BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Investcorp has expanded its U.S. real estate portfolio with $250 million in acquisitions in Boston and Denver. The five investments include 20 buildings totaling 1.8 million square feet of office, industrial, flex and laboratory space. The company’s Boston acquisitions include the four-building Boston Metro Industrial, a 900,000-square-foot development in Boston that is 95 percent leased, and Blackstone Science Square, a 99 percent-leased, 76,038-square-foot office and laboratory property in Cambridge.
NEW YORK CITY — Taconic Investment Partners, in partnership with TH Real Estate and Squire Investment LLC, has acquired a commercial building located at 817 Broadway in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The partnership acquired the 14-story, 140,000-square-foot property in an off-market transaction for $109 million. Built in 1900, the property was designed by George B. Post. Mesa West Capital provided the mortgage financing for the acquisition and redevelopment of the property. The partnership plans to reposition the building into a Class A institutional property.
HOUSTON — Thor Equities has topped off the 13-story office tower at Kirby Collection, a 1 million-square-foot mixed-use development located in Houston’s Upper Kirby district. The project’s 210,000-square-foot, Class A office building will feature two levels of retail space totaling 65,000 square feet. The development will also feature a 25-story, 385,000-square-foot residential tower with 199 apartments, including seven two-story townhomes and seven two-story loft spaces featuring private yards. E.E. Reed Construction is the general contractor for Kirby Collection, which is slated for completion in 2017. Richard Keating Architecture is the design architect, Dianna Wong Architecture + Design is the interior designer and Houston-based Kirksey is the architect of record. Walter P Moore is the structural engineer, and Houston-based WYLIE is the MEP engineer.
SAN ANTONIO — MetroGroup Realty Finance has arranged $29.9 million in financing for Parkway Plaza, an 89,388-square-foot office and flex building located in San Antonio. The loan included additional advances for tenant improvements and leasing commissions. Scott Botsford of MetroGroup Realty Finance secured the financing on behalf of the borrower, Dornin Investment Group.
HALTOM CITY AND CARROLLTON, TEXAS — Stream Realty Partners has negotiated two office property sales in Texas. In the first deal, Animal Intrusion Systems Holdings Co. sold a 7,687-square-foot office property located at 3330 N. Beach St. in Haltom City to CFH Transportation Services for an undisclosed price. Luke Davis and Mackenzie Ford of Stream Realty Partners represented the seller. In the second transaction, H&A Brothers purchased a 58,989-square-foot building located at 1501 Luna Road in Carrollton from Nu Vista Series 1D LLC. Ryan Boozer of Stream Realty Partners represented the buyer, while Lee & Associates LP represented the seller in the deal.
IRVING, GARLAND AND RICHARDSON, TEXAS — NAI Robert Lynn has arranged three leases totaling 244,539 square feet of industrial and office space in Texas. In the first deal, Sonoco Products leased 155,068 square feet of industrial space at the 248,000-square-foot Towne Lake Business Center at 5111 Frye Road in Irving. Rick Medinis of NAI Robert Lynn represented the landlord, Cabot Properties, while Buddy Turner and Chip Watson of Avison Young represented the tenant. In the second deal, True Velocity Inc. inked a lease for 66,270 square feet of office/warehouse space at 1036 Nicholson Road in Garland. Stephen Cooper and John Leinbaugh of NAI Robert Lynn represented the landlord, while Charles Lester of Lester RE Advisers represented the tenant. In the third transaction, Safeguard Properties leased 23,201 square feet of office space at 2400 Lakeside Blvd. in Richardson. Kent Smith of NAI Robert Lynn represented the tenant in the transaction. The name of the landlord was not released.
PLYMOUTH AND MINNETONKA, MINN. — CBRE Capital Markets has arranged the sale of Carlson Business Center I-VIII in Plymouth and Minnetonka for $46.2 million. The portfolio includes 560,378 square feet of office and warehouse space within eight buildings. The complex is part of the 250-acre Carlson Center business park. The buildings were originally constructed from 1995 to 1997 and the portfolio was 86 percent occupied at the time of sale. WPT Industrial REIT was the buyer. Ryan Watts, Judd Welliver, Sonja Dusil and Tom Holtz of CBRE Minneapolis arranged the sale on behalf of the seller, Carlson Real Estate Co.
SEATTLE — A joint venture between Tristar Capital and RFR Holding has purchased Amazon Phase VII, a 12-story office building with ground-floor retail in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, for $244 million. The building is located at 400 Ninth Ave. N. Amazon Phase VII features 313,000 square feet of office space fully leased to Amazon, 5,700 square feet of ground-floor retail space fully leased to Sam’s Tavern and a four-level subterranean garage. The development also includes a public plaza and a landscaped rooftop terrace with sweeping views of the city. “Nebulous,” a public art installation by local artist Dan Corson, is suspended above the public plaza. The building was completed in 2015 and is LEED-Gold certified. NBBJ designed the project, which Turner Construction built. The Washington State Chapter of NAIOP honored the building’s seller, Vulcan Real Estate, with the 2015 Office Development of the Year award for its 1 million-square-foot expansion of Amazon’s South Lake Union headquarters. This expansion included Amazon Phase VI, Phase VII and VIII. Kevin Shannon, Ken White, Michael Moll and David Milestone of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, along with CBRE’s Tom Pehl, Lou Senini and Owen Rice, negotiated the transaction. “Core, best-in-class office product in …
Rochester’s story is similar to those of other cities with once prominent downtowns. Starting in the 1970s, businesses and families largely fled to the suburbs as newer and nicer suburban offices were built. Larger companies, including many staple downtown dwellers such as large law and accounting firms, left the downtown in search of free parking, shorter commutes and a suburban lifestyle for their employees. Yet Rochester was a small city with big businesses. Bausch & Lomb was founded in Rochester in 1853. Eastman Kodak started business there in 1888 and beginning in 1906, Xerox Corporation was formed. Kodak is still based in Rochester, though it is a much smaller entity than it was before the digital era, and Xerox moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, years ago. However, the core technology culture never left Rochester. Over the past few years the University of Rochester — the area’s largest employer — received more than $1.9 billion in research money, most of it from the federal government. Organizations like High Tech Rochester, Greater Rochester Enterprise and the Rochester Downtown Innovation Zone have played important roles in the region’s comeback. In 2015, the Rochester region won a nationwide competition and was named the site for …
HOUSTON — Boyd Commercial/CORFAC International has arranged a lease for office space at 12 Greenway Plaza in Houston. Comcast of Houston LLC will occupy 18,133 square feet within the 15-story, 254,920-square-foot building. David Boyd of Boyd Commercial/CORFAC represented the tenant, while Warren Savery of Cousins Properties represented the landlord internally in the transaction.