NEW YORK CITY — Ariel Property Advisors has brokered the $15.9 million sale of a multifamily portfolio in Queens. The 72-unit portfolio includes three properties and spans 62,640 square feet. The four-story buildings are located on 65th Street between Central Avenue and Myrtle Avenue. Victor Sozio, Shimon Shkury, Michael Tortorici and Matthew Lev of Ariel Property Advisors represented the seller, 71-15 65th St. LLC, in the transaction. The buyer was a group led by Rockabill Development.
MEDFORD, MASS. — Charles River Realty Investors has acquired a 116,490-square-foot office building in Medford for an undisclosed price. The transaction was a sale-leaseback with the seller, Citizens Bank. Located at 20 Cabot Road, the property was built in 1987. Citizens Bank, currently occupies 85,200 square feet at the property and has signed a 10-year lease with Charles River Realty for the space. The remaining 31,290 square feet will be leased to new tenants. National Development will serve as the property manager. Charles River plans to make significant improvements to the building, including an updated lobby and common areas, a new fitness center, landscape enhancements and updated signage.
ATLANTA — Developer Cousins Properties has tapped Pickard Chilton to design Norfolk Southern’s 1 million-square-foot headquarters in Midtown Atlanta. The railroad company announced in December that it is relocating its headquarters from Norfolk, Va. Norfolk Southern will combine employees from Virginia, Atlanta and its nine divisions across the Southeast to work in the new space, which will be located at 650 W. Peachtree St. in Atlanta’s Technology Square district. The building is expected to be delivered in the third quarter of 2021. Amenities will include a dining facility, rooftop garden, fitness center, conference space, child care and a private greenspace. New Haven, Conn.-based Pickard Chilton has designed more than 6.7 million square feet of commercial space for prominent developers in downtown Atlanta over the past 20 years.
MORRISVILLE, N.C. — FCP and Strategic Capital Partners (SCP) have sold Forty540, a 200,000-square-foot, five-story office building in Morrisville. The asset is located at 3030 Slater Road in the Research Triangle Park district. The joint venture acquired the site in November 2015 and delivered the office building in 2017. It was fully leased at the time of the sale. Brad Corsmeier and Ed Pulliam of CBRE | Raleigh represented the sellers in the transaction. Jason High and Ham Southworth also of CBRE | Raleigh represented the undisclosed buyer.
NEW YORK CITY — Eyzenberg & Co. has arranged a $35.4 million refinancing loan for a three-property multifamily portfolio across the Southeast. The portfolio includes the 188-unit Park at Arlington in Covington, Ga.; the 232-unit Park at Brighton in Robinsonville, Miss.; and the 184-unit Park at Ashburn in Dothan, Ala. A joint venture between Blue Magma Residential LLC and NCP Enterprise Funds acquired the portfolio in December 2017. New York City-based Jeff Conti and Mila Babenko of Eyzenberg & Co. arranged the loan through Greystone on behalf of the borrowers.
NEW ORLEANS — Bellwether Enterprise has arranged a $21 million permanent loan for Ochsner Health Clinic, a new medical building in New Orleans. The three-story, 58,137-square-foot facility will be located at 1532 Robert E. Lee Blvd., five miles north of downtown New Orleans. The property will offer obstetrics, pediatrics and internal medicine facilities, as well as a full-service imaging center, laboratory and a retail pharmacy. Matt Good of Bellwether’s South Carolina office arranged the loan on behalf of the undisclosed borrowers through Voya Investments.
TAMPA, FLA. — The Bromley Cos. has signed True Food Kitchen to a 5,000-square-foot lease in Midtown Tampa, a $500 million, 22-acre development in Tampa. This marks True Food’s first west central Florida location. Integrative medicine expert Andrew Weil co-founded the Oprah Winfrey-backed health-driven restaurant that operates several locations in Jacksonville, Naples and Boca Raton, Fla. The Bromley Cos., in collaboration with Casto Southeast Realty Services, Jeffrey Anderson Real Estate Co., Crescent Communities and Concord Hospitality, has already signed Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods will relocate its existing Tampa store and occupy 48,000 square feet at Midtown Tampa in 2020.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — The concept of living-learning communities, wherein students take advantage of a property’s location and amenities to share academic and personal experiences, is growing in popularity in the student housing industry. As the property sector matures and more student housing communities become outdated, developers are finding success with new projects that capture both the living and learning sides of the college experience. This trend is visible at both on- and off-campus properties. The subject of living-learning communities was raised during the opening Power Panel at the 2019 Interface Student Housing Conference. The three-day event, which took place from April 8-10 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Austin, Texas, drew approximately 1,400 attendees. Bill Bayless, CEO of American Campus Communities (ACC), an Austin-based REIT, kicked off the discussion of living-learning communities by noting that, in general, America’s inventory of student housing product is aging, and not like a fine wine. “The average age of on-campus housing at universities across the United States is 53 years old,” said Bayless. “What continues to be one of the greatest opportunities in the space is the replacement of outdated on-campus student housing with living-learning communities on campus that are fully immersive.” Bayless was joined …
ST. LOUIS — McCarthy HITT, a joint venture of McCarthy Building Cos. Inc., HITT Contracting, Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp., Gensler and Akima LLC, has been selected by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to build its new campus in north St. Louis. The total project budget of about $1.7 billion includes the McCarthy HITT contract of $711.7 million, land procurement, post-construction outfitting of the building and small business construction projects. Funds are appropriated through the Pentagon’s military construction budget and Congress has authorized spending over several budget cycles. The campus will be built on a 97-acre site at Jefferson and Cass avenues. Designed to replace the current NGA facility located south of downtown, the new development will feature a 712,000-square-foot office building, parking garages, a visitor center, remote inspection facility and access control points. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will oversee design and construction. Preliminary work beginning this spring will include various design and pre-construction activities, submittals and joint planning. Major construction work will begin in early 2020, with plans for the campus to be operational in 2025. NGA has had a presence in St. Louis for seven decades and currently employs more than 3,000 workers locally.
CHICAGO — Meridian Design Build has broken ground on an 84,000-square-foot USDA meat processing plant for Amylu Foods in Chicago’s Stockyards Industrial Park. The new sausage processing facility will include 56,000 square feet of production and cold-storage space and a freezer. The property will also include 16,500 square feet of corporate office space, including separate raw and cooked facilities, test kitchens and a laboratory. An expandable ammonia refrigeration plant will accommodate plant cooling and production loads. Harris Architects and Kimley-Horn make up the project team.