AUSTIN, TEXAS — Electric Power Engineers has signed a 17,132-square-foot office lease in southwest Austin. The engineering consulting firm is taking space at the 167,369-square-foot Uplands 1, which was renovated in 2019. Matt Frizzell and Kevin Granger of Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlord, San Francisco-based Drawbridge Realty, in the lease negotiations. Andy Carlson and Bob Wynn of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant.
NEW YORK CITY — Newmark has placed a $24 million loan for the refinancing of 5-9 Union Square West, a 120,000-square-foot office building in Manhattan. The eight-story building, which was originally constructed in 1897 and formerly known as The Spingler Building, was fully leased at the time of the loan closing. Paul Talbot of Newmark placed the five-year, fixed-rate loan through Amalgamated Bank on behalf of the borrower, locally based owner-operator GFP Real Estate.
DOVER, N.H. — Northeast Credit Union will relocate its headquarters from Portsmouth to a 100,000-square-foot office space in Dover, located near the Maine-New Hampshire border. The regional nonprofit lending institution will occupy the entirety of the building at 100 Education Way, which rises four stories and was constructed in 2006, according to LoopNet Inc. Maugel DeStefano is leading the design and build-out of the space. Northeast Credit Union expects its new headquarters to be fully operational by early 2025.
HANOVER PARK AND WARRENVILLE, ILL. — Associated, a storage and order fulfillment solutions company, has signed two office and industrial leases totaling 178,477 square feet in metro Chicago. The tenant signed a long-term lease to occupy the entire building at 6450 Muirfield Drive in Hanover Park. The property features 160,419 square feet of industrial space, inclusive of 10,000 square feet of office space. With this lease signing, Associated marks the establishment of a new operations facility and doubles its footprint in Chicagoland. The property will house the company’s warehouse operation as well as material handling equipment sales, service, parts and rental functions. In the second transaction, Associated signed a lease for a move-in ready office sublease at 4101 Winfield Road in Warrenville. The space totals 18,058 square feet. Corey Chase of Newmark represented Associated in both leases. Brian Colson and Brian Pomorski of Avison Young represented the landlord for the Hanover Park property, while Josh Feldman of Cushman & Wakefield represented the sublandlord in the Warrenville space.
— By Scott Romick — The Western region is going through a lot of changes when it comes to the office market. Downtown San Francisco, in particular, was a large tech hub with so much infrastructure prior to the pandemic, but it’s currently become more of a ghost town. Because hybrid and remote work is common now, many of the workers who are back to the office have moved to local submarkets that offer faster commutes, more efficiency, affordability and other key factors. Southern California, on the other hand, is a growth market. Suburban areas like the San Fernando Valley’s Sherman Oaks — which has become more active than the West Valley — continues to expand its population. This helps the office market as well as existing and new retailers. Even pockets like Encino, Studio City and Burbank have become more populous, attracting a young workforce given their proximity to local restaurants, coffee shops and parks. Unfortunately, Downtown Los Angeles is still struggling to recover as a central business district, Century City is rebounding slowly and Santa Monica is shifting in its downtown area, given the nature of office structures and their footprints. Hybrid & Regionalized Real Estate The hybrid work …
ITASCA, ILL. — Skender has completed interior construction on the new 50,000-square-foot office for AIT Worldwide Logistics at Two Pierce Place within the Hamilton Lakes Business Park in Itasca. AIT, a global supply chain solutions company, occupies floors 20, 21 and 25 within the 25-story, 494,000-square-foot office tower. The build-out included 210 workstations, 43 enclosed offices, nine conference rooms, a boardroom, 2,000-square-foot café, dedicated reception area and game room, along with several collaboration areas throughout the floors. The project team included Partners by Design as architect, RLE as owner’s represtnative and Advance Consulting Group as engineer.
NEW YORK CITY — JLL has negotiated the $27.5 million sale of flex property located at 185 Van Dyke St. in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood that was originally built in the mid-1800s. According to LoopNet Inc., the property totals 100,697 square feet and can support office, retail and light industrial uses. Michael Mazzara, Bob Knakal, Stephen Palmese, Brendan Maddigan, Hall Oster, Jonathan Hageman, Ethan Stanton, Winfield Clifford and Connor McCullough of JLL represented the seller, locally based investment firm Lande Alexander Properties, in the transaction. Dan Morici, also with JLL, represented the buyer, San Francisco-based Terreno Realty Corp.
SOUTHFIELD, MICH. — Friedman Real Estate has brokered the sale of a 62,752-square-foot office building in Southfield for an undisclosed price. The property is located at 16500 W. 12 Mile Road. Robert Moon of Friedman represented the seller, Atlas Holding Corp. The buyer, Kensington Community Church, will occupy the building.
— By Lisa Stewart, Senior Managing Director, JLL; and Nick Menghini, Puget Sound Research Manager, JLL — Real estate market participants are maintaining cautious optimism for improved conditions across the Puget Sound as signs of vitality are emerging despite persistently challenging economic forces. Viewed through the lens of prior real estate cycles, it’s clear the Seattle area has a greater critical mass of highly skilled talent and a broader, more resilient economic base than previous slowdowns. Among the promising indicators are the Puget Sound’s rebound of population in-migration, from net outflows during the pandemic to more than 53,000 new residents moving here in the first half of the year. Seattle now lays claim to being the fastest growing of the top 50 U.S. cities, according to Census data. Several leading employers are also growing again. This includes Boeing, which has more hiring underway than in years’ past. Rising star Blue Origin has had about half as many open positions as Boeing over the past 12 months. The life sciences sector is further expanding as Big Pharma firms like Pfizer, Moderna and Novartis join homegrown startups with significant Puget Sound presences. Overall, companies encouraging a return-to-office (RTO) have brought more daytime foot traffic to employment …
DALLAS — M Financial Group, an Oregon-based financial services firm, has signed a 52,000-square-foot office lease at The Quad, a 364,000-square-foot office and retail development in Uptown Dallas. Stream Realty Partners is developing The Quad and targeting a March 2024 completion. Ryan Evanich and Marissa Parkin of Stream Realty Partners represented ownership in the lease negotiations. Dean Collins, Mark Collins and Doug Deurwaarder of Cushman & Wakefield represented M Financial Group. Other office users that have committed to The Quad include Blackstone affiliate Revantage (32,000 square feet) and Chicago Title (20,000 square feet).