ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves and Atlanta United FC, the city’s professional baseball and soccer clubs, plan a return to 100 percent attendance at their respective home stadiums, Truist Park and Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Both teams plan to increase their seating capacities to pre-pandemic levels. At Truist Park in Cobb County, the Braves plan to bring the stadium to full capacity to about 41,000 seats. Starting with the May 7 game against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Braves says Truist Park will be at full capacity. Atlanta United will also bring its home games to 100 percent capacity, which will be about 42,500 seats. According to the Atlanta Braves’ website, all health and safety procedures will still be intact, including face masks, cashless concessions, mobile ticketing and ordering and a no bag policy. The Mercedes-Benz Stadium says their health and safety procedures will also be maintained, such as face masks requirements, areas with hand sanitization stands and cleaning procedures before, during and after events.
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. — Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) has reported its financial results for the first quarter, ended March 31, 2021, with digital sales growing 133.9 percent year-over-year to $869.8 million. Digital sales accounted for 50.1 percent of overall sales for the Newport Beach-based fast-casual restaurant chain. Chipotle’s revenue increased 23.4 percent to $1.7 billion compared to first-quarter 2020, with comparable restaurant sales increasing 17.2 percent. Additionally, the company reported opening 40 new restaurants and closing five restaurant locations, bringing the total restaurant count to 2,803, with 26 of the new locations offering a “Chipotlane” drive-thru option. As of March 31, Chipotle has nearly $1.2 billion in cash, investments and restricted cash, and no debt. The company also has access to a recently refinanced $500 million untapped credit facility with which to continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Net income for the restaurant was $127.1 million, an increase from $76.4 million in first-quarter 2020. “Chipotle is off to a great start in 2021 thanks to our employees and their incredible level of collaboration and tireless dedication,” says Brian Niccol, chairman and CEO of Chipotle. “As vaccines roll out and we get closer to moving past this pandemic, I believe …
In the past year, COVID-19 has impacted how and where people work, and the future of the U.S. office workplace is a major unknown. Landlords are grappling with how to maximize their physical work spaces as many employees continue to work from home full-time or at least a few days per week. This shift is leading some business owners to look for alternative forms of workplaces. ƎDEN, a flexible workplace and meeting space provider, allows for users to rent out space to fulfill their everyday working needs, including in-person meetings. ƎDEN users can download the brand’s app and then reserve an array of workplaces: work lounges, private offices and conference rooms, among other offerings. Standard rates for renting out the spaces starts at $99 a month per person, according to the firm’s website. ƎDEN currently operates from several different markets, but most locations are concentrated in the New York area. These include a location in Queens at Parker Towers and another in Brooklyn at Box Factory. The firm also has a location in Northern Virginia at Tysons Corner and three upcoming locations in Detroit. Brandon Singer, CEO of MONA and ƎDEN’s commercial real estate advisor and broker, says ƎDEN utilizes …
JERICHO, N.Y. AND HOUSTON — Kimco Realty Corp. (NYSE: KIM) has announced plans to acquire fellow retail REIT Weingarten Realty Investors (NYSE: WRI) for roughly $3.9 billion. The combined company is expected to have a pro forma equity market capitalization of $12 billion and a pro forma total enterprise value of $20.5 billion. The merger will create a national operating portfolio of 559 open-air, grocery-anchored shopping centers — one of the darlings of commercial real estate during the COVID-19 pandemic — and mixed-use assets comprising 100 million square feet of gross leasable area. In its reasoning for the acquisition, Kimco cited enhanced asset diversification and quality; expanded geographic reach in high-growth, first-ring suburbs of core markets; greater tenant diversity; a more compelling value creation pipeline; operational savings and corporate synergies; earnings accretion and NOI growth opportunities; and an increase in the company’s financial strength and flexibility. “We believe this transaction is a win-win for shareholders of both companies, who will benefit from the upside potential associated with owning the preeminent open-air, grocery-anchored shopping center and mixed-use real estate REIT in the U.S.,” says Conor Flynn, Kimco’s CEO. “This combination reflects our conviction in the grocery-anchored shopping center category, which has …
ANAHEIM, CALIF. — Disneyland Resort will reopen its theme parks Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park on April 30, with limited capacity and more than 10,000 cast members. Additionally, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa will welcome guests starting on April 29, as part of Hotels of the Disneyland Resort’s phased reopening. To comply with government requirements and promote physical distancing, various new measures are in place at the park, with the Disneyland Resort managing attendance through a new theme park reservation system that requires all guests to obtain a reservation for park entry in advance. Theme park reservations will be limited and subject to availability, and until further notice, only California residents may visit the parks. Groups must be no larger than three households, in line with current state guidelines. Disneyland’s phased reopening includes: Downtown Disney District – currently open Disney’s Grand California Hotel & Spa — April 29 Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park — April 30 Disneyland Hotel and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel — to be determined Disneyland Resort will reopen and operate updated sanitization and distancing protocols, including enhanced cleaning and housekeeping modifications, plus operational changes for physical distancing and reduced contact. Guests planning …
TEXARKANA, TEXAS — TexAmericas Center (TAC) has completed the remediation of 6,800 acres in Texarkana, located near the Texas-Arkansas border, to meet standards for commercial and industrial development. Last week, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality removed the U.S. Army’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permit from the property, thus opening up the acreage for development. The land is a portion of the former Lone Star Army Ammunition plant. Remediation efforts began in 2010, and in recent years, TAC and its partners have invested more than $40 million in remediation activities and improved infrastructure to advance job and capital creation in the region. TAC is an owner-operator of one of the country’s largest industrial parks, with roughly 12,000 development-ready acres and 3.5 million square feet of commercial and industrial product serving four states.
LOS ANGELES — Lee & Associates has announced that its founder, Bill Lee, has passed away at 78 years old after a long battle with cancer and cancer-related complications. Lee founded Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services in 1979 in Orange County, Calif. Now, the company boasts 65 locations across North America and employs more than 1,300 people. Revolutionary for its time, Lee designed the Lee & Associates model to facilitate collaboration and investment across offices, with one key element being that Lee & Associates agents have the ability to make an investment into the growth of the company, according to the company. Additionally, Lee strategically designed Lee & Associates to operate in smaller components to allow the company capital to operate more efficiently than other existing methods at the time; also, allowing agents the opportunity to maximize their deals in terms of commission dollars. “On this difficult day, I stand in tremendous appreciation with the thousands of real estate professionals and their families that have been so positively impacted by the company Bill created and the unique structure that has served us for over 41 years,” says Jeffrey Rinkov, CEO of Lee & Associates. “Bill fostered and maintained incredibly …
NEW YORK CITY — New York City-based institutional investment firm BentallGreenOak has closed on its acquisition of Metropolitan Real Estate Equity Management LLC, formerly a division of Washington, D.C.-based global private equity firm The Carlyle Group. The deal creates an entity with approximately $55 billion in assets under management. Moving forward, Metropolitan will operate under the name BGO Strategic Capital Partners.
KATY, TEXAS — Academy Sports + Outdoors Inc. (NASDAQ: ASO) reported a record $1.6 billion in net sales for its fiscal fourth quarter that ended on Jan. 31, 2021, a figure that represents a 16.6 percent year-over-year increase. E-commerce contributed significantly to this growth, rising 60.7 percent year-over-year as customers increasingly shopped online and either picked up their goods in stores or had them delivered. For the fiscal year 2020, the metro Houston-based retailer reported total revenue of approximately $5.7 billion, an increase of 17.8 percent from fiscal 2019. The company’s stock price opened at $25.78 per share on Wednesday, March 31, up from the closing price $12.99 per share on Oct. 2, 2020, shortly after the company went public. Academy Sports + Outdoors operates more than 250 stores across 16 states.
MENLO PARK, CALIF. AND NEW YORK CITY — Flexible office space provider WeWork has entered into an agreement with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) BowX Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: BOWX) to be taken public at an initial valuation of $9 billion. A SPAC is a business entity with no commercial operations that is formed strictly to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) for the purpose of acquiring other companies. Menlo Park, Calif.-based BowX Acquisition Corp. is an affiliate of Bow Capital, a venture capital firm begun by Vivek Ranadive, the founder of TIBCO software and owner of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. The transaction, which is expected to close by the third quarter, will provide New York City-based WeWork with approximately $1.3 billion of cash to fund future growth initiatives. The transaction will be funded with BowX’s $483 million of cash in trust, in addition to $800 million in private investment from capital sources such as Insight Partners, funds managed by Starwood Capital Group and others. SPACs have recently grown in popularity among private and institutional investors alike as vehicles for taking companies public. According to Forbes, which recently analyzed the U.S. activity of SPACs, these entities raised as much …