HOUSTON — Private equity fund Velocis has sold a 100,716-square-foot office building in Houston to Hicks Ventures, a locally based real estate investment firm. The five-story property, located at 7700 San Felipe St. and built in 1979, offers views of the Buffalo Bayou and is situated in close proximity to the Memorial Villages retail development. Velocis originally acquired the building in 2011 and reports a 30 percent internal rate of return.
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LAS VEGAS – The 360-unit Elysian at the District apartment community in Las Vegas has received $51 million in construction financing. The Class A community will be located in the Green Valley Ranch community of Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb. The property will be a joint development by The Calida Group and Cypress Equity Investments. The construction financing features a combination of a mezzanine loan and a senior loan obtained through an inter-creditor agreement with two separate providers. Funding was arranged by David Rifkind and Omer Ivanir of George Smith Partners.
PHOENIX — Meridian Capital Group, LLC, has provided $34 million in financing for nine multifamily and retail properties in Phoenix. The largest loan was the $9.5-million, cash-out refinancing of a multifamily property that paid off an existing CMBS loan while reducing the interest rate by more than 250 basis points. The smallest loan was the $900,000 in funding provided for a retail strip center in Tempe near the Arizona State University campus. The center is home to a restaurant and a sports bar. All of the loans featured five- or seven-year, non-recourse mortgages with fixed interest rates that ranged from 3.63 percent to 4.25 percent. The loans were all rate-locked at application. The mortgages carry 30-year amortization schedules and flexible pre-payment penalties. They were arranged by Seth Grossman, Kovi Elkus, Sarah Kuebler and Andy Strauss of Meridian.
DENVER – An unnamed national real estate investment and property management corporation has purchased a three-property boutique apartment portfolio in Denver for $22.3 million. The Boutique Apartments Portfolio totals 165 units throughout the city’s metro area. The portfolio buy includes the 71-unit Metropolis high-rise building nearthe University of Colorado Health Science Center redevelopment; the 60-unit Shambhala garden-style apartments in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood; and the 36-unit Red Fort community in the city’s West Washington Park neighborhood. The properties were 97 percent occupied at the time of sale. This is the largest single-buyer portfolio acquisition in the history of central Denver, according to ARA, which represented the seller, Boutique Apartments. The transaction was executed by Terrance Hunt, Shane Ozment, Justin Hunt, Robert Bratley and Andy Hellman of the firm’s Colorado office.
LOS ANGELES – Private investors Bob Hart and Jay Schulman have purchased the 71-unit Villa Fontaine apartment complex in Los Angeles for $14.2 million. The community is located at 11850 Riverside Drive in the San Fernando Valley community of Valley Village. The complex received about $3 million in structural and other upgrades in the mid-90s. However, the community has not undergone a renovation in about 20 years. Ron Harris, Paul Darrow and Michael DiSimone of Marcus & Millichap’s Los Angeles office represented both the buyers and the sellers, the Lindquist and Morrow families, in this transaction.
SANTA MONICA, CALIF. – A 17-unit Santa Monica apartment building has sold to a private investor for $7.2 million. The community is located at 3104 4th Street near the beach and Abbott Kinney and Main Street districts. The seller was Margaret Shan. The transaction was executed by Collin Brashears, Mario Gandara, Tim Steuernol, Rob Zaharia, and Kevin Kawaoka of NAI Capital’s West L.A. office.
MIAMI — Miller Construction Co. has begun site work for Flagler Global Logistics’ new 252,000-square-foot Building 34 at the 900-acre Flagler Station business park in Miami’s Airport West submarket. Miller Construction previously delivered the park’s 171,944-square-foot Building 31. The new property will be located at 9290 N.W. 112 Ave. and will feature 30-foot clear ceiling heights. Architectural firm Ware Malcomb designed the tilt-wall structure. The building is 87 percent preleased to Starboard Cruise Services.
COMMERCE, GA. — Hillwood Investment Partners, in a partnership with Brookfield Asset Management and the Hillwood-Brookfield Industrial Partners fund, has signed Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Inc. to a 962,280-square-foot industrial lease. The bargain retailer has leased space at Commerce 85 Distribution Center in Commerce as its distribution hub for the Southeast. The property is located at 1523 Steve Reynolds Industrial Blvd. The property is Ollie’s first distribution center in Georgia. John Van Buskirk of Jones Lang LaSalle represented Ollie’s in the lease transaction. Greg Haynes of CBRE Inc. brokered the lease on behalf of Hillwood.
MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. — Franklin Street Real Estate Services has arranged the $6 million sale of a five-building, 112-unit apartment community in Miami Gardens. The property is located at 611 N.W. 177 St. Deme Mekras, Elliot Shainberg and David Reinke of Franklin Street represented the seller, a local investor named George Dancea, in the transaction. Another local investor purchased the property and plans to invest approximately $1 million to upgrade the property.
NORFOLK, VA. — CBRE | Hampton Roads has arranged the $4.1 million sale of the Virginia Renaissance Center at 2424 Springfield Ave. in Norfolk. The Schaubach Cos. purchased the former Ford plant from VRC Ventures. Ken Benassi and Worth Remick of CBRE | Hampton Roads represented the seller in the transaction.