Oaktree, Hines Buy Vegas Buildings From General Growth

Oaktree Capital Group LLC (OAK) and Hines bought a 1.1 million-square-foot (102,200-square-meter) portfolio of Las Vegas buildings from General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP) as the mall owner sells off its office holdings.

The purchase includes 32 office buildings, with two additional development parcels, located in the Summerlin master- planned community, Hines and Oaktree said in a statement. It is the sixth venture between Los Angeles-based Oaktree’s real estate division and Houston-based Hines in the past two years.

General Growth, the second-largest U.S. mall landlord, is selling its office buildings and strip shopping centers to focus on its regional mall business. Net operating income from the Chicago-based company’s office and strip-center properties fell 10 percent to $10 million in the second quarter.

The Las Vegas buildings are in 13 campuses and have tenants including AT&T Inc., Expedia Inc. and Williams-Sonoma Inc. Hines assumed property management responsibilities on behalf of the joint venture.

“The Oaktree/Hines partnership is well-capitalized, and given the quality of these properties, we believe we can compete very favorably in the market,” Ambrose Fisher, managing director in Oaktree’s real estate group, said in the statement.

Oaktree had about $79 billion in assets under management as of June 30.

A message left for David Keating, a General Growth spokesman, wasn’t immediately returned. The company is the largest U.S. mall owner after Simon Property Group Inc. (SPG), based in Indianapolis.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Louis in Chicago at blouis1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net