KENTWOOD, MICH. — Wolverine Building Group has broken ground on a 300,000-square-foot addition for Hearthside Bakery’s food manufacturing facility in Kentwood, about nine miles south of Grand Rapids. The $7 million project will expand storage space for the company, which manufactures snack bars, cookies, crackers, pretzels, croutons, breadcrumbs and other baked goods. Currently, Hearthside Bakery occupies a 255,000-square-foot location and stores raw ingredients in 53-foot semi-trailers at off-site locations around Michigan. Housing all the ingredients in one location will improve the company’s efficiency. Robert Grooters Development will own the new addition, and lease it to Hearthside Bakery.
BROOKLYN PARK, MINN. — Cushman & Wakefield NorthMarq has arranged the sale of two shopping centers in suburban Minneapolis for undisclosed prices. Edinburgh Festival Centre, located at the corner of Highway 252 and 85th Avenue North in Brooklyn Park, consists of 91,563 square feet. Festival Foods anchors the center, which is 95 percent leased. Other tenants include Caribou Coffee, Broadway Pizza and Dollar Tree. Shingle Creek Shopping Center consists of 39,456 square feet and is located in Brooklyn Center. The property is fully leased to tenants such as Panera Bread, H&R Block, Gamestop and UPS. IRC Retail Centers sold both properties to LS Capital. Leah Maurer of Cushman & Wakefield NorthMarq represented the seller in the Edinburgh Festival transaction and the buyer in the Shingle Creek transaction.
DELTA TOWNSHIP, MICH. — Mid-America Real Estate Corp. has brokered the sale of a 174,353-square-foot shopping center in Delta Township, a western suburb of Lansing. The sales price was not disclosed. Marketplace at Delta Township is located at the southwest corner of I-69 and Saginaw Highway. Michaels, PetSmart, Tractor Supply Co. and Ulta anchor the center. GDA Real Estate Services purchased the property. Ben Wineman, Carly Gallagher and Daniel Stern of Mid-America brokered the transaction on behalf of the seller, a public REIT.
CHICAGO — Reed Construction has been selected to complete a 32,000-square-foot interior renovation of six new tenant suites at 123 North Wacker in Chicago. Built in 1986, 123 North Wacker is a 30-story Class A office tower located in the West Loop. LaSalle Investment Management’s Income and Growth Fund VII acquired the building for $147 million last year, according to Crain’s Chicago. JLL selected Reed Construction to complete the project, which will include the construction of six new suites. Interiors will include open offices, exposed ceilings, polished concrete and conference rooms. The project is slated for completion next month. Erik Gunderson of Reed Construction is leading the project team, along with Paul Jennrich and Mike Detlefsen. Earles Architect Associates is providing architectural services.
SOMERVILLE, MASS. — The Somerville Board of Aldermen approved rezoning to allow the city to move forward on a proposed $1 billion, 2.3 million-square-foot Union Square redevelopment project. Somervile is situated just northeast of Boston, adjacent to Cambridge. The new mixed-use project would include 1.3 million square feet of new office and civic spaces, along with 2.5 acres of public and open spaces. City officials expect the project will create more than 5,000 new permanent jobs. The development will also provide housing, with 20 percent of the supply dedicated to low-income families. In conjunction with the redevelopment, Somerville is working on a $2.3 billion Green Line extension, which would connect Union Square with surrounding neighborhoods and Boston through the train system. The Union Square Station Associates (US2) is the City of Somerville’s master developer partner on the project. The association will make a $5.5 million public benefits contribution toward the Green Line project. “Union Square’s proximity to Kendall Square, MIT and Harvard — one the densest innovation centers in the world — makes it poised for the next wave of economic growth,” says Greg Karczewski, president of US2. “We’re bringing 2.3 million square feet of new mixed-use, transit-oriented development to …
Pittsburgh retail can be summed up in three words: location, location, location — and the original definition of great real estate has never been more pronounced than it is today in the Pittsburgh retail market. According to some publications, retail and retailers appear to be struggling almost everywhere for many different reasons, including online sales, too many stores, market conditions and oversaturation of product. However, as of year-end 2016, CoStar indicated that the overall Pittsburgh retail market occupancy rate was 96.8 percent. Pittsburgh has natural barriers to entry for retail due to its topography, which includes numerous hills and valleys, making it often times impossible to build a “newer, bigger, better” retail property across the street. As a result, many developers have successfully repurposed older centers through adaptive reuse, converting them in keeping with the latest and greatest retail trends. Other older centers have successfully withstood the test of time, replacing outdated retail concepts with today’s current concepts at significantly lower costs than building a new center. Adaptive reuse of Pittsburgh retail started decades ago when the May Company relocated Kaufmann’s Department Stores from four freestanding locations into the dominant regional malls, leaving one- and two-story 200,000-square-foot boxes vacant. Local …
IRVINE, CALIF. — The design-build team of Hensel Phelps and Mithun is set to break ground on a $98 million redevelopment project at the University of California – Irvine. The 215,000-square-foot development — titled the UCI Middle Earth Expansion — will be completed in two phases. The first phase will include the demolition of Brandywine Commons and Brandywine Student Center to be replaced by a new student housing building. The second phase of development will include the renovation of Pippin Commons. The new project, in total, will house roughly 494 students in two five-story residential towers and include a new dining facility, classrooms and amenity space. The new student housing is set to open for occupancy in August 2019.
AVONDALE, ARIZ. — Lake Washington Partners has completed the 427,000-square-foot expansion of the Coldwater Depot Logistics Center in Avondale. The property is located at 1100 N. 127th Ave. The 54-acre site now accommodates 1 million square feet of cross-dock distribution/warehouse space southwest of Phoenix. Lake Washington Partners will manage the property through its management division. CBRE’s Daniel Calihan will head up the center’s leasing efforts.
SHORELINE, WASH. — A joint venture between Security Properties and Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. has purchased the 289-unit Echo Lake Apartments for an undisclosed sum. The community is located at 1150 N. 192nd St. Echo Lake contains 9,000 square feet of retail space. It was built in 2009. Security Properties affiliate Madrona Ridge Residential will manage the property.
AURORA, COLO. — Pathfinder Partners, a San Diego-based investment firm, has acquired a 104-unit independent living community within the Shalom Park Senior Living Campus in the Denver suburb of Aurora. Pathfinder, along with Denver-based Hillcrest Development Group, paid $16 million for the property and plan to implement $3 million of improvements. The community, which Pathfinder will rebrand as V-Esprit, is situated on approximately 15 acres and includes 104 units consisting of 60 apartments and 44 patio homes averaging 1,050 square feet. The seller was Shalom Park, a Colorado nonprofit that still owns the balance of the Shalom Park Senior Living Campus. V-Esprit residents will continue to have access to the combined campus amenities. The $3 million renovation project is slated to include converting four of the one-bedroom apartment units (leaving 100 units in total) into a clubhouse and card room, and renovating and modernizing the theater room, library, communal dining area and leasing office. Pathfinder also plans to make improvements to the apartment interiors. This is Pathfinder’s first seniors housing acquisition.