CHICAGO — NelsonHill has arranged the $2.8 million sale of a 100,000-square-foot building in Chicago’s Jefferson Park neighborhood. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) purchased the property located at 5353 W. Armstrong Ave. CTA will use the site to expand its area bus depot. The property features three interior docks, one exterior dock and one drive-in door. The building is situated on nearly four acres, is located in the Elston/Armstrong TIF Corridor, and is in close proximity to the I-90 and I-94 expressways. Mark Nelson and Michael Nelson of NelsonHill represented the seller, a New York-based cab company. Hugh Murphy of JLL represented the CTA.
NEW YORK CITY — Avison Young has arranged the sale of United Cerebral Palsy of New York City’s (UCP of NYC) former program center at 122 East 23rd St in Manhattan. Toll Brothers purchased the property for $135 million, or $750 per square foot. The asset includes a land parcel and an existing four-story, 60,000-square-foot building. The property offers a total of 180,000 square feet of development rights with zoning that allows for residential, retail and community uses. Jon Epstein, Vincent Carrega, Neil Helman and Charles Kingsley of Avison Young’s New York City-based capital markets team represented UCP of NYC and identified the buyer in the transaction.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Insite Properties has brokered the sale of a 37,000-square-foot office building located at 5811 Glenwood Ave. in Raleigh. Built in 2000, the three-story office building was fully occupied by three tenants at the time of sale. Ben Kilgore and Jeff Glenn of CBRE | Raleigh, along with Ashton Williamson of CBRE | Hampton Roads, represented the seller, EOR-5811 Glenwood Avenue LLC. Insite Properties represented the buyer, an unnamed investment brokerage client, in the transaction.
HOUSTON — HFF has arranged the sale of Sam Houston Crossing I, a Class A office building totaling 159,175 square feet in northwest Houston. HFF marketed the property on behalf of the sellers, Duke Realty Corp. and Chambers Street properties. SH Crossing I LP, a joint venture between Fuller Realty Partners LLC and Independencia was the buyer. The property is located in Houston’s West Belt Corridor off Sam Houston Parkway at 10343 Sam Houston Park Drive. The three-story building was completed in 2007. The building is fully leased to tenants including U.S. Steel, Farmers Insurance Exchange, CH Robinson Project Logistic, Brock Enterprises Inc., Axon EP Inc. and AMEC Oil & Gas Inc. Dan Miller, Martin Hogan and John Rogers of HFF represented the seller.
DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA. — CBRE has arranged the $51 million sale of Quorum Business Center, a 408,000-square-foot distribution and office portfolio located in Fort Lauderdale’s Deerfield Beach submarket. The park is located at the intersection of S.W. 10th Street and Military Trail near I-95. Greenwich, Conn.-based Ivy Realty purchased the office/industrial park from New York-based KTR Capital Partners. Quorum Business Center was 87 percent occupied at the time of sale. KTR Capital has executed 154 leases and invested $4.5 million in tenant improvements since 2005. Christian Lee, Jose Lobon, Charles Foschini and Chris Apone of CBRE represented the seller in the transaction. Tom O’Loughlin of CBRE assisted the CBRE team with market leasing.
BATON ROUGE, LA. — IBM has topped off its new nine-floor technology center under construction in downtown Baton Rouge that will cost $30.5 million to develop. The technology center, which will reportedly create 800 jobs, is part of a $55 million urban development project that will also feature 525 Lafayette, a 10-story residential tower. Commercial Properties Realty Trust, a REIT, is building the urban development project and Wilbur Marvin Foundation will own it. The property is scheduled for completion in May 2015. The topping off ceremony was attended by Gov. Bobby Jindal, IBM vice president Tim McLachlan, Baton Rouge Area Foundation president and CEO John Davies and Louisiana Economic Development (LED) secretary Stephen Moret. LED offered IBM a performance-based incentive package that includes grants totaling $29.5 million over 12 years.
Cassidy Turley recently released its Third Quarter Office Market Snapshot for Northern and Central New Jersey. We detailed the absorption rates, asking rents and availability in both Central and Northern New Jersey and found the Grow NJ tax incentives and the movement of midsize companies played significant roles in shaping the market. Although not shocking revelations, these factors help explain surges and lags and why some markets are still feeling the crunch of previous quarters, even though employment rates have increased. Shifts in the Newark submarket, particularly Prudential vacating large portion of 3 Gateway Center and moving into its own office tower, created an uptick in availability. The resulting availability at the Gateway complex was a large factor in the 86,084 square feet of negative absorption recorded during the third quarter throughout Northern New Jersey. However, the impact was lessened as the owner of 3 Gateway recently announced Prudential has signed a lease to maintain a 160,000-square-foot presence in the building based on significant internal growth. Interestingly, in many submarkets, the development of a new office building indicates a thriving economy. However, Newark’s economic recovery has been slow. Panasonic’s recent move to a new headquarters and the development of new …
CHICAGO — J.C. Anderson Inc. has completed an office expansion and renovation in Chicago for Mosaic, a sales and marketing agency. The property is located at 750 N. Orleans St. in Chicago. J.C. Anderson completed a 4,000-square-foot expansion and renovation at its office space in the River North neighborhood. The first phase of the project included expanding the sixth floor space into the adjacent office space. The second phase of the project included renovating the existing space to create an open floor plan with collaboration spaces, an exercise room and private offices. William Burfeind of J.C. Anderson was the project executive, Jason Hawkins was the senior project manager and Jose Verduzco was the superintendent for the project. IHL provided architectural services and CRESA was the project manager. Mosaic is headquartered in Dallas with offices in Chicago and Bentonville, Ark.
CHICAGO — Reed Construction will complete a 35,500-square-foot office renovation for SVM at 3727 Ventura Drive in Arlington Heights. Founded in 1997, SVM handles the sales, marketing and distribution of gift cards for major gasoline companies. The firm is relocating its headquarters to Arlington Heights from 200 E. Howard Ave. in Des Plaines. The construction will consist of demolition, the addition of office space, a new secure vault as well as a mezzanine conference room including a steel structure suspended from existing crane rails. Reed Construction’s Bryan Krueger is the principal for the project and Dan Cohen is the project manager. Wefing Deegan Studios is providing the architectural services. The project is scheduled for completion in January 2015.
WESTPORT, CONN. — Cushman & Wakefield has brokered the sale of Westport View Corporate Center in downtown Westport. Marcus Partners, on behalf of Marcus Capital Partners Fund II, acquired the two-building office campus from Invesco Real Estate for an undisclosed price. Situated on 4.5 acres at 8-10 Wright St., the 84,000-square-foot property is currently 58 percent leased. The buyer plans to invest approximately $4 million to upgrade the property. Renovations will include new enlarged windows; redesigned and upgraded landscaping, parking decks, lighting, paving, entrances and signage, as well as upgrades to the lobbies, elevators, restrooms and mechanical systems. Gary Gabriel, Andrew Merin, David Bernhaut, Brian Whitmer and Kyle Schmidt of Cushman & Wakefield handled the transaction.