BELLEVUE, WASH. – Newmark has arranged $15 million in acquisition financing for Mercer Pointe, a single-tenant office building located within the Bellevue Office Park in Bellevue. The borrower is Spire Real Estate, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Nicola Crosby Wealth Management. OfferUp.com occupies the 71,329-square-foot, Class A building. OfferUp is an online, mobile marketplace that gives consumers a platform to buy and sell products locally. Brian Bonipart, Michael Taylor and Skip Slavin of Newmark secured the 25-year, fully amortizing, full-recourse loan, which will be serviced by Newmark.
BOSTON — Colliers Boston has brokered the sale of two vacant office properties in downtown Boston for $23 million. Hemisphere Development purchased the two buildings, located at 13-21 Congress St. and 27-29 Stuart St., with the intent of redeveloping the properties. Colliers represented the seller, Thibeault Properties, in the transaction and also arranged $21.5 million in acquisition and pre-development financing for the buyer through Knighthead Funding LLC. Thibeault Development added approximately $6.3 million in value to the two assets during its ownership. The 13-21 Congress Street building spans 54,450 square feet and is located in Boston’s Financial District, and 27-29 Stuart Street is a 10,540-square-foot property in Boston’s Theater District.
TUKWILA AND KENT, WASH. – Colliers International has arranged the sale of a two-building industrial portfolio located in Tukwila and Kent, two southern suburbs of Seattle. LBA Realty purchased the portfolio from a private investor for $14.5 million. The portfolio includes the 72,882-square-foot Andover Park East, located at 720-790 Andover Park E. in Tukwila, and the 30,000-square-foot Allied Building, located at 19130 84th Ave. S. in Kent. Bill Condon and Matt McGregor of Colliers represented the seller and procured the buyer in the deal.
DENVER – Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors has arranged the sale of Zuma Lofts, a mixed-use building located at 3455 W. 38th Ave. in Denver. Zuma Lofts LLC sold the property to RLC Zuma LLC for $6.9 million. The 22,236-square-foot building features 18 multifamily units and two ground-level retail units. Matt Lewallen of Pinnacle represented the buyer and seller in the deal.
NEW YORK CITY — Ariel Property Advisors has brokered the sale of 523 West 135th Street, a 21-unit multifamily building in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The five-story, 13,770-square-foot property sold for $7.2 million, or $343,000 per unit. Victor Sozio, Shimon Shkury, Michael A. Tortorici, Matthew L. Gillis, and Orry Michael of Ariel Property Advisors represented the undisclosed seller and procured the buyer in the transaction, who was also undisclosed. The property is located two blocks from the subway system (the 1 Line), providing easy access to Manhattan and outer boroughs.
FEDERAL WAY, WASH. – Hunt Mortgage Group has arranged a $5.1 million loan for the refinancing of Cedar Gardens Apartments, a multifamily property located at 2110 S.W. 337th Place in Federal Way. The borrower is Robert LaFountaine, a local real estate owner/operator. Built in 1980, the property comprises five two-story buildings totaling 49 apartment units. Glenn Gioseffi of Kidder Mathews arranged the Freddie Mac Small Balance loan, which features a five-year term, 30-year amortization schedule and a hybrid-adjustable interest rate. A hybrid-adjustable rate mortgage (hybrid ARM) is where a loan’s interest rate is fixed for an established amount of time and then transitions to an adjustable rate. Cedar Gardens was 98 percent occupied at the time of financing.
WILTON, CONN. — Commercial real estate services firm RHYS has arranged the $4.3 million sale of 59 Danbury Road in Wilton, about seven miles north of Norwalk. The 32,270-square-foot mixed-use building was built in 1959 and fully renovated in 2007. Cory Gubner, Christian Bangert and Alex Haendler of RHYS represented the seller, New York City-based Caroline APTS Co., and the buyer, New England Investment Partners. The property is currently fully leased to two tenants: ASML, a semiconductor company; and Building Blocks Learning Center, an early childhood learning center.
WEST NEW YORK, BAYONNE, N.J. — Marcus & Millichap has negotiated the sales of two apartment buildings in separate transactions in Hudson County, New Jersey, for a combined $3.5 million. In the first transaction, 5204 Palisade Ave., a 16-unit multifamily building in West New York, sold for $2.5 million. The property was 100 percent occupied at the time of sale. In the second deal, 265 Ave. B in Bayonne sold for $1 million. The property includes eight residential units and one storefront. Fahri Ozturk and Tyler Van Wagoner of Marcus & Millichap’s New Jersey office represented the sellers, both private individuals, in the two transactions.
NEW YORK CITY — HFF has arranged a $260 million construction loan for the development of 202 Broome Street. The 16-story tower will rise at Essex Crossing, a planned mixed-use project on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Evan Pariser, Michael Gigliotti, Scott Aiese, Alex Staikos and Jackie Ferrer of HFF arranged the 42-month loan on behalf of the developer, Delancey Street Associates, a joint venture comprising Taconic Investment Partners, L+M Development Partners, BFC Partners and Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group. Square Mile Capital Management LLC provided the loan. “We continue to see compelling opportunities for debt investments in the New York market,” said Sean Reimer of Square Mile Capital. “The Essex Crossing project is a great example — a transformative development being created by a strong, visionary ownership group.” Upon completion in 2020, 202 Broome Street will include 179,234 square feet of Class A office space, 36,888 square feet of retail space and 83 luxury condominiums. The building will also contain a portion of Market Line, an underground marketplace that will span three city blocks and feature a food hall and a variety of large and small businesses. The historic Essex Street Market will anchor the marketplace. Construction on Essex Crossing …
HOUSTON — After several years of sluggish rent growth, heavy concessions and tepid absorption brought on by the oil slump, investors are returning to Houston’s multifamily market with quite a bang. Rent growth and absorption were particularly weak in the city’s Class A multifamily space over the past few years. But with oil prices stabilizing (currently at about $68 per barrel of West Texas intermediate crude) and overall population growth still booming, multifamily investors are rethinking their positions on the Bayou City. “For the past two or three years, capital had been going elsewhere,” said Bruce McClenny, president of Houston-based research firm Apartment Data Services, during his keynote address at the second annual InterFace Houston Multifamily conference. “But that’s about to change.” Panelists at the event agreed that Houston’s construction pipeline for new apartments is thinning, stabilized properties are being brought to market and sellers are seeing more bids on assets they’re marketing. All this activity points to a previously overbuilt market turning the corner. Multifamily developers, lenders and brokers discussed these trends and others at the conference, held on Tuesday, April 17 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Houston’s Galleria neighborhood. The event drew about 150 real estate professionals. …