PARAMUS, N.J. — Vornado Realty Trust has leased 470,000 square feet of office space to Amazon at 7 West 34th St. in the Penn Plaza District of Paramus. Amazon has inked a 17-year lease for the office space. Vornado, a fully integrated real estate investment trust, owns approximately 9 million square feet of commercial space in the Penn Plaza District.
HOUSTON — TerraFirma Earth Technologies, a Houston-based dewatering firm, is moving its headquarters to a larger office and yard space in Houston to accommodate more heavy equipment and office space requirements. The new corporate headquarters is located at 11215 Old Fairbanks N. Houston Road. The firm is moving its headquarters Dec. 1 and also has opened a satellite office in Denver. TerraFirma assists owners and contractors throughout the U.S. maintain acceptable groundwater levels for both temporary and permanent projects.
HOUSTON — KDC and Sarofim Realty Advisors have begun construction on a two-story, 68,950-square-foot office building that will be home to Lennar Homes of Texas Land and Construction Ltd. The property is located at 681 Greens Pkwy. across from the current Lennar headquarters. The new building will house 225 associates from Lennar, Village Builders, Friendswood Development Co., Universal American Mortgage Co. and North American Tile Co. The property will include a 5,000-square-foot design center to showcase product offerings from Village Builders. Another feature is a two-story lobby that will extend through the core of the building. The building is scheduled for completion in October 2015. Powers Brown Architecture provided architectural services for the project. Rosenberger Construction is the general contractor and Halff Associates is the civil engineer. Jerry Frey, Ron McWherter and Darren Gowell with CBRE represented Lennar in the transaction. JP Hutcheson of Cassidy Turley represented KDC and Sarofim Realty Advisors.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Grosvenor Americas has completed a $7.5 million renovation to the HVAC systems at its 200,000-square-foot office tower at 1701 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C., just a block away from the White House. The 12-story tower was certified LEED Gold-EB in 2013 and has recently added three tenants occupying a total of 29,300 square feet: Occidental Petroleum, FoxKiser and JAB Holdings, which is the parent company of Jimmy Choo, Bally and Peet’s Coffee. Peet’s Coffee has its flagship location on the ground floor of 1701 Pennsylvania Ave. Since purchasing the office tower in 1986, Grosvenor Americas has invested $16.7 million in upgrades.
HOWELL, N.J. — Eastern Union Funding has arranged $4.2 million in financing for an office park located at 481 Oak Glen Road in Howell. The first phase of the two-phase property is fully occupied after being constructed in 10 months. Zevi Schwartz of Eastern Union Funding arranged the financing, which fully stabilized the first phase, through a regional balance sheet lender. The loan features a competitive rate of 3.87 percent on a five-year term with 50 percent non-recourse. Due to the lease up of the first phase, the lender has committed an additional $3.8 million for the construction of phase two. Once completed the office park will offer two buildings totaling 100,000 square feet. The property is owned by Howell Plaza LLC.
NEW YORK CITY — The Durst Organization has signed xAd Inc., a location-focused mobile advertising company, to a 10-year lease at One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. The company will occupy the entire 60th floor — 43,849 square feet — at the 3 million-square-foot office tower. xAd will relocate to the new space from 401 Park Avenue South in summer 2015. One World Trade Center is at 72 percent of projected stabilized net operating income, totaling 1.9 million square feet in the building. Jon Mayeske and Jamie Katcher of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant in the transaction. The ownership was represented by Eric Engelhardt of The Durst Organization; Cushman & Wakefield’s Tara Stacom, Alan Stein, James Searl and Justin Royce; and Jodi Pulice of JRT Realty.
CHICAGO — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the $8.1 million sale of a five-story, 40,000-square foot, timber loft office property in the River North neighborhood of Chicago. The Class-B property is located at 153-157 W. Ohio St. near the intersection of LaSalle Street and Ohio Street. Stephen Lieberman of Marcus & Millichap’s Chicago Downtown office represented the undisclosed seller. A New Jersey-based private investor purchased the property.
DALLAS — Boxer Property has arranged the lease of a 5,403-square-foot office space for First American Payment Systems in Dallas. The company, which provides payment solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, will occupy space in Executive Center II, located at 8330 Lyndon B Johnson Freeway in Dallas. The new space is an increase of more than 4,461 square feet from the company’s former suite. Gloria Medlock and Gil Engelhardt of Boxer negotiated the lease. Executive Center II is a Class A office space with amenities including an auditorium, two conference rooms, newly renovated lobbies, a loading dock, gym and full-service café. The property is located near North Park Mall, Park Lane and the Galleria.
DALLAS — JLL has negotiated a 157,568-square-foot office lease at One Arts Plaza on behalf of EnLink Midstream Partners LP and EnLink Midstream LLC. One Arts Plaza is located at 1722 Routh St. in the Dallas arts district. The company plans to relocate in 2016. Steve Thelen, Jeff Staubach and Torrey Littlejohn of JLL negotiated the lease on behalf of the tenant. Dallas-based architecture firm Corgan will design the new space.
A blistering cold winter lingered into the late spring and left the commercial real estate market in the Grand Traverse region frozen. Businesses waited for the market and the temperatures to thaw, and a third-quarter surge has activity back on track. From Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, property sales totaled $10.3 million and 221,136 square feet, including 118,515 square feet of industrial/warehouse buildings, 79,463 square feet of professional/medical office space, and 23,158 square feet of retail/restaurant space. That‘s slightly ahead of last year’s pace. During the first three quarters of 2013, property sales totaled $9.9 million and 207,845 square feet, including 121,469 square feet of industrial/warehouse buildings, 44,160 square feet of professional/medical office space, and 42,216 square feet of retail/restaurant space. The office sector posted about a 9 percent increase in the average sales per square foot during the first three quarters of 2014, while the industrial warehouse market recorded an increase of approximately 5 percent. The retail/ restaurant sector saw a 9 percent drop in the average sales per square foot The reduction in the average sales price in the retail/restaurant market sector is mostly due to the lack of quality inventory. This lack of inventory in our market …