SKOKIE, ILL. — Newcastle Properties has purchased Orchard Plaza in Skokie for an undisclosed price. This is the first time the 42,452-square-foot retail center has sold in over 60 years. Located near Old Orchard Mall at the corner of Skokie Boulevard and Gross Point Road, the property is home to tenants such as Bonefish Grill, Men’s Wearhouse, Advance Auto and the U.S. Post Office. Beth Sansiper and Jeff Gurian of Becker Gurian represented Newcastle Properties in the transaction. Drew Trammell of Newcastle Properties managed the underwriting and closing. The seller was not provided.
OVERLAND PARK, KAN. — Global payment solutions company EML has signed a lease to relocate its North American corporate headquarters to Aspiria in Overland Park. The company signed an 11,773-square-foot office lease and will occupy space on the fourth floor of Building 6100. The tenant is working with Aspiria’s owner, Occidental Management, to update the space. Occupancy is slated for April 2022. Chad Stafford and Hunter Johnson of Occidental and RC Jensen and Bryan Johnson of Colliers handled the lease transaction. Occidental plans to develop the 60 acres surrounding the Aspiria campus. Plans call for 1 million square feet of Class A office space, 380,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a 120-room hotel and 600 multifamily units. Design planning for the long-term project has begun.
Mall and shopping center owners nationwide are faced with the vacancy of major big box anchors that have closed their doors due to the continued uptick in online retail and changing shopping habits and desires of today’s consumers. Often massive, these two-story, or even three-story spaces seem impossible to fill with the decline of most brick and mortar retail stores. Developers are being challenged to think outside the [big] box to find new tenants and creative uses for the space. Malls were originally thought of as community centers for neighborhoods during the mall boom. That attitude fell by the wayside as malls removed their socially engaging aspects and lost their sense of place — instead of being a place for the community to gather, the mall became simply a place to shop. Now, largely expedited by the pandemic, there have been seismic shifts in retail and shopper habits/what the consumer wants out of their shopping experience. The key word here is experience. Malls have had to readapt to fill in vacant spaces from large department stores that consumers no longer favor. This has opened up a lot of atypical uses, from distribution centers to residential to entertainment components to medical facilities. …
CHICAGO — Chicago-based Harrison Street has sold two student housing portfolios totaling over 23,000 beds for a combined $1.9 billion. The firm sold a 12-property portfolio totaling 8,182 beds to Global Student Accommodation (GSA) and a 25-property portfolio totaling 15,817 beds to a joint venture affiliated with The Scion Group. Both transactions were brokered by Peter Katz and Institutional Property Advisors (IPA) Student Housing. The portfolio sold to GSA — which includes The Hub at Tucson near the University of Arizona — is located across 12 university markets. The communities were owned by three distinct Harrison Street funds and four co-investment vehicles. GSA’s operating partner, Yugo, will provide management and oversight of the portfolio. Wells Fargo Bank provided financing for the senior acquisition loan, which was arranged by TSB Capital Advisors on behalf of GSA, with legal and tax advice provided by Greenberg Traurig. The portfolio acquired by a joint venture affiliated with Scion is located across 19 university markets and was owned through four separate Harrison Street funds and three co-investment vehicles. “The two large-scale transactions reflect Harrison Street’s longstanding strategy of acquiring or developing individual assets at leading universities, executing on defined business plans and exiting via strategic portfolio sales,” …
COLUMBUS, OHIO — Flaherty & Collins Properties (F&C) and co-developer Daimler Group have unveiled plans for The Peninsula’s second phase in downtown Columbus. The $211 million project will include 400 apartment units and 245,000 square feet of office space. Specifically, a four-story parking garage will be topped by a seven-story office building and a 30-story apartment tower with 9,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Phase I is currently under construction and includes both office and multifamily space along with a 200-room hotel being developed by Rockbridge. F&C says that an application for $21 million in tax credit funding from Ohio’s new Transformational Mixed-Use Development (TMUD) program is key to moving the project forward. Construction of Phase II is expected to begin in 2022 with completion slated for 2025.
CONNVERSVILLE, IND. — An affiliate of Phoenix Investors has purchased a 1.7 million-square-foot manufacturing plant in Connersville, about 65 miles east of Indianapolis. The purchase price and seller were not disclosed. The facility sits on 186 acres at 4747 N. Western Ave. Philco Corp. built the first phase of the property in 1953. In 1961, Ford Motor Co. acquired Philco — a pioneer in battery, radio and television production — and renamed the division Philco-Ford in 1966. Ford expanded the Connersville plant in various phases throughout the 1960s. Ford operated the plant from 1961 until it spun the division off as Visteon Corp. in 2000. Visteon closed the plant in 2007. Since 2013, CliqStudios Cabinets has occupied one-third of the plant, which features a clear height of 30 feet, 50 docks and drive-in doors, two rail sidings. Phoenix plans to make upgrades to the facility.
GROVE CITY, OHIO — JLL Capital Markets has brokered the $17.7 million sale of Derby Square in Grove City, a southern suburb of Columbus. Giant Eagle anchors the 125,250-square-foot shopping center, which is 99 percent leased. Additional tenants include Once Upon a Child, Plato’s Closet, Novacare Rehabilitation, Salon Lofts, City Barbeque, Batteries + Bulbs, H&R Block and Allstate Insurance. Derby Square is situated on 12 acres along Stringtown Road. Amy Sands, Clinton Mitchell, Michael Nieder and Bill Poffenberger of JLL represented the seller, a joint venture between Madison International Realty and SITE Centers Corp. A Midwest-based private buyer acquired the asset.
WINNETKA AND WILMETTE, ILL. — DMG Capital, the multifamily investment affiliate of Chicago-based Daniel Management Group Inc., has acquired a three-property multifamily portfolio in Winnetka and Wilmette for $12 million. DMG acquired the assets, located in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago, in a joint venture with private equity real estate firm JDI Realty. DMG plans to rebrand the portfolio as Trevian Townhomes. Units average 1,525 square feet. The seller was not provided.
FISHERS, IND. — Thompson Thrift Residential, a wholly owned affiliate of Indianapolis-based Thompson Thrift, has broken ground on Slate at Fishers District in the Indianapolis suburb of Fishers. The build-for-rent community will feature 242 luxury single-family homes. The developer expects to begin welcoming residents in the first quarter of 2023. The residences will average 1,215 square feet and will come in one-, two- and three-bedroom villas as well as four-bedroom townhomes. Residents will have access to a clubhouse, fitness center, pool and dog parks. As part of the project, a public park and paved trail will be constructed, providing the community direct pedestrian access to Fishers District, a mixed-use development with 110,000 square feet of retail space.
CAMPELLSBURG, IND. — MAG Capital Partners LLC has acquired the global headquarters building of Metal Powder Products (MPP) in Indiana. The purchase price of the sale-leaseback transaction was not disclosed. The nearly 16-acre property is located at 596 W. Oak St. in Campbellsburg, about 47 miles northwest of Louisville. MAG Capital Partners also purchased four of MPP’s industrial properties in Pennsylvania for a total portfolio consideration of 500,000 square feet. Newmark’s JC Asensio, Andrew Sandquist and Briggs Goldberg represented MPP in the sale. MAG Capital Partners, a private investment firm led by Dax Mitchell and Andrew Gi, is based in Fort Worth, Texas.