Company News

BENTONVILLE, ARK. — Walmart has opened its second in-store fulfillment center, dubbed Market Fulfillment Center (MFC), at a store in its headquarters city of Bentonville. The Walmart store (Store 100) is located at 406 S. Walton Blvd. The retail giant’s MFC strategy calls for high-tech fulfillment centers to be built within existing Walmart stores and powered by Alphabot, a proprietary storage and retrieval system. “This new order fulfillment system is truly game changing,” says Ryan Simpson, store manager at Store 100. “Not only does it enhance the customer experience through quicker, more accurate online order fulfillment, it also provides us the runway to continue growing our business now and in the future.” Walmart’s proof of concept store for the MFC strategy was in Salem, N.H. Walmart plans to continue opening MFCs in select stores in the coming years.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

BOISE, IDAHO — Capstone Cos. has expanded its brokerage firm with a new regional office in Boise. Colton Yasinski, who has transacted hundreds of units in the Idaho market, including affordable LIHTC product, value-add multifamily and Class A market rate assets, leads the new office.  Expanding into Boise reinforces Capstone’s presence in the Western U.S. as the company seeks rapid growth and expansion in the multifamily sector.  With the opening of this new office, Capstone continues its nationwide growth with a total of 21 offices and more than $12 billion in sales.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

NEW YORK CITY — Global Net Lease (NYSE: GNL) and The Necessity Retail REIT (NASDAQ: RTL) have entered into a merger agreement under which GNL will acquire RTL in an all-stock transaction. The combined company is expected to own and manage over 1,350 properties with an aggregate real estate asset value of approximately $9.6 billion. Under terms of the merger agreement, GNL stockholders are expected to own approximately 45 percent of GNL post-closing, RTL stockholders are expected to own about 39 percent, and the owner of the former external manager is expected to own up to 17 percent.  The merger is projected to generate approximately $21 million in annual cash savings realized within 12 months of transaction close, according to the companies. The combined entity will be internally managed, with external asset and property management functions to be performed by AR Global. Internalizing management is expected to result in approximately $54 million in annual cash savings. Headquartered in New York City, Global Net Lease is a publicly traded REIT that focuses on commercial properties with an emphasis on sale-leaseback transactions involving single-tenant, mission-critical, income-producing net lease assets across the United States and in Europe. Its portfolio features 311 properties totaling 39.3 million square feet across 11 …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

LOS ANGELES — CBRE has hired John Boyett as first vice president and Adam Feldman as a senior associate in the firm’s Woodland Hills office in Los Angeles.  Boyett and Feldman will focus on multifamily investment sales in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Boyett previously served as associate vice president at Matthews Real Estate Investment Services.  Feldman also worked at Matthews as a senior associate, where he specialized in the acquisition, disposition and analysis of multifamily assets. 

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

JACKSONVILLE, FLA., AND GREENWICH, CONN.— Jacksonville-based REIT Regency Centers (NASDAQ: REG) has agreed to acquire Urstadt Biddle Properties (NYSE: UBA) in a an all-stock transaction valued at $1.4 billion, including the assumption of debt and preferred stock. Urstadt Biddle Properties is a REIT based in Greenwich that primarily invests in shopping centers. The combined company will have a market capitalization of approximately $11 billion and total enterprise value of approximately $16 billion. The combined portfolio will comprise 56 million square feet of gross leasable area across 481 properties. Regency acquired the company to help expand its footprint in grocery-anchored shopping centers in suburban trade areas in the U.S. Under the terms of the agreement, Urstadt Biddle’s stockholders will receive 0.347 of a newly issued REG share for each UBA or UBP share they own. This represents a total consideration of $20.40 per share based on Regency’s closing share price on May 17, 2023. Upon closing, Regency shareholders will own 93 percent of the combined company, while Urstadt Biddle shareholders will own three percent. The respective boards of directors of both Regency and Urstadt Biddle have each approved the transaction. “The portfolio that Urstadt Biddle has carefully assembled over more than …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
Trez-Capital-Executives

DALLAS — Commercial debt and equity financing firm Trez Capital has announced that after almost 26 years as chairman and CEO, firm founder Morley Greene will transition into the role of executive chairman. Moving forward, executives John Hutchinson and Dean Kirkham will serve as co-CEOs and take over leadership of day-to-day operations. In his new role, Hutchinson will continue focusing on the firm’s debt and equity origination business. Kirkham will continue focusing on the key pillars of risk and capital raising for Trez Capital. Together, they will set the mission, vision, values and strategic direction of the company. Hutchinson has been with the firm for more than 13 years, during which time he held progressively senior positions. He has more than 20 years of experience in financing residential development projects across a variety of markets and product types. Kirkham joined Trez Capital in 2016 as chief credit officer and has since taken on increasingly senior roles, culminating in his most recent position as president and COO. In addition, Kirkham was welcomed as a partner of the firm earlier this year along with John Maragliano, who joined the firm in 2021 as CFO. Maragliano, who has more than 25 years of …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

HOUSTON — Orlando-based office owner-operator Parkway Property Investments and Houston-based mixed-use developer Midway have entered into a definitive agreement to create a new company with approximately 45 million square feet of commercial assets under management. That figure includes both stabilized assets and projects in various stages of development. The new venture expects to bring its teams together in the third quarter. The new entity will be headquartered in Houston and will offer a suite of services, including development, acquisitions, asset management, property management and leasing. Financial terms were not disclosed. Midway’s Bradley Freels and Parkway’s James Heistand will serve as co-executive chairmen of the board. Jayson Lipsey of Parkway and Jamie Bryant of Midway will serve as co-CEOs. Parkway is perhaps best known for developing Greenway Plaza, a 52-acre office campus located in between Houston’s Uptown and downtown areas. Midway is the developer behind large-scale mixed-use projects such as CITYCENTRE and East River.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

AUSTIN, TEXAS — IBM will relocate its Austin office campus to The Domain, a 300-acre mixed-use development on the city’s north side, by 2027, according to several media outlets including The Austin American-Statesman and Axios. The former publication reports that IBM, which employs about 6,000 people in Austin, will take about 320,000 square feet across two newly constructed buildings at 11901 MoPac Expressway. The latter publication reports that the interconnected buildings will both rise 14 stories and that the tech giant intends to occupy the entirety of one tower and a small portion of the other. Bo Beacham and John Barksdale of CBRE represented the landlord, Hines, in the lease negotiations.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

GOODLETTSVILLE, TENN. — Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) has announced recent expansions in its supply chain network that will grow the discount retailer’s distribution footprint by more than 3.2 million square feet. The Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based company has recently opened three new facilities and announced expansions of two existing campuses that will support Dollar General’s traditional goods, as well as its DG Fresh line of groceries. “The recent additions to our supply chain network aim to provide greater efficiencies, create additional jobs and drive positive economic impact,” says Tony Zuazo, executive vice president of Dollar General’s global supply chain. “We’re excited to continue growing our distribution center network to further support store growth and to better serve our customers and local communities.” Dollar General recently opened an 800,000-square-foot distribution center in Blair, Neb., that is expected to create approximately 400 new jobs at full capacity. The $140 million development is the company’s first ground-up dual facility, meaning it features both traditional distribution space and cold storage. Dollar General plans to host a formal opening ceremony for the facility this summer. The company recently increased distribution center storage capacity by more than 2 million square feet by opening two new permanent regional facilities …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

CHICAGO — Chicago-based Cushman & Wakefield has appointed Michelle MacKay to assume the role of CEO effective July 1. MacKay currently serves as president and chief operating officer (COO). John Forrester is retiring from his position as CEO effective June 30, following 35 years of service with the company. Forrester will remain employed as a strategic advisor throughout the rest of this year. Andrew McDonald, currently president, will become global president and chief operating officer. A commercial real estate executive with more than 30 years of experience at a variety of public and privately held companies, MacKay has served on three public company boards, including Cushman & Wakefield’s from 2018 to 2020. She was appointed as Cushman & Wakefield’s COO in 2020 and promoted to president and COO in 2022. Previously, MacKay served as executive vice president, investments and head of capital markets at iStar Inc., a REIT that has since merged with Safehold Inc. Cushman & Wakefield announced MacKay’s appointment the same day it unveiled that John Cushman III had died at the age of 82. A member of Cushman & Wakefield’s founding family, his career spanned 60 years.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail