PHILADELPHIA — Pearl Properties has completed development of The Harper, a 183-unit mixed use building in Philadelphia. The 280,000-square-foot property includes office and retail space, as well as a ground-floor restaurant, co-working lounges and a fitness center with an indoor basketball court. An outdoor rooftop area features a heated pool, lounge and grilling area. DAS Architects designed the building.
SAN DIEGO — Liberty National Corp., a San Diego-based multifamily developer, has assembled a 1.38-acre, full-block site in San Diego and announced plans for a mixed-use project on the property. Liberty’s proposal includes a 40-story residential tower and two mid-rise buildings of six and seven stories. The property will offer a total of 640 apartments in a mix of 553 one-bedroom units, 86 two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit. Additionally, the development will feature 16,485 square feet of multi-tenant commercial/retail space spread across the ground floors of the three buildings. The project is located at the intersection of Park Boulevard and Broadway in downtown San Diego’s East Village. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the Liberty purchased the last piece of the site from the Salvation Army for approximately $7.7 million. “The site is a strategic acquisition given our interests in the area and its location at the juncture of two major entries into the downtown core on the high-activity Broadway and Park Boulevard corridors,” says Randy Williams, vice president with Liberty National. “There remains a housing shortage in San Diego. As this sought-after region continues to grow and attract talent, this new project will appeal to a wide range of residents …
PHOENIX — High Street Residential, the residential subsidiary of Trammell Crow Co., and a fund sponsored by CBRE Global Investors have commenced construction on The Fillmore, a mixed-use project in downtown Phoenix. Situated on 2.8 acres at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Fillmore Street, Phase I will include a seven-story, 533,460-square-foot building with 348 multifamily units, 480 parking spaces and more than 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The first phase will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, as well as studio and junior one-bedroom units, ranging in size from 489 square feet to 1,626 square feet. The building will include a clubhouse featuring work-from-home suites, a tequila room for resident gatherings, billiards room, kitchen and bar, lounge, catering kitchen, double-sided fireplace and shuffleboard. Other amenities include a fitness center, swimming pool, cabanas, grilling stations, swinging lounge chairs, spa, hammocks, fire pits secure bike storage and Wi-Fi throughout the property’s common areas. Additionally, the phase will feature a second outdoor deck with a water feature, dog run and park. Completion of Phase I is slated for September 2021. Chasse Building Team is serving as general contractor. Alliance Bank is providing financing for the project.
DETROIT — Bedrock has selected ODA as the design architect for the Book Tower, an adaptive reuse project in Detroit. The project includes a mix of residential, hospitality, retail and office space. The 486,760-square-foot office tower was originally designed by Louis Kemper in 1916 in an Italian Renaissance style. Bedrock acquired the 38-story tower in 2015 and recently completed an extensive exterior restoration, including the replacement of 2,483 windows. ODA plans to add a variety of public amenities, including retail, galleries, restaurants and a café. The project team also includes construction manager Brinker/Christman, civil engineer Giffels Webster, structural engineer Buro Happold, as well as Kraemer Design Group for historic preservation and ARUP for acoustics and security. The building was named after the famous Book Brothers of Detroit. The last tenant, Bookie’s Tavern, closed in early 2009 leaving the entire building vacant.
LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y. — ACRES Capital Corp., a New York-based lender, has provided a $35 million construction loan for 23-20 Jackson Avenue, an 82,000-square-foot mixed-use project located in Long Island City. Local real estate developer VOREA Group was the borrower. Designed by Oklahoma-based KSQ Architects, the property will feature retail across the ground floor and basement, two floors of office space and six floors of hospitality space. Marko J. Kazanjian of JLL arranged the loan, which carries a term of 24 months.
DENVER — Cushman & Wakefield has facilitated the sale of 1925 Blake Street, a 129-year-old mixed-use building in Denver’s Lower Downtown neighborhood. The property traded for $6.4 million, or $418 per square foot. The names of the seller and buyer were not released. Jon Hendrickson and Aaron Johnson of Cushman & Wakefield’s Denver Capital Markets group handled the transaction. Originally constructed in 1890 as a warehouse, the three-level building was converted into an office building in 1934. At the time of sale, the 15,375-square-foot building was fully leased to four tenants.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Urban Spaces, a locally based developer, has secured a $71 million construction loan for Kendall East, a mixed-use development in Cambridge, a northeastern suburb of Boston. People’s United Bank provided the long-term loan. The development will house120 multifamily units, including 16 affordable apartments, and 15,000 square feet of retail space. Across the street, the CambridgeSide shopping center is slated for redevelopment with new office, lab and residential space. Designed by New York-based architectural firm Perkins Eastman, Woburn-based Tocci Building Corp. in building Kendall East.
ATLANTA — Traditionally, mixed-use developments are multifamily-based with ground-floor retail or dining and a few floors of offices in between or adjacent. That combination still works, but changing demographics demand more variety from the popular model, according to panelists of InterFace Mixed-Use Southeast on Aug. 22 at the Westin Buckhead in Atlanta. Projects like The Battery Atlanta and the upcoming Revel development in nearby Duluth are anchored by popular entertainment sites — SunTrust Park and Infinite Energy Center, respectively. Other upcoming developments in the Southeast like Kern’s Bakery in Knoxville, Tennessee, will feature student housing, while others like 12|12 Aventura in South Florida will feature seniors housing units. Speakers at the show cautioned that while restaurants are necessary elements of a successful mixed-use project and often bring some added variety, food and beverage options nationwide are becoming oversaturated, especially in mixed-use settings. Professionals involved with some of the most successful mixed-use developments in the Southeast spoke about prominent trends and the future of the product type at the conference. Overall the various speakers were bullish on the product type going forward as demand generators such as job and population growth are strong in the Southeast’s top markets. “I see two …
SOMERVILLE, MASS. — JLL has arranged a $140 million construction loan for 101 South Street, a life science development in Somerville, a northern suburb of Boston. The project represents Phase I of the borrower’s planned mixed-use development, which will include retail and residential components as well as public green space. JLL arranged the financing on behalf of the borrower, a joint venture between New York-based developer DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners and Boston-based developer Leggate McCall Properties. Construction is slated for completion in 2021.
MIAMI — CIM Group has broken ground on a mixed-use development in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. The project will feature 27,000 square feet of street-level retail and studio space, about 60,000 square feet of office space, 257 apartment units and approximately 480 parking stalls. The yet-to-be-named project will span a city block from NE 22nd and NE 23rd streets, four miles north of downtown Miami. Three office floors will be situated above the street-level retail and studio space and extend across the full city block. Set above are two eight-story apartment buildings, one each at the northern and southern ends of the block. The residential units will offer studio to three-bedroom floor plans. The retail, office and apartments feature floor-to-ceiling windows. The project is anticipated to be complete in mid-2021. CIM acquired the fully entitled site in October 2018.
