CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. — Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer has negotiated the $9.1 million ground lease sale of a single-tenant retail property located in Charlottesville. Wawa occupies the building on a 20-year ground lease, which is situated at the entrance of 5th Street Station, a 400,000-square-foot, Wegmans-anchored power retail center. Catharine Spangler of Thalhimer’s Capital Markets Group brokered the transaction. The buyer and seller requested anonymity.
JUPITER, FLA. — Woodmont Industrial Partners, along with Butters Group, has secured a 129,000-square-foot industrial lease at Corporate Logistics Center, a 252,848-square-foot industrial facility located at 15791 Corporate Circle in Jupiter. Alaris Aerospace Systems, a global aftermarket aircraft parts distributor and asset manager, is relocating from nearby Pompano Beach and will occupy the space on a seven-year lease. Yuri Quispe and Peter Johnson of JLL represented the landlord in the transaction, while Lee Johnson of Florida Real Estate Growth Services represented the tenant. Additional tenants at the facility include Cyient Defense Services, Element Materials and PSI Manufacturing Operations. Corporate Logistics Center features 36-foot clear heights, 48 dock doors and ample car and trailer parking. The property also offers proximity to Palm Beach International Airport and the Port of Palm Beach.
HOUSTON, LAS VEGAS AND RENO, NEV. — Fertitta Entertainment Inc., a private holding company controlled by the NBA’s Houston Rockets governor (i.e. owner) Tilman Fertitta, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire casino and gaming giant Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR) for $17.6 billion. Fertitta Entertainment plans to finance the acquisition through a combination of equity, assumed Caesars’ outstanding debt (approximately $11.9 billion) and new committed debt financing arranged by a consortium of 10 banks. Under terms of the agreement, Caesars shareholders will receive $31 in cash for each outstanding share, which represents a 49 percent premium to the company’s unaffected stock price on Feb. 25 (the last trading day before rumors of a potential transaction were reported) — $20.77 per share. Upon completion of the transaction, shares of Caesars Entertainment common stock will no longer be listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Caesars operates several major Las Vegas Strip properties, such as Caesars Palace, Harrah’s, Paris Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood, Horseshoe, The LINQ Hotel, Flamingo and The Cromwell. Fertitta Entertainment owns Golden Nugget Hotels & Casinos and operates more than 450 full-service restaurants around the world, including Landry’s, Rainforest Café and Morton’s. According to the press releases issued by both companies, …
ARLINGTON, VA. — JBG Smith and general contractor Davis Construction have begun the conversion of 2200 Crystal Drive, an 11-story office building in Arlington spanning 315,000 square feet. Built in 1968 and renovated in 2006, the office building is situated in National Landing, a neighborhood in metropolitan Washington, D.C., that is anchored by Amazon’s HQ2 office. JBG Smith, along with joint venture equity partner Declaration Partners, is repositioning the office building into a 195-unit multifamily community. BNY is providing an undisclosed amount of construction financing for the project. JBG Smith recently sold an adjacent office building, 2100 Crystal Drive, that is being converted to a dual-brand hotel. Additionally, the Arlington County Board recently approved JBG Smith’s conversion of two more office buildings, 1800 and 1901 South Bell Street, into more than 300 residential units.
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS — A joint venture between LV Collective and Peninsula Investments has broken ground on Rambler Northgate, a 922-bed student housing project located near Texas A&M University in College Station. The building will rise 24 stories and offer 342 units in one-, two, three-, four-, five- and six-bedroom configurations with bed-to-bath parity. Shared amenities will include a pool with multiple hot tubs; coworking space with private study rooms; a fitness center with a yoga studio, sauna and cold plunge; and a multi-sport simulator and jumbotron. UMB is providing construction financing for the project. The development team includes Oz Architecture, JE Dunn, Variant Collaborative and Site Design Group. Completion is slated for 2028.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Portman has announced plans for Savona Food Works, a 30,000-square-foot food hall that will anchor the company’s Savona Mill adaptive reuse project in Charlotte’s West End district. Veteran food hall operator Robert Montwaid will lead the dining installation, which will offer 25 food stalls, a full-service restaurant and bar, coffee shop, flower market and rooftop bar. Montwaid’s previous ventures include leading Gansevoort Market in New York City’s Meatpacking District and Chattahoochee Food Works in Atlanta’s West Midtown neighborhood. Savona Food Works will be situated in the “Weave building,” which dates back to the 1900s, and will debut in 2027. Other components of the 27-acre mixed-use district include 200,000 square feet of creative office space and 319 apartments, with more multifamily units expected in the next phase of development. Savona Mill is situated adjacent to the Stewart Creek Greenway, a pedestrian trail that connects to the LYNX Light Rail and Blue Line Rail Trail.
AMELIA ISLAND, FLA. — Cronheim Hotel Capital has arranged two loans totaling $50.4 million for two hotels on Amelia Island, an island off the coast of northeast Florida. The deals include a $29.9 million loan for the refinancing and conversion of Ocean Coast Hotel to a Holiday Inn Resort and a $20.5 million loan for the refinancing of Amelia Hotel, an independent beachfront hotel. Cronheim Hotel Capital originated both loans with a regional bank and each include USDA and PACE components. The co-sponsors are Innisfree Hotels and RREAF Holdings.
BUFORD, GA. — The Taylor McMinn Retail Group of Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of a restaurant in Buford, a northeast suburb of Atlanta in Gwinnett County. Whataburger occupies the restaurant on a 15-year ground lease that features 10 percent rent increases in the initial term and extension options. The popular burger chain recently backfilled the restaurant vacated by an unnamed tenant. Don McMinn and Andrew Koriwchak of Taylor McMinn Retail Group brokered the sale on behalf of the seller, a developer that is a repeat client for Whataburger. The out-of-state buyer purchased the restaurant in an all-cash 1031 exchange. “Despite challenges with the higher price point, our team sourced an all-cash, out-of-state, 1031 buyer through our national reach and buyer relationships,” says McMinn. “This is our fifth Whataburger sale in Atlanta, and we have additional Atlanta product for sale.”
HOUSTON — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of HP Storage, a 314-unit self-storage facility in Houston. Built in 2016 and expanded in 2019, HP Storage sits on a 4.5-acre site on the city’s northwest side and consists of five one-story buildings and one three-story building. Units offer climate- and non-climate-controlled space, as well as flexible configurations for retail/office uses and units dedicated to container storage. Dave Knobler, Mixson Staffel and Charles LeClaire of Marcus & Millichap represented the Texas-based seller and procured the New York-based buyer, both of which requested anonymity, in the transaction.
HOUSTON — Nuveen Green Capital and Lone Star PACE have provided an $8 million C-PACE (Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy) loan for Ashford Yard, an 83,000-square-foot retail project in West Houston. Ashford Beer Garden has preleased 21,000 square feet as the anchor tenant of the development. Loan proceeds will be used to install a high-efficiency building envelope and windows, upgraded HVAC systems, enhanced lighting fixtures and water systems with low-flow plumbing fixtures. The borrower was not disclosed.
