AMHERST, N.H. — Empire Moulding & Millwork, a division of Novo Building Products, has signed a 217,000-square-foot industrial lease in Amherst, located outside of Nashua in the southern part of the Granite State. The facility is expected to open in the fourth quarter and to employ at least 70 people. Novo Building Products is a Michigan-based manufacturer and distributor of stair parts, mouldings, doors and specialty millwork, along with a variety of board products.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Regional developer Diversified Properties has completed the lease-up of 480 Flatz, a 35-unit apartment complex in the Northern New Jersey community of East Rutherford. The property, which is now fully occupied, features one-, two- and three-bedroom units with granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and in-unit washers and dryers. Diversified Properties developed the property in a joint venture with North Jersey Builders Group.
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. — Round Table Studios, a provider of flexible and coworking solutions, has opened a 40,000-square-foot space in the Northern New Jersey city of Berkeley Heights. The space is located within The Park, a 185-acre mixed-use redevelopment. The space features configurable office suite studios, on-demand meeting rooms, a traditional coworking gallery and an upscale coworking library. Members also have access to The Park’s onsite amenities, including a 12,000-square-foot fitness center, biking and walking trails and a health clinic.
NEW YORK CITY — Zeta Charter Schools will open a 124,000-square-foot academic institution at 400 W. 219th St. in Upper Manhattan. The school, which will be called Zeta Inwood, will serve students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade and is slated to open ahead of the 2023-2024 academic year. The campus will have multiple outdoor play areas, including a 10,000-square-foot rooftop playground as well as a separate early childhood playground and an indoor basketball court. Bolivar Development is constructing the eight-story building that will house the new school. Lindsay Ornstein, Stephen Powers and Thomas Hines of Transwestern provided tenant advisory services for Zeta Charter Schools.
HOFFMAN ESTATES, ILL. — Platinum Home Mortgage Corp. (PHMC) has signed a 22,000-square-foot office lease at Bell Works Chicagoland in Hoffman Estates. The privately held mortgage company and national lender will occupy 16,000 square feet on the fourth floor and an additional 2,000 square feet on the second floor. Freedom Title Corp., an affiliated entity, will occupy 4,000 square feet on the second floor. PHMC plans to move into its new space this fall. Existing tenants at Bell Works Chicagoland include accounting firm CPA Advisors Group, mosquito control company Mosquito Hunters, and equity crowdfunding firm The Next Unicorn. Somerset Development is the owner and developer of the property, which is the adaptive reuse of the former AT&T campus. Steve King, Francis Prock and Darryl Silverman of Colliers International, along with Jeffrey Garibaldi Sr., Tara Keating and Lindsey Florio of The Garibaldi Group, serve as the leasing teams for the office space at Bell Works Chicagoland. Jason Simon of Colliers represented PHMC in its lease.
LENEXA, KAN. — Summit Marketing, a marketing and fundraising communications firm, has signed a 13,400-square-foot office lease at Tech Center 3 within Lenexa’s Southlake Office Park. RJ Trowbridge of JLL represented the owner, City+Ventures, which purchased the property in 2019 and added new signage, exterior paint, landscaping and renovated lobbies. Southlake spans 11 buildings and 753,000 square feet. Straub Construction will build out the interior tenant space for Summit.
PARAMUS, N.J. — Pinstripes, an entertainment concept that combines bowling and bocce ball with food and beverages, will open a new venue at Westfield Garden State Plaza in the Northern New Jersey community of Paramus. The opening is scheduled for late 2022. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield owns the 2.1 million-square-foot property.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — FedEx Ground Package Service has signed a 186,577-square-foot industrial lease within Carter Distribution Center in Fort Worth. Built in 2018 on the city’s south side, Carter Distribution Center offers proximity to Interstates 20 and 35, as well as 32-foot clear heights and an ESFR sprinkler system. Matt Carthey and Thomas Grafton with Holt Lunsford Commercial represented the owner, PGIM, in the lease negotiations. Curt Star with Fischer & Co. represented the tenant.
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Re-Evaluating Valuations: One Year Later
Four months into the pandemic, Meghan Czechowski, valuation lead for Apprise by Walker & Dunlop and managing director of the Midwest Region, advised multifamily appraisers not to jump to conclusions about the long-term impacts of the pandemic. “We did advise caution, and it ended up playing exactly the way we thought it would: results differed market by market and asset by asset. That’s how we approach valuation at Apprise to start with, and that approach is how most of the appraisal industry wound up valuing multifamily throughout the pandemic.” Over a year after her initial assessment, Meghan spoke again to REBusinessOnline about what has changed in the world of multifamily appraisals and where those changes are trending. Incorporating Valuation Data from 2020 Early in 2020, there was a general assumption that there would be a discount in multifamily values, but there were no sales to support that assumption until June/July of last year when sales comps appeared on properties in most markets. Now it is essential to ensure that the data Apprise collects reflects the current reality. Once the shutdowns ended, data collection became easier. Czechowski says that real-time information allowed for an even better way to understand, analyze and …
CINCINNATI — Deloitte, one of the Big Four global accounting firms, has signed a 30,000-square-foot anchor lease at Foundry, a mixed-use development underway in downtown Cincinnati. The developer and landlord is Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit developer that was created in 2003 by a City of Cincinnati task force. “We hope this is the first of many exciting announcements to come over the next few months, as we work to fill this essential building in our urban core with more world-class organizations like Deloitte,” says Katie Westbrook, development manager of 3CDC. Deloitte will occupy office space on the second floor of the $51 million project, which is a redevelopment of a former Macy’s-anchored building called Fountain Place. The building also housed Tiffany & Co., Palomino Restaurant and Booksellers on Fountain Square before they all closed their doors. Travis Likes and Scott Yards of CBRE represented 3CDC in the lease deal. Construction on Deloitte’s new space will begin immediately and is expected to be complete in late 2021 or early 2022. Foundry will ultimately feature 150,000 square feet of revitalized office space, 35,000 square feet of ground-level retail and restaurant space and 164 underground parking spaces that …