CHELMSFORD, MASS. — Digital Federal Credit Union has purchased an office building located at 297 Billerica Road in Chelmsford for an undisclosed price. The three-story, 129,000-square-foot building features a state-of-the-art data center, outdoor grilling and seating area, training rooms, in-house café, and shower and locker rooms. The buyer plans to use the facility to accommodate its continued expansion. The property was built and formerly occupied by Kronos Inc., which recently relocated its global headquarters for Lowell, Mass. Mark Reardon, Peter Dominski, Alex Plaisted and Ben Roopenian of CBRE/New England represented the seller, Anchor Line Partners, on behalf of Kronos. Garry Holmes of R.W. Holmes Realty represented the buyer in the deal.
Office
Billtrust Leases 90,000 SF of Office Space at Princeton Pike Corporate Center in New Jersey
by Amy Works
LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. — Billtrust, a payment cycle management software company, has leased 90,000 square feet of office space at 1009 Lenox Drive within Princeton Pike Corporate Center in Lawrenceville. The company plans to establish its new headquarters at the Class A office campus. Vision Real Estate Partners (VREP) owns the eight-building, 817,000-square-foot office campus, which recently underwent a multi-million-dollar revitalization program. Steve Tolkach of Newmark Knight Frank represented the landlord, while Bradford Fenlon of Colliers International represented the tenant in the deal.
DETROIT — Bernard Financial Group has arranged a $67.5 million CMBS loan for the refinancing of a 489,786-square-foot office building in Detroit. The multi-tenant, 25-story building is located at 150 W. Jefferson Ave. Dennis Bernard and Kevin Kovachevich of Bernard Financial arranged the loan on behalf of the borrower, 150 West Jefferson Owner LLC.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Northridge Capital LLC, in partnership with Insite Properties, has broken ground on The Refinery, a 107,000-square-foot creative office and retail project located at 1213 W. Morehead St. in Charlotte’s Midtown district. The five-story building will include four upper levels of 22,500-square-foot floorplates, 10- to 14-foot ceilings heights and floor-to-ceiling glass windows. The first floor will be dedicated to retail space and will feature 16-foot ceiling heights. The Refinery will also feature a rooftop amenity space, free parking in a 350-space parking deck, electric car charging stations, interior bike storage, private showers and locker rooms and a gathering space in the main lobby. The building will sit adjacent to a 287-unit multifamily community currently under construction. In addition, The Refinery is within walking distance to a number of restaurants in Charlotte’s Freemore West neighborhood. Barry Fabyan and Charley Leavitt of JLL are handling the leasing assignment for the office portion of the project, and John Hadley of The Nichols Co. is overseeing retail leasing. The project team includes architect BB+M Architecture, civil engineer LandDesign and general contractor Edifice Construction. Northridge and Insite plan to deliver The Refinery in fall 2018.
NEW YORK CITY — New York REIT Inc. (NYSE: NYRT) has agreed to sell a 346,728-square-foot office building in Midtown Manhattan for $255 million. The 10-story property is located at 333 W. 34th St. between the Herald Square and Hudson Yards submarkets. The building is fully leased to four tenants including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, The Segal Co., Godiva Chocolatier and Sam Ash. Over the last 15 years, the building has received over $25 million in capital improvements, according to NYRT. Real estate funds managed by Brookfield Asset Management will acquire the property. The closing is expected to occur prior to year’s-end. NYRT acquired the office building from SL Green for $220 million in 2013, according to Crain’s New York Business. NYRT is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns office and retail properties in New York City. NYRT’s shareholders recently adopted a plan of liquidation in which the REIT is seeking to sell its assets. The liquidation process is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2018, according to NYRT. At the time of its decision to liquidate, the company was under pressure to grow shareholder value. NYRT’s stock price closed on …
Marcus & Millichap Brokers $9.8M Sale of 21,973 SF Mixed-Use Building in North Hollywood
by Nellie Day
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of Andrew’s Plaza, a mixed-use building located at 11305 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood. Yasam Legacy LLC acquired the property from a limited liability company for $9.8 million. At the time of sale, the 21,973-square-foot property was 96.9 percent occupied by a mix of retail and office tenants. Martin Agnew and Ryan Rothstein-Serling of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller and buyer in the deal.
NEW YORK CITY — Investcorp has invested in two office buildings in Manhattan’s Garment District for a total purchase price of $156 million. Located at 229 W. 36th St. and 256 W. 38th St., the properties are fully leased to a diverse roster of more than 20 long-term tenants. Combined the properties offer approximately 267,000 square feet of office space. As part of the transaction, Investcorp has entered into a joint venture with Brickman, a New York-based owner/operator. Brickman maintains a joint venture investment in the properties and will serve as the leasing and management agent.
HOUSTON — HFF has arranged the sale of Norfolk Tower, a 207,562-square-foot office building located at 2211 Norfolk St. in Houston. The 11-story tower was 83 percent leased at the time of sale. Dan Miller and Martin Hogan of HFF represented the seller, Boston-based TA Realty, and procured the buyer, Houston-based Nitya Capital. Susan Hill and Kelly Layne of HFF secured an undisclosed amount of acquisition financing for Nitya, which plans to invest in capital improvements and rebrand the building as Nitya Tower.
ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Los Angeles-based Lowe (formerly Lowe Enterprises) and San Antonio-based USAA Real Estate have completed construction on a 19-story, 700,000-square-foot office building located at 2415 Eisenhower Ave. in Alexandria, eight miles south of Washington, D.C. The new building will serve as the headquarters for the National Science Foundation (NSF), a U.S. government agency that supports research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Balfour Beatty Construction and WDG Architecture led the design team for the project, which is LEED Silver-certified. The building includes two interconnected towers with 19,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and three levels of below-grade parking. The NSF headquarters building features 36 conference rooms, a fitness center, health center, bike storage and electric vehicle charging stations. In addition, the property is located adjacent to the Eisenhower Avenue Metro Station.
TULSA, OKLA. — Sales of net leased properties settled in at nearly $11.4 billion during the third quarter of 2017, up 15 percent over the average for the past five third quarters ($10 billion), according to a recent report from Stan Johnson Company, a national brokerage and advisory firm specializing in net leased assets. The report tracks net leased properties across the office, industrial and retail real estate sectors. “This was the largest third-quarter move in six years and represents resilience in the net lease sector,” says John Zimmerman, director of Tulsa-based Stan Johnson Company. “We may be on our way to another record sales year.” The total is the highest quarterly sales volume in the past 12 months and follows a lackluster second quarter that saw investment sales volume drop more than 20 percent below the average for the past five second quarters. Growth occurred across all net lease sectors, with office, industrial and retail increasing 35 percent, 43 percent and 55 percent, respectively. The results were overwhelmingly driven by growth in the sheer number of transactions — more than 750 — as opposed to the amount of the assets traded. “In recent years, a lot of the growth …