PHILADELPHIA —Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust has signed an agreement to launch a Mercy Health System consumer health and wellness facility at Plymouth Meeting Mall in Philadelphia this September. The health system is aligned with Mercy Suburban Hospital. The 23,000-square-foot outpatient ambulatory healthcare facility will include primary care physicians and specialist offices, physical therapy and non-invasive procedure suits, imaging facilities and a walk-in clinic. The space will be accessible from both inside and outside the mall.
NEW YORK CITY — PCCP has arranged a $65 million loan for the acquisition and repositioning of Cassa Hotel, on behalf of China-based HNA Property Holding Group. The 165-room luxury hotel is located at 70 W. 45th St. in New York City. The loan is secured by the lower 24 stories and basement levels of a 45-story tower, with floors 25 to 45 consisting of residential condo units that are not collateral for the loan. In addition to the hotel rooms, the property includes 11,000 square feet of restaurant space leased to BLT Restaurant and 1,100 square feet of meeting space. HNA plans to renovate and rebrand the hotel, which Viceroy Hotel Group will manage.
NEW YORK CITY — A partnership between hotel investment firm Chartres Lodging Group and Apollo Global Real Estate Management has completed the purchase of Novotel New York Times Square, a 480-room hotel on 52nd Street and Broadway. The seller was a subsidiary of Accor Business and Leisure Management, which will continue to operate the hotel under the Novotel flag. The partnership plans to renovate the property by adding meeting rooms, a new fitness center and renovating the guest rooms and Terrace Bar overlooking Times Square. The purchase price was undisclosed.
BOSTON — Suffolk Construction will oversee the renovation of 50 Post Office Square, an 18-story art deco tower in Boston. Formerly 185 Franklin Street, the building will be open to the public for the first time in 60 years after the 12-month project is complete. The property was originally the headquarters for New England Telephone and Telegraph Co., followed by Verizon Communications Inc. Commonwealth Ventures purchased the property for $192 million in 2008. The renovation will include upgrades to the building's lobby, common areas and commercial space. It also includes the addition of 21,000 square feet of retail space and 110 new underground parking spaces. The project is slated to be completed in 2013.
YONKERS, N.Y. — The $24 million Westchester Center for Independent and Assisted Living has opened to Medicaid recipients this month. The facility is located at 78 Stratton St. South. in Yonkers and includes luxury apartments, an in-house movie theater, beauty salon and billiard room. Center Management Group financed the project with tax incentives from the Yonkers Industrial Development Agency.
NEW YORK CITY — Manhattan-based RBH Group has broken ground on Teachers Village, a $149 million retail, educational and residential development in downtown Newark. The Richard Meijer-designed complex will house three new schools, a daycare center and provide rental apartments for more than 200 Newark teachers. It will also include 70,000 square feet of retail space. Retail tenants are expected to open in the summer of 2013, and the the first residents are slated to occupy apartments in the fall of 2013.
NEW YORK CITY — Mar-Mart Realty Co. has sold 12 Fifth Ave., a 33-unit apartment building for $12.5 million. The 19,545-square-foot property is located between 8th and 9th streets in central Greenwich Village. John Stewart of the Manhattan office of Marcus & Millichap represented Mar-Mart in the transaction. He also represented the buyer, a New York City-based real estate investor. Built in 1906 as a hotel, the property was converted into apartments in the 1940s.
BALTIMORE, MD. — Beech Street Capital has provided an $11.3 million Fannie Mae loan for the acquisition of Henderson House, a 120-unit apartment property in Baltimore. Jacob Katz of Meridian Capital Group originated the loan for the undisclosed borrower. The property includes two contiguous buildings: a nine-story building with 94 units and a 10-story building containing 56 units. The 10-year, fixed-rate loan has a 30-year amortization schedule.
MT. VERNON, YONKERS, N.Y. — Jerry Houlihan of Houlihan-Parnes Realtors has arranged $2.1 million loan for the refinancing of two properties, located at 6-8 E. Sydney Ave. in Mount Vernon and 829 Midland Ave. in Yonkers. The loans each have a five-year term.
Upstate New York is currently in a renaissance period as the major initiative of the high technology industry creates momentum for local communities. Centered at the University at Albany, the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering has been a leader in developing more than $6 billion of infrastructure and research and development focused around the semi-conductor industry, and most recently the solar energy industry. The relocation of Sematech International’s world headquarters from Austin, Texas, to the edge of the University’s campus in Albany, New York, has established a partnership program focusing the world’s leading semi-conductor makers and related industries in a collaborative effort to develop and manufacture the next generation of chips that power our lives. The College’s most recent announcement of a partnership involving IBM, Intel, Samsung, Global Foundries and TSMC focused on a $4.8 billion deal that is largely funded privately, will result in substantial job growth in categories not previously significant in numbers. This most recent announcement in September 2011 also spreads the benefits throughout the state in Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, and into the Hudson Valley as new jobs are created in these communities that result from supporting and related industries. The office sector should begin to …