SAN ANTONIO — REEP Equity, a San Antonio-based multifamily investment firm, has acquired two apartment communities totaling 537 units in San Antonio. The properties are 4000 Horizon Hill, a 273-unit community featuring two pools and a fitness center, and Northgate Village, a 264-unit property featuring a pool and a picnic area. Mark Brandenburg and C.W. Sheehan of JLL arranged acquisition financing for the transaction through NXT Capital.
DALLAS — San Francisco-based investment firm Berkeley Partners has sold seven industrial properties in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area totaling approximately 1 million square feet. The warehouse and light industrial assets encompass 28 buildings and are part of an 11-property portfolio that was 87 percent leased at the time of sale. Adam Herrin, Stephen Bailey, Chris Norvell and Ralph Smalley of HFF represented Berkeley Partners in the sale. A partnership between California-based private equity firm Circle Industrial and international investment firm FREO Group purchased the properties for an undisclosed price.
VICTORIA, TEXAS — The University of Houston-Victoria (UH-Victoria) has broken ground on Don & Mona Smith Hall, a $22.8 million student housing property in Victoria, about 115 miles southeast of San Antonio. The on-campus property will consist of 272 beds and span 82,000 square feet. Some amenities are still being determined, but the property will include a gaming lounge and an outdoor courtyard with seating and sports activities. Morganti Texas Inc. is serving as construction manager on the project, and Brave Architecture is handling its design. Completion is slated for August 2019.
RICHARDSON, TEXAS — KeyBank Real Estate Capital has provided a $21.4 million Fannie Mae first mortgage loan for Madison at Melrose Apartment Homes, a 200-unit multifamily community located in the northern Dallas metro of Richardson. The property was built in 1995 and is situated on 11.2 acres. Caleb Marten of KeyBank structured the 10-year loan, which features five years of interest-only payments and a 30-year amortization schedule. The loan will be used to refinance existing debt.
For the last several years, Fort Worth’s retail market has posted a vacancy rate of 5 to 6 percent, suggesting that absorption is strong yet new construction is still permissible. However, there is a difference between Fort Worth’s vacancy rate and that of comparably sized markets wherein 95 percent of the retail space is occupied. In Fort Worth, occupancy is evenly distributed from submarket to submarket. Because of this balance, the metro’s most thriving retail neighborhood — the university corridor — and the driving forces behind its growth often go overlooked. Perhaps because it has only one campus that is located within a large city and even larger metropolex, Texas Christian University (TCU) doesn’t always get the credit it deserves for driving retail growth in Fort Worth. Rarely in recent history, however, has the connection between the two been more visible. According to the school’s website, its total enrollment was approximately 10,400 students during the academic year ending in May 2017. Three years earlier, that figure stood at roughly 9,700. That difference of 700 or so students may not seem like much at first. But it bears reminding that these are young adults attending a private university. This means that …
CHICAGO — There is one surefire way to make sales hum in seniors housing, says Margaret Wylde, an industry consultant who has conducted research in this niche property sector for 34 years. Know who your customer is, the product they want and how much they will pay to get what they want. “If you deliver what they actually want, they actually pay more and feel there is value for the dollar spent,” says Wylde, CEO of Oxford, Miss.-based ProMatura Group. The problem is the industry’s knowledge of customers is “not good,” Wylde is quick to add. “We know them in a generic manner. We know their age, we know how many of them there are, and we know how much money [they have]. But we don’t know who they are. And once they get to that golden age, we think they want seniors housing, and that everybody who wants seniors housing is exactly the same because we are giving them a list of stuff.” What’s worse, she believes, is that the industry is by and large chasing the luxury market, which is less than 10 percent of the potential market. “The middle market is 320 percent larger than the market …
LAS VEGAS — Over the past five years, CBL Properties (NYSE: CBL) has been disposing of “lower-productivity properties” and redeveloping several others. These moves reflect efforts to boost performance and upgrade the overall portfolio, which is largely concentrated in the Southeast and Midwest. Since 2013, the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based REIT has disposed of 21 mall assets and a number of other non-mall properties. In 2017 alone, CBL sold an outlet center, three malls, two office buildings and outparcel locations for a total of more than $180 million in proceeds. During the first quarter of 2018, $40 million in disposition activity was either completed or in process, including a binding contract for the sale of Janesville Mall, a tier-three shopping center located in Janesville, Wisconsin. Due to a combination of factors — including the threat of e-commerce and slipping occupancy for a period of time — the company’s stock price has taken a tumble during the past few years. Shares of CBL, which traded at $14.20 per share on Aug. 26, 2016, had fallen to $5.43 per share by the close of business on Wednesday, June 13. The key to righting the ship lies in redeveloping existing properties rather than conducting a …
NEW YORK CITY — Meridian Capital Group has arranged $88 million in pre-development financing for a Marriott-branded hotel to be located at 450 Eleventh Ave. in the Hudson Yards neighborhood of Manhattan. Meridian secured financing on behalf of the borrower, Marx Development Group, through lender Mack Real Estate Credit Strategies. The two-year loan will serve to recapitalize the project and cover pre-development costs for the hotel. MDG is also raising $66 million in EB-5 funds through the Manhattan Regional Center for the hotel’s construction. Once completed, the 42-story hotel will span 235,000 square feet and contain 441 rooms. The property will also include a business center, lounge, restaurant and outdoor meeting space. The hotel is slated for completion in late 2019. Hudson Yards is a $20 billion large-scale redevelopment program on Manhattan’s far west side that will include a 28-acre mixed-use development.
WARMINSTER, PA. — G.S. Wilcox & Co. has secured $25.5 million in permanent financing for the Jacksonville Station Community, a recently constructed 151-unit, eight-building apartment community in Warminster. The financing was secured with a 10-year term and a 30-year amortization through lender Allianz. The undisclosed borrower was a repeat client of G.S. Wilcox. The community features 12 types of units with a clubhouse and in-ground pool and is located across the street from the Septa Rail Station, which provides direct connectivity to Philadelphia.
NEWTON, N.J. — Contemporary Healthcare Capital has closed $13.3 million in senior and mezzanine loans to refinance a 128-bed skilled nursing facility in Newton. The mezzanine loan was $1.9 million and the senior loan was a $10 million secured buy with $1.4 million cash secured. The borrower was an owner-operator that serves New York and New Jersey. Newton is located in the northwest portion of the state, approximately 60 miles west of New York City. Contemporary’s senior lending partner on the transaction was Commercial Bank of Harrogate, Tenn.
