CHICAGO AND DALLAS — Cushman & Wakefield has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC, a Dallas-based apartment management firm. With more than 169,000 units across 839 properties in its operational portfolio, Pinnacle is the third-largest multifamily property management firm in the United States. The firm’s client list includes institutional, private and foreign investors; financial institutions; pension funds; private partnerships; sole owners; and government housing groups. The acquisition will boost Chicago-based Cushman & Wakefield’s management division across 20 key U.S. markets, increasing its overall portfolio to 869 million square feet in North and South America. Rick Graf, president and CEO of Pinnacle, will lead the Americas Multifamily Property Management platform for Cushman & Wakefield. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including antitrust approvals.
VIENNA, VA. — The Ratner Cos., the parent company of salon concepts such as Hair Cuttery, Bubbles and Salon Cielo, plans to trim its 844-store portfolio by 10 percent. The company plans to maintain a presence in all existing markets as it looks to shift resources to its best-performing salons. Ratner Cos. cites “intense competition and rising operating costs,” as well as shifting consumer shopping methods, as the basis for its decision. The firm has engaged in discussions with landlords to renegotiate terms or exit some of its leases. In addition to store closures, Ratner is reducing staff at its Resource Center in its home office in Vienna to reflect its lower overall footprint. The majority of impacted staff in the salons have been offered employment at sister salons in their immediate areas, according to Ratner. The store closings will begin this week and continue for several months.
ORLANDO, FLA. — Shelton Granade, Luke Wickham and Justin Basquill have joined the Orlando office of Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap. Granade joins the firm as an executive managing director. Wickham and Basquill join the firm as senior managing director and first vice president, respectively. As a team, the three brokers have closed more than $10 billion in sales. All three brokers were formally with CBRE. “The addition of this outstanding team is another step forward in our growth plan for IPA throughout North America,” said Jeffery Daniels, senior vice president and national director of IPA Multifamily. “Our ability to attract one of the most successful multifamily sales teams in the country is a testament to IPA’s success in creating an entrepreneurial, collaborative culture focused on client service and goal attainment.”
FRAMINGHAM, MASS. — Bose Corp. will close all of its 54 stores in the U.S., as well as many remaining locations in Australia, Japan and Europe in the coming months, totaling 119 brick-and-mortar locations. The Framingham-based company, which specializes in audio engineering, said the closures are due to “dramatic” shifts to online shopping. Bose opened its first store in 1993 and currently has its biggest concentration of stores in the Northeast (10), Southern California (nine) and Florida (seven). “Originally, our retail stores gave people a way to experience, test and talk to us about multi-component, CD and DVD-based home entertainment systems,” says Colette Burke, vice president of global sales at Bose. “At the time, it was a radical idea, but we focused on what our customers needed, and where they needed it — and we’re doing the same thing now.” Furthermore, as smartphones changed the industry, Bose focused on mobile, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi solutions. Today, the company said its major products are being purchased through e-commerce channels, including Bose.com. Bose says it will continue to operate 130 stores in China, the United Arab Emirates, India, Southeast Asia and South Korea. The privately held company said it will not disclose how many …
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Multifamily finance firm Walker & Dunlop has announced the formation of a new investment sales team in Austin, which represents the company’s first office in the state capital. Managing directors Matt Pohl and Forrest Bass and vice president Spencer Roy, all of whom previously worked at HFF prior to its acquisition by JLL, will lead the team in the sourcing and execution of multifamily deals. The team will focus on Texas and markets in the Southeastern United States. The office is located at 501 Congress Ave and is open for business.
IRVING, TEXAS — Greystone has purchased C-III Asset Management (C3AM), an Irving-based special servicer, as well as the firm’s $20.7 billion portfolio. C3AM offers fund management, principal investment, mortgage origination, loan servicing, investment sales, property management and brokerage services for its U.S. clients, according to Bloomberg. These clients include third-party portfolio owners, CMBS trusts, CDOs (collateralized debt obligation) and government agencies. The company was previously a wholly owned subsidiary of New York-based C-III Capital Partners LLC. Paul Smyth will lead Greystone’s newly created special servicing group. Smyth, who recently joined Greystone, was the former president of C3AM before taking an executive role at Credit Suisse in New York for the past several years. New York-based Greystone is a real estate lender, investor and advisor in the multifamily and healthcare real estate sectors. The company offers agency, CMBS, HUD, bridge and proprietary financing through its platforms such as Greystone Servicing Co., Greystone Funding Co. and other affiliates.
HOUSTON — Minneapolis-based NorthMarq has acquired Kinghorn, Driver, Hough & Co. (KDH), a commercial debt and equity firm based in Houston. Ray Driver will relinquish his role as principal of KDH to become managing director of NorthMarq’s Houston office, joining Tony Gray and John Burke to lead the office. Founded in 1945, KDH is self-described as the oldest independently owned commercial real estate capital company in Texas. Formerly part of the Q10 network, KDH will bring eight additional mortgage banking professionals and five financial analysts, increasing the total employees in the expanded NorthMarq office to nearly 30. KDH also brings a loan servicing portfolio totaling nearly $2 billion, extending NorthMarq’s servicing portfolio to more than $60 billion.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Pier 1 Imports Inc., a home goods retailer based in Fort Worth, has announced its intention to shutter up to 450 stores, which represents nearly half of its current store count of 936. The retailer also plans to close a select number of distribution centers and reduce its corporate expenses, which includes corporate layoffs. Pier 1 says that its efforts will help right-size the company’s omni-channel operations and allow it to move forward with an “appropriately sized store footprint.” Pier 1 has hired a third-party liquidator to help manage the store closings. The locations of the closing stores and distribution centers were not disclosed. Pier 1 (NYSE: PIR) reported that its net sales are down 13.3 percent year-over-year in its most recent quarter ending Nov. 30, 2019. (The company’s fiscal calendar traditionally runs from early March to late February.) Pier 1 also reported a 15.3 percent reduction in its inventory compared to this time last year. Robert Riesbeck, CEO and CFO of Pier 1, says that the company has been seeking to clear out its “non go-forward” merchandise. “Looking ahead, we believe that we will deliver improved financial results over time as we realize the benefits …
IRVINE, CALIF., AND SALT LAKE CITY — Irvine-based Faris Lee Investments, a national retail advisory and investment sales firm, and Salt Lake City-based MTN Retail Advisors, a grocer-specialized data collection and analytics provider, have entered into a partnership agreement. The collaboration will allow the team to combine Faris Lee’s retail, real estate, finance and investment advisory services with MTN’s predictive analytics and proprietary technology, including artificial intelligence machine learning. “MTN’s retail-specific, fact-based analytics will factor into the valuation, underwriting and assessment of these assets as we examine the real estate in any local market for the benefit of the occupier, investor/developer and lender,” says Rick Chichester, president and CEO of Faris Lee Investments. MTN maintains data records on more than 28,000 active U.S. grocers — a number that will grow to include 40,000 grocers over the next 18 months as the partnership takes shape. “We are not a market research firm, a demographer or an aggregator,” says Doug Munson, principal and founder of MTN Retail Advisors. “We take an analytic approach to retail investment that doesn’t exist anywhere else today. Our methods have been refined over the company’s 15-year history, through physical site visits to every grocery we have on …
CHATTANOOGA, TENN. — CBL Properties (NYSE: CBL) will suspend its stock dividends for 2019 and possibly through year-end 2020 in the face of retail bankruptcies, store closures and corporate restructurings of tenants within its portfolio. The Chattanooga-based shopping center and mall owner’s board of directors will review the suspension quarterly but doesn’t expect the dividends to resume in 2020. CBL announced the decision following a review of current taxable income projections for 2019 and 2020. Unpaid dividends on CBL’s preferred stock shall accrue without interest. The suspension includes CBL’s common stock, 7.375% Series D Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock and 6.625% Series E Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock. CBL’s stock price fell in the wake of the announcement, going from $1.36 per share Monday afternoon to 93 cents per share Tuesday morning, then steadily rose to $1.03 for Thursday’s opening. Stephen Lebovitz, CBL’s CEO, says that the REIT has tried to shore up operating costs the past 18 months through reducing executive compensation and capital expenditures, as well as bringing on joint venture partners. Lebovitz expects the company’s net operating income to decline in 2020.