MESQUITE, TEXAS — A partnership between Centurion American Group and the City of Mesquite has broken ground on Iron Horse Village, a 54-acre mixed-use project located east of Dallas that will include 336 single-family homes, 130,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space and 4.5 acres of green space. The initial phases of development are expected to be complete in 2020.
HOUSTON — Locally based developer MetroNational has broken ground on a four-acre mixed-use project at the southwest corner of Bunker Hill Road and Katy Freeway in the Memorial City area of Houston. The project will include a 25-story residential tower that will house 278 units in one-, two- and three-bedroom layouts and amenities such as a rooftop pool, fitness center, dog park, golf simulator and a movie theater. That building will also house 4,500 square feet of retail and restaurant space. In addition, MetroNational plans to develop a 190,000-square-foot office building that will also feature ground-floor retail and restaurant space. Completion is slated for summer 2021.
ATLANTA — Rubenstein Partners and Monarch Alternative Capital have acquired Lindbergh Center, a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use development in Atlanta’s Buckhead district, for $187 million. The property comprises twin 14-story office buildings above the MARTA Lindbergh Station and a 47-acre development that includes residential and retail space. Retailers include LongHorn Steakhouse, Taco Mac, Jimmy Johns, Willie’s and Five Guys. Residential communities include eon at Lindbergh and Alexan Buckhead Village. Lindbergh Center’s office towers are fully leased to AT&T until Dec. 31, 2020. The buyers plan to implement upgrades that will include improving the overall amenities at the property. Stewart Calhoun, David Meline, Samir Idris and Adam Spies of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, Columbia Property Trust, in the transaction. Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies (MRECS) provided first mortgage debt financing for the transaction. Columbia Property Trust purchased the development in 2008.
NEW YORK CITY — JLL has arranged $386 million loan for the refinancing of 70 Pine Street, a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use development in Manhattan’s Financial District. Goldman Sachs provided a five-year, floating-rate loan to refinance the original construction and redevelopment loan for the property. The tower comprises 612 rental apartments, a 132-room Lyric Hotel and approximately 30,500 square feet of retail space. Tenants include Black Fox Coffee, Blue Park Kitchen, City Acres grocery store and two restaurant concepts. Christopher Peck, Geoff Goldstein and Kristen Knapp of JLL arranged the loan for the borrower, a joint venture between DTH Capital and Rose Associates. A legal team from Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP advised the joint venture in the refinancing.
FALLS CHURCH, VA. — Sachs Cos. and Blackfin Real Estate Investors have purchased Loren Falls Church, a mixed-use property in Falls Church, for $70 million. Loren Falls Church comprises 185 multifamily units and 13,577 square feet of retail space. The property was built in 2017 and was 97 percent occupied at the time of sale. Communal amenities for residents include a swimming pool, fitness center, outdoor lounge, living room lounge and a community kitchen. Retail tenants include Orangetheory Fitness and Casual Pint. Located at 6410 Arlington Blvd., the asset is situated 10 miles west of National Landing, the future home of Amazon HQ2. The seller was not disclosed, although according to multiple media reports, Bozzuto was the seller and developer.
HOUSTON — Hillcroft Partners has purchased Stonecreek Plaza, a 63,890-square-foot mixed-use property in Houston that includes warehouse, office and retail space. Jared Pinto of Newcor Commercial Real Estate represented the seller, a private investor, in the transaction. The buyer was self-represented.
ATLANTA — Ackerman & Co. and MDH Partners have acquired the four-building, 433,204-square-foot Lee + White project in Atlanta’s West End for $40.3 million. The seller, Stream Realty Partners, recently redeveloped the buildings, which were initially constructed as industrial facilities in the 1950s and 1960s. The Lee + White buildings are currently home to breweries, restaurants, retailers and food manufacturers. The buyers plan to add a 20,000-square-foot food hall, 30,000 square feet of additional retail and 170,000 square feet of creative loft offices. A masterplan for the redevelopment is under way and construction is expected to begin in six to 12 months. Leo Wiener and Kelly Wilson of Ackerman will lead the restaurant and retail leasing efforts at the property. Porter Henritze and Sonia Winfield of Cushman & Wakefield will represent ownership in office leasing. The property features more than a half-mile of frontage along the Atlanta BeltLine with direct access to the westside trail. Lee + White is located three miles southwest of downtown Atlanta. Miles Theodore, Mack Freudenstein, Mark Zebouni and Drew Nations of Eastdil Secured represented the seller in the transaction. The buyer was represented internally.
FREDERICK, MD. — A joint venture between Kline Associates and Stephanie Jordan Development will develop a Royal Farms convenience store and gas station, and Tru by Hilton hotel within Gateway East Plaza in Frederick. The project is situated within an Opportunity Zone, two miles east of downtown Frederick and 47 miles west of downtown Baltimore. Ryan Minnehan and Patrick Miller of KLNB represented Royal Farms in the lease and are marketing the property to retailers for six available pad site opportunities. The KLNB team is targeting sit-down restaurants, pharmacies, banks and drive-thru restaurants to join the project. Royal Farms and Tru By Hilton are the first tenants to join Gateway East Plaza. The joint venture will break ground on Royal Farms and Tru by Hilton this month with the grand opening slated for the second half of 2020. Royal Farms is based in Baltimore and operates more than 200 stores in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia. Tru by Hilton is a midscale hotel that was announced in January 2016. At the beginning of 2019, there were 53 locations nationwide.
PHILADELPHIA — A joint venture between PREIT and Macerich has launched Fashion District Philadelphia, a 900,000-square-foot retail district housing dozens of shopping, dining and entertainment destinations. The $400 million project is a redevelopment of a former mall, the Gallery at Market East. A range of clothing and accessory retail options include Aeropostale, Burlington, Columbia and ULTA. The Fashion District also houses coworking spaces from REC Philly and Industrious. Other notable anchors of the district include City Winery, AMC Theaters, rotating art installation Wonderspaces, Market Eats food hall, mini theme park Candytopia and Yards Brewing Co.
ATLANTA — One of the central themes of the first annual InterFace Mixed-Use Southeast conference was the interplay between the various uses present within mixed-use projects around the region. Whether it’s Avalon in Alpharetta, Georgia, or the American Tobacco Campus redevelopment in downtown Durham, North Carolina, the success of these projects hinges on whether the different uses can support one another. Can the apartment residents help patronize the retail and restaurants? Can the office component drive overnight stays at the project’s hotel? But before these dynamics can play out, a vital piece to having these projects come to fruition is financing. During the conference’s capital markets discussion, panelists tackled topics including equity requirements for mixed-use projects, a pending recession, the historically low interest rate environment and the strong competition among capital providers. For mixed-use specifically, the capital markets panelists discussed the challenges and opportunities in trying to underwrite the various uses all under one transaction. Lenders have to be careful not to overlook or make assumptions about a property type when financing mixed-use deals, warned Bryan Joyner, managing director of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “They have to look at the separate uses both separately and together and then underwrite …