NEWTON, MASS. AND ATLANTA — The RMR Group, an alternative asset management company based in Newton, has purchased the multifamily platform of Carroll, a multifamily investment firm based in Atlanta. RMR has acquired 100 percent of the equity interests of MPC Holdings (Carroll) in an $80 million, all-cash transaction. Founded in 2004, Carroll provides asset and property management services to 81 multifamily properties comprising more than 28,000 units that are primarily located across the Sun Belt. Carroll had approximately 700 employees as of first-quarter 2023. The acquisition will add $7 billion in assets under management (AUM) to RMR, which had $37.3 billion in AUM as of first-quarter 2023. Carroll will retain existing general partner co-investments and promote fees derived from those investments. The Carroll acquisition will give RMR a foothold in the multifamily sector for the first time and will include the company’s property management division, Arium Living. RMR acquires properties for four publicly traded REITs: Service Properties Trust, Diversified Healthcare Trust, Office Properties Income Trust and Industrial Logistics Properties Trust.
ATLANTA AND NEW YORK CITY — Chick-fil-A has announced plans for two new restaurant concepts. Beginning in 2024, the brand will open an elevated drive-thru concept in metro Atlanta as well as a walk-up restaurant in New York City. Both concepts are designed to enhance efficiency and convenience, with plans for the drive-thru restaurant including a kitchen built above the drive-thru lanes and dedicated lanes for mobile orders. Targeted toward urban areas with heavy foot traffic, the walk-up concept will allow guests to order through the Chick-fil-A app and pick up items at the walk-up windows. “Digital orders make up more than half of total sales in some markets… so we know our customers have an appetite for convenience,” says Khalilah Cooper, Chick-fil-A’s executive director of restaurant design. “The locations for these tests were intentionally selected with the customers in mind, giving them more control over their desired experience and cutting down wait time.” The locations of the two new concepts were not disclosed. Chick-fil-A is a privately held, family-owned fast-casual restaurant chain based in Atlanta. The company employs more than 170,000 team members at more than 2,700 restaurants across 47 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Canada.
GLENDALE, CALIF. AND NEW YORK CITY — Self-storage REIT Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) has agreed to acquire Simply Self Storage from New York City-based Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. (BREIT) for $2.2 billion. The deal is scheduled to close during the third quarter. Simply Self Storage is an owner-operator that was founded in Orlando in 2003. The company owns 127 facilities and operates 25 more on a third-party basis for a total of more than 11 million net rentable square feet across 18 states. Roughly 65 percent of Simply Self Storage’s portfolio, which has a collective occupancy rate of 91 percent, is concentrated in Sun Belt markets. “This acquisition reflects the continued execution of our multi-factor external growth platform, which includes acquisitions, development, redevelopment, expansion and third-party management,” says Joe Russell, CEO of Public Storage. “We are pleased to complete this transaction with Blackstone, which has done a tremendous job of growing and improving the quality and operations of the Simply portfolio over the past few years.” “Where you invest matters, and this transaction demonstrates the strong investor demand for the high-quality assets and platforms we have assembled within BREIT,” adds Nadeem Meghji, head of Blackstone Real Estate Americas. …
LOS ANGELES — BH Properties has started an investment initiation into affordable housing with the goal of building a $1 billion portfolio of assets. The new platform will focus on Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), Section 8 and age-restricted housing throughout the United States. William Stoll, who BH Properties hired as a managing director, will lead the initiative. Prior to joining BH Properties, Stoll worked at Steadfast Cos. for 14 years. He joined the firm in 2009 as the manager of a Southern California portfolio of 10 LIHTC properties and eventually rose to the role of executive vice president of acquisitions. Stoll graduated from San Diego State University.
MIDDLEBOROUGH, MASS. — Massachusetts-based Christmas Tree Shops will close all of its roughly 70 stores, according to reports from multiple mainstream news outlets including CNN and USA Today. Previously, the chain planned to sell, following filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May. Now, all stores will be closed, unless a last-minute buyer comes forward. Formerly, the brand was owned by Bed Bath & Beyond, which sold the concept to Handil Holdings in 2020 and filed for bankruptcy itself earlier this year.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — NAI Robert Lynn has relocated and expanded its Fort Worth office to a 6,000-square-foot space at 201 S. Adams St. in the city’s Near Southside neighborhood. The 10,000-square-foot complex previously housed a vet supply and distribution facility and was renovated to suit the Dallas-based firm’s needs. NAI Robert Lynn opened its Fort Worth office, led by Todd Hubbard, in 2012, and its team has completed more than 400 commercial transactions since that time.
SEATTLE — Amazon Web Services (AWS), a division of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) that offers on-demand cloud computing platforms to individuals, companies and governments, plans to make a big investment in Central Ohio. The company, along with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, announced the firm will invest approximately $7.8 billion to expand its data center operations in the region by the end of 2029. AWS is currently undertaking a site selection process across numerous localities in Central Ohio for the new data center campuses, the total number of facilities of which was not disclosed. Final site selections will be decided and announced at a later date. The move is expected to create 230 new jobs and an estimated 1,000 support jobs, according to J.P. Nauseef, president and CEO of JobsOhio, an economic development corporation based in Columbus. The AWS data center project represents the second-largest single private sector company investment in Ohio’s history, according to the governor’s office. The new data centers will contain computer servers, data storage drives, networking equipment and other forms of technology infrastructure used to power cloud computing. “Amazon is already one of the largest private-sector employers in Ohio, and the company’s continued growth …
SAN FRANCISCO — Westfield has made plans to pull out of San Francisco and surrender the San Francisco Centre mall to the property’s lender, reports CNN. The decision follows the closure of stores including Banana Republic and Nordstrom. A spokesperson for Westfield previously attributed the closure of the latter to “unsafe conditions for customers, retailers and employees.” According to SFGATE, Westfield and its partner, Brookfield Properties, have ceased loan payments on the mall. In a statement provided to the publication, Westfield noted that it has operated San Francisco Centre for more than 20 years and that it has “made the difficult decision to begin the process to transfer management of the shopping center to our lender,” citing “declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic.” The company also stated that the property’s debt “is nonrecourse and this action has no impact on the rest of [Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s] debt.”
DALLAS AND TAMPA, FLA. — SRS Real Estate Partners has expanded its Florida presence with the acquisition of full-service, Tampa-based firm Meridian Retail Group, which provides advisory services to retail, restaurant and entertainment clients. Meridian co-founders John Fahey and Tyler McRae will join SRS as senior vice presidents and market leaders, heading the Tampa office in conjunction with John Artope, executive vice president and managing principal of SRS. Fahey and McRae have 20 and 15 years of experience, respectively. Grant Burt, Caroline Connelly and Jacob Rasnick of Meridian will also join SRS, with a focus on tenant representation and leasing for retail clients.
WASHINGTON — Veda Living, the management company spin-off of ETROS Management Firm, has taken on a 10-property management agreement in Washington state. ETROS Management Firm, founded in 2016, specializes in turnaround management solutions for underperforming senior living assets. The properties are all branded as Greenlake Senior Living communities, which target middle-market seniors in the Pacific Northwest. With this most recent management deal, Veda Living now operates a portfolio of 15 properties across the nation.