NEW YORK CITY — Pickle1, a locally based pickleball operator, will open a 5,060-square-foot facility in Manhattan’s Financial District. The lease term is 10 years, and the three-court space will be located within the 964,175-square-foot building at 100 Pearl St. Allen Gurevich of GFP Real Estate and Andrew Taub of Newmark represented the owner, Commerz Real Americas, in the lease negotiations. Steven Evans and Emre Bozkurt of Platinum Properties represented Pickle1. The opening is set for this summer.
By Taylor Williams DALLAS — As is the case for many commercial asset classes and markets in 2025, there is an expectation of elevated deal volume for investment sales of affordable housing properties in Texas. But brokers in that space caution that the rebound will likely be marginal and is not necessarily indicative of ideal market conditions taking hold. A quintet of panelists broke down this notion and others at the InterFace Texas Affordable & Workforce Housing conference on Feb. 13 at the Westin Galleria Dallas hotel. Mary Ann Bennett, senior managing director at BBG Real Estate Services, moderated the discussion on investment sales activity. Editor’s note: InterFace Conference Group, a division of France Media Inc., produces networking and educational conferences for commercial real estate executives. To sign up for email announcements about specific events, visit www.interfaceconferencegroup.com/subscribe. Panelist Michael Furrow, senior vice president of affordable housing at commercial finance firm BWE, took the audience of 200-plus back in time to illustrate just how quiet the past two years had been. He did so by providing statistics on affordable housing sales for Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) between 2021 — when multifamily rents and sales prices were peaking across the board — and 2024, when they …
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Balfour Beatty Campus Solutions and the University of Texas at Austin are underway on construction of a $145 million student housing project. The development will replace a six-building, 200-bed student housing complex located along Whitis Avenue on the northwestern part of the campus with a 1,070-bed building. The new student housing building will feature a mix of single and double rooms with community bathrooms, an area housing office and a variety of student amenities, including lounges, study spaces and a university-managed conference center. Clark Nexsen and Levy Dykema are the project architects, and Andres Construction is the general contractor. Demolitions of existing structures and preliminary sitework work commenced in June 2024, and the new facility is scheduled to open in advance of the fall 2027 semester.
EL PASO, TEXAS — Dallas-based development and investment firm Provident has broken ground on a three-building, 497,280-square-foot industrial project in El Paso. The project, all buildings of which will feature rear-load configurations, represents Phase IV of Gateway Logistics Park. Buildings 4 and 5 will each span 147,420 square feet and will have a shared 205-foot truck court. Building 6 will total 202,440 square feet and will have a 130-foot truck court and 44 trailer parking stalls. Completion is slated for early 2026. The first three phases of Gateway Logistics Park added 921,759 square feet of space to the local supply. Last fall, in two separate transactions, Provident sold three buildings within the development to Philadelphia-based EQT Exeter: two buildings totaling 576,365 square feet in August and a 345,394-square-foot building in September.
RICHMOND, VA. — The City of Richmond’s Economic Development Authority (EDA) has sold and transferred an 18-acre parcel to the developer of Diamond District, a $2.4 billion mixed-use development in the Virginia state capital. The developer, an entity led by Thalhimer Realty Partners Inc. called Diamond District Partners LLC, will soon begin construction on public works infrastructure and a mixed-use development on the site. The parcel, called Phase 1A, will include six acres of public infrastructure that will be conveyed back to the city and the EDA upon completion. The remainder of the parcel will house a 180-room hotel, 161 workforce housing units that will be reserved for households earning 60 percent of the area median income, 730 market-rate apartments and 30,000 square feet of commercial space that can be expanded. The land sold for $11.4 million. Phase 1B and Phase 1C of Diamond District will include an additional 177 affordable housing units, 625 market-rate apartments and 126,000 square feet of commercial space. Additionally, CarMax Park, the future home of the Richmond Flying Squirrels Minor League Baseball team, is under construction within the Diamond District and is scheduled to open in 2026. Diamond District Partners LLC anticipates breaking ground on …
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A joint venture between MRP Realty, Asana Partners and Rockefeller Group has received construction financing for Brooklyn & Church, an adaptive reuse project in Charlotte. The project will convert the former Duke Energy headquarters, located at 526 S. Church St., into a 460-unit apartment community with 57,000 square feet of retail space. The financing amount and construction timeline were not disclosed. The Duke Energy headquarters was originally built in 1975. MRP Realty and Asana Partners acquired the building in 2022. The building’s core and shell will be preserved, but the façade will be reskinned with new windows and balconies. Once converted, Brooklyn & Church will comprise 800,000 square feet across 13 stories, with amenities including a rooftop deck and pool with grilling stations, fitness center and spa space, coworking space, bike room and a dog run with pet spa. The property’s loft-style apartments will have 13.6-foot, exposed ceilings. In addition to the apartments and ground-floor retail space, the property will offer a new three-story, 30,000-square-foot retail building at the corner of Church Street and Brooklyn Village Avenue that will be connected to the main building via a 60-foot walkway.
IRVING, TEXAS — A joint venture between LaTerra Development and Platinum Storage has received a $21 million loan for a self-storage redevelopment project in Irving. The site at 2488 Market Place Blvd. formerly supported retail use and is adjacent to an existing Home Depot store and a future H-E-B grocery store. The project will transform the former retail site into a 195,000-square-foot facility. The number of units was not disclosed, but the facility will feature climate-controlled space and RV storage capabilities. An affiliate of New York City-based Andover Properties provided the loan.
INDIAN TRAIL, N.C. — Berkadia has negotiated the sale of a 28.2-acre multifamily development site in Indian Trail, a southeast suburb of Charlotte. Caleb Troop and Thomas Colaiezzi of Berkadia’s Charlotte office led the transaction on behalf of the seller, High Point, N.C.-based Royal Management. The buyer, a partnership between locally based The Spectrum Cos. and Chicago-based Heitman LLC, plans to develop a 320-unit apartment community on the site called Evoke at Indian Trail. TD Bank is providing construction financing for the project, which is located adjacent to The Shops at Sun Valley and across the street from a Publix-anchored shopping center. The construction timeline was not released.
BOSTON — UC Funds, a Boston-based debt fund, has provided an $11 million acquisition loan for a portfolio of four multifamily properties in northwest Texas totaling 275 units. Known as the Medlock Portfolio, the properties are located in Amarillo, Lubbock and Plainview. The loan carries an 18-month term, and the undisclosed sponsor will use a portion of the proceeds to fund stabilization and lease-up costs. Additional details of the transaction were not disclosed.
KNOXVILLE, TENN. — Sila Realty Trust Inc., a publicly traded healthcare REIT based in Tampa, has purchased an inpatient rehabilitation facility in Knoxville for $35.1 million. The seller was not disclosed. The property is Sila Realty Trust’s first acquisition in Tennessee. Built in 2021 within the 109-acre Tennova Health Park, the 70,000-square-foot property was fully leased at the time of sale to Knoxville Rehabilitation Hospital LLC, which is a joint venture between the University of Tennessee Medical Center, Lifepoint Health and Tennova Healthcare, an affiliate of Community Health Systems.