HAMMOND, IND. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of the Alpha Storage facility in Hammond for an undisclosed price. The multi-story self-storage property, located at 252 Wildwood Road, spans 68,277 rentable square feet and features 595 units along with parking for recreational vehicles and boats. Jeffrey Herrmann and Sean Delaney of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, a local limited liability company. The duo also secured and represented the buyer, a Chicago-based limited liability company.
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NAPERVILLE, ILL. — DeJames Builders has broken ground on a 15,000-square-foot office for real estate services company Baird & Warner in Naperville. The office, located at 1528 Aurora Ave., is designed to house up to 500 Baird & Warner agents when it opens in 2023. The new office will accommodate all three of Baird & Warner’s business lines — brokerage, mortgage lending and title insurance — under one roof. The project team includes developer RX Health & Science Trust and architect OKW Architects. Baird & Warner’s current Naperville office is located at 836 W. 75th St. The firm maintains several offices throughout Chicagoland.
LENEXA, KAN. — Vytelle is relocating its headquarters from Oregon to The District at Lenexa City Center in Kansas. Lenexa is about 15 southwest of Kansas City. The livestock company helps cattle producers optimize their herds worldwide. Vytelle chose Kansas for its new headquarters due to the central location within the United States and proximity to a large and growing community of animal health and agriculture technology companies in the region. Vytelle will occupy 2,477 square feet on the second floor of the Penn II building at 8789 Penrose Lane. Ellen Fisher of AREA Real Estate Advisors represented the tenant. Ryan Biery of Copaken Brooks represented the landlord on an internal basis. When fully developed, Lenexa City Center will consist of more than 2 million square feet, including civic components for the City of Lenexa, nearly 1 million square feet of office and retail space, and 375 apartment units.
DURHAM, N.C. — Ziegler has arranged $95.6 million in bond financing for The Forest at Duke, a continuing care retirement community in Durham. The seniors housing community sits on 47 acres just south of Duke University. First opened to residents in 1992, the property serves over 360 residents across 154 apartments, 81 cottages (235 total independent living units), 32 assisted living units and 58 licensed skilled nursing beds. To address the changing needs of existing and future residents, the owner adopted a strategic plan that included two phases. Phase I, for which Ziegler arranged public, fixed-rate bonds in 2021, included a 90-unit health and wellness center that replaced the existing health center on campus. With Phase I nearing completion, the ownership is working on Phase II, which includes a 71 independent living unit apartment building. This new building will be located on the area of the campus where the original health center was located as that building is being demolished once the residents move into the new health and wellness center. At the time of closing, over 95 percent of the new independent living units were preleased.
ELLABELL, GA. — CRG has signed a subsidiary of Rooms To Go to a full-building lease at The Cubes at Interstate Centre II, CRG’s 300-acre development within the broader Interstate Centre industrial park in metro Savannah’s Bryan County. The Orlando- based furniture retailer will fully occupy the 465,250-square-foot Building E, which CRG completed on a speculative basis in October. Jason Ovadia of JLL represented Rooms To Go in the transaction, while Chris Tomasulo, Ryan Hoyt and Bennett Rudder, also with JLL, represented CRG. Located at 1393 Interstate Blvd. in Ellabell, the warehouse is situated 30 miles west of the Port of Savannah and within two miles of I-16. Building E features 36-foot clear heights, 80 dock doors, four drive-in doors, an ESFR sprinkler system and ample parking for vehicles and trailers. CRG’s parent company, Clayco, served as the builder for the project, and Clayco subsidiary Lamar Johnson Collaborative was the architect. The project was developed through CRG’s GP Fund I, which participated as the general partner. Inclenberg Investments was CRG’s limited partner.
Ventures, BCDC Break Ground on Southerly at Shipyards Apartments in St. Augustine, Florida
by John Nelson
ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA. — A joint venture between Ventures Development and BCDC has broken ground on The Southerly at Shipyards, a 270-unit apartment community in St. Augustine, about 42 miles south of Jacksonville. The project will overlook the San Sebastian River and downtown St. Augustine and will serve as the multifamily component of a larger master-planned development that features single-family homes, a hotel, shops, offices and a restaurant. Planned amenities at The Southerly include a sky lounge, pool, hot tub, outdoor kitchen with a firepit and pizza oven, 24-hour fitness center and a coworking lounge. Other amenities will include a club room, package room, pet park and dog washing station and a structured parking garage accompanied by street-level parking spaces. The design-build team includes architect JHP Architecture & Urban Design and general contractor ARCO Murray. Ameris Bank provided an undisclosed amount of construction financing for the project. The Southerly represents the sixth joint venture project between Ventures and BCDC. The co-developers expect to deliver the first units in the second quarter of 2024.
FAIRFAX, VA. — The Milestone Group, a multifamily investment firm with offices in Dallas, Atlanta and Boca Raton, Fla., has purchased a three-property multifamily portfolio totaling 870 units in Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County. The value-add portfolio includes The Ellipse at Fairfax Corner in Fairfax (404 units), Windsor at Fair Lakes in Chantilly (250 units) and The Townes at Herndon Center in Herndon (216 units). Milestone Group acquired the portfolio via its discretionary value-add fund, Milestone Real Estate Investors V LP, in an off-market transaction through a loan assumption, which Milestone Group said saved $20 million in prepayment costs. The sellers, Hampshire Properties and Rose Valley Capital, sold the portfolio for an undisclosed price. Melnick Real Estate Advisors brokered the transaction. Milestone Group plans to make amenity enhancements and luxury upgrades to the unit interiors across the three assets.
RALEIGH, N.C. — A partnership between Chartwell Property Group and Jefferson River Capital has begun the redevelopment of the former Martin Marietta corporate headquarters located at 2700 and 2710 Wycliff Road in Raleigh. The project, named The Grove, will feature two office buildings spanning 152,000 square feet of office space and 16,000 square feet of amenity space, including a self-serve café and bar, library, lounge, golf simulator, indoor and outdoor conference rooms and outdoor workspaces. The project will also include a high-end gym and spa that features an indoor pickleball court, Peloton bikes, sauna and a locker room. Chartwell and Jefferson River Capital have tapped John Brewer and Ed Pulliam of CBRE|Raleigh to lease The Grove, which is set for an early 2023 completion.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Samsung has signed a 670,941-square-foot industrial lease in South Fort Worth. The Korean tech and electronics giant will occupy Building 1 at Fort Worth Logistics Hub, a 1.3 million-square-foot development by VanTrust Real Estate. Designed by Alliance Architects and built by Bob Moore Construction, the building was completed in the first quarter of this year. Construction on the second phase of Fort Worth Logistics Hub is underway, with a 607,074-square-foot building set to be delivered in the first quarter of 2023. Mark Becker of Cushman & Wakefield represented Samsung in the lease negotiations. Scott Moore of CBRE, along with Nathan Lawrence and Krista Raymond of KBC Advisors, represented VanTrust.
Interest Rate Volatility Will Slow Multifamily Investment Activity in 2023, Says InterFace Panel
by John Nelson
ATLANTA — A lot can happen in a year. This time a year ago, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 1.489 percent, the federal funds rate was at a range of 0 to 0.25 percent and SOFR was at 0.05 percent. As of this writing, those three benchmark interest rates are at 3.527 percent, 3.75 to 4 percent and 3.82 percent, respectively — none of which are within 200 basis points from a year ago. Debt capital has become decisively more expensive, and officials at the Federal Reserve are signaling that more rate hikes are coming. For the U.S. multifamily sector, the result is that investors are increasingly becoming “pencils down” until interest rates find their footing. “We haven’t had much [investment] sales volume, as you can imagine, in the third or fourth quarter,” said Bennett Sands, managing development director at Wood Partners, an Atlanta-based apartment developer. “Looking ahead, our sales volume in 2023 will be down 50 percent [from 2022], if we’re lucky.” “It has been pretty quiet the past few months, and we expect that to continue for the next few months as well,” added Andrew Zelman, vice president of acquisitions at GID, a multifamily and mixed-use developer …