PITTSBURGH — Walker & Dunlop has closed a $14.9 million construction loan for EVEN Hotel, located within the historic Kaufmann’s department store building in downtown Pittsburgh. The borrower is Reception Hotels and Resorts, which acquired the fifth and sixth floors for the hotel. The hotel will be part of the Kaufmann’s Grand on Fifth, a master redevelopment the former department store that will feature retail, hospitality, multifamily and office space. The loan closed with Orix USA on behalf of Reception Hotels and Resorts. Jacob Cohen of Walker & Dunlop secured the non-recourse loan that features three years of interest-only payments.
WARRENDALE, PA. — Teen clothing retailer rue21 has completed its financial restructuring and emerged from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. The Warrendale-based company began to close approximately 400 underperforming stores in April, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 15. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as rue21’s legal advisor, Rothschild Inc. acted as investment banker and financial advisor, and Berkeley Research Group acted as restructuring advisor throughout the process.
MILFORD, N.J. — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of Holland Center, a neighborhood shopping center located at 621-641 Milford Warren Glen Road in Milford. A private buyer acquired the asset for $2 million. Situated on 5 acres, the 10,777-square-foot property was fully occupied by six tenants at the time of sale. Derrick Dougherty, Mark Krantz and Shannon Bona of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, while Mark Taylor, also of Marcus & Millichap, represented the buyer in the deal.
NEW YORK CITY — The Greater Jamaica Development Corp. has selected a joint venture between BRP Cos. and Wharton Properties to purchase and develop a site located at 90-02 168th St. in the Queens’ neighborhood of Jamaica. The open-air parking lot will become an approximately 500,000-square-foot development with more than 300 mixed-income residential units and more than 70,000 square feet of retail space. Construction is slated to begin in the second half of 2018.
WARMINSTER, PA. — J.G. Petrucci Co. has opened Jacksonville Station, a 151-unit apartment community located at 375 Jacksonville Road in Warminster. The eight-building property features 74 one-bedroom and 77 two-bedroom apartment units with high ceilings, stainless steel kitchen appliances, quartz countertops and in-unit washers/dryers. Situated on 10 acres, the multifamily complex features on-site surface parking, a state-of-the-art fitness center, resort-style swimming pool and resident clubhouse with flat-screen televisions, couches and meeting spaces.
HAZLE TOWNSHIP, PA. — Trammell Crow Co. and its partner, Allstate, through real estate investment manager CBRE Global Investors, have broken ground for Humboldt East Trade Center, a speculative warehouse building located within Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazle Township. The 440,504-square-foot building will feature 36-foot clear heights, employee and trailer parking, and a flexible design that can accommodate multiple tenants with separate entrances. Completion is slated for the first quarter of 2018. Sean Bleiler and Bill Wolf of CBRE are handling project leasing and marketing.
ALBANY, N.Y. — The Rosenblum Cos. has opened a ValuSpace Personal Storage facility, located at 40 N. Russell Road in Albany. The $7 million, 88,000-square-foot facility features 630 self-storage units, code-controlled access and security features.
NEW YORK CITY — TerraCRG has arranged the sale of an apartment building located at 440 Senator St. in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood. An undisclosed buyer acquired the four-story building for $4.8 million, or $340 per square foot. The 14,280-square-foot property features 20 apartment units. Peter Matheos and David Algarin of TerraCRG brokered the transaction.
The office market in 2017 has rebounded from the slowdown of 2016 — suggesting that Manhattan market conditions remain stronger than some might have imagined at the end of last year. Growth in office-using employment has picked up steam this year, and New York’s Gross City Product expanded at a faster rate than in 2016. Buoyed by large transactions in the financial services and government sectors, leasing activity also expanded in the first half of 2017, outpacing 2016’s mid-year leasing activity by 19 percent. Asking rents continued their trajectory of modest growth, though tenant improvement allowances have grown at a far faster rate, suggesting tenants are paying lower net effective rent; meanwhile, the number of upward repricings on existing listings fell off considerably in the first half of 2017, while downward repricings continue unabated from last year. Despite the increase in both leasing activity and velocity in the first half of 2017, Manhattan continues to see negative net absorption this year, largely due to the delivery of new office product in Midtown South and Downtown. This has pushed up the availability rate to 12.0 percent — suggesting increasingly tenant-favorable conditions in the market. New York City Employment After a relatively …
NEW HAVEN, CONN. — Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, has arranged the sale of The Novella, a mixed-use property located in New Haven. 1245 Chapel Street LLC acquired the property from RMS Chapel Street for $39.6 million. The Novella features 136 apartment units above the 1,135-square-foot Chapel Street Pharmacy, 3,380 square feet of available retail space and 85 parking spaces. Victor Nolletti, Steve Witten and Eric Pentore of IPA represented the seller and procured the buyer in the deal.