NEW YORK AND BOSTON — Swedish construction company Skanska has begun a $40 million rehabilitation project for railway company Amtrak. The project will include structural modifications and industrial equipment upgrades for three maintenance facilities located in Boston, New York and Washington D.C. Skanska originally built the facilities 20 years ago and was contracted again to upgrade them to accommodate the upcoming Acela 21 high-speed rail service trains. Construction is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2021, and the new trains will be placed into service late next year.
BETHLEHEM, PA. — Medical supplies distributor TwinMed has signed a 189,721-square-foot industrial lease in Bethlehem, an eastern suburb of Allentown. TwinMed will occupy a space at 1198 Feather Way in Steel City Trade Center, a partially completed Class A logistics facility. Construction of TwinMed’s facility moved forward amid halts related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Another speculative distribution center is planned for completion later this year, which will bring the total footprint of the development to 294,240 square feet. Mark Chubb, Michael Zerbe, Summer Coulter and Christopher Volkert of Colliers International represented TwinMed in the lease negotiations. Vincent Ranalli of CBRE represented the owner and developer, a joint venture between Dallas-based Trammell Crow and New York-based Clarion Partners.
NEW YORK CITY — JLL has brokered the $10.8 million sale of 219-221 East 59th Street, two adjacent multifamily properties with ground-floor retail space in Midtown Manhattan. Each three-story building spans 10,560 square feet of space, including four residential units and 3,900 square feet of ground-floor retail space that were occupied by separate retail tenants at the time of sale. Tom Gammino and Clint Olsen led a JLL team that represented the seller, Gak Properties, in the transaction. Jeffrey Znaty of Kassin Sabbagh Realty represented the buyer, Cofinance Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Cofinance Group SA.
PHILADELPHIA — The Wistar Institute, a nonprofit infectious disease and vaccine research institution, has preleased an 8,000-square-foot research lab space in Philadelphia. The space, which will be known as Wistar Discovery Center, will be located on the third floor of 3.0 University Place, a 250,000-square-foot life sciences office development in the University City area. Wistar will maintain its headquarters at 3601 Spruce St. The building is slated for completion in the third quarter of 2021. University Place Associates is the developer.
CHICAGO — The temporary conversion of a portion of Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center into an alternate care facility for COVID-19 patients is expected to be complete by Friday, April 24. Walsh Construction, the contractor for the project, completed the first 500 beds earlier this month. The facility will have the capacity to treat up to 3,000 low-to-moderate acuity patients across three of the convention center’s halls. Patients will be separated by the level of care required. The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are directing the conversion of the temporary field hospital. The project is designed to relieve pressure on the city’s hospital system by freeing up beds for more patients with severe COVID-19 cases in anticipation of a surge in positive diagnoses. Stantec provided design and engineering services for the project.
AURORA, ILL. — Sonova, a provider of hearing care solutions, has signed a 63,647-square-foot office lease at 750 North Commons Drive in Aurora. Stanton Road Capital owns the 205,000-square-foot, two-building property, which is flexible for both office and industrial users. Stanton purchased the property in 2018 and is currently implementing a repositioning plan with modern amenities. It is currently 85 percent leased. Francis Prock, Dave Florent and Brian Kling of Colliers brokered the lease transaction. In mid-June, Sonova will consolidate three of its existing operations — two from Illinois and one from Minnesota — at the new location.
FLORISSANT, MO. — Tarlton Corp. has completed the conversion of a Quality Inn hotel in Florissant into the state’s first alternate care facility to treat non-acute COVID-19 patients. The facility, if needed, will serve as backup for patients referred by St. Louis-area hospitals. Members of the Missouri National Guard will staff the facility. Tarlton worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the project, as well as Ross & Baruzzini, Rock Hill Mechanical Corp. and Guarantee Electrical Co. The 4.5-day project yielded more than 100 patient rooms on the four floors of the 130-room hotel. The team built a nurse’s station on each floor and turned the existing phone system into a nurse call system. The project assignment came just hours after Tarlton President Tracy Hart and COO Dirk Elsperman lost their father, Bob Elsperman, to COVID-19. Bob Elsperman led Tarlton from 1972 to1999. He was admitted to a St. Louis-area hospital on March 30 and died eight days later at the age of 83.
MILWAUKEE — North Shore Healthcare (NSHC) has signed a 10-year office lease at HUB640, a redeveloped mixed-use building located at 640 N. 4th St. in Milwaukee. NSHC will occupy approximately 23,000 square feet on the building’s second floor. The move will enable NSHC to consolidate its fast-growing workforce. Dan Jessup and Nick Hepner of JLL represented the landlord, North Wells Capital LLC, in the lease transaction. Colliers International represented NSHC. North Wells Capital acquired the building in 2017 and has embarked on a major transformation of the property, which dates back to the late 1800s. The project is set to open late this spring.
PHOENIX — El Segundo, Calif.-based Landmark Dividend, an owner and developer of real property interests and digital infrastructures, has purchased a data center campus in Phoenix. According to local media outlets, PayPal sold the asset for $122 million. Acquisition of the 184,000-square-foot, 16-megawatt (MW) enterprise data center campus adds to Landmark’s expansion into offering a move-in-ready data center platform. The purchase is the company’s 16th data center asset acquisition in the last 18 months. The campus consists of three data center buildings, along with an office area designed to Tier IV standards. At the time of acquisition, tech-base financial services company PayPal occupied more than 50 percent of the campus on a long-term basis. Constructed between 2010 and 2014, the campus has roof capacity loads of up to 1.4 million pounds. The facility is fortified with a storage warehouse designed for Tier IV compliance, and offers full redundancy across its entire infrastructure, providing access to more than 10 carrier networks on-site. Landmark has retained JLL Phoenix’s Data Center Solutions team as leasing manager for the campus.
PASADENA, CALIF. — Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. (MMCC), the financing subsidiary of Marcus & Millichap, has secured a $34.5 million construction loan for a 48-unit condominium development in Pasadena. Stefen Chraghchian and Sharone Sabar of MMCC’s Encino, Calif., office arranged the loan for the undisclosed developer of the property. The 30-month loan was structured with a 5 percent adjustable interest rate and 40 percent loan-to-value ratio. Slated for completion in 2021, the six-story project will total 62,075 square feet, with the for-sale residential units averaging 1,243 square feet each. The property will also feature an amenity deck with a swimming pool, hot tub and outdoor entertainment area.