BRANFORD, CONN. — Colliers has brokered the sale of a 28,126-square-foot life sciences building located at 15 Commercial St. in the southern coastal Connecticut city of Branford. The sales price was $5 million. The building was built on 4.4 acres in 1979 and was fully leased to biotechnology firm Ancera Inc. at the time of sale. John Cafasso and Ian Hunt of Colliers represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. The buyer was also not disclosed.
NEW YORK CITY — Luxury health club operator TMPL Fitness will open a 26,000-square-foot venue at 200 Madison Avenue, an office building in Midtown Manhattan that is currently undergoing a renovation. The lease term is 15 years, and the opening is slated for later this year. Neil Seth, Kenji Ota, Kathryn Cruz and Jennifer Konefsky of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Peter Duncan, Matt Coudert and Andrew Conrad of George Comfort & Sons, which owns the building in partnership with Jamestown and Loeb Partners Realty, represented the landlord.
KANSAS CITY, MO. — Northmarq has arranged the sale of Timberlane Village in Kansas City for an undisclosed price. Built in 1987, the 456-unit multifamily community consists of 40 buildings across 27 acres. Units range from 704 to 1,253 square feet. Amenities include a pool, tennis court, fitness center, sauna, clubhouse, covered parking and green space. Gabe Tovar, Jeff Lamott, Parker Stewart and Dominic Martinez of Northmarq represented the seller, the property’s original developer. Daniel Stickane of Northmarq arranged acquisition financing on behalf of the buyer, Venterra Realty. The Fannie Mae loan features a fixed interest rate. The transaction marks the first time the property was on the market and the first acquisition for Venterra in the Kansas City market.
WEST DES MOINES, IOWA — ARTISAN Capital Group (ACG) and its partner Eastham Capital have acquired Cambridge Court Apartments in West Des Moines for an undisclosed price. Built in 1992, the 192-unit apartment complex features a clubhouse, fitness center, dog park and pools. ACG’s management vertical, ARTISAN Management Group, will oversee property operations. ACG plans to renovate apartment units beginning this spring. ACG assumed the current agency financing, which features an interest rate that is below current market rates. Chicago-based ACG maintains a regional office in Des Moines and a portfolio of nearly 6,000 apartment units in the Midwest. Parker Stewart and Anthony Martinez of Northmarq represented the seller, CRES Management.
MILWAUKEE — NewPoint Real Estate Capital has provided $20.6 million in construction financing for Michigan Street Commons, a 99-unit affordable housing community in Milwaukee. Kenosha-based Bear Real Estate Group is developing the project, which is slated for completion in spring 2024. Michigan Street Commons is being built on the western border of a larger redevelopment project spearheaded by Bear Real Estate Group and Kacmarcik Enterprises. Plans call for an 11-acre mixed-use sports and entertainment district, known as Iron District MKE, that will include a hotel, event space and a soccer stadium that will serve the USL Championship League and Marquette University. Michigan Street Commons will rise five stories on a development site that currently contains a parking lot. Of the total units, 30 percent will be reserved for residents who earn up to 50 percent of the area median income (AMI), 40 percent will be designated for those who earn up to 60 percent of AMI and the remaining 30 percent will be reserved for those who earn up to 70 percent of AMI. Amenities will include a community room, fitness center, storage units and underground parking. Cesar Diaz of NewPoint originated the loan, which was structured as NewPoint Impact …
CHICAGO — Masterpiece International has signed a 75,072-square-foot, full-building industrial lease at 2601 Lively Blvd. in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village. The international freight forwarder and logistics provider is combining three locations into one space. Jim Pietrarosso of Brown Commercial Group represented the tenant. Sam Durkin and Phil Reiff of JLL represented the landlord, ML Realty Partners.
BLOOMINGDALE, ILL. — Burlington has opened a 27,726-square-foot store at the Stratford Crossing shopping center in Bloomingdale. Owned by NewMark Merrill Cos. Inc., the retail property totals 361,074 square feet and is located at 142 S. Gary Ave. Anchor tenants include Mariano’s, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, PetSmart and Hobby Lobby. Burlington relocated from nearby Stratford Square. Joe Parrott, Sean McCourt and Riley McCarron of CBRE represented NewMark Merrill in the lease, while Bobby Melsher of Metro Commercial Real Estate represented Burlington.
WHITEHALL, OHIO — N.R. Investments has started construction of a three-phase, $300 million mixed-use project located at the corner of East Broad Street and North Hamilton Road in the Columbus suburb of Whitehall. The development will be named Rockwell District, according to reports by Columbus Business First. The 50-acre project, which is being developed in partnership with the Central Ohio Community Improvement Corp. and the City of Whitehall, is set to include 1,000 residential units, 250,000 square feet of Class A office space and 75,000 square feet of retail and restaurants upon completion. The residential portion of the property will offer a mix of for-sale and for-rent units, 20 percent of which will be dedicated workforce housing. The redevelopment will be fully integrated with the adjacent Whitehall Community Park, an 80-acre nature park with access to Big Walnut Creek, walking paths and sport fields. N.R. Investments is the master developer for the project. Duany Plater-Zyberk, M + A Architects, Ruscilli Construction Co., EMH&T and additional community partners collaborated with N.R. Investments on the site plan for the development. Phase I is scheduled for completion in 2025. The Ohio Department of Development awarded a $4.2 million grant to the City of …
Interview by Randall Shearin As shopping centers evolve to have more experiential tenants, many owners and operators are looking at design as one way to convey experience to visitors. Adding open-air elements — public gathering spaces, parks, murals —has become popular. Centers are also more open to blending uses than creating retail districts. To gain more insight on the efficacy of these practices and understand how they add value, Shopping Center Business recently interviewed Mitra Esfandiari, partner at Long Beach, California-based RDC, who has worked on a number of forward-thinking centers over the past decade. What follows are her edited responses: Shopping Center Business: How are center owners viewing design as an asset to their properties? Mitra Esfandiari: As architects, we are continuously looking to the future, examining lifestyle, local cultural heritage and demographic trends to be sure we are creating human-centric and authentic places to meet the needs of the community. This approach creates a roadmap that leads the design process for creating experiential and memorable environments that will draw visitors and further entice them to stay longer and repeat their visits. For the past decade, with the emergence of e-commerce and the recent disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer …
By Jennifer Hopkins, MBA and Olivia Czyzynski, SVN Chicago Commercial The commercial real estate (CRE) industry has traditionally been relatively stable but can be impacted by the economy with normal ups and downs based on economic fluctuations. However, when COVID-19 hit, it was unprecedented and something the world had not seen in many years. The CRE industry started preparing for the changes that came along, including business shutdowns and many employees working from home. Although it was expected that the retail market would be the hardest hit sector, it turned out that the office market ended up being significantly impacted. The overall issues and pending work-from-home approach have had a major ripple effect on office markets across the nation. The Chicagoland market was impacted particularly hard, and this included the suburban Chicago markets. Chicagoland is broken out into several main commercial hubs: the city of Chicago, the East-West Corridor, the O’Hare market, the Northwest suburbs and the North suburbs. According to CoStar, office vacancy rates increased in all these markets. In 2020, the vacancy rates ranged from 7 to 20 percent, but currently stand at 18.8 percent, 17.3 percent, 16.9 percent, 23.2 percent and 11 percent, respectively. While no market …