WARWICK, R.I. — ACRES Capital has provided $19 million in financing for Matteson Ridge, an age-restricted multifamily project in Warwick, about 50 miles south of Worcester, Mass. The undisclosed borrower will use the proceeds to refinance existing debt on 29 townhouse units that are fully occupied, as well as to fund construction of 53 garden-style apartments. Residences are furnished with stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, custom cabinetry, coffee bars, laundry rooms and attached one-car garages.
LONDONDERRY, N.H. — Intelligent Manufacturing Solutions (IMS) has signed an 86,954-square-foot office lease in Londonderry, located near the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border. The circuit board assembler is relocating and expanding from 645 Harvey Road to 12 Innovation Way, a 233,839-square-foot building. Rich Ruggiero, Brian Pinch and Tyler McGrail represented the landlord, regional investment firm R.J. Kelly, in the lease negotiations.
NORTH ANDOVER, MASS. — A public-private partnership between Greystar and Merrimack College has topped off two student housing projects totaling 540 beds on the university’s campus in North Andover, a northern suburb of Boston. The first building will house 351 beds across 180 units, all of which will be traditional dormitory doubles except for the resident advisor units. The second building will house 189 beds across 54 units, the majority of which will feature three- and four-bedroom suite configurations. The properties will also feature a combined total of 12,609 square feet of academic space, a pavilion for honors students and a fitness center. Timelines for completion of the projects were not disclosed.
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. — Cushman & Wakefield and Pyramid Brokerage Co. have co-arranged the $82.4 million sale of Foxrun Apartments and North Pointe Apartments, two multifamily properties in the upstate New York community of Clifton Park. Spanning 41 acres, Foxrun Apartments offers 468 units. Spanning 12 acres, North Pointe Apartments totals 198 units. Affiliates of The Solomon Organization sold the properties to Merion Realty Partners, which partnered with Eastham Capital on the deal. Niko Nicolaou, Ryan Dowd, Peter Welch, J.P. Hohl and Alexandria Russo Ebers of Cushman & Wakefield, alongside Jonathan Weinstein, Robert Stewart and Joseph Mahoney of Pyramid Brokerage Co. represented both parties in the transaction. Both properties were more than 90 percent occupied at the time of sale.
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. — JLL has negotiated the $40 million sale of a 219,848-square-foot shopping center in South Plainfield, about 40 miles southwest of New York City. Golden Acres Shopping Center was 83 percent leased at the time of sale, with grocer ShopRite serving as the anchor. Other tenants include Shoppers World, Unique Thrift Store and Wendy’s. Jose Cruz, J.B. Bruno, Kevin O’Hearn, Michael Kavaler and Joseph Lopresti represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. The buyer was a joint venture between Agus Holdings and Treeco.
NEW YORK CITY — Pickleball concept CityPickle will open a 37,000-square-foot venue at 1501 Broadway in the Times Square area of Midtown Manhattan. The space will be located on the eighth floor of the 885,000-square-foot tower, which is known locally as the Paramount Building due to its original construction as the home of Paramount Pictures. The venue will feature seven courts, a bar and restaurant, lounge and event space and locker rooms. The space will also serve as CityPickle’s new corporate headquarters office. The opening is scheduled for the fall.
NEW YORK CITY — Apparel retailer GMA Accessories has signed a 23,698-square-foot office lease extension in Midtown Manhattan. The lease term is approximately 12 years, and the space spans the seventh and 10th floors at 389 Fifth Avenue, a 12-story building that was originally constructed in 1922. Max Koeppel of Koeppel Rosen LLC represented the landlord, the Rosen Family, in the lease negotiations on an internal basis. Michael Joseph of Colliers represented the tenant.
BOSTON — A joint venture led by locally based REIT Diversified Healthcare Trust (NASDAQ: DHC) has received $1 billion for the refinancing of the Vertex Pharmaceuticals headquarters facility in Boston. A consortium of lenders — Morgan Stanley Bank, Bank of Montreal, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan — provided the financing, which was structured with a five-year term and a fixed interest rate. Local investment firm RMR Group, which provides asset and property management services for the joint venture, arranged the debt. The majority of the proceeds will be used to retire $620 million in fixed-rate debt on the property, as well as to fund leasing reserves and repatriate cash to investors. Located at 50 Northern Ave. and 11 Fan Pier Blvd. in Boston’s Seaport District, the two-building facility spans approximately 1.1 million square feet. Both buildings were constructed in 2013. Vertex, which produces medicines and therapies for genetic disorders including cystic fibrosis, renewed its lease in August 2024 and will remain the property’s sole occupant through 2044. The joint venture ownership group includes multiple institutional investment groups that were not named in the announcement. Diversified Healthcare’s stake in the property is 10 percent; the company previously sold a 10 percent …
You can be a best-in-class operator with the coolest concept on the block, or you can be a well-capitalized landlord who knows all the right people, but if rapid, sustainable growth in the Boston retail market is what you seek, you might be SOL. According to local brokers, the high-demand, low-supply dynamic that currently exists in most major U.S. retail markets does not fully encapsulate the difficulties that tenants and landlords alike face in growing their footprints in the greater Boston area. As to why growing store counts or portfolios is so challenging in this market, the answer varies depending on who you ask. But a collective recap of all wide-ranging barriers to entry and disruptive forces at play paints a picture of a market that is borderline impenetrable for many tenants and perpetually stagnating for many landlords. “Boston remains an incredibly high-barrier-to-entry market,” says Zach Nitsche, director of retail capital markets in JLL’s Boston office. “A statistic we like to share with clients and industry people that haven’t historically invested in Boston and New England is that less than 5 percent of our total retail product has been constructed after the Global Financial Crisis. So far this year, the …
NEW YORK CITY — Locally based owner-operator BRP Cos. has completed Ruby Square, a 614-unit mixed-income multifamily development in the Jamaica area of Queens. Ruby Square features a mix of studios (seven), one-bedroom units (454) and two-bedroom apartments (153). About a third (185) of the units are affordable for residents earning between 80 and 130 percent of the area median income. The property also offers 50,000 square feet of amenity space across a two-level private park, multiple rooftop lounges, a fitness center, coworking spaces, multiple resident lounges, an indoor basketball court, children’s playroom, pet grooming facilities and a 24/7 attended lobby. Leasing launched in May, at which time market-rate rents started at about $2,800 per month.