MINNEAPOLIS AND MILWAUKEE — R2 Cos. and Skydeck LLC have acquired an 11-building, 525,000-square-foot office portfolio in Minneapolis and Milwaukee. The Minneapolis properties are located in the Northeast Arts District. Tenants include Blu Dot, Tactile Medical, Anagram International, Object Partners, AON, Sociable Cider Werks, Bauhaus Brew Labs and Dogwood Coffee.The Milwaukee property is The Tannery, a creative office campus in the Walker’s Point submarket. Advocate Aurora Health anchors the property. The portfolio was 95 percent leased at the time of sale. The buyer plans to make significant improvements via new amenities such as bike rooms, fitness centers and dedicated outdoor space. The purchase price was in excess of $60 million.
O’FALLON AND WENTZVILLE, MO. — CAPREIT has purchased two apartment communities in St. Charles County within suburban St. Louis. The purchase price was $45 million, according to the St. Louis Business Journal. The properties include the 256-unit Peine Lakes in Wentzville and the 266-unit O’Fallon Lakes in O’Fallon. Peine Lakes is home to 205 affordable housing units and 5 market-rate units. Both properties feature units that range in size from 802 to 1,157 square feet. The seller was not disclosed.
CHICAGO — Cushman & Wakefield has been selected by Hilco Redevelopment Partners to complete lease-up of Exchange 55, which is currently under development. The 1 million-square-foot warehouse is the largest new industrial development available in Chicago, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The planned development is a fully entitled and zoned for industrial use. Hilco plans to break ground immediately, with completion slated for the first quarter of 2020. The development is intended to attract a variety of users from e-commerce and manufacturing to food and cold storage and rail users. The project, located within Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, will feature a clear height of 40 feet, 70-foot speed bays, multiple access points and options for parking expansion.
CICERO, ILL. — Associated Bank has provided a $3.8 million loan for the acquisition of two industrial buildings in Cicero. The borrower, JSM Venture Inc., plans to convert a 115,379-square-foot building into a 693-unit self-storage facility. The property, located at 1309 S. Cicero Ave., was formerly home to Brad Foote Gear Works. The self-storage facility will be climate-controlled and span 63,587 net rentable square feet. JSM’s acquisition also includes a 28,000-square-foot building that will either be demolished and paved for parking or improved and leased at a market rate. JSM is a Northfield, Ill.-based self-storage development company headed by John S. Mengel. Daniel Barrins of Associated Bank originated the loan, terms of which were not disclosed.
ELKHART, IND. — Baum Realty Group LLC has arranged the sale of a retail building leased to MOD Pizza and McAlister’s Deli in Elkhart for $3.6 million. Newly constructed, the 7,305-square-foot property is located 15 miles east of South Bend. Patrick Forkin of Baum represented the seller, a national retail developer. A Canadian-based institutional buyer purchased the asset.
Twenty-five years ago, the Plano-Frisco-McKinney area was replete with open fields, cows and dirt roads. Today, the intersection of State Highway 121 and the Dallas North Tollway is central to Dallas-Fort Worth’s (DFW) development activity. Every red light within a three-mile radius of that intersection has cars stacked 10 deep. The entire area is a metropolitan buzz of noise and activity. The key to understanding how real estate markets — not just retail —in these cities changed so dramatically in less than 20 years lies in geography. The (DFW) metroplex consists of about 9,286 square miles, which is roughly double the size of the Los Angeles metro area, not to mention bigger than the combined size of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The sheer mass of land in DFW and diverse city development policies ensure population densities and characters vary tremendously from one submarket to another. Consequently, retail real estate in the metroplex exists and thrives in pockets. Given the benefit of the expanded infrastructure that the Plano-Frisco-McKinney area has enjoyed over the last two decades, it comes as little surprise that the region would eventually be a magnet for rooftops — and associated retail activity. Basic Numbers CoStar Group identifies …
SAVANNAH, GA. — Chesterfield and Stonemont Financial Group have unveiled development plans for Georgia International Trade Center (GITC), a 1,150-acre, Class A industrial park in Savannah. The rail-served park will be located within 10 miles of the Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City Terminal, which is part of the Port of Savannah. At full buildout, the logistics campus will feature up to 7.2 million square feet of light industrial and manufacturing warehouse space. The first two speculative buildings, Buildings 1A and 1B, are slated for completion in late 2019. Building 1A will span 407,000 square feet and include clear heights of 36 feet, while the 155,000-square-foot Building 1B will feature 32-foot clear heights. “The Georgia ports continue to drive import, export and e-commerce traffic throughout the entire Southeast region,” says Zack Markwell, founder and CEO of Stonemont. “The Port [of Savannah] has seen tremendous growth in recent years, but it needs more distribution and warehouse capacity to support customers’ increasing needs.” Over the next 10 years, the Georgia Ports Authority will grow the Port of Savannah’s annual capacity to 8 million 20-foot equivalent container units, according to Griff Lynch, executive director for the organization. GITC will provide direct access to Interstates …
SAN FRANCISCO — Nahla Capital has completed the sale of 30 rental apartment buildings in San Francisco. An undisclosed buyer acquired the assets for $260 million. Carl Schwartz, Matt Scoville, Michal Baum and Ida Phair of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP advised Nahla Capital in the transaction.
TEJON RANCH, CALIF. — Tejon Ranch Co. has announced a third joint venture agreement with Majestic Realty Co. to develop a speculative industrial building at Tejon Ranch Commerce Center (TRCC) in Tejon Ranch. Situated on 34 acres with more than 2,000 feet of frontage along Interstate 5, the cross-docked distribution facility will feature 580,000 square feet of Class A space, 36-foot clear heights, an ESFR sprinkler system, 62 dock-high doors, 177 trailer parking stalls, 327 vehicle parking stalls and a 180-foot wide truck court. Construction is slated to begin later this year or early 2019, with delivery scheduled for third-quarter 2019. The new building will be located next to a 480,480-square-foot building, which Tejon and Majestic built in 2017 and leased to Dollar General and L’Oréal USA in 2018. The joint venture also owns a fully-leased 651,909-square-foot industrial building within TRCC on the west side of Interstate 5, adjacent to IKEA’s 1.8 million-square-foot distribution center. John DeGrinis of Colliers International will serve as the listing broker for the new facility.
IRVINE, CALIF. — Olympus Property has purchased Fusion, a multifamily property located in Irvine, for an undisclosed price. The name of the seller was not released. Completed in 2018 and designed by Withee Malcolm, the property features 280 apartments with quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, wood-style plank flooring, tile backsplashes, gourmet kitchens, full-size stackable washer/dryer sets, private patios/balconies, USB charging outlets and ceiling fans. Community amenities include a rooftop saltwater pool with an indoor/outdoor clubhouse, a spa, pool-side cabanas and a fitness center. Additionally, amenities include a Zen garden, koi pond, fire features, waterfalls, children’s play areas, skyline views, community kitchen with commercial grade appliances and temperature controlled wine refrigerator, outdoor seating and hammocks.