Mar 24, 2008 10:47 AM

CPA:16–Global, the REIT affiliate of investment firm W. P. Carey & Co., has acquired four manufacturing facilities from Best Brands Corporation for a purchase price of about $50 million. The facilities each provide a combination of manufacturing, warehousing, and refrigerated warehousing, and total roughly 665,000 square feet. They are in Dallas TX, Colton CA, Bonner Springs KS, and Eagan MN, and will be leased back to Best Brands on a long-term basis.

Minnetonka MN-based Best Brands produces and distributes specialty bakery products, specializing in frozen laminated dough, frozen baked cakes, frozen muffins, and bakery mixes, as well as other bakery products. They are sold to clients including Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco, and Starbucks.

"Best Brands has focused on growth in our core product areas—cakes, laminated dough, muffins, and mixes," said Scott Humphrey, chief executive officer of Best Brands. "The sale-leaseback financing with W. P. Carey was ideal as it allowed us to access the value tied up in a number of our key real estate assets and redeploy that capital in our core business."