Kennedy Wilson Management Group Acquires $100 Million Portfolio

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Kennedy Wilson Fund Management Group (KW Management), a division of Kennedy Wilson (KW), an international real estate services and investment firm, has announced a series of acquisitions for its existing Fund I and its newly created Fund II portfolios. The purchases involve three office buildings in Beverly Hills, Sacramento and Oakland , California. Total acquisition cost is approximately $100 million .

'We're delighted to have been able to complete these major deals so soon after forming our new Fund II,' said Barry Schlesinger, Chairman of KW Fund Management. 'All three of these assets meet our stated criteria of investing in well located office properties to which we can add value.'

A signature Beverly Hills office tower at 9701 Wilshire Boulevard is the most significant of the three acquisitions, Schlesinger noted. 'This is a Class A, 12 story high-rise just a block from our corporate office. Since the project was built in 1973, the city has adopted a 45 foot, three story high limit for new office construction, making this building irreplaceable in its current form.' The property sits on the northwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Roxbury Drive in the heart of Beverly Hills' so-called Golden Triangle. It features 107,644 square feet of office space and 6 levels of parking.

Tenants include Synergy Workplaces, City National Bank and John Paul Mitchell Systems. Purchase price exceeded $51 million . The lender on the project is Wachovia Bank.

KW Funds also purchased two suburban office buildings at 303 and 333 Hegenberger Road adjacent to the Oakland Airport in a $32 million transaction. The highly visible structures were built in 1968 and 1971 respectively and contain a total of 196,502 square feet, with 303 being four stories and 333 being eight. GE Capital is providing the financing for the deal.

The third building is a four-story, 98,816 square foot suburban office building at 1860 Howe Avenue in Sacramento . Built in 1983, the project is located in the highly visible and accessible Point West area of the state capital. This is a $16 million transaction with GE Capital once again providing the financing.

KW Funds I and II are value-added U.S. investment funds with a total of over $260 million in equity and will have $725 million in assets when fully invested. Its institutional partners are CalPERS, other U.S. based pension funds, Wachovia, U S Bank and Kennedy Wilson itself.

Founded in 1977, KW is a real estate services and investment firm headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, with 18 offices throughout the U.S. and Japan . It seeks opportunities in partnership with clients in pursuit of above-market investor returns and higher real estate values. KW Fund Management is the fund investment division of KW. The group is actively involved in the acquisition, asset management, operation, rehabilitation, repositioning and disposition of real estate assets. Visit www.kennedywilson.com for further information.

CONTACT: CLIVE HOFFMAN