CHICAGO — Standard Equipment Co. has sold its headquarters property in Chicago’s Fulton Market West for $14.8 million. The 2.8-acre site includes four buildings totaling 43,828 square feet as well as a lot for truck and trailer parking. It has served as the environmental equipment company’s headquarters since 1986. Standard Equipment will relocate its operations to Elmhurst this quarter. George Toscas of ACO Commercial represented the buyer, Realterm Logistics.
CHICAGO — Berkadia has arranged a $7.5 million Freddie Mac small balance loan for the acquisition of Paulina Street Lofts, a 24-unit multifamily property in Chicago. Chuck Christensen, Vincent Punzi and Lowell Takahashi of Berkadia secured the financing on behalf of the buyer, Saxony Properties LLC. The 10-year loan features a 3.64 percent interest rate and a 70 percent loan-to-value. Paulina Street Lofts was originally constructed as a masonic temple in 1928 and converted to apartments in 2019.
When beginning the loan process, borrowers and lenders start with a solid foundation. But what happens if a new or renovated project doesn’t lease up as quickly as expected? What happens if construction delays push past the end of the construction loan? What happens if construction cost overruns jeopardize completion of a project? And what if the economic upcycle turns downward before your project is completed? Mark Fogel, President and CEO of ACRES Capital, talks about the role of alternative lenders and how communication between borrowers and lenders can overcome these challenges. Watch the video for Fogel’s recommendations on creating a solid partnership with your lender. This video is posted as part of REBusinessOnline’s Finance Insight series, covering MBA CREF 2020. Click here to subscribe to the Finance Insight newsletter, a four-week newsletter series, followed by video interviews from MBA CREF.
CINCINNATI — KTGY Architecture + Planning has unveiled the design for Artistry Cincinnati, a 344-unit apartment project located along the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati. The seven-story building, located at 601 E. Pete Rose Way, is currently under construction and is scheduled for completion in late 2021. Milhaus is the developer. Features of the property include a second-floor amenity space offering direct access to an exterior courtyard, a 2,500-square-foot outdoor gallery that will house large-scale art installations, and access to the river and adjacent park. Amenities will include a rooftop pool, fitness center, yoga studio, pet spa, community garden, coworking spaces and bike storage. Plans also call for 390 parking spaces and 8,000 square feet of commercial space. Floor plans will range from studios to three-bedroom units. The project is situated at 601 E. Pete Rose Way.
ANN ARBOR, MICH. — Trinitas Ventures is set to break ground on The One, a 682-bed student housing community located near the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor. The development will offer one-, two-, three-, four- and five-bedroom, cottage-style units. Shared amenities will include a fitness center, business center, game room, resort-style swimming pool, fire pit, private study lounges, basketball and volleyball courts and a shuttle service to campus. A Trinitas-managed investment entity has provided equity financing for the project, and PNC Bank is providing construction financing. A timeline for the development, located at 2601 Pontiac Trail, has yet to be announced.
DUBLIN, OHIO — Tremont Mortgage Trust has provided a $22.8 million first-mortgage bridge loan for the refinancing of The Blazer Plaza, a three-building office and lab campus in Dublin, a northwest suburb of Columbus. The property spans 519,000 square feet on 54 acres. The floating-rate loan includes initial funding of $12.1 million and a future funding allowance of approximately $10.7 million for tenant improvements. The loan is structured with a two-year initial term and a one-year extension option. The borrower was undisclosed.
LIBERTYVILLE, ILL. — EVBox has signed a 60,000-square-foot lease for its first North American headquarters and production facility located in Libertyville, about 40 miles north of Chicago. EVBox, which is a manufacturer of electric vehicle charging stations and charging management software, will occupy the space within the Innovation Park campus. The facility is expected to create between 80 and 120 new jobs in the immediate region. Operations will commence this summer. Based in Amsterdam, EVBox currently maintains U.S. offices in New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
NAPERVILLE, ILL. — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of a Regency Inn hotel in Naperville for $3.3 million. The buyer, Northbrook-based MZ Capital Partners, plans to redevelop the property and convert it into 112 micro apartments. The hotel was not well-occupied and had significant deferred maintenance, according to Ebrahim Valliani of Marcus & Millichap. Valliani, along with colleagues Michael Klar, Chris Gomes and Allan Miller, represented MZ Capital as well as the seller, Prime Motel Inc. The two-story, 122-room hotel is located at 1350 E. Ogden Ave.
At MBA CREF, M&T Realty Capital’s Sean Huntsman met with reporter Nellie Day to discuss the trends he’s seeing in the multifamily and seniors housing sectors. One big takeaway: The current market demands flexibility and diversified lending. M&T Realty Capital Corp.’s lending platform is allowing the company to both succeed and expand — they had a record 2019 in terms of loan production for healthcare and seniors housing sectors. In addition to a robust pipeline of multifamily and seniors housing construction loans, M&T is also working with owners/operators who are stabilizing assets and recapitalizing equity. However, Huntsman is seeing the impact of high labor and constructions costs and some overbuilding in certain markets, indicating that stakeholders need to look closely at demand on a market-by-market basis. Watch the video for more insights from Huntsman. This video is posted as part of REBusinessOnline’s Finance Insight series, covering MBA CREF 2020. Click here to subscribe to the Finance Insight newsletter, a four-week newsletter series, followed by video interviews from MBA CREF.
While there are plenty of news stories touting Detroit’s comeback, it’s the actual 2019 year-end numbers backing up the claims with solid momentum in the office and lending sectors. And the numbers are capturing the attention of national investors, not to mention lenders who were on the bench for years and years. Office occupancy Office vacancy across metropolitan Detroit decreased from 24.5 percent in 2013 to 13.8 percent as of the fourth quarter of 2019, according to national leasing firm CBRE. Asking rates have climbed since 2009 and vacancy rates have dropped. These figures even include the 23 percent-vacant Southfield submarket and the 19.5 percent-vacant Auburn Hills submarket, which with their combined total square footage account for 23.4 percent of the total metropolitan Detroit office market, dragging up the total average vacancy rate. Focusing on the central business district (CBD), the post-recession predictions of a city powering through the real estate cycle are holding true. The total direct office vacancy in JLL’s latest Detroit CBD Skyline report is 7.7 percent. That figure includes approximately 500,000 vacant square feet in the GM-owned and largely self-occupied Renaissance Center (RenCen) complex. Remove the RenCen from the equation, and the Detroit CBD skyline (i.e. …
