NEW YORK CITY — Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group LLC has arranged a $97 million loan for the site acquisition and development of 540 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan’s Flatiron district. The site is located on the northeast corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue at the nexus of three downtown submarkets: Flatiron, Chelsea and Greenwich Village.The borrowers, Landsea Homes and DNA Development LLC, acquired the property from Extell Development and plan to build a mixed-use building with residential and retail space at the site. An affiliate of Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies provided the loan, which was arranged by Patrick Hanlon, Sean Meehan and Ross Cumming of Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group LLC. A timeline for the project was not disclosed.
NEWTON, MASS. — HFF has secured a $30.1 million construction loan for the 28 Austin Street Apartments, a mixed-use development in Newton. The property will consist of 68 one- and two-bedroom apartment homes, 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, a new public plaza and a 124-space municipal parking lot. Amenities will include a common roof terrace and garden as well as a private 90-car underground parking garage. HFF worked on behalf of the borrower, a joint venture between Dinosaur Capital Partners and Oaktree Development, to secure financing through Eastern Bank. The project is scheduled for completion in spring 2019.
FAIRVIEW, N.J. — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the $2.8 million sale of a mixed-use building in Fairview. The property consists of eight residential and five commercial spaces as well as a parking garage. Daniel Aviles and Andrew M. Zuckerman of Marcus & Millichap represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. The buyer was a limited liability company in a 1031 exchange.
DUNWOODY, GA. — Grubb Properties is moving forward with Park at Perimeter Center East, a 19-acre mixed-use project in Dunwoody, roughly 17 miles north of Atlanta. The Charlotte-based company has submitted a rezoning request to the Dunwoody City Council to rezone the site from “Office Industrial” to include residential and retail. The proposed project would include a mix of 900 condominiums, 500,000 square feet of new office space, approximately 12,000 square feet of retail space and three acres of green space. The site is already home to three office buildings totaling 285,000 square feet. After acquiring the site, Grubb Properties refreshed the buildings’ interiors and updated the lobbies. The buildings house tenants such as Veritas Collective, Alzheimer’s Association, Hotel Equities and Marx Okubo Associates. Grubb Properties will focus on making the project walkable and bikeable, encouraging the utilization of nearby transit options such as MARTA. Park at Perimiter East will have a 12-foot shared-use path around the perimeter that will run alongside an existing bike lane. An approval timeline and construction schedule were not disclosed.
CHICAGO — Riverside Investment & Development, with its development partner Convexity Properties, has unveiled a revised plan for the Union Station redevelopment project in Chicago. The biggest change is the elimination of a 404-unit apartment structure that the developers had initially proposed to place atop the historic Union Station building, according to local media reports. Instead, Riverside plans to develop a one-story addition with hotel rooms. The other change is a 1.5-acre plaza and park along Jackson Boulevard and Clinton Street at the base of a proposed 50-story office tower. BMO Harris Bank is in talks to anchor the office property, according to local media sources. The new proposal will still have to clear many hurdles, including approval from city officials. In June, the developer faced criticism for its initial proposal largely because of the glass apartment building. Last year, Amtrak, which owns the station, selected the development team for the $1 billion project. The train station originally opened in 1925. Today, it handles about 140,000 passengers on an average weekday.
MINNEAPOLIS — Ackerberg has purchased the Williams Pub building in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis for an undisclosed price. The 26,854-square-foot mixed-use building is located at 2909-2911 Hennepin Ave. Ackerberg plans to rename the building The Carling, as the property once housed The Carling Hotel. The new owner plans to renovate the lobby and façade in order to differentiate the office portion from the space occupied by Williams Pub. Mary Burnton and Teresa Lingg of Newmark Knight Frank will handle lease-up of the property’s office component.
HOUSTON — Triple Crown Investments has begun work on Southside Commons, an 80,000-square-foot redevelopment project in Houston. The developer will convert the former site of Palace Bowling Lanes, located at 4191 Bellaire Blvd., into a mixed-use development. Individual components will include 10,000 square feet of retail space, 30,000 square feet of entertainment/restaurant space and 40,000 square feet of office and medical office space. Arch-Con Construction is serving as general contractor on the project, which is expected to open in late summer 2019.
BOSTON — NKF Capital Markets has negotiated the $39 million sale of a mixed-use property in the Somerville neighborhood of Boston. Located at 240 Elm St., the 46,276-square-foot property is currently fully leased to a tenant roster that includes urban grocery concept bfresh and office sharing concept Spaces. Geoffrey Millerd, Justin Smith, Paul Penman and Christian Brannelly of NKF Capital Markets brokered the transaction. The buyer and seller were undisclosed.
CHANDLER, ARIZ. — VanTrust Real Estate has purchased 20 acres of land, located at Chandler Boulevard and the Loop 101 in Chandler. The Rockefeller Group, New York City, sold the land parcel for $12.2 million. VanTrust plans to build a mixed-use development with office, hotel and retail space on the site. This transaction continues the company’s development pipeline in the Arizona market, which consists of projects for industrial, multifamily and office space. The company recently completed Chandler Corporate Center, a 117,000-square-foot office asset located at 350. N. McClintock Drive in Chandler, and it plans to break ground on the second phase of the development soon.
ORLANDO, FLA. — Tavistock Development Co. has unveiled plans for Boxi Park at Lake Nona, an outdoor entertainment venue located within Lake Nona Town Center, a 100-acre mixed-use development that anchors the master-designed Lake Nona community in Orlando. The 30,000-square-foot venue will be built using repurposed shipping containers, and will feature a mix of restaurants and bars, beach volleyball courts, a fenced dog park, playground and a live entertainment venue. The park will be built using 12 containers arranged in one- and two-story configurations. The structure allows the containers to be moved as Lake Nona Town Center expands. Boxi Park is scheduled to open in December.