WHITEHALL, OHIO — Developer Mark F. Taggart Co. and contractor Fed One Dublin have broken ground on Phase I of a new 140,000-square-foot office warehouse facility in Whitehall, approximately 10 miles east of Columbus. The Air South Commerce Center will be situated inside the Airport South Commerce and Tech Center and is expected to be complete this June. The facility, which will be located at 265-285 N. Hamilton Road, will feature 28-foot to 32-foot clear heights, an ESFR sprinkler system, trailer parking and insulated concrete tilt-up panels. Continental Auto Parks has pre-leased a 50,000-square-foot space in the building and was represented by Matt Osowski of NAI Ohio Equities. Civista Bank provided financing for the project.
GAHANNA, OHIO — Mainfreight USA Inc. has signed a 20,000-square-foot industrial lease at the Eastgate Business Center in Gahanna, approximately 10 miles northeast of Columbus. The 80,000-square-foot Eastgate Business Center is located within the Eastgate Industrial Park. Mainfreight, a global supply chain support and logistics service company, brings the building to full occupancy with its lease. Other tenants in the facility include HF Group, CORT Furniture Solutions and Distributor Wire & Cable. Mark F. Taggart Co. and Fed One Dublin are the landlords. Jeff Lyons of CBRE represented the tenant in the transaction.
CINCINNATI — The AC Hotel Cincinnati by Marriott has opened at Liberty Center, a 1.2 million-square-foot mixed-use development. Raymond Management Co. is the developer and operator of the 130-room hotel. Amenities at the hotel include a fitness center, indoor pool, on-site parking, local restaurant dinner delivery and a full-service business center. The property also features AC-branded amenities such as a kitchen, lounge, store, library and meeting space. The 64-acre Liberty Center includes over 800,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space, 75,000 square feet of office space and 240 luxury apartment units. The shopping district opened last October.
CINCINNATI — CareTrust REIT Inc. has acquired Victory Park Nursing Home, a 55-bed skilled nursing facility, and Victoria Retirement Community, which contains 90 skilled nursing beds and 69 assisted living units. Both facilities are located in Cincinnati. The two communities will be added to CareTrust’s existing master lease with Pristine Senior Living. CareTrust will provide Pristine with $500,000 to perform immediate upgrades to the community. Although the purchase price was not disclosed, CareTrust placed its aggregate investment in the communities at $15.2 million. The Pristine master lease has a remaining initial term of approximately 14.5 years, with two five-year renewal options and CPI-based rent escalators. CareTrust funded the acquisition using proceeds from its follow-on equity offering in March. The publicly traded REIT is based in San Clemente, Calif. Pristine Senior Living currently operates over 1,500 beds across 17 seniors housing properties in Ohio.
LAKEWOOD, OHIO — Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT II Inc. has acquired Lakewood City Center, a 67,280-square-foot shopping center located in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, for an undisclosed price. A 39,400-square-foot Marc’s grocery store anchors the center, which is also home to tenants such as Gamestop, Best Cuts, Pet Supplies Plus, the UPS Store, Boston Market, Marco’s Pizza, Ace Cash Express, T-Mobile, Palm Beach Tan and Chipotle Mexican Grill.
CLEVELAND — Namdar Realty Group has acquired a 6,600-square-foot retail property in Cleveland for an undisclosed price. KeyBank currently occupies the one-story building located at 5900 St. Claire Ave. CRESCO Real Estate represented the seller, a private investment fund, in the off-market transaction. The KeyBank branch renewed its lease six months prior to the transaction. Joel Gorjian of Namdar Realty Group represented the company in the deal.
LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, OHIO — BMC Capital has arranged a $3.6 million acquisition loan for a property net leased to Walgreens in Liberty Township, approximately 30 miles north of Cincinnati. The 10-year, interest-only loan features a fixed rate of 5.23 percent and a 30-year amortization schedule. Jada Jordan of BMC Capital arranged the loan for the undisclosed borrower through a CMBS lender.
The Toledo industrial real estate market continued its steady improvement in the second half of 2015. Tenant demand for space was solid at a time when virtually no new speculative space was added, which led to a shrinking vacancy rate. At the end of 2015, the vacancy rate stood at 6.8 percent, down from 7.2 percent at mid-year and 7.7 percent at the end of 2014. The market absorbed 564,947 square feet in the last half of 2015 on top of the 632,775 square feet absorbed in the first half of the year. With vacancy rates contracting, the overall average asking rental rate in the Toledo industrial market rose 10 cents to $3.14 per square foot between June 2015 and the end of the year. We have commented in prior reports on the dearth of new speculative construction in the region. This trend continues. Only one speculative building has been constructed in the market since well before the Great Recession. That building — a 100,000-square-foot warehouse/distribution building located in Overland Industrial Park in the North Toledo submarket and developed by Harmon Family Properties — was delivered in the second half of 2015. As of December 2015, the building was still …
NORWOOD, OHIO — CBRE has arranged a 172,000-square-foot, long-term lease for CDK Global, the largest global provider of information technology and digital marketing solutions for the automotive retail industry. CDK Global will operate a national customer service center at Central Parke I & III in Norwood, approximately 10 miles northeast of Cincinnati. CDK Global will bring 1,000 full-time jobs to Norwood. Travis Likes and John Eckert from CBRE’s Cincinnati office, in addition to David Saad from the Chicago office, represented CDK Global in the deal.
COLUMBUS — SRS Real Estate Partners has brokered the sale of a retail property net leased to Champps Americana Restaurant in Columbus for an undisclosed price. The 10,582-square-foot restaurant is situated on two acres at 3993 Morse Crossing. Pickerington Square LP purchased the property, which is an outparcel to a power center. Kyle Stonis, Pierce Mayson, John Topping Jr. and Brad Gibbs of SRS Real Estate Partners represented the sellers, a group of tenant-in-common co-owners, in the transaction. The buyer was self represented.