MACOMB TOWNSHIP, MICH. — OfficeMax has signed a 16,474-square-foot lease at Romeo Commons in Macomb Township, located about 35 miles north of Detroit. The new store is slated to open by the end of this year. Romeo Commons is located at 7601 Hall Road. Brad Rosenberg and C.C. Roberts of Mid-America Real Estate-Michigan, Inc. represented the landlord, Romeo Plank 59 LLC, in the transaction. Greg Mallory of Landmark Commercial Real Estate represented OfficeMax.
ALLENTOWN, PA. — Agree Realty Corp. has acquired an 112,230-square-foot retail property located on Airport Road South in Allentown for $10.6 million. BJ's Wholesale Club has occupied the location for more than 20 years. In 2001, the membership warehouse retail store added a gas station to the property. With this acquisition, Agree Realty has acquired approximately $70 million in retail properties this year.
ROCHELLE PARK, N.J. — Gebroe-Hammer Associates has arranged the $7.7 million sale of Central Avenue Apartments, a 32-unit apartment community in Rochelle Park. The two-building, garden-style apartment complex is located at 47-53 Central Ave., about 18 miles north of Newark. A four-bedroom, 1,900-square-foot home and 66-space parking lot were also included in the sale. Joseph Brecher, Greg Pine and Debbie Pomerantz of Gebroe-Hammer Associates represented the seller, 47-53 Central Avenue LLC, and identified the buyer in the transaction.
BETHLEHEM, PA. — Kuehne + Nagel Inc. (K+N) has signed a long-term lease for 228,000 square feet at 4275 Fritch Drive in Bethlehem, about nine miles east of Allentown. Griffin Land constructed the warehouse in 2012. K+N is one of the world’s leading logistics companies with more than 63,000 employees located in more than 100 countries. The company will use the warehouse building to handle a third-party logistics requirement for a Fortune 100 global healthcare company. CBRE represented the landlord, a real estate subsidiary of Griffin Land, in the transaction. CBRE’s global supply chain team based in New Jersey represented K+N.
THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS — The J. Beard Real Estate Company has brokered the sale of a 600-acre tract known as the Doughtie Parcel in Montgomery County, in the north Metro Houston area. The property, which will be developed into a luxury master-planned community by Toll Brothers, is located east of FM 2978 between Woodlands Parkway and FM 2920. Diana Gaines of J. Beard organized and represented the sellers, the names of which were not disclosed. Kirk Laguarta and Duane Heckmann of Land Advisors Organization represented the buyer, the name of which was also not disclosed.
FLOWER MOUND, TEXAS — Cushman & Wakefield has arranged a 154,000-square-foot lease expansion at an industrial facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Flower Mound for natural and organic food wholesaler-distributor Nature’s Best. The tenant now occupies the entirety of the 462,000-square-foot building, which opened in 2011 and is LEED Gold-certified. Mark Collins, Dean Collins, Kirk Collins, Jeff Chiate, Rick Ellison and Cheryl Ballentine of Cushman & Wakefield represented Nature’s Best in the negotiations, while Toby Rogers and Bates Arnot of Hillwood Properties represented the landlord, Clarion Partners.
DALLAS — CBRE has arranged the lease of 104,064 square feet in Dallas for law firm Jackson Walker LLP. The tenant will occupy four floors of the KPMG Plaza at Hall Arts office building, which is located at 2323 Ross Ave. in the Dallas Arts District. Jeff Ellerman and Phil Puckett of CBRE represented Jackson Walker in the negotiations, while landlord Hall Financial Group was represented internally by Kim Butler.
LOS ANGELES – A six-tenant retail property in Los Angeles has sold to Ness Holdings, Inc. for $6.2 million. The property is located at 7601-7615 Beverly Blvd. It is situated across from the Grove, Pan Pacific Park, and the Broadcast Center Apartments. Ness plans to reposition the month-to-month leases. It will also renovate the property.
LONG BEACH, CALIF. – A 24,278-square-foot office building in Long Beach has sold to 2H Construction for $3.3 million. The vacant, four-story building is located at 2165 E. Spring Street. The buyer plans to refurbish the property as a build-to-suit. 2H Construction was represented by Matt Stringfellow and Courtney Bell of The Klabin Company/CORFAC International. The sellers, the Lawrence Shields Trust, was also represented by Stringfellow and Bell, along with Kimball Wassick of Cushman & Wakefield.
Walking the floor at yesterday’s ICSC Western Division Conference in San Diego, one gets a strong sense of industry-wide optimism as the economy continues to incrementally improve. Many more retailers are actively leasing, tons of new startups are in the market and some regions are even seeing an uptick in infill, ground-up development. While the industry may not see the heyday that occurred before the Lehman Brothers’ collapse for some time, widely publicized low interest rates have generated large volumes of refinancing. This has resulted in a slow but steady sector growth of 4 percent to 5 percent over the past five years. Of course, larger retail developers (many of which are REITs) realized a tremendous boon by refinancing portions of their portfolios at historically low interest rates. In addition, the housing market’s rebound over the past 12 to 18 months, coupled with near-historically low interest rates, has driven some shop tenants back into the market. As key indicators continue to point toward a cautious growth trajectory for housing – median home values are up and homebuilders are acquiring more land to develop – ICSC attendees have taken a positive outlook on the market. Naturally, that outlook is tempered by …