NEW YORK CITY — Mortgage banking company Merchants Capital has arranged a $51 million construction loan and $28.4 million in Freddie Mac Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) to fund the redevelopment of Manhattan’s historic Park 79 hotel into an affordable housing property for seniors. The borrower and project developer, Fairstead, will oversee renovations that will reconfigure the seven-story building into 77 apartments along with multiple community spaces, including an indoor/outdoor community room, dining room and meeting rooms. Additional rehabilitation will be done throughout the building, including creation of a common dining and recreation room, social services offices and an outdoor garden area. Upon completion, the property will employ two full-time social service coordinators to work alongside residents in organizing community programming events. The hotel originally opened in 1899 as “The Indiana.” The redevelopment is expected to be complete in 2022.
HAMILTON, N.J. — CBRE has negotiated the sale of Kuser Industrial Center, a 145,950-square-foot industrial property located just outside of Trenton in Hamilton, for $29.6 million. The property is under construction and is expected to be complete in February. Brian Fiumara, Michael Hines, Brad Ruppel and Lauren Dawicki of CBRE represented the seller, Scannell Properties, in the transaction. The buyer was Cohen Asset Management. CBRE will also handling leasing of the property.
BALA CYNWYD, PA. — Locally based investment firm Keystone Property Group has sold a 132,986-square-foot office building located at 150 Monument Road in Bala Cynwyd, a northeastern suburb of Philadelphia. The six-story building is situated on 6.5 acres and recently underwent a full renovation. Brett Segal and Doug Rodio of JLL represented Keystone Property Group in the transaction. The buyer, FLD Group, purchased the asset for an undisclosed price.
EAST HARTFORD, CONN. — Connecticut-based Goman + York has brokered the sale of a 57,000-square-foot property formerly known as William Seely School that is located near the junction of I-95 and State Routes 12 and 184 in East Hartford. The new owner, Connecticut-based DonMar Development, plans to redevelop the 14-acre property into a 280-unit apartment community. Goman + York represented the seller, the Town of Groton, in the transaction. A construction timeline for the redevelopment was not disclosed.
SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. — An undisclosed wholesale distributor of home furnishings and housewares has signed a 192,000-square-foot industrial lease in South Brunswick, located in between Trenton and Newark. San Francisco-based Terreno Realty Corp. (NYSE: TRNO) owns the property. The lease term is 10 years.
STOCKHOLM AND CONSHOHOCKEN, PA. — EQT AB, a private equity firm based in Stockholm, has agreed to purchase Exeter Property Group, an industrial real estate owner and developer based in the Philadelphia suburb of Conshohocken. EQT plans to purchase Exeter using $800 million in EQT shares and nearly $1.1 billion in cash for a total acquisition price of nearly $1.9 billion, including the refinancing of Exeter’s existing $300 million in debt. Founded in 2006, Exeter has approximately $10 billion in assets under management. In addition to industrial properties, Exeter also owns life sciences and office space in the United States and Europe. Exeter has 37 offices in North America, Europe and Asia. EQT expects Exeter’s revenue in 2020 to total $135 million. Exeter’s recent acquisitions include Creekview Corporate Center in metro Dallas, a 193,000-square-foot industrial building in Illinois and a new distribution center in Pennsylvania totaling 1.2 million square feet. The company also recently developed a 673,920-square-foot speculative industrial building in the St. Louis suburb of Edwardsville, Ill. Upon completion of the transaction, Exeter will operate as EQT Exeter and will be part of the EQT Real Estate Assets division, which comprises EQT Infrastructure and EQT Real Estate. EQT Exeter …
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US Commercial, Multifamily Construction Starts Down 20 Percent in 2020, Says Dodge Data
HAMILTON, N.J. —The value of commercial and multifamily construction starts in 2020 tumbled 20 percent to end the year at $193.4 billion, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. Within the top 20 metropolitan areas that the Hamilton-based research firm tracks, the fall was more severe as that group’s starts fell by 23 percent in value, or $111.1 billion. Overall, commercial real estate starts fell 26 percent in value to $104 billion, while multifamily building activity slid by 11 percent to $89.5 billion. Richard Branch, chief economist for Dodge Data, says that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant negative impact on commercial and multifamily construction across the country with only a few markets seeing year-over-year increases in construction starts compared to 2019. “The construction sector will show signs of recovery in 2021, but, the road back to full recovery will be long and difficult. The effects of the pandemic on the U.S. economy and building markets will be felt for several years,” says Branch. “While some areas stabilized over the summer, the current wave of the virus has further hindered activity.” Only one metro area in Dodge Data’s top 10, Phoenix, reported a year-over increase in construction starts. The No. 7 …
NEW YORK CITY — Knighthead Funding, a direct lender with offices in Connecticut and South Florida, has provided a $42 million construction loan for an 84,746-square-foot medical office building that will be located in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens. The borrower was a local partnership doing business as Astoria Crescent Owner LLC. Mount Sinai Health System, which has a hospital across the street, has signed a 30-year lease as the building’s anchor tenant, which brings its preleased occupancy rate to 65 percent. An expected completion date was not disclosed.
MORRISTOWN, N.J. — Cohen Asset Management has purchased an 18-building, 725,000-square-foot industrial portfolio in the Meadowlands and surrounding submarkets of Northern New Jersey. The portfolio, which was fully leased at the time of sale, is primarily comprised of shallow-bay warehouses ranging in size from 16,000 to 78,000 square feet. Jon Mikula and Michael Lachs of JLL arranged acquisition financing for the deal through Principal Real Estate Advisors.
MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. — Rubenstein Mortgage Capital has arranged a $57 million acquisition loan for a 465,000-square-foot office building located at 115 Tabor Road in the Northern New Jersey community of Morris Plains. The property was originally developed as a build-to-suit in 2007 as a headquarters facility for Pfizer. Following Pfizer’s acquisition by Johnson & Johnson, the building was vacant until Honeywell purchased it in 2015 and implemented a full interior renovation. Amenities now include a cafeteria, auditorium, basketball court and a fitness center. Andrew Murray of Rubenstein Mortgage originated the loan through an undisclosed lender on behalf of the borrower, Argent Ventures.