WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) and National Apartment Association (NAA) have praised the Biden administration on the release of the Housing Supply Action Plan, which aims to alleviate the housing affordability crisis and lower costs for renters. Under the plan, the administration outlined new measures that would produce more housing supply, including more affordable housing units, over the course of the next five years. The plan includes several concepts previously proposed in the Build Back Better bill that passed in the House but stalled in the Senate. Though the NMHC and NAA have acknowledged that there is no “single magic bullet” that can solve the nation’s housing shortage, they underlined that the current crisis is the result of decades of policy failures to address the growing shortage of housing production. In their reaction, both associations point to research conducted by Hoyt Advisory Services that found that the U.S. will need to build an average of 328,000 apartments every year through 2030 to keep up with national demand. That mark has only been achieved five times since 1989. The NMHC and NAA states they are particularly encouraged by specific aspects of the proposed policy. The NAA recently …
By Taylor Williams As the pandemic recedes from the minds and wallets of American consumers, the food and beverage (F&B) industry finds itself embroiled in a host of new financial problems, driven this time by pure economics rather than public health. Inflation and supply chain disruption are working both in tandem and within independent channels to bring new hardships to the sector, mainly in the form of elevated costs and delayed timelines for operating and expanding restaurants of all types. At the same time, F&B owners and operators finds themselves awash with pent-up demand to dine out, drink, socialize and enjoy entertainment attractions and activities. Meanwhile, across the Northeast, quality F&B spaces that went dark during the first 18 months of the pandemic have largely been reabsorbed. That confluence of circumstances encapsulates major incentives and opportunities for landlords to raise rents. Add in the fact that these property owners have in many cases been operating on deferred, reduced or restructured rent payment schedules for much or all of the last two years, and the move to push F&B rents is even more justifiable. For owners of traditional retail product — from power centers to neighborhood strip malls to single-tenant, net-leased …
ARLINGTON, VA. — Cortland, an Atlanta-based multifamily investment firm, has purchased four apartment communities in Arlington totaling more than 1,500 units. The $1 billion investment marks the firm’s re-entry into the Washington, D.C., metro area, and the firm says it plans to “double its investment in the area” in the near future. “Northern Virginia is a highly coveted location that is already seeing a rebound in growth as residents move back to the urban core,” says Mike Altman, chief investment officer at Cortland. “This is just the start of Cortland’s investment in the region.” The portfolio includes Aubrey, a 331-unit apartment community that will be rebranded as Cortland Rosslyn, and Aura Pentagon City, a 534-unit apartment community to be renamed Cortland Pentagon City. The other two Arlington communities are undisclosed as those sales have yet to close, though the firm says they will be announced soon. “The combination of these investments allows us to gain a strong foothold in the region at a strategic time based on our proprietary analysis of market trends,” says Altman. Cortland Rosslyn is a LEED Gold-certified community that was developed in 2021 by Penzance. The 23-story community offers studios to three-bedroom homes, as well as …
BROWNSVILLE AND MCALLEN, TEXAS — A partnership between San Antonio-based Bakke Development Corp. and Atlanta-based Batson-Cook Development Co. is underway on construction of two self-storage facilities totaling 1,562 units in South Texas. Both the Brownsville and McAllen facilities will comprise 781 units across approximately 87,000 net rentable square feet of climate-controlled space. Alamo Architects Inc. is the architect for both facilities, and Independent Contractors Inc. is the general contractor. Both facilities are expected to be complete by the middle of next year.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — General contractor McCarthy Building Cos. has topped out the new 365,000-square-foot Texas Children’s Hospital in Austin, construction of which began last summer. The 52-bed facility will provide a range of services for women and children, including neonatal intensive care, pediatric intensive care, postpartum care, diagnostic imaging, acute care and urgent care. The hospital will also have an adjacent, 170,000-square-foot outpatient building that will house specialty care providers and a 1,200-space parking garage. Full completion is slated for 2024.
PLANO, TEXAS — J.C. Penney has signed a 318,067-square-foot office headquarters lease at CalWest, a 1.8 million-square-foot office building located within Legacy West in Plano. The 86-acre campus offers a full-service fitness club, conference center, daycare facility and a food court/dining hall. According to The Dallas Morning News, the campus served as J.C. Penney’s headquarters from 1992 until 2020, at which point the company vacated the premises while dealing with bankruptcy proceedings. The retailer expects to take occupancy of its new space this fall. Michael Brigance and Teddy Childers represented the landlord, Capital Commercial Investments, in the lease negotiations on an internal basis.
TEMPLE, TEXAS — Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. (MMCC) has arranged $18.4 million in joint venture equity and acquisition financing for a 53-bed healthcare facility located in the Central Texas city of Temple. Kevan McCormack of MMCC arranged the debt portion of the financing through an undisclosed community bank on behalf of the undisclosed borrower, which intends to use a portion of the proceeds to convert the building into a long-term acute care hospital. California-based KPC Health will operate the facility upon completion of this project.
LONGVIEW, TEXAS — Fort Worth-based developer The Woodmont Co. has broken ground on a 1,400-square-foot retail project for Starbucks in Longview, located about 120 miles east of Dallas. The new coffee shop will be situated at the site of a former gas station and will be devoid of any indoor dining space. Shell construction of the building is scheduled to be complete in June.
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Build-to-Rent Planning and Entitlements: How to Avoid Challenges
The build-to-rent (BTR) property type has gained significant traction in the commercial real estate market due to increasing interest from tenants, investors and developers. Developers moving into the BTR market before 2020 originally focused on this sector as an “in between” product for future home buyers who weren’t ready to commit to a single location but wanted additional space and amenities. The pandemic fueled tenants’ desires for more privacy and space without the long-term commitment of homeownership, which ignited growth in the sector. As costs for single-family homes continue to rise, the BTR niche also increasingly attracts would-be homeowners who are priced out of the homebuying market — and the growing demand for BTR properties draws the attention of more and more investors and developers. But not all stakeholders are immediately on board with development of BTR properties. The concept is rather new in some markets and local communities have questions about the zoning and operation of these hybrid communities, which are an intriguing mix of single-family concept and multifamily operations. Developers often need to educate municipalities about the BTR concept — and they need to plan BTR properties that work for the local community. This is where Bohler — a land …
DREXEL HILL, PA. — JLL has arranged a $43 million loan for Drexeline Town Center, an office and retail redevelopment project located on the western outskirts of Philadelphia. The 18.5-acre site currently houses five retail and office buildings that were originally constructed between the early 1950s and 2000s. The borrower, a partnership between Baltimore-based MCB Real Estate and New Jersey-based Hampshire Cos., plans to redevelop the center into a mixed-use destination. Initial plans call for a 172-unit apartment complex, a 120,000-square-foot self-storage facility, a 72,000-square-foot ShopRite grocery store, a PNC bank branch, a Wawa convenience store and fuel station and 20,440 square feet of pad and inline retail space. Jon Mikula, Michael Klein and Michael Lachs of JLL placed the loan through Investors Bank, a division of Citizens Bank.