COLUMBUS, OHIO — Alterra IOS, an industrial outdoor storage (IOS) company, has acquired two IOS properties totaling 22.3 acres in Columbus for an undisclosed price. The sites include 4080 Business Park Drive and 2222 New World Drive. Both are located minutes from downtown, offering tenants convenient access to major interstates, national rail networks and international airports. The property at 4080 Business Park Drive totals more than eight acres and features 20,120 square feet of accompanying warehouse space. A full-service trailer leasing provider entered into a long-term lease agreement at closing. Ascension Advisory negotiated the sale. The facility at 2222 New World Drive includes 14 acres with 50,238 square feet of accompanying warehouse space. JLL brokered the sale. Alterra now owns six sites in the Columbus area.
Ohio
WARREN, OHIO — U-Haul has repurposed a 7.8-acre retail lot formerly home to a Chase bank and Tops Friendly Market grocery store in Warren, about 50 miles southeast of Cleveland. U-Haul Moving & Storage of Warren North, located at 3394 Elm Road NE, is currently serving customers out of a temporary retail showroom and is scheduled to complete renovations by summer 2025. Services immediately available include moving truck rentals, trailers, towing devices, boxes and moving supplies. Plans call for the addition of 1,000 indoor climate-controlled self-storage units with high-tech security features. The 69,000-square-foot complex will host a warehouse space that can store up to 500 U-Box portable moving and storage containers. Once renovations are finished, the store will also offer services such as professional hitch installation and propane.
OHIO — Evans Senior Investments (ESI) has arranged the sale of a three-property seniors housing portfolio in western Ohio for an undisclosed price. The seller was Mariner Management Group Inc., an independent owner and operator seeking to exit the industry. The buyer was an owner-operator in the state. The portfolio, which was built in stages between 1990 and 2013, consists of 317 licensed skilled nursing beds and 209 seniors housing units.
City of Cincinnati Begins $240M Renovation at Duke Energy Convention Center, Names ASM Global as Operator
by Jeff Shaw
CINCINNATI — The City of Cincinnati has selected ASM Global to open and operate the Duke Energy Convention Center (DECC), which is currently undergoing a $240 million renovation. The 750,000-square-foot facility closed for construction on July 1. Once renovations are complete, DECC will feature upgraded meeting space and ballrooms, an expansive rooftop terrace and major improvements to building systems and technology, making it more energy efficient. The project will add 12,000 square feet to the exhibit hall. Plans also call for the construction of a two-acre park and outdoor convention area. The convention center is slated to reopen in January 2026. Prior to closing for renovations, the venue hosted 63 events in 2024 with more than 292,540 attendees combined. DECC will be part of a new convention district in the city. Plans include a $480 million new convention headquarters hotel, which is being constructed on an existing surface parking lot just south of the convention center. Once completed, the hotel will feature 800 rooms, as well as 80,000 square feet of flexible meeting space with junior and senior ballrooms, 15,000 square feet of retail space, a pool and outdoor amenity deck. “The operations and management of the reinvented DECC will …
WILLOUGHBY HILLS, OHIO — Passov Group has brokered the $1.8 million sale of Som Center Plaza in Willoughby Hills, an eastern suburb of Cleveland. The retail center is located at 2804 SOM Center Road. Passov Group represented the undisclosed seller. The buyer was also not provided.
By Jeff Bender, Thomas McCormick and Seattle Stein, Cushman & Wakefield We’ve been doing this for a while. Every cycle with gang-busters demand and absorption comes to an end, as does every downturn. So, with the Cincinnati industrial market, we find ourselves in the doldrums since mid-2023, and we may not fully turn the corner until next year. Perspective and context matter, though. We’re coming off record absorption and demand at the end of 2020 and through 2022, when we also closed the year with an unsustainable 1.7 percent vacancy rate. Before the entire world paused for COVID in early and mid-2020, we had a record year in 2019 as well. While vacancy hovers around 6 percent at mid-year, that is basically the Cincinnati industrial market’s historical average. Four consecutive quarters of negative net absorption certainly defines “doldrums,” but that must be weighed against the previous 48 consecutive quarters of positive net absorption through mid-2023. We’ve also seen a slight increase in asking rental rates, up to $6.25 per square foot, despite negative absorption. So, despite a lackluster past 12 months, we have positive momentum, and that’s bolstered by many of the factors that have always made Cincinnati one of …
By Todd Pease, Michelle Klingenberg and Britney Aviles, JLL Since the Cincinnati office landscape upended during the pandemic, area businesses, building owners and broader leaders sought opportunities to help entice employees to return to the office, reclaim the area’s vibrancy and spur economic growth. These stakeholders realized that to entice employees back into the office, they would need to make it worth the commute. Throughout this evolution, one thing continues to drive tenants into office buildings: high-quality amenities. Amenity demands have changed over the last few years and there are new ways for building owners to create spaces that engage employees. Amenities of the past Up until 2020, the standard “five days in the office” model meant that office buildings strived to accommodate as many professionals as possible while maintaining efficiency. The space planner was the lead consultant on planning offices, and they would work with tenants to design spaces in a way that most efficiently accounted for their company headcount. Regarding office amenities, tenants most valued high parking ratios, conference facilities, gyms and locker rooms, and onsite food options. It was all about productivity and it didn’t matter if productivity took place in a gray cubical under florescent lighting. …
SANDUSKY, OHIO — Cafaro Co. is nearing the lease-up of its Villas at Sandy Creek townhome rental community in Sandusky, about 60 miles west of Cleveland. The 126-unit property marks a pivot for Cafaro, which focused on the development of retail centers for 75 years. In 2022, Cafaro partnered with Crossroads Group LLC to transform 15 acres of Sandusky Mall into multifamily use. Villas at Sandy Creek offers two floor plans — two-bedroom ranch suites and two-story, two-bedroom townhouses. Both types offer private entrances and attached garages. Tenants have access to a community clubhouse. Monthly rents range from $1,575 to $1,645. Sandusky Mall opened in 1976 and totals more than 1 million square feet of retail space.
CLEVELAND — The Bell Apartments, an adaptive reuse project that involved the conversion of the former Ohio Bell Building into apartments, has opened at 45 Erieview Plaza in downtown Cleveland. Cross Street is handling leasing and marketing for the 367-unit luxury apartment building, while Peak Properties is the property manager. Formerly the Ohio Bell telephone headquarters, the property now features amenities such as a rooftop pool, coworking space, 10,000-square-foot fitness center, pet areas and 24-hour door attendant. Residents can choose from one- and two-bedroom floor plans. Monthly rents start at $1,224, according to the property’s website.
COLUMBUS, OHIO — DWG Capital Partners has acquired a 75,906-square-foot industrial facility in Columbus for an undisclosed price in a sale-leaseback transaction with Buckeye Shapeform. The property at 555 Marion Road features three dock doors and clear heights ranging from 12 to 25 feet. Phil DiGennaro and Dorothy Lee of Stream Capital Partners represented Buckeye Shapeform, a manufacturer whose specialties include custom fabrication of metal and plastic instrument enclosures, instrumentation and novelty cans as well as precision deep draw metal.