VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. — Apex Entertainment will open an 84,000-square-foot location at the former site of a Dick’s Sporting Goods within Town Center of Virginia Beach. The asset will be situated at 4631 Columbus St., equidistant between downtown Norfolk and Virginia Beach. The property will feature a variety of activities including indoor go karting, bowling, laser tag, escape rooms, ropes courses, arcade, sports simulators, ax throwing, mini golf, bumper cars, virtual reality and event meeting space. The location will also offer a full-service kitchen. Marlborough, Mass.-based Apex expects to open the location by the end of the year.
GULFPORT, MISS. — Gulf Coast Housing Partnership (GCHP) and South Mississippi Housing & Development Corp. (SMHD) have broken ground on the redevelopment of North Park Estates in Gulfport. Phase I of the redevelopment will include demolishing 92 units, 31 of which are uninhabitable, according to the developers. SMHD and GCHP expect to deliver Phase I in summer 2021. The units will be reserved for residents earning at or below 60 percent of the area median income (AMI). North Park Estates was originally built in 1959 as the former L.C. Jones public housing complex for the Mississippi Regional Housing Authority No. VIII (MRHA VIII). SMHD acquired the asset in 2008 and rebranded the 160-unit community as North Park Estates. The project was funded, in part, via a $500,000 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant from The Peoples Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas).
WACO, TEXAS — Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) will open a 700,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Waco, the Seattle-based e-commerce giant’s first in the Central Texas city. The facility is expected to come on line in 2021 and to bring about 1,000 new full-time jobs to the market. Local CBS affiliate KWTX reports that the facility will be situated on a 90-acre site at 2000 Exchange Parkway near Baylor Scott & White Hillcrest Medical Center on the city’s south side. Over the last decade, Amazon has made approximately $17 billion in capital investment in Texas, resulting in the creation of some 43,000 new jobs.
MIDLOTHIAN, TEXAS — Sunrider International, a California-based provider of food, health, beauty and household products, will open a 71-acre manufacturing and research and development facility in the southern Dallas suburb of Midlothian. Construction of the facility is underway, and the company will begin relocating employees of its California manufacturing operation to the new plant in 2021. The Dallas Morning News reports that Sunrider recently filed permits to develop a 340,000-square-foot building on the site, as well as to eventually build a facility spanning 1 million square feet or more. The newspaper also reports that the City of Midlothian and Ellis County offered Sunrider more than a 50 percent property and business tax abatement if the company ultimately expands its footprint to 600,000 square feet and hires more than 200 employees. Chicago-based merchant bank Conlon & Co. owns the site.
HOUSTON — Ti Cold Development, which specializes in cold storage properties, will build a 303,920-square-foot facility within East Hardy Commerce Park in Houston. The site offers proximity to Interstate 45, Beltway 8 and George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The facility will feature more than 42,000 pallet positions and will be marketed to both multi-tenant and build-to-suit users. A construction schedule was not disclosed.
LAWRENCEBURG, IND. — Flaherty & Collins Properties has broken ground on Whiskey River, a $32 million luxury apartment development in Lawrenceburg, about 27 miles west of Cincinnati. The 150-unit project will include amenities such as a pool, lounge area, coworking lounge, fitness center, bark park and bike storage. The waterfront development will be located along the Ohio River. The name Whiskey River alludes to Lawrenceburg’s long history in whiskey production, earning it the nickname “Whiskey City, USA.” Busey Bank served as construction lender. Flaherty & Collins Construction is the general contractor and American Structurepoint is the architect and engineer. Completion is slated for summer 2022.
MINNEAPOLIS — W+Noordijk, in partnership with Yellow Tree Development and Sentinel Management Co., have acquired the historic Alden Smith Mansion in Minneapolis and plan to restore and incorporate it into a larger 124-unit apartment project. The Minneapolis Community & Technical College (MCTC) had been actively pursuing restoration strategies for the mansion since 2010. The developers plan to fully revitalize the house and develop it into a social hub for residents, equipped with coworking spaces, a coffee bar, billiards room and wellness spaces. The mansion will also house three luxury apartment suites on the upper floor. Construction is scheduled to begin in November with completion slated for spring 2022. BHDM Design and Studio BV are serving as interior designers while DJR Architecture is the project architect. Yellow Tree Construction Services is the general contractor. Old National Bank arranged financing for the project. The developers purchased the house from the State of Minnesota, which had owned the property located on the MCTC campus since 1996. Horatio Alden Smith, the home’s original owner, was a partner in the Smith & Wyman Sash and Door Co. He lived in the house with his family from 1887 to 1906. His wife sold the home in …
ROMEOVILLE, ILL. — Principle Construction Corp. has completed the construction of Lola’s Truck Wash, a four-bay truck cleaning facility located at 1331 N. Independence Road in Romeoville. Principle worked to reduce the amount of fresh water required to support the 12,840-square-foot project in order to maximize environmental and economic efficiency. Principle built a series of trench drains and wastewater sediment separation tanks to facilitate water recycling needs of the truck wash. A&M Architects LLC was the project architect. Romeoville is the second heaviest-traveled truck corridor in Chicagoland, according to Principle’s COO Mark Augustyn. It is situated near I-55.
BAYONNE, N.J. — A local developer doing business as 957 Broadway, Urban Renewal LLC has opened Bay One, a 91-unit apartment complex located in the Northern New Jersey city of Bayonne. Bay One offers studio, one- and two-bedroom units and an 8,000-square-foot rooftop garden with grilling and dining areas, a fire pit lounge, fenced dog run and pet spa station. Rents start at $1,750 per month for a studio unit.
KENT, WASH. — Cadence Living and Flournoy Development Group have broken ground on Cadence at Kent-Meridian in the Seattle suburb of Kent. The five-acre property is an infill location located adjacent to restaurants and other amenities, with views of Mount Rainier and contains a forest. The three-story building will feature 128 units for both independent and assisted living. Santé Development Group aided in the site selection process. “It is very rare to find a site that combines urban walkability with a natural preserve,” says Rob Leinbach, Cadence principal. “Combine that with the ability for an intergenerational experience with the adjacent high school and the fact that there has not been newer, state-of-the-art seniors housing construction in the Kent submarket leads us to believe we have a very special project.” A timeline for completion was not released.