DES PLAINES, ILL. — Des Plaines-based CORFAC International’s first-half 2025 survey of members from 75 independent commercial real estate firms across the globe shows that deal activity is on an upward trajectory. When assessing the past six months, 67 percent of respondents said that deal activity had increased, compared with 35 percent of respondents in the last survey. Industrial real estate continues to be the leading driver of CORFAC members’ business. Nearly 70 percent of respondents said it was a leading driver of business so far in 2025, and 56 percent said they expected it to be the leading sector in the second half of the year. In addition, 72 percent identified warehouse and distribution centers, continuing the trend from 2024, of those categories leading the way. Members from 40 markets around the world identified positive employment trends (55 percent), population migration into their market (48 percent), and stabilizing interest rates (38 percent) as the three key factors that are having a positive influence on transaction activity. Some economic realities that are worrying members include high costs of construction (66 percent), inflation and interest rates (60 percent), and local and national policies (40 percent). “We’re pleased to see the strong …
HOUSTON — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of Right Move Storage, a 367-unit self-storage facility in West Houston. Built on 2.5 acres in 1985, the facility comprises five single-story buildings totaling 44,325 net rentable square feet of space across 342 non-climate-controlled units and 25 outdoor parking spaces. Dave Knobler, Mixson Staffel and Charles LeClaire of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, a Texas-based limited liability company, in the transaction. The buyer was a Florida-based limited liability company. Both parties requested anonymity.
GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS — Constellation Real Estate Partners has broken ground on a 286,700-square-foot speculative industrial project in Grand Prairie, located roughly midway between Dallas and Fort Worth. Designed by Meinhardt Associates, Constellation Rock Island Logistics Center will be situated on a 16.8-acre site and will feature 36-foot clear heights and 80 trailer parking spots. The building will also be able to accommodate a single or multiple users. Cushman & Wakefield is the leasing agent for the project, construction of which is slated for a second-quarter 2026 completion.
HOUSTON — The industrial operating platform of Philadelphia-based investment and development firm Arden Group has completed the $8 million renovation of North Park 34, an 865,000-square-foot industrial property in North Houston. Capital improvements included the full repainting of all building exteriors, the installation of drought-tolerant landscaping and the gutting of 30 vacant suites to create turnkey spaces. These initiatives have helped facilitate 48 leases totaling nearly 252,000 square feet over the past 12 months. Stream Realty Partners leases North Park 34.
HOUSTON — Packeze LLC has signed a 44,883-square-foot industrial lease in West Houston. The provider of custom signs, banners and moving boxes is consolidating its regional footprint within the building at 11335 Clay Road, which according to LoopNet Inc. was built in 2000 and totals 78,175 square feet. Building features include 20-foot clear heights and 10,365 square feet of office space. Darryl Noon and Brian Gammill of Transwestern represented the landlord, a Texas-based limited liability company, in lease negotiations. Lewis Walker of Texas Global Partners represented the tenant.
HUNTSVILLE, ALA. — Newmark has arranged a $53.5 million loan for the refinancing of an approximately 650,000-square-foot industrial property along I-565 and adjacent to Huntsville International Airport. The borrower is White Plains, N.Y.-based Reich Brothers. Blue Origin, an astronautics company founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, fully occupies the facility. The property serves as one of the BE-4 engine testing and manufacturing facilities for Blue Origin. Christopher Kramer, Chris Lozinak and Jordan Roeschlaub of Newmark arranged the financing through Loancore.
RANDOLPH, N.J. — Locally based brokerage firm Resource Realty has negotiated the $4.5 million sale of a 28,000-square-foot industrial building located in the Northern New Jersey community of Randolph. According to LoopNet Inc., the single-tenant building at 273 Franklin Road was completed in 1991 and features a clear height of 12 feet and two dock-high loading doors. Tom Consiglio of Resource Realty represented the buyer, Commerce Park Investors, in the transaction.
RENO, NEV. — Metcalf Builders has broken ground on East Building 6 at Comstock Commerce Center, a logistics property owned by Locus Development Group. Slated for completion in fourth-quarter 2025, East Building 6 will offer 475,880 square feet of bulk industrial space designed to meet the needs of modern logistics and manufacturing space. The $24 million project is located within Tahoe Reno Industrial Center.
EAGAN, MINN. — Oppidan Investment Co. has broken ground on a 61,000-square-foot data center on Argenta Trail, south of the YMCA property in the Minneapolis suburb of Eagan. The project marks one of only two ground-up data center developments currently underway in Minnesota, according to Oppidan, which is serving as the landlord and directly financing, developing and delivering the facility in partnership with a tenant. Completion is slated for 2026. Project partners include the City of Eagan, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Dakota County, Greater MSP, Dakota Electric Association and Great River Energy. Gardner Builders is the general contractor, ERA Associates is the structural engineer, Stantec is the civil engineer, Salas O’Brien is the architect and States Manufacturing is the electric equipment supplier.
SEATTLE — Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) plans to invest “at least $20 billion” in future cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) innovation campuses in Pennsylvania. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant has identified Salem Township in Luzerne County and Falls Township in Bucks County as the first communities that will host these campuses, with other Pennsylvania communities also under consideration. “I’m proud to announce that we have secured the largest private sector investment in the history of Pennsylvania,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. “Pennsylvania is competing again.” Upon completion, the campuses will house data centers with computer servers, data storage drives, networking equipment and other technology infrastructure used for cloud computing capabilities and generative AI. Specific details about the sites and construction timelines were not released. Last week, Amazon made a similar announcement for a $10 billion data center innovation campus in Richmond County, N.C., which followed an $11 billion investment in Georgia that Amazon announced in January. Amazon stated that the Pennsylvania investment will create at least 1,250 new jobs, as well as thousands of jobs in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center supply chain. The new jobs will range from data center engineers and network specialists, to engineering operations managers, security …