FORT WORTH, TEXAS — HGR Industrial Surplus has signed a 184,723-square-foot lease at Junction 20/35, a 1.1 million-square-foot industrial development in Fort Worth. Built in 1989 and renovated in 2021, the property is located at the nexus of Interstates 20 and 35. The owner, Los Angeles-based CIM Group, purchased the asset in 2020. Following this deal, Junction 20/35 is now fully leased.
GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS — Dallas-based Proterra Properties has purchased four acres in Grand Prairie, located roughly midway between Dallas and Fort Worth, for the development of a 110,000-square-foot office and warehouse building. The property will be able to accommodate one or two tenants and will feature 32-foot clear heights, 30 dock doors, 130-foot truck court depths and an ESFR sprinkler system. Completion is slated for 2022.
By Tim McFarland, Sansone Group It is hard to describe 2020 as anything other than a lost year. COVID-19 brought us quarantines, social distancing, masks and plenty of uncertainty. The pandemic pushed our healthcare system to the brink, stressed our supply chain and caused a global economic slowdown. The St. Louis commercial real estate market certainly felt the effects of COVID-19, with retail and hospitality being hit the hardest. The retail sector was turned upside down by lockdowns that transformed homes into virtual offices, mandates that forced the closure of non-essential businesses and capacity restrictions that required restaurants to learn how to survive without dine-in business for a large portion of the year. These factors have caused an increase in vacancy to nearly 5 percent, and average asking rates to soften to $13.02 per square foot, off by 15 cents per square foot from this time last year. Perhaps most intriguing was seeing trends in the retail market accelerated by COVID-19. E-commerce For years now there has been a trend toward e-commerce. That is true now more than ever as the pandemic has accelerated the drive to digital. More than five years of e-commerce adoption was compressed into a three-month …
BOSTON — JLL has brokered the $74.6 million sale of a 102,727-square-foot office building in Boston’s Seaport District that will soon be converted to a life sciences facility. The nine-story building at 51 Melcher St. was originally constructed in 1916 as a concrete masonry warehouse and renovated in 2013. Coleman Benedict, Scott Carpenter and Mike Shepard of JLL represented the seller, Zurich Alternative Asset Management, and procured the buyer in the transaction. JLL has also been retained to lease the property on behalf of the new ownership.
GLEN MILLS, PA. — Erickson Senior Living has completed Evergreen Pointe, an expansion at Maris Grove, a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in the western Philadelphia suburb of Glen Mills. The project, which is part of a multi-year plan to grow and renovate the CCRC, added a 76,000-square-foot assisted living building to the property. In addition to its continuing care neighborhood, Maris Grove has three independent living neighborhoods, with more than 1,200 independent living apartments on an 87-acre campus. Evergreen Pointe’s designer was architectural firm SFCS.
WEST MAHONING TOWNSHIP, PA. — Regional Industrial Development Corp. of Southwestern Pennsylvania (RIDC) has partnered with the industrial development council of Armstrong County, located outside of Pittsburgh, to bring vertical development to Northpointe Industrial Park. The site spans more than 800 acres and is located adjacent to the Allegheny Expressway. Northpointe Industrial Park’s 115 shovel-ready acres can accommodate more than 500,000 square feet of new development. A construction timeline has not yet been established.
MILFORD, CONN. — Regional brokerage firm Northeast Private Client Group (NEPCG) has arranged the $9 million sale of a mixed-use building in Milford, located in the southern coastal part of the state. The sales price equates to $206 per square foot and a cap rate of 6.76 percent. Built in 1991 and renovated in 2015, the property consists of 21,799 square feet of residential space across 23 units and 21,359 square feet of commercial space across 10 suites. The buyer and seller were not disclosed. NEPCG represented both parties in the transaction.
PHILADELPHIA — Real estate technology firm Compass Inc. has signed a 17,239-square-foot office lease at 1430 Walnut St. in Philadelphia. Built in 2015, the property also houses tenants such as The Cheesecake Factory and Verizon Innovation Center. Craig Scheuerle and Matthew Guerrieri of Newmark represented the landlord and developer, Midwood Investment & Development, in the lease negotiations. Joshua Meltzer and Jay Joyce of Savills Inc. represented the tenant.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) has broken ground on the Moderna Science Center, a 462,000-square-foot research and development facility located at 325 Binney St., less than one mile from the company’s global headquarters in the Boston-area community of Cambridge. The biotechnology company is a pioneer in the usage of messenger RNA (mRNA) for therapeutics and vaccines, including one of the earliest and most effective vaccinations against the COVID-19 virus. Moderna plans to use this site to advance its pipeline of mRNA research, which includes 37 programs currently in development and 22 ongoing clinical studies. Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. is developing the property, which will include custom scientific spaces for research and development, as well as collaborative office space. JLL represented Moderna in the acquisition of the development site. The project is targeting LEED Platinum certification and is scheduled for completion in 2023. “We have been located in Massachusetts since our founding more than 10 years ago and are proud to be based here,” says Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna. “As we advance our mRNA platform and science, our new science center will integrate digital-first scientific research and development labs along with space for innovation and co-creation with our …
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Small-Balance Multifamily: Sizable and Resilient
While new-builds and top-of-the-line, large-scale developments typically attract the most buzz in the multifamily world, the vast majority of apartment properties in the United States have fewer than 100 units. These smaller properties play a vital role in delivering affordable and workforce rental housing inventory to the U.S. population. While the commercial real estate industry may refer to this sector of the multifamily market as “small,” make no mistake, “small” multifamily is not insignificant or inferior — it’s sizable and resilient. As other commercial real estate sectors paused during COVID-19, smaller multifamily properties and small-balance lending thrived. What does the future hold for this market? The Small Multifamily Market Defined The small multifamily market is highly fragmented with no clear definition of what constitutes “small” among capital sources. Generally, market statistics define the “small” multifamily sector by at least one of two measures: Unit count between five and 99 units; and/or Principal loan balance at origination between $1 million and $10 million[1] Strong Demand and Operating Fundamentals While the pandemic negatively impacted many areas of commercial real estate, with offices, retail shops and hotels largely shuttered across the U.S., the multifamily market remained resilient. Despite the past year’s challenges, multifamily …