PITTSTON, PA. — HJ Sims has arranged $17.5 million in financing for United Methodist Homes. The funds will finance an expansion project at the organization’s Wesley Village continuing care retirement community in Pittston, located between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Central Pennsylvania. The project will add an undisclosed number of independent living units to the property, through a series of cottages named Brooks Estates. Citizens Bank provided the funds.
PHILADELPHIA — Cushman & Wakefield has arranged $13.1 million in acquisition financing for a 452,375-square-foot industrial facility in Philadelphia. Located at 11200 Roosevelt Blvd., the property is fully leased to a mix of industrial users. John Alascio, Sridhar Vankayala and Zachary Kraft of Cushman & Wakefield’s Equity Debt & Structured Finance group secured financing for the borrower, Ivy Realty, through lender Reinsurance Group of America Inc. Ivy Realty plans to make $3 million in capital improvements to the property and rebrand it as the Roosevelt Industrial Center.
EXTON, PA. — The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust has sold a four-acre development site in Exton for $10.3 million. The site is located adjacent to the Exton Square Mall, which is approximately 33 miles northeast of Philadelphia. The property was acquired by Hanover Co., which plans to build a 300-unit apartment building on the site. PREIT recently revamped the Exton Square Mall with the addition of a Whole Foods location earlier this year.
PHILADELPHIA — Blueprint Healthcare Real Estate Advisors has negotiated the sale of two assisted living and memory care communities on the Philadelphia Main Line. A publicly traded REIT sold the properties to a growing seniors housing investor for an undisclosed price. The existing regional operator will remain in place. Ben Firestone and Michael Segal led the transaction for Blueprint.
PITTSTON, PA. — Square Mile Capital Management has provided a $54.4 million construction loan for Interstate Distribution Center, a 1.1 million-square-foot distribution facility in Pittston. The project is located at the convergence of Interstates 81 and 476. Amazon, Lowes, Walmart, and FedEx all occupy distribution facilities nearby. Square Mile Capital provided the loan to a joint venture between affiliates of Endurance Real Estate Group and Blue Vista Capital.
WARMINSTER, PA. — Binswanger has brokered the $1.7 million sale of a six-acre development site in Warminster. Located at 273 West County Line Road, the property is zoned as an industrial office district. Patagon Storage LLC acquired the property with plans to develop a self-storage facility. Chris Pennington and Jason Ostach of Binswanger represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction.
LANGHORNE, PA. — Viking Partners Fund III LLC has purchased the Bucks Town Corporate Center, a 142,000-square-foot, five-building office park in Langhorne. The price was undisclosed. Located at the intersection of Middletown Blvd. and Town Center Drive, the office park is adjacent to the Oxford Valley Mall. The seller was undisclosed. Colliers International has been assigned the leasing for Bucks Town Corporate Center.
AUDUBON, PENN. — NKF Capital Markets has brokered the $20 million sale of a 136,918-square-foot office building in Audubon. Located at 1001 Adams Ave., the property is currently fully occupied by Optum 360, a UnitedHealth Company. Amenities at the property include a full-service cafeteria, on-site fitness center with showers, outside patio dining and video conferencing facilities. Mike Margolis, Dave Dolan, Dave Garonzik and Jeff Mack of NKF Capital Markets represented the seller, Delaware Valley Real Estate Investment Fund, in the transaction. The buyer was Blue Stone Capital.
From large publicly traded companies to mid-size tech companies and small professional services firms, companies are taking notice of the office development and vibrant live-work communities being built in the Lehigh Valley. Located one hour north of Philadelphia and 90 minutes west of New York City, the Lehigh Valley is a two-county region in eastern Pennsylvania consisting of 62 municipalities and the cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton. It is the 69th largest metropolitan region in the United States, with a $39.1 billion GDP larger than that of both Wyoming and Vermont. The Lehigh Valley’s total office market inventory currently stands at 26.8 million square feet. There have been 281,250 square feet of office market deliveries in 2018 so far, and another 329,000 are currently under construction. A total of 669,832 square feet of office space was under construction in the Lehigh Valley as of the first quarter of 2018, with the majority of that development in the region’s urban centers. Ninety-six percent of the office buildings constructed in the Lehigh Valley so far this year have been built in either Allentown, Bethlehem, or Easton and all of the 329,000 square feet of office space currently under construction are in …
STATE COLLEGE, PA. — HREC Investment Advisors has arranged the sale of the 149-room Atherton Hotel in State College. The sales price was not disclosed. Ketan Patel of HREC represented the seller, Atherton Street Partnership, in the transaction. The buyer was AJ Capital Partners, a Chicago-based real estate developer, owner, and operator. The property is located in downtown State College, one block from Pennsylvania State University. AJ Capital plans to renovate the hotel and convert it to Graduate State College, part of the Graduate Hotels collection.