NEW YORK CITY — Locally based developer HAP Investments has broken ground on 65 Franklin Street, a 19-story multifamily building that will be located in the Tribeca area of Manhattan. Designed by CetraRuddy, the 110,000-square-foot building will house 41 condominiums and an unspecified amount of retail space. Noble Construction is the general contractor for the project, which is expected to be complete in 2022.
NEW YORK CITY — JLL has arranged a $17 million construction loan for a 12-unit multifamily project that will be located at 66 Clinton St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Kriss Capital provided the loan to the borrower, a partnership between Vault Development, Borough Equities and TLM. Units will feature private balconies, and residents will have access to a rooftop deck and a fitness center. Completion is slated for December 2021. Max Herzog, Marko Kazanjian and Matt Fagella of JLL arranged the loan.
HOLMDEL, N.J. — Somerset Development has opened Colab at Bell Works, a 25,000-square-foot coworking space in the Northern New Jersey city of Holmdel. Designed by NPZ Style + Decor and G3 Architects, the facility is located within the Bell Works mixed-use destination, which is a redevelopment of the historic Bell Labs Building. The space features private offices and partitions for increased privacy, phone booths for individual use, upscale desk systems and task chairs.
Industrial developers throughout the major markets of Texas are hustling to acquire and entitle land, arrange construction financing and break ground on projects to meet ever-growing requests for an increasingly diverse group of users. Accelerated demand for e-commerce and logistics services and sustained population growth ensure that new, well-located industrial spaces will be absorbed as soon as they come on line — if not before then. Developers are increasing the proportion of spec projects within their portfolios in response to this. A recent example of such a project is the 1.3 million-square-foot Fort Worth Logistics Hub, a spec project by locally based developer VanTrust Real Estate that is designed to meet rising demand from logistics users. The developer broke ground on Phase I of the project, which is located in South Fort Worth, in late October and expects to deliver a 670,941-square-foot building in July 2021. “Right now, nearly all of our projects across 10 major markets, including Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) are being developed on speculative basis,” says Rob Huthnance, partner at California-based investment and development firm CT Realty. “As long as the level of tenant demand remains at or near where it is now, there will continue to be …
The affordability of housing in the United States is currently under extreme duress as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic recession. Since March, approximately 53 percent of all households earning $25,000 to $49,999 reported lost income, according to a recent report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University entitled “The State of the Nation’s Housing 2020.” One net effect of less discretionary income is that monthly rent is becoming a heavier burden for a large number of Americans, especially in gateway markets such as San Francisco and New York City where apartment rents have been unattainable for a large swath of the working class for years. For the lowest earning renters, affordability of rent is even more acute as a result of the pandemic. According to the Harvard report, one in five renters earning less than $25,000 annually was behind on rent payments. Dr. Ben Bernanke, a veteran economist and former chair of the Federal Reserve, said that the solution to the U.S. affordable housing situation may be overly simple: add more supply. “You learn on the first day of economics that if you increase the supply of something, the price is going to …
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CALIF. — Musical instrument retailer Guitar Center has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Westlake Village-based company did not announce plans to close any of its 297 stores, but it has retained A&G Real Estate Partners to explore opportunities for its real estate portfolio. In court filings, Guitar Center cited its business of instrument purchases, rentals, repairs and music lessons suffered amid the upheaval stemming from government-mandated shutdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The New York Times. Approximately 75 percent of its stores were shuttered at one point in the spring. Additionally, the company cited its “significant debt burden” in the court filings. In addition to Guitar Center stores, the company operates four sister brands: Music & Arts, Musician’s Friend, Woodwind & Brasswind and AVDG. Music & Arts, a Maryland-based chain that Guitar Center acquired in 2005, operates 200 stores and 300 affiliate locations that provide band and orchestra instruments and equipment for sale or rentals. Musician’s Friend, which Guitar Center acquired in 1999, is a direct marketer of musical instruments. Likewise Woodwind & Brasswind is a catalogue musical instrument merchant with a …
MORRISVILLE, N.C. — JLL has arranged a $52.8 million loan for the acquisition and conversion of Perimeter’s Edge, a four-building, 341,547-square-foot property in Morrisville. The buyer and borrower, Longfellow Real Estate Partners, will convert the asset into a life sciences lab. MetLife Investment Management provided the five-year, floating-rate loan. Perimeter’s Edge is situated within Research Triangle Park at 2450 and 2600 Perimeter Park Drive, 507 Airport Blvd. and 515 McCrimmon Parkway. A timeline for construction was not disclosed. Greg LaBine, Roger Edwards and Martha Nay of JLL arranged the loan on behalf of the borrower. Brigitte Burkett of MetLife originated the loan.
HIALEAH GARDENS, FLA. — Miller Construction has broken ground on Midpoint Miami Logistics Park, a 312,592-square-foot industrial property in Hialeah Gardens. The 18-acre site will include the 147,974-square-foot Building 1 and the 164,618-square-foot Building 2. Miller expects to immediately break ground on Building 1 and then plans to start Building 2 four weeks later. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based general contractor expects to complete the park in summer 2021. The assets will feature 32-foot clear heights, a shared 180-foot truck court and a total of 124 dock doors. Foundry Commercial is the developer and owner of Midpoint Miami Logistics Park. RLC Architects is the designer, and Avison Young is handling leasing efforts. The engineering team includes Miami-based firms Puga & Associates International, DDA Engineers and Langan Engineering.
RALEIGH, N.C. — A joint venture between Novare Group, Batson-Cook Development Co. (BCDC) and Marble Capital has acquired 11 acres between Interstates 540 and 440 east of downtown Raleigh to develop a 248-unit multifamily community. AT&T sold the land, which currently houses an AT&T Operations Center that will remain in use for the immediate future. The joint venture expects to break ground on the yet-to-be-named project in December with a completion date slated for fall 2022. The complex will offer studio to three-bedroom floor plans. Communal amenities will include a clubhouse, business center, game room, fitness center and a pool. Humphreys & Partners Architects is the architect, Kimley-Horn is the civil engineer and Construction Enterprises Inc. is the general contractor. Cadence Bank and Atlantic Capital Bank provided debt financing to the developers.
SHERRILLS FORD, N.C. — Cushman & Wakefield has negotiated the $13.9 million sale of The Villages Shoppes at Sherrills Ford, a 60,298-square-foot, Publix-anchored shopping center in Sherrills Ford. The developer, Tampa, Fla.-based Wagner Property Group, sold the asset, which is located at the intersection of Slanting Bridge Road and Village Center North, 31 miles north of downtown Charlotte. Other tenants at the center include Hardee’s, Pizza Hut, Great Clips and Blue Sky Nails. Fain Hicks, Margaret Jones and Lane Breedlove of Cushman & Wakefield brokered the transaction. The buyer was Greensboro, N.C.-based Koury Corp.