PEORIA, ILL. — Mid-America Real Estate Corp. has arranged the sale of Sheridan Village in Peoria for $13 million. The 310,094-square-foot shopping center is located at the intersection of Sheridan Road and Lake Avenue. The grocery-anchored center includes Hy-Vee, Bergner’s and Planet Fitness. Toronto, Canada-based Northbridge Investment Management purchased the center. Joe Girardi of Mid-America brokered the transaction on behalf of the seller, Cincinnati-based Viking Partners.
ROMULUS, MICH. — Burger & Co. has negotiated the lease of a 23,750-square-foot industrial building in Romulus, about 23 miles southwest of Detroit and five miles north of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The building is located on Cypress Road. Burger & Co. arranged the lease transaction on behalf of the landlord, D&G Construction. The tenant was not disclosed.
SHERRODSVILLE, OHIO — Vortech Contracting has signed a 7,100-square-foot industrial lease in Sherrodsville, located in eastern Ohio. The oil and gas services company will occupy the warehouse and office space on a three-acre site at 20 S. Church St. Bryce Custer of NAI Spring represented both Vortech Contracting and the undisclosed landlord in the lease transaction.
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. — BBS Architects, Landscape Architects and Engineers has completed the renovation and expansion of South Side High School for the Rockville Centre Union Free School District located on Long Island. BBS served as the architect; interior designer; technology designer; and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineer for the project. The school is located at 140 Shepherd St. in Rockville Centre. The $26.6 million South Side High redevelopment was a part of a $45.9 million school improvement bond issue that was approved by local voters in 2013. BBS’s project team included architect Roger P. Smith, project manager Kenneth Schupner, designer Tracy Hansen and construction administrator Peter Dawkins. Park East Construction served as construction manager.
NEW HAVEN, CONN. — Northeast Private Client Group has arranged the $6.4 million sale of a 40,000-square-foot office property known as Exchange Place in New Haven. The property is located at 123-127 Church St. Edward Jordan and Bradley Balletto of the firm’s Connecticut office represented the seller and procured the buyer in the transaction. William Jekiel Forbes built the Exchange Place property in 1832 and it was renovated in 2003. The seller, Connecticut-based 123-127 Church Street Associates LLC, purchased the property in 2013 shortly after its primary tenant The Annie E. Casey Foundation ceased activities. The company signed a lease for the upper floors with a rapidly growing technology company, and signed a net lease for the ground-floor retail space with a national pharmacy. The property was 100 percent leased at the time of sale. The buyer, Boston-based New England Investment Partners, purchased the property for roughly $160 per square foot.
RIVERSIDE, N.J. — Bussel Realty Corp. (BRC) has brokered a 92,000-square-foot industrial lease for Keymar Warehouse Inc. at 301 W. Washington St. in Riverside. The leased space is part of a 250,000-square-foot industrial property. Leo Esses and David Posner of BRC represented the landlord, Remy Investments LLC, in the transaction. Colliers International represented Keymar Warehouse. The property, 301 W. Washington St., is located near Exit 5 of the New Jersey Turnpike and I-295. It features 18-foot to 24-foot ceiling heights, 15 tailboards and two drive-in doors for loading. The property has 100,000 square feet of space available, and an additional 100,000 square feet of new space can be constructed on the site.
NEW YORK CITY — Gene Kaufman Architect (GKA) has received design approval from the NYC Department of Buildings for a Marriott and Residence Inn at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. In addition, The Lam Group has asked GKA to take over work on a Courtyard by Marriott and Residence Inn already under construction at 215 Pearl St. Together, the projects offer 870 rooms and represent 424,000 square feet of hotel space. The 540-room, 270,000-square-foot Marriott-and-Residence Inn at JFK Airport is being designed for Soundview Real Estate Partners and Chartwell Hospitality. The dual hotel property, expected to break ground later this year, will have 4,000 square feet of lounge and bar space and more than 4,000 square feet of meeting space. It will also have an office center, a fitness center and parking. Construction is already underway on GKA’s second dual-hotel project, a 330-room, 170,000-square-foot Courtyard by Marriott and Residence Inn at 215 Pearl St., which is expected to open in 2018. The Lam Group asked GKA to oversee the final design of the building created by the previous architects Nobutaka Ashihara, and to design the interiors for both the hotel’s public spaces and its guest rooms.
BILLERICA and MARLBOROUGH, MASS. — Colliers International has secured acquisition financing for a two-building portfolio purchase consisting of 734 Forest St. in Marlborough and 35 Dunham Road in Billerica. The 120,000-square-foot flex/industrial portfolio sold to a New England-based real estate investment firm. Colliers secured the acquisition financing from Belmont Savings. Adam Coppola, Tom Welch, John Poole and Tonia Jenkins of Colliers arranged financing.
TOPEKA, KAN. — Payless ShoeSource has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced plans to immediately close nearly 400 underperforming stores. The company, which bills itself as the largest specialty family footwear retailer in the Western Hemisphere, currently operates approximately 4,400 stores in more than 30 countries. The shoes and accessory retailer was founded in 1956 in Topeka, Kan. “This is a difficult, but necessary, decision driven by the continued challenges of the retail environment, which will only intensify,” says W. Paul Jones, the company’s CEO. “We will build a stronger Payless.” Payless has entered into a Plan Support Agreement (PSA) with its lenders to reduce its debt load by almost 50 percent. The plan will also allow Payless to lower its annual cash interest costs, access additional capital and provide a path to emergence from Chapter 11 with a sustainable capital structure. The agreement will also allow Payless to invest in areas that may provide further growth, including omnichannel expansion, product and inventory initiatives, and international expansion in Latin America and elsewhere. The company plans to optimize its store footprint through the immediate store closures, as well as managing its existing real estate lease portfolio. This may include modifying …
Retail vacancy levels declined in 2012 and 2013 in Eastern Massachusetts following several years of rising vacancy rates during the Great Recession. But since 2013, vacancy rates have been on the rise as shopping habits continue to tilt toward online options. In 2016, retail inventory gained modestly, reaching 194.2 million square feet, an increase of 0.5 percent, although no major center opened during the year. The region added 488,800 square feet of vacant retail space, and the vacancy rate increased to 9 percent. Big box closings — notably Sam’s Club, JCPenney, and Kmart — and the departures of Citibank and City Sports, were the primary cause of increasing vacancy. Nonetheless, the region experienced positive absorption, netting 573,600 square feet. As reported in The KeyPoint Report: Eastern Massachusetts/Greater Boston, Boston and Cambridge ranked one and two in the list of top 10 towns by retail square footage. Abington tops the rankings for lowest vacancy rate. Eight of the top 10 towns with the highest vacancy rates are repeats from the previous year; new additions include Wrentham, site of the 135,000-square-foot Wrentham Crossing, which is vacant and currently for sale. The under-2,500-square-foot size classification remains the largest segment of the market, and …
