Press Coverage

AT&T/Lucent/Avaya Portfolio Sale

ALLIANCE CAPITAL COMPLETES MAJOR PORTFOLIO SALE/LEASEBACK, 7.42M SF April 2004 By Greg A. Tristensen REAL ESTATE FORUM MAGAZINE Chicago – AT&T, with its new divisions, Lucent Technologies, Avaya Communications, AT&T Mobile, retained Alliance Capital to bring about the sale/leaseback of one of the largest corporate portfolios in recent years. Alliance Capital completed the sale of a number of major manufacturing and production facilities, totaling 7,892,243 sf. The site is comprised of several facilities, including Omaha Works (1.31 million sf), Denver Works (1.89 million sf), AG Communications (2.46 million sf), Miami Works (1.1 million sf), and several other production facilities. Various facilities were sold in groups, such as Omaha Works, and purchased by TC Capital. Omaha Works was 1,314,400 sf on 327 acres, and purchased to be divided into a new business park. The business park now offers 69 various corporate industrial sites for build-to-suit. AG Communications, a joint venture of AT&T and GTE, set on 131 acres, was one of the largest existing facilities under one roof on the United States, and built on an existing golf course in the Chicago Metropolitan market, only moments from O’Hare Airport. The facility was purchased by CenterPoint Properties on a sale/leaseback, whereby AT&T and Lucent removed their office usage of the complex, leaving two tenants in the facility. These tenants were 7Up Bottling with 1.14 million sf, and Select Beverage with 1.18 million sf. The remaining sites at the Northlake Business Center, directed and developed by CenterPoint Properties, were marketed for additional headquarters facilities. On the remaining sites, Alliance Capital was responsible for the Champion Transportation headquarters build-to-suit of 252,000 sf, and later renewed the 10-year lease thereby. Additionally, Alliance Capital was involved with the financing of the speculative CenterPoint Properties site at 262,136 sf. The remaining sites are available for corporate headquarter usage and build-to-suit.

Ecko Housewares, Inc. Monee, Illinois 700,200 square feet

November 1, 2000 By Michelle Napoli Executive Editor Chicago-When EKCO Group Inc.'s housewares manufacturing business wanted to consolidate operations from five different facilities into one location last year, the Chicago office of real estate services firm Alliance Capital came up with a solution that seemed too good to be true. In fact, one EKCO board member simply refused to believe the deal was for real, according to Ed Hayes, who at the time was senior vice president of operations for EKCO. It was. The only firm to make the effort to complete an extensive survey of possible sites that represented a true array of choices, markets and properties for the client-to-be, Alliance found a good site that was not even on the market. It also oversaw the project bidding process, worked with the municipality of Monee, Ill., to secure a tax increment financing district in addition to an $18 million incentives package, and found an ultimate buyer for the sale-leaseback property. To boot, Alliance clobbered the $3.69 per-square-foot net rent benchmark EKCO gave it, driving its cost down to $2.28 a foot, beating the market by about 40 percent and saving the client some $1.8 million a year, according to Alliance senior managing director of the Midwest region Bret Broaddus. It ended up being Illinois' largest BTS/structured finance asset for 1999 at more than 700,000 square feet our relationship with the Alliance proved to be very profitable as a result of an exclusive contract in exchange for the focused dedication Alliance Capital gave to the project, Hayes concluded. "I really felt from the get-go that they were going to join us at the hip, they were going to steer us at what we wanted... what was going to be good for EKCO housewares," recalled Hayes, now the COO at Gund Inc. "It was almost as if they were EKCO employees. That was the sense I got; that was the comfort level I had."

YOUR INVENTORIES AND RECEIVABLES WORK FOR YOU, WHY NOT YOUR REAL ESTATE?   Let Alliance Capital help put your real estate to work and uncover the value of your fixed assets currently sitting idle. Off-balance sheet sale/leaseback real estate finance vehicles can help re-deploy valuable trapped capital in your bricks and mortar to fund mergers and acquisitions, retire debt or expand your business' competitive advantage.   Many of Alliance Capital's clients have utilized the net leased financing method to execute part of their market strategy via the leveraging of real estate assets, much like inventories and receivables.   For a no-nonsense discussion, prospectus or an analysis of your real estate assets and their capital raising potential, phone us or visit our web site at www.alliance-capital.net.