WHITEHALL, PA. — Allentown, Pa.-based Summit Management & Realty Co. has arranged the leasing of 12,000 square feet of warehouse space at Riverside Business Center, located at 1139 Lehigh Ave. in Whitehall. Mike Shelton of Summit represented the tenant, Furniture Associates. Tyler Chomik, also of Summit, represented building ownership in the transaction. The lease was valued at approximately $500,000.
Northeast
HARTFORD, CONN. — Marcus & Millichap has completed the sale of Charter Oak Marketplace, a 259,056-square-foot retail center located at 475 Flatbush Ave. Built in 2004, the 34.37-acre center comprises a 149,551-square-foot freestanding Wal-Mart, a 76,750-square-foot strip building and numerous pad sites. Wal-Mart’s co-anchors at the center include Marshall’s and Dollar Tree. Pad tenants include McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Popeye’s, Pollo Tropical, and Texas Roadhouse. Sharon Bands of Marcus & Millichap’s Manhattan, New York City, office represented the seller, Centro Properties, and secured the buyer, a New Jersey-based shopping center REIT. The acquisition price was not disclosed but the property listed for $19.25 million.
NEW YORK CITY — A joint venture between Taconic Investment Partners and Denham Wolf Real Estate Services has begun a new phase of the $25 million renovation project currently under way at The BankNote, a four-building, 405,000-square-foot office and retail property located in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. The phase, scheduled for completion this year, will include parking lot renovations, the addition of landscaping and pedestrian walkways, new lobbies, a new cooling tower, corridor upgrades, new bathrooms, and a modernization of the elevators in the Lafayette and Barretto buildings. The joint venture is seeking LEED certification for the project. The project architect is Beyer Blinder Belle.
VALLEY STREAM, N.Y. — New York City-based Philips International has begun a multi-million dollar capital improvements program at 99 W. Hawthorne Ave. in Valley Stream. Construction to the seven-story, 45,330-square-foot property will include a conversion of the building’s space into 99 for-sale office condominiums, which will range in size from 1,000 square feet to 7,486-square-foot, full-floor spaces. The lobby and common area will also see renovations. Kelly Koukou and Mark Greenspan of CB Richard Ellis will handle marketing for the new office condos. A construction timetable was not released.
WINDSOR LOCKS, CONN. — Farmington, Conn.-based Konover Development Corp. has completed construction of a new 14,820-square-foot Walgreens pharmacy located at the corner of Main and Elm streets in Windsor Locks. The location is scheduled to open in early spring. In keeping with the city’s Main Street redevelopment plan, the pharmacy features a pedestrian-friendly design and a façade that complements the adjacent Memorial Hall and the Congregational Church of Windsor Locks — both of which were constructed in the 1880s. Konover also worked with the city to preserve the mature oak and maple trees that line Main Street in front of the new building.
CORTLANDT, N.Y. — White Plains, N.Y.-based Acadia Realty Trust has purchased Cortlandt Towne Center, a 640,000-square-foot regional shopping center located within the town of Cortlandt in Westchester County. The property was purchased through Acadia Strategic Opportunity Fund III LLC, which is Acadia Realty Trust’s third discretionary investment fund. Anchors at the center include Wal-Mart, A&P Food Market, Marshalls, Barnes & Noble, Regal Entertainment Group and Best Buy. The cost of the all-cash acquisition was $78 million.
SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Construction is underway on a 583,376-square-foot distribution warehouse in South Brunswick, which is being built to Silver LEED specifications by an investment client of BlackRock. Environmentally friendly features include a roof made of heat-reflecting material, energy-efficient insulation, T-5 lighting, low-flow plumbing fixtures and paint with low Volatile Organic Compound content. The warehouse will include 108 dock doors and a minimum 36-foot ceiling height.
MALVERN, PA. — Binswanger has represented VWR International LLC in its 150,000-square-foot build-to-suit corporate headquarters lease located within Worthington Town Center in Malvern. The 1.6 million-square-foot Worthington Town Center mixed-use development is owned by O’Neill Properties Group. The building that VWR will occupy will total 240,000 square feet, and is slated to include a major fitness center as well as several restaurants. In addition to brokering the transaction, Philadelphia-based Binswanger will act as project manager for VWR’s headquarters. VWR is expected to move its existing West Chester, Pa., operation to the new location in the third quarter of 2010. David Binswanger and Scott Grabrielsen represented VWR in negotiations.
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Yellow Roadway Co. has signed a 44,975-square-foot lease with Matrix Development Group for space in its warehouse at 15 Quakerbridge Dr. in Hamilton Township. The firm will use the warehouse as a truck terminal and for office space. The warehouse includes 40,000 square feet of industrial space and 4,100 square feet of office space.
We expect 2009 to continue to be a tough year for commercial/investment real estate, but multifamily is certainly the preferred product type for institutional and private investors delivering stable, solid returns, particularly in the supply-constrained New England markets. Transaction velocity was actually fairly strong through EOY 2008 although cap rates and IRR have increased by 100 to 150-plus basis points from a year ago, and currently we are pricing properties using cash-on-cash returns based on true, twelve month trailing operating data. Fortunately, the greatest demand from institutional investors is for well-constructed Class “B+” to “A” properties in the region. While we don’t have the problem of shadow inventory that we do in Florida, Arizona and other markets, we have noticed an increase in vacancy for Class A and B properties in the region. Occupancy in a number of properties we analyze for our monthly same-store rent comp survey has dipped, but we’re still ahead of most other national markets. We are generally seeing an increase in vacancy in New Haven, Fairfield, Middlesex, New London and Hartford County properties from 100 to 400 basis points but we expect strengthening later this year. After 30-plus years in this business, my honest opinion …