Boston Financial Investment Management parent company ORIX USA entered into an agreement with Boston Capital to acquire the LIHTC fund portfolio in September 2020.

“Combining the portfolios of two leading syndicators in the LIHTC industry creates one of the largest and most sustainable syndicators in the LIHTC industry,” said ORIX USA President and CEO Terry Suzuki.

With the addition of Boston Capital’s LIHTC fund portfolio, Boston Financial now manages more than 2,300 underlying assets and 190 LIHTC funds, and the company’s equity under management has nearly doubled from $7.7 billion to $15 billion.

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, and Holland & Knight served as legal advisors to ORIX USA. Nixon Peabody LLP served as legal advisor to Boston Capital.