PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA. — New Jersey-based Cronheim Mortgage has arranged a $22 million loan for the acquisition of a Doubletree Suites hotel in Plymouth Meeting, a northern suburb of Philadelphia. The borrower, Kingsbury Hospitality REIT, plans to renovate the property and rebrand it as an Embassy Suites. An undisclosed balance sheet lender provided the loan. Kingsbury has tapped Newport Hospitality Group to manage the asset.
PHILADELPHIA — GMH Communities has completed Anova uCity Square, a 462-unit apartment community in Philadelphia’s University City area. The six-story, 330,000-square-foot building will be the first of four Anova-branded multifamily developments that will open in the life sciences district by 2025. Anova uCity Square includes 10,000 square feet of retail space and a 157-space parking garage. Units come in studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom formats and feature stainless steel appliances, individual washers and dryers and private balconies/patios. Amenities include a pool, coworking space, pet care facilities and a package locker system. Construction began in March 2020. Rents start at $1,645 per month for a studio apartment.
PHILADELPHIA — French investment bank Natixis has provided a $73.6 million acquisition loan for Mansion at Bala, a 276-unit apartment community in northwest Philadelphia. Built in 2010, the property offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units with an average size of 1,059 square feet. Amenities include a pool, resident clubhouse, business center and a fitness center. Robert Lipson, T.J. Piper and Jeremy Lynch of Berkadia arranged the five-year, floating-rate loan on behalf of the borrower, Rose Valley Capital, an affiliate of Hampshire Properties.
PITTSBURGH — Developer Westrise Capital has completed Launchpad, a 60,000-square-foot redevelopment project located in between Pittsburgh’s downtown and West Oakland areas. The site at 304 Jumonville St., which previously housed an industrial laundry facility that served a local hospital, can now support office, technology, life sciences, research and development or light manufacturing and assembly uses. JLL is marketing the property for lease.
KING OF PRUSSIA, PA. — California-based development and investment firm KBS has completed the renovation of 1000 Continental, a 205,424-square-foot office building located in the northern Philadelphia suburb of King of Prussia. The building was originally constructed in 2007. Renovations included the addition of a conference center with casual gathering spaces, as well as upgrades to the elevators, lobbies and common corridors. KBS plans to implement further improvements to 1000 Continental as part of a strategic multi-year plan. Avison Young provided construction management services for the project.
WILKES-BARRE, PA. — Colliers has negotiated the sale of 2 Public Square, a 98,555-square-foot office building in the downtown area of Wilkes-Barre, located south of Scranton. At the time of sale, the six-story building was 99 percent leased to tenants such as The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Luzerne County Community College. Jeff Algatt of Colliers represented the locally based private seller in the transaction. The buyer and sales price were not disclosed.
PHILADELPHIA — PIDC and Ensemble/Mosaic have revealed the “2022 Navy Yard Plan,” a roadmap for $6 billion of new investment for Philadelphia’s Navy Yard over the next 20 years. Plans call for 12,000 new jobs and 8.9 million square feet of new life sciences, commercial, residential, retail and mixed-use development. Of the total $6 billion investment, Ensemble/Mosaic’s development initiatives are slated to generate $4.8 billion. This is the third plan undertaken since PIDC, Philadelphia’s public-private economic development corporation, took ownership of the former military base on behalf of the City of Philadelphia. The original plan was formulated in 2004, followed by an updated one in 2013. “The Navy Yard has been an anchor and economic driver for Philadelphia for more than two centuries, serving in both times of war and peace. Today, the progress it has made and will continue to make as outlined in this plan will help reinforce its role as a leading business and life sciences campus and an unrivaled asset to the city,” says Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. The development team plans to significantly expand the Navy Yard’s cluster of cell and gene therapy firms by building out an additional 4.3 million square feet of lab …
PITTSBURGH — Sealy & Co., an investment firm with offices in Dallas and Shreveport, La., has acquired The Imperial Light Industrial Portfolio, which comprises two buildings totaling 148,172 square feet in Pittsburgh. The buildings are located within the Chapman Westport master-planned development near Pittsburgh International Airport and can support office, distribution and lab uses. John Plower of JLL represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. Jason Gandy and Davis Gibbs internally represented Sealy & Co.
KING OF PRUSSIA, PA. — Livingston Street Capital, a private equity firm with offices in Radnor, Pa., and New York City, has acquired Canvas Valley Forge, a 231-unit active adult community located north of Philadelphia in King of Prussia. The property offers 147 one-bedroom units and 84 two-bedroom units. Indoor amenities include a fitness center, salon and spa, craft room, game room, library/media room, resident lounge, package room and concierge services. Outdoors, residents have access to a pool with a sundeck and hot tub, courtyard with grills and seating areas, a dog park with a washing station and a bocce ball court. The seller and sales price were not disclosed.
PHILADELPHIA — BioLabs, an incubator for life sciences companies, has signed a 30,151-square-foot lease expansion at The Curtis, a facility in Philadelphia’s Center City District that is a redevelopment of a historic publishing house. The tenant’s footprint is now 53,529 square feet, and the move-in is scheduled for early 2023. Other tenants at The Curtis, which also houses traditional office space, include Aro Biotherapeutics, IMVAX Inc. and Vivodyne. Keystone Development + Investment owns the property.