BRANSON, MO. — American Street Capital (ASC) has arranged a $3 million CMBS loan for the refinancing of a self-storage portfolio in Branson. The portfolio includes five facilities and 694 units spanning 127,449 square feet. The portfolio was over 95 percent occupied at the time of the loan closing. Igor Zhizhin of ASC arranged the 10-year loan, which features a 30-year amortization schedule.
ST. PETERS, MO. — Knoebel Construction has completed a new $5 million Fresh Thyme grocery store in St. Peters, a suburb of St. Louis. The 28,720-square-foot store features an extensive bulk food section with more than 400 bins of items. Approximately 25 percent of the store’s floor space is dedicated to fresh produce. Approximately 95 people will work at the new store. Fresh Thyme, a Midwest-based specialty retailer, operates other St. Louis-area stores in Kirkwood, Ballwin, South St. Louis and O’Fallon, as well as Fairview Heights, Ill. InSite Real Estate was the developer. NORR was the project architect.
BELTON, MO. — Salina Hotel Group has begun construction of an 83-room Fairfield Inn & Suites in Belton, about 20 miles south of Kansas City. The four-story, 48,000-square-foot hotel will be located just north of Highway 58 between Mullen Road and Interstate 49. Completion is slated for early 2019. Additional project partners include the City of Belton and Belton Economic Development.
BELTON, MO. — Marshalls, Party City, Petco and Five Below have opened as part of Belton Gateway’s second phase of construction. The $136 million, 47-acre mixed-use development is located west of Interstate 49 in Belton, about 20 miles south of Kansas City. Ross Dress for Less is scheduled to open later this spring. Developed by Christie Development, the property includes an Academy Sports + Outdoors and a Hobby Lobby as part of Phase I.
ST. JOSEPH, MO. — FFO Home has opened a new 35,000-square-foot store in St. Joseph, which is located in northwestern Missouri. The Arkansas-based company will occupy the space in the former Big Bob’s Outlet store at 3715 N. Belt Highway. Tony DeTommaso and Mark McConahay of Block & Co. Inc. Realtors represented the landlord, BB St. Joe LLC, in the lease transaction. FFO Home, originally known as Furniture Factory Outlet, has nearly 50 stores in seven states.
CRYSTAL CITY, MO. — McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. has completed a three-story, 120,000-square-foot patient building on the campus of Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Crystal City, 35 miles south of St. Louis. The new development features 90 private patient rooms. McCarthy also renovated the hospital’s main entrance as part of the $73 million project. New corridors help connect the emergency department, imaging, surgical services and admitting areas. Further interior renovations included the construction of a new emergency department waiting area, additional cardiology facilities and MRI suites. The new childbirth center on the third floor of the existing tower includes new labor and delivery suites, remodeled postpartum rooms and two dedicated surgical units. Bates Architects designed the new patient tower, and Heideman Associates served as MEP engineer.
ST. PETERS, MO. — Amazon Inc. has unveiled plans for its first Missouri fulfillment center that will be located in St. Peters, a northwestern suburb of St. Louis. The 800,000-square-foot center will create more than 1,500 full-time jobs for picking, packing and shipping small items such as books, electronics and toys. Amazon currently operates a sortation center in Hazelwood, Mo. A timeline for development was not disclosed.
BELTON, MO. — A local investment group managed by Block & Co. Inc. Realtors has acquired a 6,799-square-foot restaurant building net leased to Jose Pepper’s in Belton, about 20 miles south of Kansas City. The purchase price was not disclosed. The property is located at 1100 E. North Ave. near Interstate 49. The building sits on a 1.7-acre pad site in front of a shopping center with tenants such as Target, Home Depot and Kohl’s. The seller for the 1031 exchange transaction was not disclosed. Jose Pepper’s, a Mexican restaurant, maintains 14 locations throughout greater Kansas City.
ST. LOUIS — McGrath & Associates has completed a renovation of the Missouri Baptist Medical Heart Center in St. Louis. The renovations totaled 16,000 square feet and included two physician office suites, a PET/CT imaging room and an outpatient testing area. An advanced nuclear imaging technique combines positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) into one machine. Christner served as the architect for the six-month project.
With what appears to be a never-ending stream of construction, the biggest source for excitement coming into 2018 for the St. Louis industrial market is new, speculative development. According to research from Colliers International, construction completions exceeded 4 million square feet in 2017. This is the second-highest year of recorded construction volume for the market due to last year’s Goliath delivery of 6 million square feet. Currently, over 2 million square feet is under construction, with more slated for groundbreaking in 2018. One of the larger projects recently announced is NorthPoint Development’s proposed 300-acre industrial park in Hazelwood, situated in North St. Louis County. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, NorthPoint plans to develop over 3 million square feet focused on logistics and light industrial warehouse space. The big question, it seems, is how long can developers continue to find new tenants for their large, modern bulk developments in St. Louis? Even with high, positive absorption in both 2016 and 2017, expectations for continued growth may be tempered as we move forward in 2018. Looking back at 2017, we see the industrial vacancy rate for metro St. Louis dropped to 6.7 percent at the end of the year. This rate …
