NEW YORK CITY — Eastern Consolidated has brokered the sale of a mixed-use, elevator building, located at 49 Greene St. in SoHo. The six-story property sold for $31 million, or $1,240 per square foot. The 25,000-square-foot building features seven apartment units and a 5,500-square-foot vacant retail space. Peter Hauspurg of Eastern Consolidated represented the seller, Les Pieds Nickle’s Inc., while Deborah Gutoff of Eastern and Robert Dankner of Prime Manhattan Residential represented the buyer, EMP Capital, in the transaction.
Mixed-Use
AUSTIN, TEXAS — GroundFloor Development and Prescott Group have announced plans for Saint Elmo, a mixed-use project set to open in Austin in the first quarter of 2018. Designed by Andersson-Wise Architects and located on South Congress near Ben White Boulevard, Saint Elmo will include 225,000 square feet of office space and a 40,000-square-foot indoor-outdoor marketplace. GroundFloor Development and Prescott Group are the master developers of the $120 million project. In November of last year, the Austin city council approved the rezoning request for the project. Construction is slated to begin in mid-2016. Andersson-Wise Architects is the lead architect of the project, KBGE’s Chad Kimbell is the civil engineer, David Hocker of Hocker Design is the landscape designer, Juice Consulting’s Heather Wagner Reed will oversee public relations and marketing, and Helms Workshop is the strategic brand design studio.
Chattanooga is Enjoying a Boom of Office, Retail and Hotel Activity Amid its Urban Renewal.
by John Nelson
Chattanooga is situated at a U-turn of the Tennessee River amidst forests and mountains, hence the community’s nickname, Scenic City. Two of Chattanooga’s largest employers are Volkswagen, which has a plant here, and Amazon, which runs a distribution center in the city. Insurance firm Unum Group, a Fortune 500 Company founded in 1848, is headquartered here and is one of the larger occupiers of downtown office space. Long-known for its natural resources and as a tourism destination, Chattanooga is experiencing a real estate boom fueled by urbanization trends and its proximity to Atlanta (2 hours south) and Nashville (1.5 hours northwest), as well as its growing recognition as one of the South’s top tourism and entertainment venues. Key to the urban renewal is the conversion of dozens of properties — mostly from office uses to residential, retail or hotel uses. The combination of the Great Recession and a 2009 move by BlueCross BlueShield into a new $229 million downtown facility has led to the relatively high vacancy rate of 17.5 percent that persisted up until early 2014. Most of the 600,000 square feet of facilities vacated by BlueCross BlueShield were not suitable for multi-tenanted office use and the spaces would …
NEW YORK CITY — Cushman & Wakefield has arranged the sale of a property located at 206-212 Wadsworth Ave. in Manhattan’s Washington Heights. Caerus Group acquired the property for $8 million in an all-cash transaction. The buyer plans to construct a new development on the site, which offers 97,422 square feet of buildable space. The previous owners, Wadsworth Avenue Baptist Church Inc., will occupy a condominium at the new development, which will replace the existing structure. Robert Shapiro of Cushman & Wakefield handled the transaction.
HOUSTON — Three new retailers have signed on at Caldwell Cos.’ mixed-use development, The Boardwalk at Towne Lake. Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Co., a coffee shop and bakery, World of Beer, a tavern with a craft beer focus, and Massage Heights, a massage and skin therapy provider, are the latest tenants to sign leases at the Northwest Houston project. The Boardwalk at Towne Lake offers restaurant, retail and recreational spaces accessible by walking, driving and boating. The three new retailers join Texas Children’s Pediatrics, Copper Creek Orthodontics and restaurants Jaxton’s and Taisho at the site.
CHAMBLEE, GA. — CONNOLLY, its affiliate Spruce Street Partners and Terwilliger Pappas have begun construction on Parkview on Peachtree, a transit-oriented, mixed-use development in Chamblee. The first phase of construction includes the demolition of existing vacant buildings and site grading. Set to open in 2017, Parkview on Peachtree will be located at the intersection of Peachtree Boulevard and Clairmont Road adjacent to the 45-acre Keswick Park. The mixed-use project will feature 40,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, 14,000 square feet of loft office space and 503 multifamily units. Terwilliger Pappas will develop 303 multifamily units in Phase I at Solis Parkview, with another 200 planned for Phase II. Ed O’Connor of Lavista Associates Inc. and Mindy Elms of Vantage Realty Partners will handle retail and restaurant leasing, and Rob Binion and Brian Burks of Lavista Associates will handle office leasing.
FORT WAYNE, IND. — Bradley Co. arranged a combination of office, industrial and retail leases in August totaling approximately 5,700 square feet. Dan Dickey of Bradley Co. represented landlord J.D. Ventures in the lease of a 3,000-square-foot industrial space located at 1905 Production Road in Fort Wayne. Tyler Binkley of Bradley Co. represented the tenant, IASA Group LLC. Anna Bowman of Bradley Co. represented the tenant, Stevens International, in its lease of a 1,999-square-foot office space located at 6527 Constitution Drive in Fort Wayne. Binkley and Bowman also represented the landlord, American Way LLC, in the lease of a 686-square-foot retail space located in Colony Shoppes at 6431 Bluffton Road in Fort Wayne. Binkley also represented the tenant, Boost Mobile, in the transaction.
NEW YORK CITY — An undisclosed buyer has acquired a mixed-use building located at 1902 Church Ave. in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood. The corner property sold for $3.3 million, or $357 per square foot, in an all-cash transaction. The three-story, 9,250-square-foot building features nine rent-stabilized apartments and three commercial units. Richard Velotta of Cushman & Wakefield handled the transaction. The name of the seller was not released.
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — Berkadia has arranged $23.2 million in construction financing for Seminole Booster Inc.’s College Town Phase II at Florida State University (FSU), a mixed-use development in Tallahassee. College Town Phase II will be situated less than half a mile from FSU and approximately a mile from downtown Tallahassee at the crossroads of South Woodward Avenue and West Madison Street. The project will comprise 89 student housing apartments with 202 beds in total, 23,145 square feet of retail space, 3,300 square feet of office space and a parking garage spanning 593 spaces. The developers, which include Alan Hooper and Tim Petrillo of Urban Street Development and Seminole Boosters Inc., plan to deliver College Town Phase II in August 2016. Phase I, which consists of 71 apartments and 33,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, opened in August 2013. Hooper Construction will be the construction manager for the project. Brad Williamson of Berkadia’s Miami office worked on behalf of the developers to arranged the three-year, interest-only loan through Mutual of Omaha Bank.
Marcus & Millichap Brokers $12.3M Sale of London Arms Mixed-Use Property in Miami Beach
by John Nelson
MIAMI BEACH, FLA. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the $12.3 million sale of London Arms, a four-story, 21,120-square-foot mixed-use property located at 727 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach’s Collins Avenue Fashion District. Originally constructed in 1930 as a 52-room hotel, the property was later converted to an apartment building. Aria Development Group purchased the building in 2013 and later converted it into a mixed-use asset comprising 4,700 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 25 upper floor rental units. Aria is the operator of the seller, 727 Collins Avenue, a limited liability company. Drew Kristol, Kirk Olson, Felipe Echarte and Evan Kristol of Marcus & Millichap, along with Still Hunter III of Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, represented the seller in the transaction. Drew Kristol and Olson procured the buyer, a limited liability company based in Atlanta.