KOHLER, WIS. —Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of a PetsMart-anchored strip center located along an full interchange of Interstate 43 in Kohler for $3.4 million, or $169.03 per square foot. The 21,800-square-foot property, which also features Cost Cutters and L.A. Weightloss, is shadow-anchored by Target, The Home Depot and Best Buy. PetsMart signed a 15-year, triple-net lease with four 5-year options in 2004. Evan Halkias and Michael Marks of Marcus & Millichap’s downtown Chicago office represented the seller; Eric Rapp of the firm’s Wisconsin office represented the undisclosed buyer.
Midwest
IOWA CITY, IOWA — Two CORFAC International firms have joined together to represent a tenant in a 192,500-square-foot industrial lease in Iowa City. Alliance Display, a division of paper board manufacturer Rock-Tenn Co., leased the space, which is located at 2651 Industrial Park Rd. in the Scott Six Industrial Park. The business park is owned by Russell A. Gerdin Revocable Trust UWA. Kevin Crowley and Jason Lozano of Iowa Commercial/CORFAC International teamed up with Jeff Graham of King Industrial Realty of Florida/CORFAC International to represent Alliance Display and serve as the sole brokers in the deal. The tenant will use the space for the packaging of consumer goods in displaces made at the company’s main factory Winston-Salem, N.C. The lease is valued at more than $3.6 million.
WAUKEGAN, ILL. — Darwin Realty & Development Corp. has arranged three industrial leases in various buildings along Sunset Avenue in Waukegan. At 3731 Sunset Avenue, Patrick Shannon and Chris Gary of Darwin represented the tenant, Trifinity Partners, in a 130,000-square-foot lease. The distribution space features 30-foot clear ceiling heights, 14 exterior docks and two drive-in doors. Darwin also represented the landlord, ProLogis, in leasing 50,400 square feet of industrial space at 3800 Sunset Avenue to United Plastics. Shannon and Matthew Lewandowski negotiated the transaction on behalf of ProLogis. At 3830 Sunset Avenue, Shannon and Lewandowski brokered another 50,400-square-foot lease. The Darwin team represented both the landlord, ProLogis, and the tenant, Shogren Performance Marine.
ST. LOUIS — The Korte Company is nearing completion of the four-story, 70,000-square-foot Highlands Plaza Two office facility, which is located at 5700 Oakland Ave. in St. Louis. The company plans to occupy the second floor of the building, for which it served as the design/build contractor. It is located within The Highlands Office Park, a Balke Brown Associates-developed mixed-use campus. The ground-floor of the building will feature retail space, with the remaining three floors dedicated to office tenants. The building is being built to achieve LEED Silver certification.
EASTPOINTE, MICH. — LaKritz-Weber & Company, a retail real estate brokerage firm based in Southfield, Mich., has negotiated a 9,960-square-foot lease within East Brooke Commons in Eastpointe. Fitness 19 has committed to occupy the space, which is located at 22331 Gratiot Ave. Adam Goodman and Gabe Schuchman of Lakritz-Weber represented the landlord, East Brooke Commons Limited Partnership in the transaction.
The struggles in the capital markets that began to take hold during the second half of 2008 have put the brakes on much of the investment sales activity across all asset classes, but multifamily sales in Indianapolis have weathered the financial storm better than any other sector. Investment sales of multifamily housing in Indianapolis fared reasonably well when compared to other major Midwest cities. Last year, 19 major properties were sold in the Indianapolis area for just less than $200 million and at an average cap rate of 7.98 percent, according to Real Capital Analytics and Colliers Turley Martin Tucker. While the average U.S. cap rate for multifamily sales stood at 6.2 percent during the first three quarters of 2008, Indianapolis posted an average cap rate of 7.4 percent. The 12-month average price per unit for higher quality assets in Indianapolis is $61,022, compared to $100,792 for similar sales throughout the United States. Sales of properties categorized as Class B to non-performing assets have pushed the average unit price down and cap rates up into the 8.5-to-10 percent range. Multifamily properties that needed a total repositioning were trading in the 10-to-12 percent range based on pro-forma. In 2007, two major …
CHICAGO — Willis Group Holdings, a leading risk management and insurance brokerage firm, has acquired naming rights to Chicago’s iconic Sears Tower, along with taking a significant amount of space with the office building. The 110-story tower, which is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, will now be known as Willis Tower. The company is occupying 140,000 square feet, which it has leased for $14.50 per square foot, within the 3.8 million-square-foot building. The naming rights come at no additional cost. Willis Group is consolidating its Chicago-area operations from five area offices — located at 10 South LaSalle Street, One East Wacker Drive and 222 North Riverside Drive, as well as in Oak Brook and Lombard — and plans to house approximately 500 employees in the new space when it takes occupancy. The move is expected to be complete by late summer. The location will serve as the company’s Midwest regional headquarters.
SOUTH BEND, IND. — Northbrook, Ill.-based Prime Property Investors has completed the acquisition of the Turtle Creek Apartments residential community in South Bend. The 20-building, 330-bed community is located on 11 acres adjacent to Notre Dame University. The buyer has renamed the property Clover Village and plans to reposition it as the premier student housing community in the area through capital improvements and renovation. The multi-million dollar repositioning is expected to begin immediately and be complete this fall. The purchase, when combined with Prime Property Investors’ existing, fully occupied student housing communities, gives the company the largest portfolio of student housing apartments in the market.
WARROAD, MINN. — Kraus-Anderson Construction has been selected to provide construction services for a $31 million port-of-entry border station along the United States/Canada border in Warroad. Construction began last summer and is scheduled for completion in February 2010. The LEED Silver-certified facility is owned by the United States General Services Administration, and it will utilize a geothermal heating system comprising 108 deep wells to circulate water with stored heat to efficiently maintain temperatures. Additional sustainable features include a green roof and rainwater collection for building irrigation.
MINNEAPOLIS — Locally based Welsh Capital recently arranged three loans totaling $11.8 million for Twin Cities commercial real estate properties. The loans include $8.2 million in acquisition financing for an 81,835-square-foot multi-tenant office building; a $2.2 million refinance of a 10,741-square-foot retail property; and a $1.4 million refinance of a 33-unit apartment building. The firm structured secondary financing for the apartment and office building transactions, which typically isn’t utilized in commercial real estate loans. The inclusion of such financing may become more common in order to make deals work in the current economic climate.