BEVERLY, MASS. — Axcelis Technologies, which supplies manufacturing equipment for the semiconductor business, has signed a 95,800-square-foot industrial lease in Beverly, a northern suburb of Boston. Axcelis will use the entirety of the building at 105 Sam Fonzo Drive for order fulfillment and distribution purposes. Richard Ruggiero, Matt Adams, Torin Taylor and Rory Walsh of Newmark represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. The representative of the landlord, a Massachusetts-based limited liability company, was not disclosed.
BETHLEHEM, PA. — Regional brokerage firm Zimmel Associates has negotiated a 70,000-square-foot industrial lease in the Lehigh Valley city of Bethlehem. The 120,000-square-foot building at 2500 Emrick Blvd. was constructed in 2017 and features a clear height of 32 feet and 3,500 square feet of office space. David Zimmel of Zimmel Associates represented the tenant, Romeo & Layla Warehousing, in the negotiations for the seven-year lease. Locally based developer J.G. Petrucci Co. owns the building.
NEW YORK CITY — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the $4.9 million sale of a 10,900-square-foot retail and medical office building in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay neighborhood. The building at 1670 E. 17th St. has 12 suites and is zoned for up to 4,700 square feet of expansion. Jakub Nowak of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller and procured the buyer, both of which were private investors that requested anonymity, in the transaction.
SAN DIEGO — Sorrento Seven LLC has completed the disposition of Sorrento View Business Park, a multi-tenant, mixed-use flex business park in San Diego’s Sorrento Mesa neighborhood. A private buyer acquired the asset for $45 million. Totaling 139,340 square feet, the seven-building park is located at 5945-5965 Pacific Center Blvd., 10151-10211 Pacific Mesa Blvd. and 5940 Pacific Mesa Court. Evan McDonald of Colliers represented the seller, while the buyer was self-represented in the deal.
GLENDALE, ARIZ. — Willmeng Construction has broken ground on the newest Morrison Education Group campus, Sun Valley Academy – Glendale. Located at the corner of N. 83rd Ave. and W. Bethany Home Road in Glendale, the K-8 education facility will be a Title 1 tuition-free public charter school and the third campus opened by Morrison Education Group. Carhuff + Cueva Architects designed the 59,000-square-foot facility, which will feature classrooms, a multi-purpose room, an outdoor playground and a sports field. The school is slated to welcome its first students this fall.
IRVINE, CALIF. — Bassman-Blaine Holdings LLC has completed the disposition of an office building located at 2485 McCabe Way in Irvine. DTMM Properties acquired the asset for $11.2 million, or $539 per square foot. The two-story, 20,772-square-foot building features a state-of-the-art gym, spa-like restrooms with lockers and showers, kitchens and high-end finishes. The buyer intends to occupy the building for its business. Allen Basso, Eric Darnell and Kylee King of Lee & Associates Irvine represented the seller, while Kacey Taormina and Aspen Labrador of Compass represented the buyer in transaction.
CITY OF INDUSTRY, CALIF. — West Harbor Capital has acquired a distribution facility, located at 14313-14351 E. Bonelli St. in the Los Angeles suburb of City of Industry. Earl M. Hill Limited Partnership sold the asset for $16.5 million. The property features 69,498 square feet of multi-tenant distribution space. The property was acquired with a 28,240-square-foot vacant and 41,258 square feet leased to two logistics tenants. Steffan Morris and Eric Parkhurst of Lee & Associates represented West Harbor Capital, while Kent Stalwick of CBRE represented the seller in the transaction.
SAN JOSE, CALIF. — JLL Capital Markets has arranged $20.5 million in refinancing for Almaden Safeway Center, a retail property in San Jose. Bruce Ganong, Lillian Roos and Matthew Mingrone of JLL Capital Markets secured the 10-year, fixed-rate loan through RGA Reinsurance Co. for the borrower, Brothers International Holding Corp. Situated on 11.6 acres, the three-building Almaden Safeway Center features 143,452 square feet of retail space. The property is fully occupied by 10 tenants, including Safeway, JoAnn Fabrics, McDonald’s, T-Mobile and Savers.
BENTONVILLE, ARK. — Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has announced plans to expand by more than 150 new stores over the next five years, both through new construction and converting existing buildings. The first two stores under this initiative — both under the company’s smaller-format Walmart Neighborhood Market banner — are scheduled to open this spring in Santa Rosa, Fla., and Atlanta. The company is currently finalizing plans for 12 new projects, one of which will be the conversion of a smaller existing location into a large-format Walmart Supercenter, which serves as both a grocery store and a full department store. Walmart simultaneously released plans to remodel 650 of its existing stores across 47 states and Puerto Rico over the next 12 months. The new and renovated locations will all feature the Bentonville-based company’s “Store of the Future” model, which includes improved layouts, expanded product selections and the integration of new technology. The “Store of the Future” features expanded pharmacies and updated vision centers, with pharmacies moved toward the front of the store; activated corners with product displays that allow customers to interact with items and visualize them in their lives; digital touch points throughout the store to provide information on products …
The economy has constricted consumers’ wallets, but the desire for entertainment has kept them spending…on the right concepts. Rising prices have made just about everyone conscientious about their spending. That, naturally, includes shoppers. Dixon Greenwood, principal at Mountain Mile in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, notes 2023 overall tax receipts at the dining, shopping, lodging and entertainment destination are down more than 10 percent from the company’s 2022 numbers. “Now, that’s off some extreme growth during and after COVID, so numbers are still very good, but what it says pretty clearly is people are tightening their purse strings,” he says. Traffic, on the other hand, is only down 2 percent to 3 percent. “Fortunately for us, we’re still trending up at our property, but that’s in part because we continued to add additional retailers and experiences last year,” Greenwood continues. A large part of what’s compelling visitors into shopping centers nowadays is entertainment, especially if prices for goods are lower online. “There has been somewhat of a drop in consumer spending, but entertainment remains a ‘recession-proof’ outlet,” argues David Goldfarb, owner, CEO and founder of entertainment-solutions company PrimeTime Amusements. Goldfarb is careful to note, however, that recession-proof doesn’t mean bulletproof. After all, …