NEW YORK CITY — A partnership between two locally based investment firms, RFR and Waterfall Asset Management, has acquired a 33,000-square-foot retail condo located at 2139–2159 Broadway in Manhattan. The space comprises seven suites, several of which are currently vacant, and is situated within The Astor residential building on the Upper West Side. The seller and sales price were not disclosed.
SCHAUMBURG, ILL. — The Finger Cos. has opened The Quin, a luxury apartment complex rising four stories with 373 units in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg. Located at 2450 Plum Grove Road, the property offers floor plans ranging from 691 to 1,394 square feet. All floor plans include private balconies, with some offering dens for home offices or storage. Monthly rents start at $1,950. Amenities include resident lounges, a golf simulator room, fitness center, business center, pet grooming room, package room, landscaped green space and two outdoor pools.
KANSAS CITY, MO. — Architecture and design firm Hoefer Welker is relocating its corporate headquarters to 46 Penn Centre within the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. The firm expects to take occupancy of its self-designed, 26,229-square-foot office on the 14th floor in June. Hoefer Welker also served as architect for 46 Penn Centre, which was completed in 2020. Hoefer Welker’s new office will include a living room, kitchen, two cafes, a terrace, design lab and multiple collaborative areas and conferencing spaces. The design firm spent the past 13 years at its current Leawood, Kan., headquarters. Prior to that, Hoefer Welker maintained an office at Country Club Plaza. Block Real Estate Services owns 46 Penn Centre, which rises 15 stories.
ST. LOUIS — CBL & Associates Properties Inc. has unveiled the names of the retailers opening this spring and summer at West County Center in St. Louis. ALDO, a men’s and women’s footwear company with a French fashion perspective, will open on the first level near Nordstrom in April. The Back Store, which sells mattresses, pillows and accessories, will also open on the first floor in April. Da Picky Vegan, which offers a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan menu items, will open in the food court on the second level in April. Outdoor retailer Gearhead Outfitters will open on the first floor between Nordstrom and Macy’s this summer. Golden Gems, a lifestyle brand that designs and sells accessories, apparel, stationery goods and home décor, will open near Macy’s in April. Love Sac, which opened last year in the common area on level two, is opening a new store on the first floor near Nordstrom this summer. Offline by aerie, which sells activewear, will open near Nordstrom this summer.
REPUBLIC, MO. — Northmarq has brokered the $10.1 million sale of Pinewood Park and Spring Hills in Republic, about 13 miles southwest of Springfield. The 133-unit multifamily property is located at 1600 Windmill Way. Built in 2002, the garden-style community features floor plans that range from 758 to 1,130 square feet. Amenities include a pool, sundeck, package service and laundry facilities. Dominic Martinez, Parker Stewart, Alex Malzone and Anthony Martinez of Northmarq represented the seller, a regional investor. A Midwest-based private investor was the buyer.
OCONOMOWOC, WIS. — The Milwaukee office of Kraus-Anderson will build a new VA healthcare clinic at Olympia Fields in Oconomowoc. Designed by Plunkett Raysich Architects, the 9,000-square-foot clinic will be leased by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The facility will feature reception and waiting areas, exam rooms, women’s health exam areas, mental health services, consultation rooms, telehealth services and a conference room. Wangard Partners, a Milwaukee-based real estate investment firm, is the developer and manager. Wangard is the developer behind Olympia Fields, a mixed-use project that includes The Locklyn apartment community and a Sendiks Food Market. The site will also feature a hotel, medical offices, commercial space and a recreational bike trail. Construction on the VA clinic is expected to begin in May and be completed in December.
PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS — Sempra Infrastructure Partners, a subsidiary of energy infrastructure firm Sempra (NYSE: SRE), has released plans for Phase I of Port Arthur LNG, a $13 billion natural gas liquefaction and export terminal in Port Arthur. Phase I of the project will include two liquefaction trains capable of producing up to 13.5 million metric tons per annum (MTPA) of liquefied natural gas (LNG); up to three LNG storage tanks; marine facilities, including two marine berths for LNG vessel berthing and loading; natural gas liquids and refrigerant storage; feed gas pre-treatment and truck loading areas; and combustion turbine generators for on-site generation of electrical power. A three-mile portion of State Highway 87 between the Intracoastal Waterway and Keith Lake Pass will also be relocated to accommodate the development of Phase I, which is located along the Sabine-Neches ship channel, offering direct access to the Gulf of Mexico. Sempra has closed a joint venture with an affiliate of ConocoPhillips for Phase I of the project, which has been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The firm has also agreed to sell an indirect, non-controlling interest in the development to an infrastructure fund managed by KKR, and has closed …
By Mark Kolar, Cresa There’s been a lot of news recently about the financial pressures facing suburban Chicago commercial office landlords who have financed their office buildings via commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans. While the financial challenges these buildings face continue to grab the headlines, there is a much less visible yet greater amount of privately funded commercial office landlords that could be facing dire financial changes over the next couple of years. These privately funded loans that originated through major banks and insurance companies are seeing just as much, if not more, stress than their CMBS counterparts. Collectively we’re seeing significant systemic issues for all Chicago commercial office landlords with no clear path to a solution in sight. In suburban Chicago, about 13 percent of commercial office loans are financed by CMBS loans with the majority of loan debt financed through local financial institutions, private investment funds and insurance companies. While details on these loans is not as readily available as their CMBS counterparts, many office landlords are confronting similar challenges. Both CMBS and privately funded commercial landlords and their lenders are facing a host of capital challenges that revolve around systemic changes in leasing activity, increasing costs of …
It’s little wonder that the fiber optic business is booming. American appetites for high-speed, high-volume Internet connectivity have skyrocketed in recent years, making fiber essential to provide Internet service across commercial property types. Employment for the linemen who build out and maintain those networks will grow 6 percent between 2021 and 2031, while telecommunications equipment installation jobs in general will expand to an even greater 8 percent, according to projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Factor in the ongoing exodus of skilled workers from all trades as more of the nation’s Baby Boomers enter retirement, and many broadband providers may struggle to fill job openings in the coming years. That’s one of the reasons Pavlov Media, a Champaign, Ill.-based Internet service provider, is partnering with a Texas university to put students on career paths in fiber technology. Its partner in this endeavor, Prairie View A&M University, was founded in 1876 and is the second oldest public institution of higher education in Texas and one of the earliest 1890 Land Grant Institutions. Because it is a historically black institution, the program will be helping to address a longstanding need for greater diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DEI) in the technology sector. …
BEAUMONT, TEXAS — ExxonMobil has begun the $2 billion expansion of its petrochemical refinery in the East Texas city of Beaumont. The initiative was launched in 2019 but subsequently paused and delayed due to COVID-19. The plant was originally built in 1903 along the banks of the Neches River and has grown to encompass more than 2,700 acres and include manufacturing and packaging operations that employ more than 2,000 people on a daily basis. The Beaumont refinery processes some 366,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and the company expects that the expansion will increase that figure by an additional 250,000 barrels per day.
