TWINSBURG, OHIO — Meridian Design Build has begun construction on a new 207,360-square-foot, speculative industrial building in Twinsburg. Scannell Properties is the developer for the project. The multi-tenant facility is located on a 14-acre site within Cornerstone Business Park. The new spec building will include 171 auto parking stalls, five tenant entrances and 26 loading docks. The building is scheduled for completion in late summer. Precept Design LLC is providing architectural services for the project. Weber Engineering Services is completing civil engineering work.
COLUMBUS — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the $6.3 million sale of East Broad Commons, a 20,928-square-foot retail property in Columbus. The property is located at 6572-6608 E. Broad St. Tenants at the shopping center include Dunkin Donuts, Rite Rug, Salon Lofts, AT&T Wireless and Gratzi Pizzeria. Arthur Kaplan and Lisa Sickinger of Marcus & Millichap’s Columbus office represented the seller, a developer.
HUBER HEIGHTS, OHIO — Mid-America Real Estate Corp. has arranged the sale of Waynetown Plaza located in Huber Heights, a suburb of Dayton. Baltimore-based Broad Reach Retail Partners purchased the 192,332-square-foot, grocery-anchored center. Waynetown Plaza is located at the southwest corner of Old Troy Pike (State Route 22) and I-70. Kroger anchors the shopping center. Other tenants include a Buffalo Wild Wings, TGI Friday’s, Chipotle, Burger King and Davita Dialysis. Ben Wineman of Mid-America and Chris Conley of Oberer Realty Services Ltd. represented the seller, a private investment group.
LYNDHURST, OHIO — Columbus-based Steiner + Associates has arranged two retail leases at Legacy Village in Lyndhurst, a suburb of Cleveland. L.L. Bean and The Capital Grille executed leases at the 610,000 square-foot mixed-use town center. The 16,000-square-foot L.L. Bean will sell active and casual apparel and footwear, outdoor gear including hiking, fly-fishing, kayaking and camping products. L.L. Bean will open in the space currently occupied by Talbots, which will be relocating to a new space within the shopping center. The Capital Grille will occupy a 9,000-square-foot space. The restaurant is known for its dry-aged steaks and fresh seafood. First Interstate Properties owns Legacy Village.
CLEVELAND — KeyBank Real Estate Capital has secured $66 million in debt financing on behalf of Pierce Education Properties for a five-property student housing apartment portfolio. Totaling 2,788 beds, the properties are located in four states across the Midwest and Southeast. KeyBank originally funded five on-balance sheet, three-year, non-recourse loans to finance the acquisition of the five properties in 2014. KeyBank refinanced the original bank loans with 10-year, interest-only floating rate debt with a loan-to-value ratio of 55 percent. Robert Prouty and Andrew Lucca of KeyBank’s Commercial Mortgage Group arranged the financing.
CINCINNATI — Phillips Edison Grocery REIT II has acquired three properties in Ohio, Minnesota and Maryland. Glennwood Crossing in Cincinnati was purchased from Glenwood Crossing LLC for $7.1 million and includes 101,021 rentable square feet. Currently, the center is 96 percent leased to 11 tenants, with anchor grocery Kroger occupying 62,541 rentable square feet. Rosewick Crossing in La Plata, Md., was purchased from Excel Rosewick LLC, for $25 million and includes 115,972 rentable square feet. Currently the center is 82 percent leased to 12 tenants. Anchor grocery Giant occupies 61,932 rentable square feet. Waterford Park Plaza in Plymouth, Minn., was purchased from Provident/Waterford LLC for $19.5 million and contains 127,586 rentable square feet. Currently the shopping center is 96 percent leased to 24 tenants. Anchor grocery Cub Foods occupies 64,673 rentable square feet.
BEAVERCREEK, OHIO — Shopoff Realty Investments has acquired Apple Valley Office Center, a three-building, 130,440-square-foot office campus in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek. The acquisition was partially capitalized by Shopoff Strategic Income Fund, which closed to new investors on Dec. 31, 2014. Apple Valley Office Center includes a three-story, 55,024-square-foot building, a two-story, 29,916-square-foot building and a single-story, 45,500-square-foot building. The campus was built in 1985 on approximately six acres. Shopoff Realty Investments plans to make overall improvements to the property, including transforming vacant office suites into move-in ready speculative space for future tenants. Apple Valley Office Center’s anchor tenants include Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., a global defense and technology company, and MacAulay-Brown, a company that provides advanced engineering services and product solutions. The campus, which includes more than 500 parking spaces, is accessible via I-675, I-75 and I-70, as well as State Route 35.
COLUMBUS — Lee & Associates has opened its second office in Ohio. Lee & Associates — Columbus is a merger between commercial real estate firm Ruscilli Real Estate Services and Lee & Associates. Tim Kelton, Mike Spencer, Dax Hudson and Todd Spencer, founders and principals of Lee & Associates — Columbus, will lead the office. Combined, the team has 85 years of commercial real estate experience in Central Ohio. In the last 10 years, the team has leased or sold more than 22 million square feet of space and developed or sold more than 750 acres of office, industrial and retail assets. In July, Lee & Associates opened its first office in Ohio, Lee & Associates Cleveland, which was followed by new offices in Denver and Houston.
SOUTH EUCLID, OHIO — Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, has arranged the $15.4 million sale of Cedar Center North, a 61,466-square-foot shopping plaza in the Cleveland suburb of South Euclid. The property is located at the intersection of Cedar Road and Warrensville Center Road at 13991 Cedar Road. John Carroll University is located less than a mile from the property and two super-regional shopping centers, Legacy Village and Beachwood Place, are within two miles. IPA senior directors Erin Patton, Craig Fuller and Scott Wiles represented the seller, a local northeast Ohio development group. The buyer is Inland Real Estate Corp.
Throughout the economic recovery, real estate has been investors’ preferred asset class in the Cincinnati region and across the United States. Although the Federal Reserve is likely to raise short-term interest rates in June or September, demand for commercial real estate is expected to remain strong as long as the recovering economy continues to create new demand for commercial space. According to Real Capital Analytics, 2014 finally saw total U.S. sales volume and property prices (at the aggregate level) reach pre-recession levels. In fact, Real Capital Analytics reports that excluding portfolio sales, activity was higher in 2014 than in 2007. Investment Sales Surge Metro Cincinnati’s property and portfolio sales in 2014 totaled more than $2.3 billion across all major real estate sectors, a 53 percent increase over 2013. It was, by far, the strongest year for investment activity in recent memory, with significant increases across all property types. For the second straight year, retail sales transactions led the way locally among all property types. Retail sales volume in 2014 exceeded $600 million, $370 million of which occurred in the fourth quarter. Office property and portfolio sales in Cincinnati totaled nearly $580 million in 2014. This figure was a 162 percent …