CHICAGO — Cushman & Wakefield has negotiated a 30,000-square-foot lease on behalf of Padel Chicago LLC for the first padel location in the city. Padel combines the elements of tennis, squash and pickleball. The property is located at 219 N. Paulina St. Chip Evans of Cushman & Wakefield represented the main investors, Lakeshore Sport & Fitness and Fabian Gosselin, in lease negotiations with the building owner, Walnut Street Properties. Lakeshore Sport & Fitness owns and operates large, multi-sport facilities. Gosselin is a Chicago venture-capital investor whose family has owned and operated a global hospitality and restaurant company for three decades. The Chicago padel facility, slated to open in the first quarter of 2025, will feature five indoor courts. Amenities will include private member lounges, locker rooms, coworking space and a coffee shop and bar.
ST. CHARLES, ILL. — Quantum Real Estate Advisors Inc. has brokered the $8.5 million sale of a 47,000-square-foot retail center in St. Charles, about 40 miles west of Chicago. At the time of sale, the property was 97 percent leased to Syrup, Consume Cannabis, CD One Price, La Huerta Market and other local and national tenants. Brett Berlin of Quantum represented the seller, an Illinois-based developer. The buyer was a private group of investors based in Illinois and New Jersey.
LAFAYETTE, LA. — GBT Realty Corp. has executed leases with new retailers at River Marketplace, a 168,000-square-foot shopping center in Lafayette. J. Crew Factory, Sephora and lululemon have signed leases to occupy a freestanding, 16,700-square-foot building within the shopping center that once housed Books-A-Million, which shuttered earlier this year. All three retailers are expected to open in early 2025. A final 3,450-square-foot space remains available for lease in the building. Situated on a 43-acre site, River Marketplace is anchored by a Super Target. The property is currently 99 percent leased to tenants including Ross Dress for Less, Total Wine & More, Rack Room Shoes, Cato, 2nd & Charles, Toasted Yolk Café, Buckle, Crumbl Cookies and Games Workshop.
Metro Detroit’s retail market is characterized by strong tenant demand and investors’ eagerness to acquire and backfill vacant properties. In the downtown area, the revitalization efforts and adaptive reuse developments that started well before the pandemic continue. In fact, this year marked Detroit’s 100th commercial demolition, accelerated by $95 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding. Over the past five years, the City of Detroit has invested $1 billion in preserving or developing more than 4,600 affordable housing units. The hard work is paying off. Between July 2022 and July 2023, Detroit experienced population growth for the first time since 1957, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A major highlight this year was the reopening of the long-abandoned train station, Michigan Central Station. Ford Motor Co. redeveloped the property in the city’s Corktown neighborhood into a 30-acre technology and cultural hub. Until Aug. 31, the first floor will be open for “Summer at The Station,” where visitors can take self-guided tours and enjoy food and beverages outside. This fall, the first commercial spaces will begin opening to the public. Meanwhile, developer Bedrock topped off construction of its Hudson’s project, the redevelopment of the former J.L. Hudson’s department store site. General …
GEORGETOWN, TEXAS — Partners Real Estate has secured a 2,200-square-foot retail lease in Georgetown, a northern suburb of Austin. The tenant, My Dental, is taking space at Commons at Rivery, a 34,200-square-foot shopping center located at 1313 Williams Drive. Kevin Murphy of Partners represented the landlord in the lease negotiations on an internal basis. Kelly Arnold of CLD Realty represented the tenant.
ATHENS, ALA. — U-Haul plans to build a new retail, moving and self-storage property on a 5.3-acre site at 16298 Athens-Limestone Blvd. in Athens, about 27 miles east of Huntsville, Ala. Set to open in 2026 along I-65, the three-story property will feature 1,100 indoor self-storage units, more than half of which will be climate-controlled. Amenities will include access to moving trucks, trailers, towing devices, U-Box containers, professional hitch installation, propane refills and propane exchange. The property will also feature a retail showroom that will sell boxes and moving supplies, bike racks, towing accessories and locks. Additionally, U-Haul Moving & Storage in Athens will feature a U-Box warehouse that will hold up to 1,000 portable moving and storage containers. The new facility will represent the first location in Athens for U-Haul.
RESTON AND FALLS CHURCH, VA. — The Fresh Market plans to anchor two mixed-use developments in the Northern Virginia region of metropolitan Washington, D.C. The Greensboro, N.C.-based grocer has committed to approximately 27,000 square feet of space at Reston Station, a mixed-use development in Reston by Comstock Cos., and 29,000 square feet at West Falls, a 10-acre mixed-use development in Falls Church by Hoffman & Associates. The Reston Station grocery store will be situated within Midline at Reston Station, and the West Falls store will be located at the ground level of an upcoming residential development. Both new stores are expected to open within the next three years, with the West Falls store set to open by mid-2026. The Fresh Market has two existing locations in nearby Alexandria and Vienna, Va.
PORT ST. LUCIE, FLA. — SRS Real Estate Partners has arranged the $10.3 million sale of Tradition Retail Center, a 28,820-square-foot shopping center located at 10190-10218 SW Village Parkway in Port St. Lucie. The multi-tenant property is situated within Tradition, an 800-acre master-planned community in southeast Florida. Built in 2020, Tradition Retail Center was fully leased at the time of sale to 10 tenants, including Faith Animal Hospital, Farmers Insurance, Scott’s Golf Carts and the Little Gym. Patrick Nutt, William Wamble and Daniel Becker of SRS represented the seller, an undisclosed development firm based in New York. A private investor based in Florida purchased the retail center in an all-cash 1031 exchange at a 6.75 percent cap rate, according to SRS.
CARSON, CALIF. — Beta Agency has arranged the sale of a restaurant property located at 20707 Avalon Blvd. in Carson, south of Los Angeles. A Los Angeles-based private investor sold the asset to an Orange County, Calif.-based private buyer in a 1031 exchange for $7.5 million. Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers occupies the 2,950-square-foot property with 12 years remaining on its triple-net lease, which backed by a corporate guarantee. The lease also includes 10 percent rental increases every five years. The restaurant opened in 2022. Adam Friedlander of Beta Agency represented the seller, while George Felix and Dan Blackwell of CBRE represented the buyer in the deal.
The U.S. retail market is currently on a long stretch of rock-solid performance at the property level. The national vacancy rate is at a healthy 4.1 percent, according to first-quarter 2024 research from CoStar Group. This comes one quarter after a stellar 4 percent vacancy rate at year-end 2023. What’s more is net store openings are on pace to be positive for the third consecutive year, according to research from Cushman & Wakefield. There have been more than 1,700 announced retail store closures thus far in 2024, with recent examples including Family Dollar, Express, Macy’s and 99 Cents Only. However, the number of announced closures has been outpaced by the more than 3,000 announced openings this year, including from the likes of Walmart, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Aldi and Target. With tight occupancy, due in large part to limited retail deliveries compared to historical norms, plus the influence of stubbornly high inflation, rental rates are also peaking. Rental rates ended the year at about $25 per square foot, which is a 3 percent increase year-over-year, according to CoStar. Matthew Mousavi, managing principal at SRS Real Estate Partners, says that retail real estate is performing so well that it now …