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 …
SHERMAN, TEXAS — A partnership led by Community Hospital Corp. will develop Heritage Regional Medical Center, a $400 million acute care facility that will be located within the Heritage Ranch master-planned community in the North Texas city of Sherman. The nonprofit facility will include 100 inpatient beds and the infrastructure to support future expansion of all major departments — surgery, imaging, emergency and outpatient services — by another 200 beds. The initial phase of Heritage Regional Medical Center is expected to account for about 400 new jobs, and future expansion should increase the employee count to over 1,000. National healthcare architectural firm ESa is designing the facility, and ADAMS Management Services Corp. will oversee construction. Construction is scheduled to begin early next year, with the opening slated for 2028.
SAN MARCOS, TEXAS — A partnership between St. Clair Commercial Realty and Ledo Capital has broken ground on a 377,300-square-foot industrial project in the Central Texas city of San Marcos. The project represents Phase I of a larger development that will ultimately consist of three buildings totaling 665,760 square feet. The building will feature 36-foot clear heights, 80 dock-high doors, two drive-in doors and 185-foot truck court depths, as well as 3,485 square feet of office space. Design-build firm ARCO/Murray is the general contractor for the project, and Stream Realty Partners is the leasing agent. Phase I is slated for a second-quarter delivery.
HOUSTON — Stream Realty Partners has negotiated a 25,938-square-foot office lease renewal at Kirkwood Tower in West Houston. The 15-story, 286,000-square-foot building is located in the Energy Corridor and was recently purchased by affiliates of Apollo Global Management. Adam Ross and Danielle Rothchild of Stream represented the landlord in the lease negotiations. Jim Bailey of CBRE represented the tenant, Texon, a provider of liquids marketing and patented technology blending services.
KATY, TEXAS — Locally based brokerage and development company NewQuest has signed leases with four food-and-beverage tenants at Texas Heritage Marketplace, the firm’s $400 million mixed-use development in the western Houston suburb of Katy. The tenants are Tex-Mex restaurant Escalante’s (5,005 square feet), pizzeria Tony C’s (4,900 square feet), Japanese food concept Aji Izakaya (2,800 square feet) and confectionary Kilwin’s (1,400 square feet). Bob Conwell led the lease negotiations for NewQuest.
NEW YORK CITY — Locally based owner-operator BRP Cos. has completed Ruby Square, a 614-unit mixed-income multifamily development in the Jamaica area of Queens. Ruby Square features a mix of studios (seven), one-bedroom units (454) and two-bedroom apartments (153). About a third (185) of the units are affordable for residents earning between 80 and 130 percent of the area median income. The property also offers 50,000 square feet of amenity space across a two-level private park, multiple rooftop lounges, a fitness center, coworking spaces, multiple resident lounges, an indoor basketball court, children’s playroom, pet grooming facilities and a 24/7 attended lobby. Leasing launched in May, at which time market-rate rents started at about $2,800 per month.
WESTAMPTON, N.J. — Mapletree, a development and investment firm based in Singapore, has broken ground on a 250,000-square-foot industrial facility in Westampton, located in Southern New Jersey’s Burlington County. The site spans 22.5 acres and offers immediate proximity to the New Jersey Turnpike. Building features will include a clear height of 36 feet, 44 dock doors, two drive-in doors and parking for 150 cars and 62 trailers. Blue Rock Construction is serving as the general contractor for the project. JLL is the leasing agent. Completion is slated for mid-2026.
