DETROIT — WXYZ-TV is expanding its studio to include a new indoor/outdoor, 500-square-foot studio. The glass-enclosed, outward-facing studio will be located inside the ground-floor lobby of Chase Tower located at 611 Woodward Ave. Bedrock Real Estate Services owns and manages Chase Tower. The new studio will be the home of the ABC Network Affiliate 7 Action News at Noon daily broadcast. The design of the new WXYZ downtown studio will honor the mid-century modern architecture of the Chase Tower. Detroit-based architecture firm, Albert Kahn Associates designed and opened Chase Tower in 1959. The 524,000-square-foot, 14-story building occupies a full city block at the foot of Campus Martius Park.
Midwest
ST. LOUIS — ElmTree Net Lease Fund II has acquired five single-tenant net lease investment properties for $90.3 million. The acquisitions include a 34.4-acre industrial property in Fort Wayne, Ind., and four office properties in Ohio, South Carolina, Minnesota and Alabama. The build-to-suit project acquired for $52.6 million in Fort Wayne will consist of the development and construction of an approximately 333,750-square-foot manufacturing building. The office properties include a 100,800-square-foot single-tenant facility in Columbus, Ohio, purchased for $11.8 million; a 39,794-square-foot, single-tenant facility in Lexington, S.C., purchased for $5.5 million; a 75,601-square-foot, single-tenant facility in Arden Hills, Minn., purchased for $7.5 million; and a 66,500 square-foot office and call center located on an 8.8-acre land parcel in Birmingham, Ala., bought for $12.8 million. ElmTree Net Lease Fund II LLC is a real estate private equity fund sponsored by St. Louis-based ElmTree Funds LLC.
NEW HAVEN, IND. — Cronheim Mortgage has arranged two permanent loans totaling $4.5 million for Big Lots-anchored centers in New Haven, Ind., and Bristol, Tenn. The 75 percent LTV cash-out refinances feature a 10-year term and a 30-year amortization schedule. Both centers are located in tertiary submarkets of fewer than 15,000 inhabitants. David Turley and Anna Westhoff of Cronheim Mortgage arranged the loans for the undisclosed borrower.
DEARBORN, MICH. — Ford Land, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Co., has opened The Executive Offices at Fairlane Plaza, a Class A executive office building in Dearborn. The executive offices feature 21 private, furnished offices in a suite with a lobby, conference rooms and kitchen. The property is located at 290 Town Center Drive. Building amenities include a full-service café, salon, courtyard, parking garage, 24/7 security and on-site property management. The executive offices are an extension of Ford Land’s small business offerings. Several years ago, Ford Land began offering suites ranging from approximately 200 to 3,000 square feet in several of its multi-tenant buildings. Ford Land hosted a ribbon cutting for the Executive Offices at Fairlane Plaza in August.
DOWNERS GROVE, ILL. — Bradford Allen Realty Services has arranged a 17,000-square-foot lease on behalf of Residential Home Health in Downers Grove. The provider of home, health and hospice services will occupy space located at 1431 Opus Place in the Executive Towers West I building. The company is relocating to Executive Towers West I from 40 Shuman Blvd. in Naperville, Ill. Joel Berger of Bradford Allen Realty Services and Troy, Mich.-based Skyline Properties represented Residential Home Health. John Norris, John Clark and Rob Lundin of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented ownership in the lease transaction.
ST. LOUIS — Oak Grove Capital has originated $23.2 million in Fannie Mae loans for the acquisition of Pine Tree Club Apartments and Westbrooke Village Apartments, two market-rate apartment communities located in St. Louis. The fixed-rate loans both carry seven-year terms, two years of interest-only and four years of yield maintenance. The multifamily communities were built in the mid 80s and have a combined 402 units.
HOFFMAN ESTATES, ILL. — DeBartolo Development LLC has sold two adjacent Chicago area retail centers — Poplar Creek Crossing and Prairie Stone Crossing — to Pine Tree Commercial Realty LLC. DeBartolo acquired a defaulted note on the 60,000-square-foot Prairie Stone center in 2011 and purchased the neighboring 257,000-square-foot Poplar Creek shopping center in 2013. Located at state routes 59 and 72, just north of Interstate 90 in Hoffman Estates, both properties are approximately 90 percent leased. Anchor tenants at Poplar Creek include T.J. Maxx, OfficeMax, Michael’s, PetSmart, World Cost Plus Market and Ross Dress for Less. Anchor tenants at Prairie Stone include Sports Authority and Stone Eagle Tavern.
OAK CREEK, WIS. — The Dickman Co. Inc./CORFAC International has arranged the lease of a 45,000-square-foot industrial building in Oak Creek, a suburb approximately 12 miles south of Milwaukee. Amiran Technologies will occupy space at 7221 S. 10th St. Samuel M. Dickman Jr. and Samuel D. Dickman of the Dickman Co. represented the landlord, Murphy Real Estate LLC. Travis Tiede and Adam Matson of NAI MLG Commercial represented the tenant.
Momentum continues to build in the St. Louis commercial real estate investment market across all major product sectors. As private and institutional investors search for higher yields, they are drawn to secondary markets like St. Louis. Investors are seeing a yield premium of 100 to 150 basis points as measured by the initial cap rate. Office Market Grows Hotter The suburban office sector has generated the most momentum, building on a strong 2013. Suburban office investment sales activity could exceed $450 million in 2014, which would be a 90 percent increase over 2013. The largest office deal is the sale of Cityplace, an 884,000-square-foot Class A office complex in Creve Coeur that is under contract and expected to close for approximately $141 million. New Boston Fund and the Koman Group are the sellers. The buyer is undisclosed. While the search for higher yields is certainly a factor driving increased suburban office investment activity, another big part of the story is the continued occupancy growth supported by job gains. The St. Louis unemployment rate, which in May 2014 stood at 6.96 percent, is rapidly approaching the pre-recession level of 5.7 percent set in November 2007. Growth in industries such as technology, …
WILLOWICK, OHIO — Cohen Financial has secured $21.6 million in refinancing for Shoregate Towers, a 404-unit multifamily property in Willowick, a suburb of Cleveland. The property is located on Lake Erie at 30901 Lake Shore Blvd. Dan Rosenberg of Cohen’s Chicago office secured the fixed-rate, five-year term loan on a 30-year amortization schedule for the borrower, an East Coast commercial real estate owner/operator. Morgan Stanley, a Cohen Financial Conduit Lender, was the lender in the transaction.