SALISBURY, N.C. — NorthPoint Development has purchased around 40 acres in Salisbury, about 36.5 miles north of Charlotte. NorthPoint bought the land in order to build I-85 Commerce Center, a speculative industrial project that will total 676,000 square feet. The seller and sales price were not disclosed. I-85 Commerce Center will feature 40-foot ceilings, 185-foot truck courts, auto and trailer parking, as well as immediate access to Interstate 85. The project is slated for completion by summer 2022. Avison Young will be in charge of leasing once the property is finished.
ATLANTA — KBS, on behalf of PRIME US REIT, has signed a four-floor lease extension with business law firm Arnall Golden Gregory LLP for headquarters office space in Atlanta. The 510,268-square-foot, Class A office building is situated at 171 17th St. within Atlantic Station, a mixed-use village in Atlanta’s West Midtown district. Built in 2004, the office property is a 21-story building that includes an onsite café, EV car-charging stations, onsite carwash/detail, conference center and shuttle service, valet and outdoor tenant patio amenity space. KBS recently completed several improvements to 171 17th Street, including transforming the café, changing the patio into an outdoor tenant lounge and completing an upgrade to the conference room. The property is also the first LEED Silver Core & Shell-certified building constructed in the world, according to KBS. The property is part of Singapore-based PRIME US REIT’s portfolio. Newport Beach, Calif.-based KBS serves as the U.S.-based asset manager for the portfolio. Glenn Kolker and Sonia Winfield of Cushman & Wakefield represented KBS in the lease transaction. Greg Katz and Taylor Senter of Newmark represented the tenant.
Uptick in August Retail Sales Bodes Well for Consumer Spending in Fourth Quarter, Says NRF Economist
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. retail sales increased in August as consumer demand outweighed the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions and other factors that affected spending. Even though there was a decrease in car sales due to shipping problems and product shortages, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that the sales for retailers and restaurants increased by 0.7 percent in August. The chief economist for the National Retail Federation (NRF), Jack Kleinhenz, says consumers continued to heavily shop last month despite a “trifecta of macroeconomic headwinds,” including the ending of federal government stimulus, a rise of COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant and supply chain problems. “Higher sales came even with a disjointed back-to-school season that also affected the timing of sales as many school districts returned to in-person learning but some delayed classes until after Labor Day. These results pave the way for sturdy consumer spending and a strong economy in the fourth quarter,” says Kleinhenz. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, overall retail sales in August were up 15.1 percent year-over-year. Even though some months, such as July 2021, have decreased or slowed its retail sales, the Census data shows that sales have overall grown year-over-year …
THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS — A joint venture led by Los Angeles-based investment firm Lowe has acquired three hotels in The Woodlands, located about 30 miles north of Houston, from The Howard Hughes Corp. (NYSE: HHC) for $252 million. The properties include The Woodlands Resort, a 402-room hotel that was built in 1972; Embassy Suites by Hilton, The Woodlands at Hughes Landing, a 205-room asset that was constructed in 2015; and The Westin at The Woodlands, a 302-room property that was completed in 2016. CoralTree Hospitality, a subsidiary of Lowe, will manage the hotels. In addition, the new ownership will invest approximately $25 million in capital improvements across all three properties.
HUTTO, TEXAS — JLL has negotiated the sale of Park 79 Self Storage, a 780-unit facility that is operated under the CubeSmart brand in Hutto, a northeastern suburb of Austin. The property was built on 3.2 acres in 2019. Brian Somoza and Steve Mellon of JLL represented the seller, a locally based entity doing business as Park 79 Storage LLC, in the transaction. The buyer was Wasatch Storage Partners.
ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Wegmans Food Markets Inc., a 106-store supermarket chain based in Rochester, N.Y., plans to open a new grocery store within Carlyle Crossing, a 1.7 million-square-foot mixed-use development underway in Alexandria. Located just off Eisenhower Ave. at 150 Stovall St., the store is scheduled to open in spring 2022. The store will employ approximately 450 people, with 150 full-time positions offered. The 81,300-square-foot Wegmans will include a Market Café, a bar and coffee shop, and The Burger Bar, a casual restaurant counter that serves burgers, sandwiches and fries. The site will have two levels of parking below, residential units above and is also located close to the Eisenhower Avenue Metro Station. Wegmans entered Virginia with its Dulles location in 2004. The new Carlyle-Alexandria location will be the company’s 14th store in the Commonwealth. Wegmans also plans to build a $175 million distribution facility on 221 acres in Hanover County, Va., in order to support Wegmans’ Mid-Atlantic stores.
WACO, TEXAS — MAG Capital Partners has acquired a 402,046-square-foot manufacturing and distribution property in Waco that has served as the headquarters of Hobbs Manufacturing since 1993. Hobbs Manufacturing, founded in 1953, employs about 200 people at the Waco plant, where it produces synthetic fiber batting and other fiberfill products for the apparel, home furnishings and industrial markets. Dax T. S. Mitchell and Andrew Gi of MAG Capital Partners negotiated the transaction directly with the seller. The sales price was not disclosed.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Knighthead Funding has provided a $59.5 million construction loan for a mixed-use project that will be located about three miles from downtown Austin. The project will comprise 200 multifamily units, 22,318 square feet of office space and 4,884 square feet of retail space. The residential component will consist of 170 market-rate units and 30 affordable housing units. The borrower was a partnership between Austin-based Pearlstone Partners and New York City-based ATCO Properties. A tentative completion date was not released.
ADDISON, TEXAS — General contractor The Beck Group has completed the redevelopment of Prestonwood Place, a 133,353-square-foot shopping center located in the northern Dallas suburb of Addison. Northwood Retail owns the center, which was originally built in 1980 and now houses tenants such as Catapult Health, Mendocino Farms, Biscuit Bar and La La Land Kind Café. The project involved renovation work for 40,000 square feet of façade updates and the conversion of existing retail space into 60,000 square feet of creative office space. The development also transformed a vacant manufacturing shop into a multi-tenant building. Merriman Anderson Architects served as the project architect.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Newmark has brokered the $180 million sale of Cambridge Highlands, a 228,592-square-foot office and R&D campus located on a 9.7-acre site in the greater Boston area. The four-building campus serves as the headquarters of Raytheon BBN Technologies, a division of global aerospace and defense giant Raytheon. Robert Griffin, Edward Maher, Matthew Pullen, Michael Byrne, Samantha Hallowell and Thomas Greeley of Newmark represented the seller, New York-based Clarion Partners, in the transaction. The team also procured the undisclosed buyer.