The facilities, each of which contains a combination of manufacturing, warehousing and refrigerated warehousing, total approximately 665,000 sf and are located in Colton, CA; Dallas; Bonner Springs, KS; and Eagan, MN. The facilities will be leased back to Best Brands on a long-term basis.

Gino Sabatini, executive director at W.P. Carey says that the company views Best Brands as a strong industry player. Sabatini tells GlobeSt.com that W.P. Carey is in the business of doing sale-leasebacks and "this is a good acquisition. It shows that we can get deals done in a difficult environment." He adds that "because the facilities acquired are critical to their operations, the acquisition is consistent with our core investment philosophy of investing in key assets of well managed operating companies." Sabatini could not detail further specific facility information, such as address or square footage.

Headquartered in Minnetonka, MN, Best Brands "has focused on growth in our core product areas--cakes, laminated dough, muffins and mixes," says Scott Humphrey, Best Brands CEO. "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. The Carey team's professional approach and financial skills as well as their understanding of the food and refrigerated food industries enabled them to recognize the value and economics of our business and structure a financing that advances our longer term strategic initiatives."