SKOKIE, ILL. — Command Transportation has signed a lease for 19,000 square feet of office space at 5500 W. Howard St., a 60,000-square-foot office building in Skokie, a northern suburb of Chicago. Locally based The Alter Group, a real estate development firm, owns the Class A office building. The deal brings 5500 West Howard to full occupancy.
FISHERS, IND. — Watermark Residential has broken ground on a $22 million luxury apartment community in Fishers, located about 20 miles north of Indianapolis. Watermark on Cumberland will include 220 apartments in three multi-story buildings. Each building will include two elevators. Amenities include a clubroom, pool with cabanas and detached garages. Project completion is scheduled for 2014.Watermark Residential is a full-service multifamily housing developer based in Indianapolis.
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. — Cohen Financial has arranged a $10 million loan for 99 Monroe Avenue, a 200,000-square-foot office building, in Grand Rapids. Minneapolis-based Franklin Partners purchased the building last year for $11.8 million. Greystone Financial financed the loan for the 27-year-old building.
INDIANAPOLIS — Block Funds and Block Healthcare Development have acquired two medical buildings in Indianapolis for approximately $8 million. Both buildings were fully occupied at the time of sale. One of the properties, Central Indiana Cancer Center, is located at 6845 Rama Drive and spans more than 19,338 square feet. CyberKnife of Indianapolis, a 108-bed acute care hospital, spans 15,721 square feet and is located at 1346 E. County Line Road.
FLINT, MICH. — Walker International Transportation has signed a lease for 65,000 square feet of industrial space at 4500 Matthew Drive in Flint. The space is part of a 260,000-square-foot building, which was built in 1999. Doug Fura represented Walker International in the deal. The landlord was 4500 Matthew LLC. Walker International is a multi-national logistics service company.
OMAHA — The $23 million conversion of the former Federal Building in Omaha into a Residence Inn by Marriott is under way. Once completed this summer, the hotel will include 152 rooms, a 1,000-square-foot penthouse on the 12th floor with panoramic views of the city and nearly 2,000 square feet of meeting space. The project will preserve and utilize all of the building’s original marble, terrazzo tile, wooden railings and brass fixtures. The conversion of the Omaha Federal Building into a Residence Inn by Marriott is the latest in a series of adaptive reuse projects by First Hospitality Group Inc. aimed at maximizing the potential of historic properties.
INDIANAPOLIS — CBRE’s Indianapolis Investment Properties Group has completed the sale of Capital Center, a 647,818-square-foot office complex. The complex consists of two Class A office towers in the central business district of Indianapolis. CBRE represented the seller, Invesco Real Estate. The buyer was Santa-Monica, Calif.-based Hertz Investment Group. The purchase price was not disclosed, but according to the Indianapolis Business Journal, the two towers have a net operating income of $4.5 million.
ADDISION, ILL. — BB&T Real Estate Funding has secured a $11 million mortgage loan for Iron Mountain, a 234,057-square-foot industrial property. The nonrecourse loan was structured with an 18-month term and a one six-month extension. The property is located at 331 S. Swift Road in Addison, about 20 miles west of Chicago.
UNIVERSITY CITY, MO. — Construction is under way for the new $3 million Firehouse No. 1 in University City, a suburb of St. Louis. The 17,000-square-foot facility, located at Vernon and Westgate avenues, will include five engine bays, a training room, administrative offices and a mezzanine with a workout room. Living quarters on the second floor will include 10 bedrooms with 30 beds, a full kitchen and an outdoor deck. The project is funded in part by a $2.6 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Assistance to Firefighters Station Construction Grant, with the balance funded by University City. Kwame Building Group is the construction project manager, and Archimages is the architect. The firehouse is slated for completion in late summer.
Downtown Cleveland is in the midst of a redevelopment boom. During the last 12 months, the city has seen a new $350 million casino and a new $33 million aquarium open. And over the next 24 months, it will see a new $465 million convention center complex, a new $275 million multi-tenant office building and hotel and a $180 million redevelopment that will include a new 220,000-square-foot office tower as a part of consolidation efforts for the Cuyahoga County government. However, one of the most impactful and long-lasting components is the development of more than 1,100 new residential housing units that have either been announced or are under construction. If all come to fruition, it will increase downtown’s residential inventory by over 20 percent. Market Drivers Although there are numerous factors contributing to this residential building boom, the following stand out as key components. • Build it and they will come? They are already here. As of January 2012, the downtown area had just under 4,200 residential units. Of this, approximately 25 percent were developed in the past five years. However, this delivery schedule was much lower as compared to the blossoming demand. The source of this demand has come …
