SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. — JLL has negotiated the $40 million sale of a 219,848-square-foot shopping center in South Plainfield, about 40 miles southwest of New York City. Golden Acres Shopping Center was 83 percent leased at the time of sale, with grocer ShopRite serving as the anchor. Other tenants include Shoppers World, Unique Thrift Store and Wendy’s. Jose Cruz, J.B. Bruno, Kevin O’Hearn, Michael Kavaler and Joseph Lopresti represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. The buyer was a joint venture between Agus Holdings and Treeco.
NEW YORK CITY — Pickleball concept CityPickle will open a 37,000-square-foot venue at 1501 Broadway in the Times Square area of Midtown Manhattan. The space will be located on the eighth floor of the 885,000-square-foot tower, which is known locally as the Paramount Building due to its original construction as the home of Paramount Pictures. The venue will feature seven courts, a bar and restaurant, lounge and event space and locker rooms. The space will also serve as CityPickle’s new corporate headquarters office. The opening is scheduled for the fall.
NEW YORK CITY — Apparel retailer GMA Accessories has signed a 23,698-square-foot office lease extension in Midtown Manhattan. The lease term is approximately 12 years, and the space spans the seventh and 10th floors at 389 Fifth Avenue, a 12-story building that was originally constructed in 1922. Max Koeppel of Koeppel Rosen LLC represented the landlord, the Rosen Family, in the lease negotiations on an internal basis. Michael Joseph of Colliers represented the tenant.
ST. LOUIS — McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. has completed the Midwestern Laboratory, an 84,000-square-foot project for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service in St. Louis. Hoefer Welker designed the single-story facility. Located near the University of Missouri – St. Louis campus, the project includes microbiology and chemistry labs, a processing center, large receiving area and adjacent sample prep laboratory, as well as administrative offices. The facility will coordinate and conduct laboratory services in support of the agency’s farm-to-table strategies for food safety in meat, poultry, fish and egg products. The lab will house approximately 60 employees across three branches — administration, chemistry and microbiology. In alignment with the General Services Administration’s (GSA) mission to procure space for federal agencies, GSA executed a 20-year lease with US Federal Properties for a total contract value of $115.5 million. Construction began in May 2023.
HILLIARD, OHIO — Milhaus and Harbor Group International (HGI) have opened Tempo Apartments at TruePointe in Hilliard, a suburb of Columbus. The 359-unit luxury apartment complex offers studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The development is situated near Bridge Park Dublin, Quarry Trails Metro Park and Tuttle Crossing Mall. TruePointe is Hilliard’s first entertainment hub and part of commercial real estate firm Equity’s master-planned mixed-use development. Monthly rents start at $1,544, according to the property’s website.
PLAINFIELD, ILL. — Pharmacy Automation Supplies has purchased 4.4 acres at Plainfield Business Center, Lot 6, for a new build-to-suit warehouse and office facility. The manufacturer and distributor of consumables to retail and healthcare organizations is relocating to Plainfield from a smaller space in Romeoville. The seller, Northern Builders, will construct a 30,000-square-foot building within the complex. Completion is slated for the end of the year. Terry Grapenthin and Ryan Earley of Lee & Associates of Illinois represented Pharmacy Automation Supplies in the transaction.
LIBERTYVILLE, ILL. — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the nearly $3 million sale of The Shops of Northwind, a 20,416-square-foot retail strip center in the Chicago suburb of Libertyville. The four-suite property at 1745 Northwind Blvd. is fully occupied. Brian Parmacek of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, EMPSAFE LLC. The asset sold at 95 percent of the list price.
ROYAL OAK, MICH. — Alloy Personal Training has signed a 1,500-square-foot retail lease at The Griffin, an apartment complex built in 2021 in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak. The property is located at the northeast corner of I-696 and Woodward Avenue. Owen Kelly and Michael Murphy of Gerdom Realty & Investment represented the landlord, Singh Development.
BOSTON — A joint venture led by locally based REIT Diversified Healthcare Trust (NASDAQ: DHC) has received $1 billion for the refinancing of the Vertex Pharmaceuticals headquarters facility in Boston. A consortium of lenders — Morgan Stanley Bank, Bank of Montreal, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan — provided the financing, which was structured with a five-year term and a fixed interest rate. Local investment firm RMR Group, which provides asset and property management services for the joint venture, arranged the debt. The majority of the proceeds will be used to retire $620 million in fixed-rate debt on the property, as well as to fund leasing reserves and repatriate cash to investors. Located at 50 Northern Ave. and 11 Fan Pier Blvd. in Boston’s Seaport District, the two-building facility spans approximately 1.1 million square feet. Both buildings were constructed in 2013. Vertex, which produces medicines and therapies for genetic disorders including cystic fibrosis, renewed its lease in August 2024 and will remain the property’s sole occupant through 2044. The joint venture ownership group includes multiple institutional investment groups that were not named in the announcement. Diversified Healthcare’s stake in the property is 10 percent; the company previously sold a 10 percent …
You can be a best-in-class operator with the coolest concept on the block, or you can be a well-capitalized landlord who knows all the right people, but if rapid, sustainable growth in the Boston retail market is what you seek, you might be SOL. According to local brokers, the high-demand, low-supply dynamic that currently exists in most major U.S. retail markets does not fully encapsulate the difficulties that tenants and landlords alike face in growing their footprints in the greater Boston area. As to why growing store counts or portfolios is so challenging in this market, the answer varies depending on who you ask. But a collective recap of all wide-ranging barriers to entry and disruptive forces at play paints a picture of a market that is borderline impenetrable for many tenants and perpetually stagnating for many landlords. “Boston remains an incredibly high-barrier-to-entry market,” says Zach Nitsche, director of retail capital markets in JLL’s Boston office. “A statistic we like to share with clients and industry people that haven’t historically invested in Boston and New England is that less than 5 percent of our total retail product has been constructed after the Global Financial Crisis. So far this year, the …