PORTLAND, ORE. — The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR)’s Fall World Conference is set to take place Oct. 16 to 19 at the Hilton Portland in Portland. Starting in the afternoon on Oct. 16, attendees will be able to sit in on a wide variety of panels and discussions, including Industrial Occupiers: A View from the Inside; Smart Building Platforms; Global Cities – Challenges & Opportunities: Impact on Real Estate; Underwriting & Due Diligence of Investment CRE Deals; and Augmented Reality (AR): Real Estate’s New Reality. SIOR selected Portland for this year’s conference to highlight growth in the city’s commercial office and industrial sectors since 2018. According to CoStar’s Loopnet, office prices have risen by 9.2 percent and industrial has increased by 18.5 percent.
FRISCO, TEXAS — Quality Custom Distribution (QDC), a division of Golden State Foods that services restaurant chains like Chick-fil-A, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Starbucks Coffee, will relocate its corporate headquarters from Irvine, California, to Frisco. The company expects to begin moving in to its new facility in January 2020. QCD already operates a manufacturing and distribution facility in the metroplex. According to The Orange County Register, the facility could house as many as 45 workers.
DORAVILLE, GA. — The Integral Group has added three development partners at Assembly Yards, a 165-acre mixed-use redevelopment of the former General Motors plant in Doraville. Paces Properties has joined the development team as the retail partner, StreetLights Residential will serve as the multifamily partner and Ashton Woods Homes as the single-family home builder. Additionally, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a Texas-based chain of movie theaters with in-house dining and bar service, will open its first Georgia location at Assembly Yards in 2021. Paces Properties expects to build 125,000 square feet of retail space, including a 16,000-square-foot food hall. Dallas-based StreetLights Residential will construct 300 multifamily units, while Ashton Woods will deliver 150 townhomes. The partnerships with Paces, StreetLights and Ashton Woods combined will add $175 million of development to the site. The first set of retail openings is scheduled for early 2021. In May, Serta Simmons Bedding also celebrated the grand opening of its new 250,000-square-foot headquarters at Assembly alongside Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Doraville Mayor Donna Pittman. At the same time, NAVYA launched an autonomous shuttle, the first-of-its-kind in the region.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding rose $51.9 billion, or 1.5 percent, in the second quarter over the prior quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). At the end of the first half of 2019, total commercial and multifamily debt outstanding was $3.5 trillion. Multifamily mortgage debt alone increased $24.4 billion (1.7 percent) to $1.5 trillion from the first quarter. Commercial banks continued to hold the largest share (39 percent) of commercial and multifamily mortgages at $1.4 trillion. Agency and government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) portfolios and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) were the second largest holders of commercial and multifamily mortgages (20 percent) at $703 billion. Life insurance companies held $539 billion (15 percent), and CMBS, collateralized debt obligation (CDO) and other asset-backed security (ABS) issues held $471 billion (13 percent). “Strong borrowing and lending, coupled with relatively low levels of loan maturities, are helping to boost the amount of commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding,” says Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s vice president of commercial real estate research. “All four major capital sources increased their holdings during the quarter. With strong demand expected to continue, debt levels are likely to climb even more and end the year at a new …
NEW YORK CITY AND DALLAS — Blackstone Real Estate Partners IX, an affiliate of New York City-based global investment firm Blackstone (NYSE: BX), has agreed to acquire Colony Industrial, the Dallas-based industrial arm of Colony Capital Inc. (NYSE: CLNY). The deal is valued at approximately $5.9 billion. Terms of the deal call for Blackstone to purchase Colony Capital’s logistics portfolio, which consists of approximately 60 million square feet across 465 light industrial buildings in 26 U.S. markets. The transaction is expected to close during the fourth quarter. The sale also includes Colony’s 51 percent ownership interest in a 4 million-square-foot portfolio of distribution assets and the affiliated operating platform that manages those properties. “This acquisition of high-quality warehouses demonstrates our continued strong conviction in logistics and positive e-commerce trends,” says Nadeem Meghji, head of real estate Americas at Blackstone. “As retailers continue to shorten delivery times and expand their last-mile footprints, we believe warehouses in dense population centers will continue to experience outsized demand growth.” Willkie Farr & Gallagher served as legal counsel; Morgan Stanley and Eastdil Secured served as financial advisors; and CBRE National Partners served as real estate advisor to Colony Capital. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett served as …
BETHESDA, MD. — Shareholders of Condor Hospitality Trust Inc., a lodging REIT based in Bethesda, have approved the proposed $318 million merger between Condor and NexPoint Hospitality Trust, a hotel REIT headquartered in Toronto. NexPoint and Condor expect the merger to close in the fourth quarter. As part of the deal, NexPoint will acquire Condor’s outstanding equity interests and operating partnership. “The transaction instantly expands [our] geographical footprint and balances NexPoint’s value-add portfolio with extended-stay hotels,” says Jim Dondero, CEO of NexPoint. “We believe the future for quality extended-stay and select-service hotels remains bright.” The shareholders of Condor (NYSE: CDOR) held a special meeting on Monday, Sept. 23 whereby 81.8 percent of the shares of Condor common stock voted in favor of adopting and approving the merger agreement, which NexPoint announced in late July. The merger allows NexPoint to enter several new markets, including Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi and South Carolina. The move will also expand the REIT’s presence in Florida and Texas. Condor Hospitality Trust currently owns 15 hotels in eight states totaling more than 1,900 rooms. The hotel flags in the company’s portfolio includes Hilton, Marriott and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). NexPoint Hospitality Trust began operations in …
DALLAS AND HOUSTON — JLL has entered into an agreement to acquire the Dallas and Houston operations of Peloton Commercial, a leasing and management firm based in Texas. Peloton co-founding partners Joel Pustmueller and T.D. Briggs will join JLL’s Jeff Eckert in leading the integration of the teams. Peloton’s John Myers will assume regional leadership of property management for Dallas-Fort Worth. In May, Cushman & Wakefield acquired the Austin operations of Peloton, which was founded in 2002 and currently leases or manages more than 25 million square feet of commercial space.
DALLAS AND FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Colliers International has added a new team of seven investment sales professionals focusing on single- and multi-tenant retail, office, industrial and healthcare properties. Geoff Ficke, who most recently served as senior vice president of Marcus & Millichap, will lead the new team, which has closed transactions with a collectively value of more than $1 billion over the last 10 years.
SALISBURY, MD. — NAI Global has opened NAI Coastal, a new office in Salisbury that will serve the coastal region of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. Chris Davis; Bradley Gillis, CCIM; Joey Gilkerson; and Chris Gilkerson are the principals of NAI Coastal, which also includes a team of eight advisers. The NAI Coastal team specializes in buyer and tenant representation focusing on the hospitality, multifamily, medical, office, retail and industrial sectors. NAI Coastal also works in conjunction with Gillis Gilkerson, a local construction and development firm. The partnership allows the NAI Coastal team to advise clients in the process of commercial real estate development from concept to completion.
SAN ANTONIO — Equitable Commercial Realty (ECR), and Austin-based brokerage and management firm, will expand its suite of services to the San Antonio market, where it already has multiple listings, including the Aztec Building downtown. Albert Vazquez will lead the new San Antonio office of ECR, which has been ranked as one of the nation’s 5,000 fastest-growing companies for four consecutive years.