(SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL) – Hines, the international real estate firm, announced today that DSE, the São Paulo State Education Department, signed a lease in December for 181,566 square feet of space in Hines’ Distribution Park Cajamar.
The space will be utilized for school meal food distribution.
Located in just outside of São Paulo, the first phase of the four-building facility was completed in 2010, and is now fully leased.
Phase II is under construction with completion scheduled in June.
The signing of this lease is the culmination of a banner year for leasing activity in Hines’ distribution parks across Brazil.
In 2010, the firm executed 14 industrial leases totaling more than 2.4 million square feet in new developments.
Hines has been the largest industrial developer in Brazil over the last five years and has leased a total of 8.7 million square feet during that period. The firm’s 2010 industrial transactions in Brazil account for more than half of all Class A warehouse leases in the entire country.
Hines’ investor partner in Brazil is the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS).
Through the Hines CalPERS Brazil Funds I & II, Hines has developed, or is in the process of developing, nine distribution parks comprising 29 separate buildings in Brazil. CalPERS recently committed an additional $190 million to HCB II to fund new development including warehouse/logistics facilities and affordable housing projects.
“The by-product of a rapidly expanding consumer class has created significant needs for industrial/logistics facilities.
Our distribution park platform is poised to meet this growing real estate niche,” said Hines Brazil Managing Director Doug Munro.
Hines entered the Brazilian real estate market in 1998. Since then the firm has developed more than 17 million square feet of premier office, industrial and residential space in the country, and currently manages 10.6 million square feet there. Hines has logistics projects in six markets throughout Brazil, including Osasco, Louveira, Cajamar, Rio de Janeiro, Manaus and Belford Roxo and is in the process of entering two more markets. CalPERS and Hines began investing together in Brazil in 2005 when the Hines CalPERS Brazil Fund I (HCB I) was established.
It was followed by HCB II in 2007.
CalPERS is the nation’s largest public pension fund with assets totalling $226.6 billion, of which $16.6 billion is invested in real estate. The System provides retirement and health benefits to more than one million state and public employees and their families. For further information on CalPERS, please visit the System’s Web site at www.calpers.ca.gov.
Hines is a privately owned real estate firm involved in real estate investment, development and property management worldwide. The firm’s historical and current portfolio of projects that are underway, completed, acquired and managed for third parties includes 1,119 properties representing more than 457 million square feet of office, residential, mixed-use, industrial, hotel, medical and sports facilities, as well as large, master-planned communities and land developments. With offices in more than 100 cities in 17 countries, and controlled assets valued at approximately $23 billion, Hines is one of the largest sustainable real estate organizations in the world. Visit www.hines.com for more information.