DETROIT — LM Manufacturing, a joint venture between automotive suppliers Magna and LAN Manufacturing, has leased 296,000 square feet of manufacturing space in Detroit’s Delray neighborhood. The tenant is leasing space within the former Sakthi Industrial Campus, which Bedrock acquired in September 2020. The campus includes roughly 529,000 square feet of industrial space, 89,000 square feet of office space and 10 acres of developable land. LM Manufacturing’s lease will commence in May.
HOLLAND, MICH. — JLL Capital Markets has brokered the sale of Felch Street Shopping Center in the Grand Rapids suburb of Holland. The sales price was undisclosed. The 166,100-square-foot shopping center is fully leased to tenants such as Barnes & Noble, Bed Bath and Beyond, Jo-Ann Fabrics, Old Navy, Jonathan Stevens Mattress, Party City, PetSmart, Shoe Carnival, T.J. Maxx and Ulta Beauty. Amy Sands, Clinton Mitchell, Michael Nieder and Matthew Schoenfeldt of JLL represented the undisclosed seller. A private fund based in the Southeast purchased the asset.
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. — NAI Wisinski of West Michigan has brokered the sale of a 19,972-square-foot industrial building in Grand Rapids for an undisclosed price. The property is situated at 2882 Northridge Drive NW. Andrew Kapanowski and Doug Taatjes of NAI Wisinski represented the seller, Unisource Office Furniture Parts. Max Grover of Moxie represented the buyer, Lumber2Love, a manufacturer of high-quality wood furniture.
The “retail apocalypse” predicated on the pandemic never really materialized. Instead, we’ve seen retail do what it always does: evolve. Much as the rest of the country, metro Detroit’s retail real estate market has evolved and come back in a big way. Tenants on the move As vaccines were adopted and the economy allowed to reopen, the economic rubber band snapped back quickly and stronger than many of us could have predicted. Retailers were dusting off pre-pandemic expansion plans and back to signing leases in 2021. We saw new openings and new market searches from BJ’s Wholesale Club, Burlington, Carvana, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Starbucks, Crunch Fitness, Edge Fitness, Gabe’s, iFly, Jollibee, Meijer, Portillo’s, Ross, Shake Shack, Smoothie King, T.J. Maxx, Total Wine & More and Tropical Smoothie Café. 2021 also presented a big void in the Michigan furniture market following the bankruptcy of Art Van (which controlled 30 to 35 percent of the market). Numerous players including Gardner White Furniture, Ashley Furniture and Value City Furniture all quickly snapped up this real estate, immediately increasing their market share. Other categories that continue to seek space include car washes (which has to be one of the most active categories out there …
DETROIT — Innovo has broken ground on a 425,000-square-foot speculative industrial project at Gateway Industrial Center in Detroit. The new building will offer 62 docks, 317 vehicle parking spaces, 100 trailer parking spaces and a clear height of 36 feet. Innovo is also completing improvements to the existing buildings within the 1 million-square-foot business park, which is fully occupied. Sean Cavanaugh and Colin McCausland of JLL will market the new building for lease.
AUBURN HILLS, MICH. — Signature Associates has brokered the sale of a 443,340-square-foot industrial building in Auburn Hills for an undisclosed price. Located at 3600 Giddings Road, the property features a clear height of 30 feet and 375 car parking spaces. Joe Hamway and Greg Hudas of Signature Associates represented the buyer, a partnership between Foundation Capital Partners LLC and Wheelock Street Capital LLC. The duo is now marketing the property for lease. Occupancy will be available in May.
DETROIT — Ready Capital has closed a $3.5 million loan for the acquisition and lease-up of a roughly 75,000-square-foot industrial property in the Southern I-275 Corridor of Detroit. The undisclosed borrower plans to address deferred maintenance and lease up the vacant building. The nonrecourse loan features a two-year term, floating rate and interest-only payments.
A lot has changed in the world since the beginning days of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Fast forward to November 2021 and the world is a very different place. Over 46 million people have been infected in the United States alone with over 750,000 deaths officially attributed to the virus. Most businesses have been forced to shut down in-person work for some period of time and many have instituted remote work programs until the beginning of 2022. The real question on everyone’s mind is when will we return to normal and more specifically, what will the new normal look like? Although we will most certainly have to deal with the aftereffects of COVID-19 and any variants that surface, there is light at the end of the tunnel. To date, approximately 427 million doses of the vaccine have been administered with over 192 million people fully vaccinated. Recently, Pfizer announced that it has developed an easy-to-administer COVID-19 pill, which when used in combination with a widely used HIV drug, can cut the risk of hospitalizations or death by 89 percent in high-risk adults who have been exposed to the virus. Given the combination of vaccinations, natural immunity for those …
LANSING, MICH. — Ready Capital has closed a $7.7 million loan for the acquisition, renovation and stabilization of a two-property multifamily portfolio in Lansing. The portfolio totals 262 garden-style units. The undisclosed borrower plans to implement a capital improvement program to renovate unit interiors and address deferred maintenance. The nonrecourse loan features a three-year term, floating rate and interest-only payments.
DEARBORN, MICH. — KJ Commercial has brokered the sale of a 52,000-square-foot retail center in Dearborn for $10.5 million. Rite Aid and Goodwill anchor the fully leased property. Kevin Jappaya and David Jappaya of KJ Commercial represented the seller, the center’s original developer, as well as the buyer, a local real estate investor. The transaction marked the first time that the property traded hands.