WEST HARTFORD, CONN. — Sentry Commercial has brokered the acquisition of an office building located at 28 N. Main St. in West Hartford. North Main Holdings LLC purchased the property from Rosenfield/Hollander Associates for $1.2 million. Situated on half an acre, the property features 9,392 square feet of office space. Sentry Commercial represented the buyer, while Chozick Realty represented the seller in the deal.
NEW HAVEN, CONN. — Fischer Commercial Real Estate has arranged the sale of an industrial property located at 300 East St. in New Haven. Space Craft Holdings sold the property to 300 East Street LLC, a title-holding entity whose members are the owners of New Haven-based Luckey Climbers, for $1.5 million. Situated on 2.3 acres, the property features 27,238 square feet of space. Luckey Climbers is a bespoke design-build firm specializing in creating unique and imaginative three-dimensional climbing structures for children-oriented institutional and commercial clients. The firm plans to relocate its manufacturing and executive offices from Chapel Street in New Haven to the new property. Alan Fischer of Fischer Commercial Real Estate represented the seller and buyer in the off-market transaction.
SOUTHPORT, CONN. — Maplewood Senior Living has started construction of Maplewood at Southport, a 98-unit assisted living and memory care community in Southport, located between Hartford and New York City. Maplewood is building the 93,000-square-foot community on a 27-acre plot. Stein Troost Architecture of Norwalk is the architectural firm on the project. Milone & McBroom of Cheshire will serve as the landscape architects, with Landtech of Westport as civil engineers and KBE Building Corporation of Farmington as the construction manager. The project is scheduled to open in 2019. Based in nearby Westport, Maplewood currently owns and operates 15 communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Ohio. The company is expanding to New Jersey and has a high-profile project under construction on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
NEW HAVEN, CONN. — Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, has arranged the sale of College and Crown, a multifamily asset located at 200 College St. in New Haven. Centurion Overseas Ltd. acquired the five-story property from College Square LLC for an undisclosed price. Built in 2015, the property features 160 apartments and 18,684 square feet of commercial space. Community amenities include a lounge, a study area, a fitness center and outdoor spaces with grilling stations and pet-friendly anti-microbial faux turf. Victor Nolletti and Eric Pentore of IPA represented the seller and procured the buyer in the deal.
HARTFORD, CONN. — Aria Legacy Group has purchased Ritz Grande Apartments, a residential community located at 29 Annawan St. in Hartford’s South End, for $3.7 million. This acquisition marks the company’s 16th multifamily investment in the city. The 58-unit complex features a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments. On-site amenities include laundry facilities, a playground, basketball courts and off-street parking. Taylor Perun and Rich Edwards of Northeast Private Client Group represented the undisclosed seller in the deal. Adelle Ross of Eastern Union Funding arranged acquisition financing with Freddie Mac through CBRE for the buyer.
The retail market in Connecticut is alive and well. Sure it’s changing but what industry doesn’t experience change? There are numerous retail categories that continue to post healthy sales while also keeping their new store counts in a growth trajectory. Other categories will adapt to consumer trends and stay relevant in the world of brick and mortar. As we close 2017, we see that traditional shopping centers, especially grocery-anchored centers, are the solid performers in the sector. The “services” or “daily needs” category of retail continue to flock to these centers mainly because of consumer routine. The “services/daily needs” category includes health/fitness, traditional sit-down restaurants, quick-service restaurants, pharmacies, pet supply retailers, wireless communications, medical (walk-ins) and banking. Traditional neighborhood centers are becoming more conscious about merchandising with this specific category while trying to avoid deals with the more risky retail categories, such as off-priced apparel. The big-box power centers and the centers with large chunks of vacancy are another story, and there will be winners and losers. Geography plays a big role here and it’s not the dead-end road that some suggest. Over the past 18 months, my team’s exclusive leasing portfolio has had two Kmart closures in two separate …
NORWALK, CONN. — CBRE has brokered the sale of 597 Westport, a Class A apartment community located in Norwalk. An affiliate of Hunt Investment Management sold the property to GDC Properties through a 1031 exchange for $105.9 million. Built in 2009, 597 Westport features 235 apartment units, a clubroom with full caterer’s kitchen, a media lounge and billiards room, a fitness center and an outdoor saltwater pool with sundeck, cabanas and an outdoor kitchen. Jeffrey Dunne, Gene Pride and Eric Apfel of CBRE represented the seller in the deal. Jim Gunning, Donna Falzarano and Kyle Saviano of CBRE procured first and mezzanine financing from The Guardian Life Insurance Co. and a pension fund client represented by Quadrant Real Estate Advisors, respectively.
ORANGE, CONN. — Pearce/George J. Smith Commercial Real Estate has brokered the sale of an industrial building situated on 6.5 acres at 70 Robinson Blvd. in Orange. Robin Equity LLC acquired the 50,666-square-foot property for an undisclosed price. The buyer will repurpose the building for American Seal & Engineering Corp. to serve as its new global corporate headquarters and main manufacturing facility for engineered products, advanced manufacturing technology, and product testing and development. Carl Russell of Pearce/George J. Smith Commercial represented the sellers, ALM Properties and MCM Investments in the deal.
STAMFORD, CONN. — TH Real Estate, an affiliate of Nuveen, a TIAA company, has completed the sale of The Wescott, an apartment community located in Stamford. A private New Jersey-based investment group acquired the 261-unit property for $67 million. Built in 1986, the property features an indoor/outdoor pool, clubroom with kitchen, media lounge and billiards room, fitness center, tennis courts, basketball court, outdoor courtyard and garage parking. Most units have been renovated with new kitchens, featuring granite counters, stainless steel appliances, and new cabinets, baths, lighting and fixtures. The property also features a 8,500-square-foot vacant commercial space, which was formerly occupied by medical tenants. Jeffrey Dunne, Gene Pride and Eric Apfel of CBRE represented the seller in the deal.
Connecticut’s Fairfield County ranks among America’s 40 wealthiest counties with a median household income of $81,268 in 2010. And while some of its current office market data stand at low levels, many indicators point to a bright future. Year-to-date office leasing activity reached 1.7 million square feet as of the third quarter. This amounts to a 21 percent increase relative to the same period one year ago. While this figure stands 3.1 percent below the five-year historical average, overall leasing volume does not take into account a 500,000-square-foot, build-to-suit lease undertaken by Charter Communications at Gateway Harbor Point in Stamford. For the quarter, aggregate office leasing in the county totaled 555,629 square feet. Stamford and Greenwich accounted for more than 77 percent of the total. Major transactions included Bank of America’s 166,000-square-foot lease at 600 Washington Boulevard in Stamford and AQR Capital’s 90,000-square-foot expansion at One Greenwich Plaza. In August, Stamford scored its most impactful corporate attraction of the year when the German-based multinational Henkel moved its North American headquarters from Scottsdale, Arizona, to 155,000 square feet within the BLT Financial Centre at 200 Elm Street. The consumer products firm said its laundry, beauty and home-care divisions are employing approximately …