NEW YORK CITY — Avison Young has arranged the sale of Studio House, a 16-unit multifamily property located at 239 E. 77th St. on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Hanna Graham Associates acquired the asset from Boris Lurie Art Foundation for $7.5 million, or $1,042 per square foot. Neil Helman and Eric Karmitz of Avison Young represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction.
AUBURN, MASS. — Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates has brokered the sale of Laurel Hill Apartment Complex, located at 11 Whitney Circle and 1-17 Temple St. in Auburn. Micozzi Management Inc. acquired the property from Laurel Hill Realty Inc. for $3.9 million. The property features 44 two-bedroom/one-bath units and was fully occupied at the time of closing. Donald Mancini and Will Kelleher of Kelleher & Sadowsky brokered the transaction.
ENFIELD, CONN. — Colliers International has brokered the long-term lease of 102,000 square feet of industrial space at Enfield Distribution Center, located at 35 Manning Road in Enfield. Namco will occupy the space in the $2.6 million transaction. Nicholas Morizio of Colliers represented the undisclosed landlord, while Tim McNamara of SullivanHayes represented the tenant in the lease transaction.
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — HFF has arranged $35.5 million in refinancing for Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel, a 180-room hotel located at 250 Market St. in Portsmouth. The borrower, Lodgesys, will use the loan proceeds to refinance existing debt on the property. The 10-year, fixed-rate loan was provided by Bank of America. The hotel features a two-level underground parking garage, 13,500 square feet of meeting space, a fitness center, indoor pool, sauna, Link@Sheraton Internet café and Two-Fifty Market, restaurant and lodge. Anthony Cutone of HFF secured the financing for the borrower.
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — Regan Development Corp. has completed Homesteads on Ampersand, a 64-unit affordable housing community located at 292 Rugar St. in Plattsburgh. The eco-friendly community features four two-story buildings featuring 24 one-bedroom, 20 two-bedroom and 20 three-bedroom units, as well as a community building. The property features on-site management, a laundry facility, community room, library and computer center, as well as 73 surface parking spaces. Additionally, units feature Energy Star appliances, carpet, air conditioning and storage. Irvine, Calif.-based WNC, a national investor in real estate and community development initiatives, provided $7.1 million in low-income housing tax credit equity for the new development, which was constructed in one year.
NEW YORK CITY — Eastern Consolidated has arranged the sale of a mixed-use building located at 157 E. 55th St. in New York’s Midtown East district. Goldie Moss Irrevocable Trust sold the 5,700-square-foot property to 157E55 Owner LLC for $10 million. The property features two vacant full-floor apartments on the top two levels and Darbar Grill, a popular restaurant, on the lower two levels. Additionally, the building features substantial air rights allowing for approximately 20,000 square feet of residential uses and 30,000 square feet of commercial or community facility space. Brian Ezratty and Scott Ellard of Eastern Consolidated represented the seller and procured the buyer in the sale.
RIDGEWOOD, N.Y. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of an apartment building located at 2048 Gates Ave. in Ridgewood. The six-unit rental property sold for $1.3 million. Shaun Riney, Thomas Shihadeh and George Koncilja of Marcus & Millichap’s Brooklyn office represented the seller, an individual/personal trust, and the buyer, a limited liability company, in the transaction. The property was fully occupied at the time of sale.
MERIDEN, CONN. — Press/Cuozzo Commercial Services has arranged the sale of an industrial building located at 170 Pond View Drive within Medway Business Park in Meriden. Aperture Optical Sciences acquired the 23,000-square-foot property for $1.1 million. Constructed in 1985, the property features 18,000 square feet of high-bay industrial space and 5,000 square feet of office and sales support space. Stephen Press and Ted Schaffer of Press/Cuozzo represented the undisclosed seller, while Kyle Roberts of CBRE/New England represented the buyer in the transaction.
In the Capital Region, an industrial/warehouse market with a little over 63 million square feet of space (spread over a 10-county area), vacancy rates have returned to pre-recession levels. It has been a long and steady climb out of a deep recessionary market, which hit this sector of the market the hardest during 2009. During that time, vacancy rates were hovering around the 11 percent mark. In the second quarter of this year, the regional vacancy rate stood at 7.3 percent. Compare this figure to the fourth quarter of 2014, when the vacancy rate was 8.9 percent. As a region, we are again enjoying the absorption of industrial space, as some regional operators expand and some new faces enter the market. We are constantly examining and reviewing the market to understand the current activity, and to anticipate and prepare for the coming trends and changes. So what has lead to the Capital District’s industrial/warehouse market recovery? Several factors are responsible. First and foremost, the overall recovery of both the national and local economies has played a significant role in our industrial recovery. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the United States stood at 5.3 percent …
All of the property sectors in the Boston area are thriving, thanks to one of the strongest economies in the nation. As of April this year, the unemployment rate in Massachusetts was 4.7 percent and in Boston, it was 3.7 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists generally consider employment to be essentially “full” when unemployment rates dip below 5 percent. By comparison, the unemployment rates in neighboring states were 6.3 percent for Connecticut, 3.8 percent for New Hampshire and 6.1 percent for Rhode Island. The U.S. unemployment rate in April was 5.4 percent. Boston’s overall industrial vacancy rate at the close of the second quarter was 8.1 percent, according to CoStar, and includes warehouse/distribution space, flex space and R&D facilities. It was the fourth consecutive quarter that the vacancy rate has remained in the low 8 percent range. Overall net absorption has been negative this year: -82,364 square feet in the second quarter and -41,089 square feet in the first quarter this year. This compares with positive net absorption of more than 3.1 million square feet in the third and fourth quarters of 2014. However, we believe that the first half of this year is a …