ALTOONA AND WASHINGTON, PA. — Florida-based hospitality REIT Chatham Lodging Trust has sold two Marriott-branded hotels in Western Pennsylvania for approximately $10 million. The properties include the 105-room Courtyard by Marriott in Altoona, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh, and the 86-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Washington, located about 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. Chatham, which purchased the hotels in 2010 as part of a larger portfolio acquisition, sold the properties at a capitalization rate of 6 percent. The buyer was not disclosed. Chatham CEO Jeffrey Fisher noted that the revenue per available room (RevPAR) at both hotels did not meet the standards of his company’s portfolio, and that disposing of the properties saved the company roughly $4 million in renovation costs.
EXTON, PA. — JLL has negotiated the sale of a 55,000-square-foot retail property leased to Whole Foods Market in Exton, about 50 miles west of Philadelphia. The freestanding building is located at the entrance of the Exton Square Mall near two major thoroughfares, State Route 100 and U.S. Route 30. Austin-based Whole Foods signed a 20-year lease at the property and opened its doors in January 2018. The grocery store also includes a 4,000-square-foot rooftop deck with fire pits for dining. Jim Galbally, Bill Moylan and Colin Behr of JLL handled the transaction on behalf of the seller, Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT). A New York-based investment firm purchased the asset for an undisclosed price.
WESTBROOK, MAINE — Cinemark Holdings Inc., a publicly traded owner-operator of movie theaters, will open a 12-screen venue within the Rock Row mixed-use development in Westbrook, Maine, a western suburb of Portland. The theater, which will be built from the ground up, is scheduled to open in spring 2021. All auditoriums will feature oversized recliners with footrests and cup holders, as well as wall-to-wall screens and enhanced sound systems. Rock Row, a 100-acre development by Waterstone Properties Group, features more than 1 million square feet of commercial and residential space, as well as a beer and food hall, grocery store, medical and wellness campus and an 8,200-seat concert venue. A general contractor for the project has not yet been selected.
NEW YORK CITY — Cushman & Wakefield has brokered the $7.9 million sale of a Manhattan property featuring six residential units and two commercial spaces. The property is located at 833 Lexington Ave. in the Lenox Hill neighborhood. Hunter Moss, Michael Gembecki, Brad Jones, Alessandra Faglione and Austin Fabel represented the seller, SBP Lexington LLC, in the transaction. Additional terms of sale were not disclosed.
The U.S. industrial market has now recorded more than 240 million square feet of net absorption for four consecutive years, the strongest run on record, with an all-time high of 284.9 million square feet in 2018, according to Cushman & Wakefield. In New York City, the largest consumer market in the United States, the current industrial supply of approximately 170 million square feet remains heavily constrained, especially around the region’s transportation hubs. Nowhere is the demand for industrial product more apparent than in the area surrounding John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, which handles more than 1.3 million tons of air freight every year, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. JFK is the second busiest air cargo airport on the East Coast behind Miami International Airport and just ahead of Newark International Airport. “There’s really not a lot of land near JFK,” says David Hercman, director of asset management at Long Island-based Milvado Property Group. “So, whatever supply is there is there.” Time-sensitive industrial users like freight forwarders, which organize shipments from manufacturers or producers overseas, need to be close to the airport in order to get products to the end user as quickly as …
WIND GAP, PA. — Dermody Properties, a Nevada-based investment and development firm, has broken ground on a 557,820-square-foot industrial project in Wind Gap, located in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. The two-building complex will be situated on 73.1 acres about 80 miles from the Port of New York and New Jersey. Building 1 will span 349,920 square feet and Building 2 will total 207,900 square feet, with both facilities featuring 36-foot clear heights. Construction of Building 1 is expected to be complete by the fourth quarter, and construction of Building 2 is slated for completion in early 2020. Lee & Associates is handling leasing of the property, which will be marketed to e-commerce users. Vertek Construction is the general contractor.
PHILADELPHIA — Agree Realty Corp., a Michigan-based publicly traded REIT, has acquired the 11,500-square-foot flagship store of Wawa’s, a chain of gas stations and convenience stores serving the East Coast, for approximately $15 million. The store is situated within the 13-story Public Ledger Building, located adjacent to Independence Hall in the Center City area of Philadelphia. The store is the largest of the Wawa’s chain and includes a bakery, merchandise and an expanded selection of the company’s reserve coffee products. The seller was not disclosed.
SAYREVILLE, N.J. — AMS Acquisitions LLC, a New York City-based investment firm, has purchased a two-building, age-restricted housing community in Sayreville, located in northern New Jersey. AMS acquired the property from New Jersey-based development firm Gillette for $13 million. The property includes an 80-unit building, known as Gillette Towers, with one-bedroom floor plans reserved for persons age 55 or older. AMS will break ground on a 56-unit building later this spring. Amenities include a library/media room, outdoor gazebos and bocce and shuffleboard courts., and rents range from $1,400 to $1,550 per month. New York-based Castellan Real Estate Partners provided an undisclosed amount of acquisition financing for the deal, with AMS using its own equity to complete the transaction.
PHILADELPHIA — Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has signed a 54,000-square-foot office lease expansion at the Wanamaker building, a 1.4 million-square-foot office and retail property located in the Center City neighborhood of Philadelphia. Following this transaction, CHOP will occupy more than 300,000 square feet across six floors. The building owner, a partnership between Rubenstein Partners LP and Amerimar Enterprises Inc., is entering the final phase of a capital improvement program for the building, which was originally built in 1911 to house Wanamaker’s, one of America’s first department stores.
NEW YORK CITY — Shakespeare & Co., a chain of bookstores that was founded in 1983, will open its first store in Lower Manhattan when it assumes occupancy of a 2,300-square-foot space at 230 Vesey St. in January 2020. The store, which will be located within the 14-acre Brookfield Place complex on the Hudson River, will include a children’s book section and café. In addition, the store will host monthly book club events in its communal area.