CHICAGO — Morgan/Harbour has completed the first phase of renovations planned for Kehoe Designs in Chicago. The full-service event décor and design company will occupy space at 2555 S. Leavitt St. The firm is consolidating four locations, including its headquarters at 2108 W. Walnut St. in Chicago, and relocating to the Pilsen neighborhood warehouse. The first phase of the construction totaled 20,000 square feet and included the addition of four showrooms along with new production areas for floral, fabrics, lighting, graphics, welding, carpentry and CNC production departments. The second phase of construction, which is currently underway, will include converting 25,000 square feet of industrial space into an event space that can accommodate up to 1,000 attendees. Morgan/Harbour’s construction team includes Graeme Foster and Jerry Hawkinson. FitzGerald Associates Architects is providing the architectural services for the renovation project.
NEW YORK CITY — New York-based ABS Partners Real Estate has invested $10 million for a capital improvement campaign at 915 Broadway, a 20-story office/retail property located at the southwest corner of 21st Street and Broadway in New York City. The firm tapped GKV and Javier Delagarza Architecture to design new corridors, high-end restrooms, high-grade lighting, elliptical ductwork, and well-appointed pantries. Additionally, the upgrades include full-glass office fronts, wood floors and open ceilings. Renovations took place on the fifth floor, after which the entire floor was leased to tenants, including Path Interactive and Gradian. Now work has commenced on the tenth floor.
YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. — Houlihan-Parnes Realtors has placed an acquisition loan and credit facility totaling $13.2 million on two properties in Yorktown Heights. Located at 2649-2651 Strang Blvd., the corporate park contains a total of 209,078 square feet of rentable office space, which will be managed and leased by GHP Office Realty. The interest-only loan, which was placed with a local bank, features a 3.875 percent interest rate for three years, a renewal option and a flexible pre-pay schedule. Kelly Houlihan-Buckley and James Houlihan of Houlihan-Parnes secured the financing. John Hughes and James Maloney of Great American Title arranged the title. Elizabeth Smith of Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein LLP provided legal counsel to the undisclosed borrower. GHP Office Realty is the office building division of Houlihan-Parnes Realtors LLC.
SALT LAKE CITY – The 9,234-square-foot Metro Place office building in Salt Lake City has sold to a local social security disability law firm for an undisclosed sum. The building is located at 243 East 400 South. The law firm plans to occupy the space. The seller, ACRES Metro LLC, was represented by Mark Jensen, of Newmark Grubb ACRES.
MIAMI — Swire Properties Inc. has announced that Akerman LLP, a leading transactions and trial law firm, will be the lead office tenant of Brickell City Centre, a $1.05 billion, 5 million-square-foot mixed-use development underway in Miami. Akerman will occupy approximately 108,000 square feet once construction is complete in 2015. The law firm will occupy 80 percent of the Class A office space at Brickell City Centre Green, which is one of two office buildings under construction at the development. Brickell City Centre Green will be located at 98 S.E. Seventh St. Akerman’s Miami office employs 160 lawyers, making it the largest law office in Florida. The law firm has played a significant legal role in the development of Brickell City Centre as real estate and land use counsel to Swire Properties. Tere Blanca of Blanca Commercial Real Estate represented Akerman in the lease transaction. Alexander Cahlin and David Valdez of Blanca Commercial Real Estate assisted in the deal.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Trinity Capital Advisors and joint venture partner DRA Advisors LLC, has acquired a 33-story, 584,315-square-foot office building located at 400 S. Tryon St. in downtown Charlotte for an undisclosed price. The building is 92 percent leased, with Duke Energy as its anchor tenant. Rob Cochran, Bill Collins, Jud Ryan and Craig Evans of Cassidy Turley represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. Trinity Partners has been hired to lease and manage the asset.
Atlanta is the economic engine of the Southeast, which is the fastest growing region in the country. With a population of 5.5 million across the 28-county metro area, the city is the ninth-largest metro nationally and is projected to be the sixth most populated by 2020. Atlanta’s high quality of life and low cost of living make it an ideal destination for young and educated talent around the region, as well as growing companies. Atlanta is home to 16 Fortune 500 companies and the busiest airport in the world — the recipe for a business boom and hot office real estate sector. According to Georgia State University’s Economic Forecasting Center, Atlanta is projected to add 305,000 new jobs between 2010 and 2016, with a drop in the unemployment rate to 5.7 percent in the same timeframe from the current rate of 7.5. That is a 13.5 percent increase in job growth over six years. The technology, homebuilding and service sectors are returning to health, if not climbing to new heights. According to CBRE’s U.S. Tech-Twenty research report, tech employment in Atlanta rose nearly 11 percent between 2011 and 2013. CBRE Research also finds that Atlanta’s recovery is underpinned by an …
DALLAS — PM Realty Group has purchased One Hanover Park, an eight-story office building located at 16633 North Dallas Pkwy. in Dallas. The 195,894-square-foot property was built in 1998 and includes a three-level parking garage. The Class A office building was 82 percent occupied at the time of sale, with floor plates averaging 25,000 square feet. Eric Mackey, Gary Carr, John Alvarado and Robert Hill of CBRE arranged the transaction on behalf of the seller, a partnership between Cawley Partners and Stockbridge Capital.
COLUMBUS, OHIO — Cassidy Turley has arranged the lease of 12,765 square feet of office space in Columbus. New York-based CT Corp. has renewed its lease with Equity Office Properties at 4400 Easton Commons, Suite 125. Built in 2005, the office building in northeast Columbus has easy access to Interstate 71, Interstate 270 and Interstate 670. The property is less than a mile from Port Columbus International Airport. Randy Stephens and Brian Douglas represented CT Corp. in the transaction. Tyler Owens and Mark Friedman of Colliers International represented Chicago-based Equity Office Properties.
PHOENIX – A subsidiary of Griffin Opportunities has acquired a 145,000-square-foot flex-office showroom development in the Phoenix submarket of Deer Valley for $21.6 million. The building is located at 2851 W. Kathleen Road. The 9.5-acre property was developed in 1988 and renovated in 2009. It is fully leased to building technologies company Climatec. The subsidiary was represented by Ben Prater of Colliers International. The seller, Intravest 2851 Kathleen LLC, was represented by Bob Lundstedt and Chris Rogers of Daum. This is Griffin Opportunities’ first investment in Deer Valley. It also represents the largest transaction in the Deer Valley submarket so far this year, according to Daum.