A portfolio of 11 flex buildings in Morrisville and North Raleigh has been foreclosed upon and taken back by the lender for $49 million, according to Wake County property records.

The 631,582-square-foot portfolio, which includes eight buildings on Perimeter Park Drive in Morrisville and three buildings on Spring Forest Road in Raleigh, was sold at auction on Jan. 2 in Raleigh.

Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Lutz Real Estate Investments and Capri Capital Partners had acquired the buildings in 2007 for $56.3 million.

The firms borrowed $53.7 million from UBS Real Estate Investments in 2007, according to property records. That loan was bundled with other commercial real estate loans and sold to Wall Street investors as a commercial mortgage-backed security.

U.S. Bank acquired the properties, acting as trustee for the note holders.

Advertising technology company Netsertive announced Tuesday that it has relocated to its new 22,000-square-foot headquarters in Morrisville's Perimeter Park.

The company raised $10 million in venture funding in July and expects to add 60 new employees over the next year. It currently has about 50 employees and 30 open positions.

Netsertive uses its patent-pending technology to manage localized digital advertising campaigns for hundreds of businesses.

The company's customers range from small and midsized brick-and-mortar retailers as well as about two dozen well-known brands, such as GE Appliances and Serta.

Contract research organization Novella Clinical, which has grown its Triangle workforce from 75 to 250 employees over the past seven years, is moving to larger offices.

The company has leased a 77,239-square-foot Duke Realty building at 1700 Perimeter Park in Morrisville. Novella has until now occupied 56,665 square feet in two buildings in the nearby Imperial Center in Durham.

The 1700 Perimeter Park building was previously occupied by Salix Pharmaceuticals, which  relocated last fall to North Raleigh.

Novella employs 800 worldwide. The company has added 35 employees in the Triangle so far this year, and CEO Richard Staub said in a statement that the company expects to continue to add employees based on current sales projections.

The Triangle has become the epicenter of the CRO industry, which helps pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies test experimental drugs.

Other CROs with a presence here include industry leader Quintiles, INC Research, PRA International and Wilmington-based PPD.

Privately-held Novella Clinical was founded in 1998. The company specializes in oncology and medical device testing for small and mid-size bio-pharmaceutical clients.

Morrisville medical device company TearScience, which raised $44.5 million last year, has signed a lease for roughly 20,000 square feet in a Duke Realty building in Perimeter Park.

The company expects to relocate sometime this summer, CEO Tim Willis said today.

Willis said the company had planned to take additional space at its current location, 1101 Aviation Parkway, but other surrounding tenants extended their leases last year when TearScience was still unsure whether it would land additional funding.

TearScience's $44.5 million was the most venture capital raised by a Triangle firm in 2010.

The company, which focuses on devices for diagnosing and treating dry eye disease, employs about 25 people.

The company is delaying adding more employees until it gets word from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is reviewing TearScience's application for the LipiFlow Thermal Pulsation System.
 

Salix Pharmaceuticals is moving its headquarters back to North Raleigh.

The company said in a regulatory filing this week that it has signed an 11-year lease for 126,926 square feet of space at the Colonnade office park off Six Forks Road. The move is expected to happen this fall.

In 2005, Salix left the Colonnade for Duke Realty's Perimeter Park in Morrisville, where it had been leasing 77,000 square feet.

Salix had been subleasing its old corporate headquarters, about 26,000 square feet, in the Colonnade. That lease, which was set to expire in April, has been extended and Salix will eventually take over that space as well.

The total value of the two leases is about $36 million.

The move means Salix is executing a $1.7 million termination fee on its lease with Duke Realty in Perimeter Park.
 

With its purchase along with Duke Realty of three office buildings near Research Triangle Park, Princeton, N.J.-based CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust became the latest institutional investor to use the economic downturn as an opportunity to gain a foothold in the Raleigh-Durham market.

CBRE's portfolio includes 53 properties, mostly warehouse, industrial and office, located in markets across the country.

Although CBRE investors own 11 properties in Charlotte, the three buildings that it bought at Perimeter Park near Research Triangle Park more than double its its holdings here.

The buildings were purchased as part of a joint venture formed in 2008 between CBRE and Duke.

That joint venture has thus far purchased 13 properties, although the Perimeter Park deal is the first one where assets have been acquired outright from Duke Realty. (The joint venture is 80 percent owned by CBRE.)

Chuck Hessel, director of investments for CBRE Realty Trust, said in a phone interview today that Raleigh's diversified economy that makes it less inclined to ups and downs.

"It's a market that's really been dynamic over the medium and long-term," Hessel said.

"You look at some of the other markets nearby. Charlotte is a very financial-industries focused market. If you go further south you get something like Atlanta which is very boom-bust. Raleigh has been a sort of steady performer. With its mix of finance and tech; it's a market we like to have in our portfolio."