HOUSTON — NAI Partners, which provides brokerage and consultant services to the office, retail and industrial markets of Houston, Austin and San Antonio, has announced its intention to hire at least 20 new investment sales professionals across its three core markets by the end of 2020. The company cites its use of key technological platforms such as Google Earth Tour Builder, Matterport, Microsoft Teams and Zoom as critical to its ability to share information and deliver real-time solutions to clients amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The firm has made several new hires of late and has not laid off or furloughed any employees in its three primary markets since the pandemic began.
SEATTLE — This week, Seattle-based Starbucks started reopening its company-operated stores across the United States. Operating under modified operations and hours, including heightened safety protocols, the company plans to have more than 85 percent of stores opened by May 9 and expects to have more than 90 percent of stores open by early June. The company is using its experience in China, where more than 98 percent of its store are open and operating under revised protocols, as the foundation for its reopening in the United States amid the continued concerns of the global COVID-19 pandemic. “We have adapted these protocols for the U.S., and our goal is to exceed the standards outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a safe experience, including heightened emphasis on cleaning and sanitizing protocols in our stores,” says Kevin Johnson, CEO and president of Starbucks. The coffee company has expanded its service beyond drive-up to include mobile order for contactless pick-up, delivery and, in some locations, curbside parking and grab-and-go through the café. To that end, Starbucks is focusing on the safest and more convenient ways for customers to order through its Starbucks App, with expanded features including optimization for curbside …
ADDISON, TEXAS — Real estate veteran Andy Anderson, formerly of Henry S. Miller, has formed Restaurant Properties Group, a new firm providing brokerage and consulting services to investors, owners and occupants of restaurant real estate. The company’s new office is located at 15305 Dallas Parkway in Addison on the city’s north side.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — LoopNet Inc. has launched CoTour, a virtual way for tenants, owners and brokers to browse commercial space in real time. CoTour can host a LoopNet member and up to 20 non-members at a time, giving all participants an opportunity to see the space and discuss with the others in the private meeting room. CoTour pulls its content from 3D virtual tours, HD video tours, aerial drone videography and architectural photography already existing on LoopNet listings. Washington, D.C.-based LoopNet’s marketplace covers all commercial property categories, including office, industrial, retail, apartments, hotel, land, specialty properties and investment properties. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 6.4 million tenants virtually toured properties on LoopNet in April, which is up 61 percent from the prior month.
DALLAS — Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE: AHT) announced this weekend that it will return all funds from loans it received from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), citing recently changed rules that would have put the Dallas-based company at compliance risk. Ashford, whose portfolio includes some 120 U.S. hotels totaling nearly 25,000 rooms, has also made a change in leadership, replacing CEO Douglas Kessler with J. Robison Hays III as the company’s new president and top executive effective May 14. According to The Dallas Morning News (DMN), Ashford originally applied for $126 million in PPP loans, seeking relief for each hotel with 500 or fewer employees. Per the DMN, the company originally said that it had laid off or furloughed 90 percent of its workforce and would be using the funds to help get those employees back to work. The PPP was established as part of the CARES Act to provide relief to owner-operators amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
ATLANTA — Atlanta-based Jamestown has launched a $50 million fund to aid small businesses at its properties that are in the process of reopening as states relax retail closures. Funding allocations will be distributed as each qualifying tenant develops a reopening plan with its local Jamestown property management team. Funds received through the relief effort can be used to cover operating expenses, as well as mandatory measures implemented to remain in compliance with local, state and federal guidelines related to COVID-19. Jamestown did not release its definition for a small business but the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) defines a small business retail as companies earning less than $7.5 million in annual receipts. In March, Jamestown launched an online resource guide to help its small business tenants find materials about maintaining business operations, financing, health and safety resources, as well as best practices for operating and reopening in a COVID-19 environment. Jamestown owns properties in New York, California, Washington, D.C., Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Massachusetts. Some of its notable assets include Ponce City Market and The Shops at Buckhead Atlanta in Georgia, One Times Square in New York City, Constitution Wharf in Massachusetts, and Raleigh Iron Works in North Carolina.
NEW YORK CITY — J.Crew Group Inc., which operates the J.Crew and Madewell fashion retail brands, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company hopes to restructure its debt while aiming to eventually reopen its stores in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chinos Holdings Inc., the parent company of J.Crew, filed the voluntary petitions for protection on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Eastern District of Virginia. In a statement, the New York City-based retailer said its lenders and stakeholders agreed to convert $1.6 billion of debt into equity. Typically in a debt-to-equity conversion, lenders receive ownership of a company in exchange for cancelling existing debt. With this conversion, creditors will now own about 82 percent of the company, per The Wall Street Journal. The company also said it has secured $400 million in debtor-in-possession financing to exit debt structures with existing lenders such as Anchorage Capital Group and GSO Capital Partners. Between these initiatives, the company believes it can reopen many stores that have been temporarily shuttered amid the COVID-19 outbreak. As of May 1, J.Crew Group Inc. operated 181 J.Crew retail stores, 140 Madewell stores and 170 factory stores. “This agreement with our lenders …
ROCKVILLE, MD. — Federal Realty Investment Trust will implement a new program dubbed The Pick-Up at its properties beginning Friday, May 15. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the Rockville-based company said the program will offer a singular service across its tenants to limit physical contact. Federal Realty will introduce the new service where permitted by local jurisdictions. When a customer places an order with a retailer or restaurant within a Federal Realty-owned property by phone or online, the customer can designate a pick-up time and will be assigned a designated parking space. Employees will then bring the order to the customer’s car. Federal Realty owns properties including Bethesda Row and Pike & Rose in Maryland, Santana Row in Northern California, and other properties in Florida, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois.
ARLINGTON, VA. — Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) is “beginning to scale” at its HQ2 campus underway in Arlington, according to Jay Carney, the company’s senior vice president of global corporate affairs. During a weekly webinar series conducted by Walker & Dunlop, Carney said the corporate campus, dubbed Met Park, is under construction and that the company is hiring in earnest, though he said it will “take some time” to reach the previously announced 25,000 goal. Carney, who was the former White House press secretary during President Barack Obama’s administration, led Amazon’s national HQ2 search in 2017 and 2018 to find a second home for the company outside of Seattle. The e-commerce giant ultimately chose both Northern Virginia and Long Island City in the Queens borough of New York City in late 2018, in addition to a 1 million-square-foot outpost in Nashville, Tenn. Amazon pulled out of its planned New York City location in early 2019. Clark Construction is the general contractor for the HQ2 campus, and JBG Smith is Amazon’s development partner, as well as its landlord for office space that Amazon is using in the rebranded National Landing district in Arlington’s Crystal City submarket. Carney said the company is not …
ATLANTA — Harold Schumacher, founder of The Schumacher Group in Atlanta, died Saturday at the age of 72. Schumacher attended Michigan State University and moved to Atlanta as a public school teacher in the 1970s. He worked part-time as a restaurant critic for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Schumacher worked at The Shopping Center Group, now known as TSCG, as a broker for four years before founding The Schumacher Group in 1991. Some of Schumacher’s major clients include Verizon Wireless, Bruster’s, Metrotainment Cafes (Hudson Grill and Garrison’s), Varasano’s Pizza and Golden Corral. The firm also is part of the Retail Brokers Network, a national consortium of independent retail and restaurant pros.