North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Development-Management Inc. (DMI) plans to develop a new two-story, 120,000-square-foot self storage facility at 536 W. Tremont Ave. in Charlotte’s South End. Situated on 3.5 acres between South Tryon Street and Toomey Avenue, the property will feature 98,000 square feet of rentable storage space, a wine cellar and exterior units that will be accessible by car. DMI purchased the site in a bankruptcy sale for $1.5 million. The developer expects to deliver the new property in 2018. The facility will be DMI’s sixth self storage property in Charlotte and its ninth in the Carolinas.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

The Raleigh-Durham business climate has been on the climb for several years now and it doesn’t seem to be slowing anytime soon. The market continues to outpace most of the mid-tier markets across the country by all metrics of economic stability, quality of life, business environment, education, arts and quality of workforce. As a result, construction of office and retail projects has been strong, yet industrial construction and thus available space is lacking. Average asking rental rates have continued to rise in response to increasing demand and low supply. The remaining 550,000 square feet of industrial space that is expected to deliver has significant prelease commitments, creating competition for tenants looking for space. Raleigh-Durham’s warehouse market sits at a current vacancy of 3.8 percent with average asking rental rates at $5.01 per square foot triple net. The biggest challenge is for new and expanding tenants needing 35,000 to 200,000 square feet of space. Demand has been outpacing supply for several years in the market and industrial developers who recognized this trend were unable to fill the need because of the lack of available financing during the downturn. It has just been in the past 24 months that significant construction has …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Cushman & Wakefield has brokered the sale of two apartment communities in Charlotte: the 252-unit Whitehall Estates and the 318-unit Stone Ridge. Gamma Real Estate LLC purchased Whitehall Estates for $30.9 million and Stone Ridge for $43.2 million, according to Charlotte Business Journal. Jordan McCarley and Marc Robinson of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, YFP/Yager Properties, in the transaction. Built in 1996, Whitehall Estates was 92.5 percent occupied at the time of sale. Built in 2001, Stone Ridge was 94 percent occupied at the time of sale.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

At the close of 2016, over 1.9 million square feet of office space was absorbed in the Raleigh-Durham market and overall vacancy increased by one percentage point from 10 percent to 11 percent. Activity was strong and can partially be attributed to a very active suburban Raleigh submarket that absorbed over 1.1 million square feet. Vacancy in this submarket ended the year at 10 percent, down from a high of 17 percent in 2010. It was also an active construction year for Raleigh-Durham, with developers completing over 1.3 million square feet of new office space. There is currently another 2.7 million square feet of new projects underway, and an additional 2 million square feet of proposed projects. Downtown Durham, an approximately 4.5 million-square-foot market, has multiple office projects underway, including: The Chesterfield: Renovation on the 286,000-square-foot building should be completed soon with the first tenants moving in in July 2017. The project, being developed by Wexford Science + Technology, is approximately 75 percent leased. One City Center: The mixed-use, 432,000-square-foot project has 130,000 rentable square feet of office space and should open in late 2017. The office component is 50 percent preleased. Activity in downtown Durham has been driven by …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Portman Holdings has added BDO USA LLP, an accounting and consulting firm, to the tenant roster at 615 South College in Uptown Charlotte. The 19-story office building is nearing completion, and BDO expects to occupy its new space as early as August. Located at Lynx Blue Line’s Stonewall Station, the 370,000-square-foot office building is situated near Whole Foods Market, the Charlotte Convention Center and Westin Charlotte. Travis Garland of Portman Holdings and John Ball of Trinity Partners represented the ownership in the lease transaction, and Brent Royall of Colliers International represented BDO. Other committed tenants include Regions Bank, which pre-leased 60,000 square feet of space in 2016.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Bissell Cos. Inc. has completed the sale of most of its interests in Ballantyne Corporate Park, a 535-acre, master-planned business community in Charlotte, to Northwood Investors, a global real estate investment and management firm. Northwood will acquire over 4 million square feet of Class A office space and nearly 600 hotel rooms within the development, including The Ballantyne Hotel Charlotte. Terms of the sale were not released, but the Charlotte Business Journal reports that the sale closed in more than 40 separate transactions totaling in excess of $1 billion. Current office tenants at Ballantyne Corporate Park include MetLife, Wells Fargo, Premier, TIAA, Liberty Mutual, Snyder’s-Lance, Synchrony Financial, Sonic Automotive, XPO Logistics and Siemens. “What Smoky Bissell and the Bissell team have created in Ballantyne Corporate Park is remarkable,” says John Kukral, president and CEO of Northwood Investors. “We are excited that the Bissell team will join Northwood and help lead the next phase of Ballantyne Corporate Park. This transaction represents one of our largest acquisitions to date and reinforces our commitment to Charlotte.” Northwood has been an active investor in the Charlotte market since 2011, when Northwood and David Ravin formed Northwood Ravin, a multifamily development …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — JLL has arranged a new 102,660-square-foot lease for showroom and distribution space at Steele Creek Commerce Center in Charlotte. John Cashion of JLL represented the tenant, Hearth and Home Technologies, the world’s largest manufacturer of hearths. The Minnesota-based company is a subsidiary of HNI Corp. and operates 14 brands of fireplaces, stoves and inserts. The manufacturer also leases space within North Park Business Park and sought additional space in Charlotte to meet growing business demands. Brad Cherry, Spencer Yorke and Matt Greer, also with JLL, represented the landlord, EastGroup Properties, which owns both Steele Creek Commerce Center and North Park Business Park.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — KeyBank Real Estate Capital has arranged a $27.8 million Freddie Mac loan for Carriage Club Apartments, a 268-unit apartment community located in Mooresville, about 28 miles north of Charlotte. The property was built in 2000 and renovated in 2005. Timothy DeWispelaere of KeyBank arranged the three-year, interest-only loan, which the borrower will use to acquire and renovate Carriage Club.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

RALEIGH, N.C. — Covenant Capital Group has sold Regency Place Apartments, a 180-unit, garden-style apartment community located at 6210 St. Regis Circle in west Raleigh. Towne Properties purchased the property, its first acquisition in the Southeast, for $20.8 million free and clear of existing debt. Regency Place comprises nine three-story buildings with a mix of one- and two-bedroom units averaging 848 square feet. Covenant Capital Group upgraded the property’s amenities, exteriors and unit interiors over the past two years. Justin Good, Allan Lynch, Jeff Glenn and Jason Nettles of HFF represented the seller in the transaction.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

COLUMBIA, S.C. AND GREENSBORO, N.C. — ARA Newmark has arranged two sales of student housing assets near the University of South Carolina and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The sales totaled more than $50 million. In the first transaction, Pittsburgh-based Campus First Student Living purchased The Club at Carolina Stadium in Columbia from Aspen Square Management for $30.5 million. Situated directly across from Carolina Stadium, the 240-unit, 486-bed asset was fully occupied at the time of sale. In the second deal, Shanghai-based private equity fund OC Ventures and operating partner SkyeCroft Realty purchased Sterling Cottages at West End in Greensboro from Houston-based The Dinerstein Cos. for an undisclosed price. Built in 2011, the 176-unit, 600-bed asset was 93 percent occupied at the time of sale. Ryan Lang of ARA Newmark’s Student Housing group in Austin, Texas, represented the sellers in both transactions.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail