OAKLAND PARK, FLA. — Newrock Partners has signed three new retailers to join the tenant mix at Oaklyn, a multifamily development underway in South Florida’s Broward County. The new tenants include fitness brand Pure Barre, fashion boutique Monkees and wellness spa Pause Studio. Pure Barre and Monkees plan to open on the ground level at Oaklyn in the first half of 2024, and Pause Studio plans to debut next summer. Situated at 3333 N. Federal Highway in Oakland Park, Oaklyn features 274 luxury apartments and more than 19,000 square feet of retail space. Newrock delivered the property in October.
Multifamily
SEATTLE — Senior Living Investment Brokerage (SLIB) has arranged the sale of Emerald City, a 119-unit assisted living and memory care community in Seattle. Emerald City features 99 assisted living and 20 memory care units. It was built in 2006 with renovations in 2017. The property totals 88,839 square feet on approximately 0.8 acres of land. The seller was an out-of-state private equity group with a third-party operator. The buyer was an experienced regional owner-operator looking to expand its footprint in the Seattle MSA. The price was not disclosed. Jason Punzel, Brad Goodsell, Vince Viverito and Jake Anderson of SLIB handled the transaction.
TORRANCE AND LONG BEACH, CALIF. — CBRE has brokered the purchases of five multifamily properties in Torrance and Long Beach, totaling $17 million. The transactions fulfilled the buyer’s 1031 exchange requirement following the sale of a 3.8-acre property in Torrance. Dan Blackwell and Trey Mitchell of CBRE Multifamily SoCal represented the San Diego-based exchange buyer. The properties were sold by five different private sellers. The transactions include:
NEW YORK CITY — Boston-based developer The Davis Cos. has broken ground on a 97-unit multifamily project at 1975 Madison Ave. in Harlem. Designed by DXA Studio and built by Broadway Construction Group, the eight-story building will house one- and two-bedroom units, with 30 percent of the residences earmarked as affordable housing. Amenities will include a fitness center, resident lounge, coworking space, pet spa and a rooftop terrace. Completion is slated for late 2025.
CHICAGO — Habitat and P3 Markets have topped off construction of the second apartment building at 43 Green, a $100 million mixed-income development in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. The transit-oriented development is centered around the 43rd Street Green Line L station. The new building rises 10 stories with 80 units, 44 of which will be designated as affordable. Completion is slated for late summer 2024. The developers have fully leased the first apartment building, which also rises 10 stories. The 99-unit property consists of 50 affordable units for households earning up to 60 percent of the area median income. Located on a long-vacant, city-owned lot on the northeast corner of East 43rd Street and Calumet Avenue, the first building is the largest of three planned buildings at 43 Green. Amenities include a fitness center, business center, picnic area, community room with kitchen, two rooftop terraces, laundry facilities and bicycle storage. The second building will have similar amenities.
CHICAGO — Quantum Real Estate Advisors Inc. has brokered the sale of a 38-unit multifamily property in Chicago for $2.7 million. The courtyard building is located at 4126 W. 24th Place in Little Village. Clay Maxfield of Quantum represented the seller, which had owned the asset for 25 years. The property sold to a local owner with multiple assets in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs.
Related Cos., Sterling Equities Break Ground on 2,500-Unit Willets Point Affordable Housing Project in Queens
by Katie Sloan
NEW YORK CITY — Queens Development Group, a joint venture between Related Cos. and Sterling Equities, has broken ground on the first phase of a 2,500-unit affordable housing project in the New York City borough of Queens. The project, named Willets Point, will be the city’s largest affordable housing development in 40 years, according to the joint venture. Wells Fargo has arranged a total of $360 million in financing for Phase I of the development, with a $236.5 million construction loan and $123.5 million Low-Income Housing Tax Credit investment. Phase I of the development will feature two mid-rise buildings offering a combined 880 units of affordable housing. Forty percent of units will be reserved for residents earning at or below 60 percent of the area median income, and 15 percent of units will be set aside for tenants that formerly experienced homelessness. Amenities will include a landscaped inner courtyard, laundry facilities, lounge space with access to outdoor terraces, bicycle storage and ground-floor retail space. The development will also include infrastructure investments like new streets, signage, sidewalks, trees, lights, drainage, stormwater management, water hydrants, sewers and utilities. Future components of the development will include a 650-seat standalone public school, New York …
It would be impossible to write a development or design article without mentioning the elephant in the room — the state of the capital markets and the current hurdles in securing financing of any sort, but especially for new development projects. While demand for new communities exists in many markets, getting projects to pencil out is the tricky part. For those developments that can move forward, innovative architecture and design are being employed to make the projects as functional and efficient as possible. Out are some of the flashier amenities from the days of yore, and in is design that helps student residents be the happiest and healthiest versions of themselves, both mentally and physically. From the developer perspective, there is no question about the desire to build — especially in Power Five university markets. “Almost all of the Power Five universities have seen 7 percent to 10 percent rental rate increases over the past three years and are showing approximately 98 percent occupancy at most properties,” says Greg Faulkner, president of Humphreys & Partners Architects. “But math has to work with the rates, like equity requirements of 45 percent or higher. Hard costs have moderated, but some are still …
Multifamily Investors in Long Beach Navigate Opportunities Amidst Market Adjustments, New Developments
by Jeff Shaw
— By Juan Huizar, President, Sage Real Estate — Nationwide, multifamily sales are declining, while interest rates are rising. Buyers are adopting a patient approach, leading to properties lingering on the market for extended periods. This, of course, is accompanied by noticeable price reductions. Buyers are anticipating further price drops, while some sellers are slowly becoming more realistic in their pricing. Long Beach has perennially attracted multifamily investors with more than 7,500 individual apartment buildings. This is mainly composed of older housing stock, which creates a fertile ground for investors and syndicators. Often regarded as the last affordable beach city, Long Beach — despite being overshadowed by other Southern California communities or grouped with Los Angeles — stands as a significant population and employment hub, ranking as the sixth-largest city in California. Existing apartment sales for properties with five or more units have plummeted by more than 65 percent. Notably, 2021 was an exceptional year due to a confluence of factors, including rising real estate values and a low cost of capital. The current decline is more a reflection of increased capital costs than a trend over the past decade, with some properties selling for less than their 2019 prices. …
MANSFIELD, TEXAS — Texas-based private equity firm SPI Advisory has purchased Main Street Lofts, a 266-unit apartment complex in the southern Fort Worth suburb of Mansfield. Completed in 2022, the property offers studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The amenity package consists of a pool with an adjacent game lawn, fire pit and lounge, as well as a rooftop lounge with shuffleboard, fitness center with yoga and spin studios, dog park, conference rooms, biking trails and resident lounges with TVs. Grant Raymond, Asher Hall, Robert Stickel and Alex Brown of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, a partnership between Dallas-based Realty Capital Residential and Florida-based PointOne Holdings, in the transaction. Fritz Waldvogel of Colliers Mortgage originated an undisclosed amount of Fannie Mae acquisition financing for the deal.