AUSTIN, TEXAS — United Properties, a developer of office, industrial and mixed-use projects, will open a new office in Austin. Local industry veteran Josh Delk, who served as a regional partner at Transwestern for the last 13 years, will lead the new office as senior vice president. United Properties is based in Minneapolis and also has an office in Denver. Company officials cited an increasingly diverse economy and lifestyle in Austin, as well as the city’s strong tech presence, as key factors in selecting the market for its next office.
BALTIMORE — Continental Realty Corp. (CRC) has launched an internal program to aid the restaurant industry in the communities it serves. CRC owns and operates retail centers and multifamily properties in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Between April 14 and May 15, any CRC employee who provides a receipt for food items bought locally will be reimbursed up to $200. “We feel extremely strongly about initiating a program that benefits our loyal and hard-working team members and supports the restaurant sector,” says Crystal Frey, senior vice president of human resources for CRC. “With restaurants reduced to handling carry-out and curbside orders, we encourage other companies to follow our lead to minimize the disruption impacting both locally owned and nationally operated locations.” CRC is based in Baltimore and focuses on value-add properties throughout the Southeast.
MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIF. — True Religion, a premium jeans retailer based in Manhattan Beach, filed papers in Delaware bankruptcy court on Monday, April 13. In its filing, the company stated that pandemic-related closure of all its retail location and all the stores of its wholesale buyers had accelerated “existing liquidity constraints.” Due to these factors, True Religion furloughed all nonessential employees and reentered Chapter 11, which it previously entered in July 2017. “While the debtors would have preferred to wait out the current instabilities of the financial markets and retail industry generally, [True Religion] simply could not afford to do so,” according to the filing. The company, which was founded in 2002, stated in its bankruptcy filings that it has just north of 1,000 employees, 92 percent of them currently furloughed. The Chapter 11 petition listed between $100 million and $500 million in liabilities.
MELVILLE, N.Y. — A&G Real Estate Partners has negotiated the sale of the leasehold interest in 10 grocery stores previously occupied by organic specialty grocery chain Earth Fare. The grocer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in early February and the final leasehold sale closed Friday, April 10. The 10 stores averaged 26,000 square feet. Southeastern Grocers’ Winn-Dixie chain acquired four stores in Boynton Beach, Jacksonville, Lakewood Ranch and Viera, Fla. Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Markets acquired two stores in south Asheville, N.C., and Chattanooga, Tenn, and Aldi acquired one store in Tallahassee, Fla. An investor group that includes one of Earth Fare’s founders and several of the chain’s former executives acquired three stores, which are located in Athens, Ga.; Roanoke, Va.; and Asheville. The group also acquired Earth Fare’s trade name and other intellectual property. Joseph McKeska led an A&G team that represented Earth Fare in the transactions. The sales contributed a total of more than $6 million to the estate of Earth Fare. A&G, an asset disposition advisory firm based in Melville, also negotiated the lease terminations of nine Earth Fare locations. The agreements with landlords were in Gainesville, Ocala and Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; Columbia and Rock Hill, S.C.; …
PLANO, TEXAS — Cinemark Theatres (NYSE: CNK), an operating subsidiary of Cinemark USA Inc., has announced the sale of $250 million in senior debt notes in a private offering, the Plano-based entertainment company said in a statement on Monday. The offering on senior secured notes that are due in 2025 is expected to close on April 20, subject to customary closing conditions. Cinemark said it plans to use proceeds from the sale for “general corporate purposes” that will increase liquidity. Multiple news outlets, including The Dallas Morning News and the Phoenix Business Journal, also report that Cinemark is laying off 17,500 hourly employees and furloughing about half its corporate staff. As of September 2019, Cinemark operated 344 theaters totaling 4,630 screens in 41 U.S. states. Movie theaters were among the first categories of retailers to close their doors in response to the outbreak of COVID-19.
ATLANTA — The 32nd annual Hunter Hotel Investment Conference has been canceled for 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The conference, which brings together hotel investors, managers, developers, lenders and brokers, was originally scheduled for March 18-20 in downtown Atlanta, but was postponed indefinitely March 12 by Hunter Hotel Advisors. After much deliberation, the Atlanta-based organization decided to outright cancel the 2020 conference. “Through continually following the published guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and our local health officials we simply do not want to risk the health of any of our attendees or the people with whom they come into contact,” according to a statement that appears on the Hunter Hotel Conference website. In 2019, the conference attracted more than 1,850 attendees from across the Southeast. As of this writing, there are 467,184 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU). There are 1,336 confirmed cases in Fulton County, where the conference typically takes place. The next Hunter Hotel Investment Conference is now scheduled for March 9-11, 2021.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Walgreens will introduce rapid testing services for COVID-19 across select parts of the state, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. The move comes as part of a larger effort to increase the number of people tested, and to do so with less aid and supervision from the federal government. Walgreens will also roll out this effort in six other states: Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana and Tennessee. Local ABC affiliate KVUE reports that test results will take about 15 minutes to process, and that each site may be able to test up to 3,000 people per day. Time frames for the rollout of these services and locations of testing sites were not specified. As of Thursday, April 9, the Texas Department of Health and Human Services had identified 9,353 cases of COVID-19 across the state with 177 fatalities.
HOUSTON — Camden Property Trust, a Houston-based multifamily developer and operator, has established a $5 million resident relief fund for renters experiencing financial hardships as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. The fund is intended to help affected residents by providing financial assistance for living expenses such as food, utilities, medical expenses, insurance, childcare and/or transportation. Grants would be offered to Camden residents in good standing and not currently on notice to vacate. Financial assistance would be capped at $2,000 per apartment home.
NASHVILLE, TENN. — TC Restaurant Group has filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development to notify the agency of 411 employee layoffs stemming from closures due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Ohio-based company operates five honky-tonks in downtown Nashville, including Jason Aldean’s Kitchen + Rooftop Bar, Luke’s 32Bridge Food + Drink, Luigi’s City Pizza, Tequila Cowboy and FGL House. TC Restaurant Group says the employees were laid off in mid-March, when the company temporarily closed the doors to those establishments due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As of this writing, there have been 888 confirmed cases and nine deaths due to COVID-19 in Davidson County, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
DUNCAN, OKLA. — Houston-based oilfield services firm Halliburton Co. will lay off approximately 350 employees at its facility in Duncan, according to reports from several news outlets including The Houston Chronicle and Reuters. The Chronicle reports that the move was revealed via a filing with the Oklahoma Office of Workforce Development, and that the company has independently confirmed plans to reduce its workforce as oil prices continue to suffer. Several weeks ago in mid-March, Halliburton furloughed some 3,500 workers at its Houston headquarters via a program in which employees would work every other week for 60 days. As of Tuesday afternoon, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude stood at $25.61 per barrel, down from $63.98 per barrel a year ago.