HOUSTON — Berkadia has arranged a $16.1 million loan for the refinancing of a 48,440-square-foot life sciences facility in Houston. The property at 4551 Kennedy Commerce Drive is located on the city’s north side and was fully leased at the time of the loan closing to CellReady, a provider of gene therapy solutions. Sabrina Solomiany, Patrick Abeln and Mike Cerny of Berkadia arranged the five-year loan, which carried a 6.7 percent fixed interest rate and a 30-year amortization schedule, on behalf of the borrower, Houston-based DC Partners. The direct lender was not disclosed.
LAREDO, TEXAS — Atlanta-based investment firm MDH Partners has acquired a 70,000-square-foot industrial building in the Rio Grande Valley city of Laredo. Completed in 2023, the building is located within North Laredo Industrial Park and features 27-foot clear heights, 35 overhead doors, 3,500 square feet of office space and parking for 50 cars and 73 trailers. Alfonso Jasso with Forum CRE represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. The building was fully leased at the time of sale.
HOUSTON — D&R Signs has inked a 44,978-square-foot industrial lease in Houston. The space is located within Constellation Post Oak, a two-building, 424,011-square-foot development in the Uptown area that features 32- to 36-foot clear heights. Zack Taylor and Barkley Peschel of Colliers represented the landlord, a partnership between Constellation Real Estate Partners and an affiliate of Crow Holdings Capital, in the lease negotiations. Heath Donica of Stream Realty Partners represented the tenant.
GARLAND, TEXAS — Illinois-based Industrial Outdoor Ventures (IOV) has purchased a 2.2-acre industrial outdoor storage (IOS) facility in Garland, a northeastern suburb of Dallas. The property at 2130 Hightower Drive houses a 7,368-square-foot building with eight drive-in doors. Caleb McCoy and Paul Davis of JLL represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction and are marketing the facility for lease.
WESTWOOD AND RIVER VALE, N.J. — JLL has brokered the $80 million sale of a portfolio of four multifamily properties totaling 276 units in Northern New Jersey. The properties are collectively known as the Westwood Multihousing Portfolio by virtue of three assets — Coventry Square, Stanford Court and The Madison Apartments — being located in Westwood. The fourth property, Village on the Green, is located in the adjacent town of River Vale. All properties were built between 1979 and 1987 and offer one- and two-bedroom units and amenities such as pools, fitness centers and dog parks. Jose Cruz, Mike Oliver, Steve Simonelli, Elizabeth DeVesty and Austin Pierce of JLL represented the seller, Kushner Cos., in the transaction. The buyer was not disclosed. The portfolio had an occupancy rate of 96 percent at the time of sale.
SEATTLE — Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing platform of the Seattle-based e-commerce giant, has announced plans to invest $11 billion in the state of Georgia. This comes a couple weeks after AWS announced a similar $10 billion investment in Ohio. The move will expand the infrastructural capabilities of AWS in Georgia and support the company’s cloud computing and generative AI technologies. Details of the planned investment in Georgia, including construction timelines for any new data centers, were not disclosed, though AWS says the investments would be concentrated in Douglas and Butts counties. AWS expects to create at least 550 new high-skilled jobs with this investment, including for technical roles such as data center engineers, network specialists, engineering operations managers and security specialists, as well as indirect jobs such as construction and those in the data center supply chain. Since 2010, Amazon has invested $18.5 billion in Georgia and contributed $20.1 billion to the state’s gross domestic product. The parent company supports 34,000 full- and part-time jobs in the Peach State, including at Amazon MGM Studios where the film studio regularly shoots movies and TV shows.
BRENTWOOD, TENN. — Brookdale Senior Living has obtained a $344.2 million Fannie Mae loan for the refinancing of a 47-property seniors housing portfolio. Allison Holland and Alex Sheaffer of JLL originated the seven-year, fixed-rate loan on behalf of the Brentwood-based borrower that will repay $312.5 million of variable-rate debt that was due September 2027. The portfolio comprises 5,102 independent living, assisted living and memory care units across 14 states, with properties ranging from 32 to more than 300 units.
RICHMOND, VA. — Berkadia has brokered the sale of The River Lofts at Tobacco Row, a five-property apartment portfolio off Carey Street in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom neighborhood. The communities include Cameron Kinney (259 units), American Cigar Lofts (174 units), Consolidated Carolina Lofts (166 units), Lucky Strike Lofts (131 units) and Cutters Ridge Townhomes (12 units). Four of the five properties were converted from historic tobacco facilities between 1991 and 2008. The buyer, Boston-based West Shore, purchased the portfolio. Drew White, Carter Wood and Cole Carns of Berkadia brokered the transaction. Additionally, Robert Falese, Jake Adoni and Kris Kadar of Berkadia arranged an undisclosed amount of acquisition on behalf of West Shore. The direct lender was also not disclosed. The seller and sales price were not disclosed as well, but local media outlet RichmondBizSense reported that Brookfield Properties sold the portfolio for more than $100 million. The seller had previously purchased the properties as part of an $11 billion deal in 2018 from the original redeveloper, Cleveland-based Forest City.
FLOWERY BRANCH, GA. — Avison Young has arranged the sale of 66.8 acres across four land parcels in Flowery Branch, a city near the upcoming Northeast Georgia Inland Port. The buyer, Alliance Industrial Co., plans to develop two speculative facilities on the newly acquired land, which is situated directly off I-985. The properties, collectively known as Alliance 985 Business Park, will include Building 100 (113,536 square feet) and Building 200 (426,872 square feet). Alliance plans to break ground on the project this quarter and deliver in early 2026. Chris Hoag, Jason Holland and Andrew Joyner of Avison Young represented the buyer in the transaction. Stephen Lovett and Zach Tibbs of Norton Commercial brokered the sale of one of the parcels. Alliance has tapped the Avison Young team to lease Alliance 985 Business Park moving forward.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ), along with 10 state attorneys general, has filed an amended complaint in its antitrust lawsuit against RealPage. The complaint targets six of the nation’s largest property managers, alleging that the companies used RealPage’s pricing algorithms to share sensitive data and coordinate pricing strategies, which the DOJ states resulted in artificially inflated rents. The DOJ stated that the landlords had colluded with one another by directly communicating with competitors’ senior managers about sensitive topics such as rents and occupancy; conducting “call arounds” to discuss sensitive information and pricing strategies; and participating in “user groups” hosted by RealPage, where landlords would allegedly discuss how to modify the software’s pricing methodology as well as their own pricing strategies. The DOJ’s co-plaintiffs are the Attorneys General of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington. The six landlords included in the amended complaint are Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC; Blackstone’s LivCor LLC; Camden Property Trust; Cushman & Wakefield Inc. (formerly operating independently as Pinnacle); Willow Bridge Property Co. (formerly Lincoln Residential); and Cortland Management LLC (Cortland). Altogether, the six companies manage approximately 1.3 million apartment units across 43 states and Washington, D.C., …