PHOENIX AND MESA, ARIZ. — Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) has brokered the sales of three retail properties totaling 48,188 square feet in Phoenix and Mesa. The properties include Don Carlos Plaza, located at 2651-2667 W. Baseline Road in Mesa; Meineke, located at 2056 W. Southern Ave. in Mesa; and Fairway Plaza, located at 5843 W. Indian School Road in Phoenix. Terms of the transactions were not released. Chase Dorsett, Steve Julius and Jesse Goldsmith of NKF represented the sellers for the Don Carlos Plaza and Meineke deals and both parties at Fairway Plaza.
VICTORVILLE, CALIF. — A private Orange County, Calif.-based developer has completed the disposition of a retail property located at 14528 Palmdale Road in Victorville. A private 1031-exchange investor acquired the building for $9.9 million. Cardenas, a Hispanic grocery store, occupies the asset. Bill Bauman, Kyle Miller, Michael Fogel and Matt Schwartz of Newmark Knight Frank represented the seller, while Ed Barkett of Atlas Properties represented the buyer in the deal.
By Steve Nowak, Siegel Jennings Co. A recent decision from an Ohio appeals court highlights a developing and troubling pattern in the state’s property tax valuation appeals. In a number of cases, an appraiser’s misuse of the highest and best use concept has led to extreme overvaluations. Given its potential to grossly inflate tax liabilities, property owners and well-known tenants need to be aware of this alarming trend and how to best respond. In the recently decided case, a property used as a McDonald’s restaurant in Northeast Ohio received widely varied appraisals. The county assessor, in the ordinary course of setting values, assessed the value at $1.3 million. Then a Member of the Appraisal Institute (MAI) appraiser hired by the property owner calculated a value of $715,000. Another MAI appraiser, this one hired by the county assessor, set the value at $1.9 million. The average of the two MAI appraisals equals $1.3 million, closely mirroring the county’s initial value. Despite the property owner having met its burden of proof at the first hearing level, the county board of revision rejected the property owner’s evidence without analysis or explanation. The owner then appealed to the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals (BTA). …
DALLAS — The Communication Workers of America (CWA) has announced that Dallas-based AT&T has informed the telecommunications and IT union its plans to permanently shutter 250 AT&T Mobility and Cricket Wireless stores. The move would impact 1,300 retail jobs. There are currently more than 16,000 AT&T retail locations in the United States, including authorized retailers and company-owned stores and kiosks. CWA also reports that A&T plans to cut 3,400 technician and clerical jobs across the country over the next few weeks. The Dallas Morning News reports that AT&T had to inform CWA, which represents 100,000 AT&T workers, of the planned job cuts due to a collective bargaining agreement covering the workers. The newspaper also reports the job cuts and store closures are part of AT&T’s $6 billion cost-cutting plan. According to CWA, AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson pledged in 2017 to create 7,000 new jobs if President Donald Trump’s corporate tax cuts passed. Instead, a CWA review of AT&T’s quarterly reports shows that the company has cut over 41,000 jobs, not including the planned cuts announced June 16.
HOUSTON — Lee & Associates-Houston has arranged a 3,000-square-foot lease in Houston for Voodoo Doughnut, a boutique donut shop based in Portland, Ore. Voodoo will open the new store this fall at 1214 Westheimer Road in Houston’s Montrose district. Grant Walker and Brad Kilbride of Lee & Associates-Houston, along with Wade Green of Transwestern, represented Voodoo in the lease deal. The landlord was not disclosed. Walker also represented Voodoo last year in its lease negotiations for its first Houston eatery at 3715 Washington Ave. Voodoo also has a prominent location on Sixth Street in downtown Austin.
NKF, Highland Partners Negotiate $14M Sale of Single-Tenant Retail Property in Hawthorne, California
HAWTHORNE, CALIF. — Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) and Highland Partners have arranged the sale of a retail building located at 14351 Hindry Ave. in Hawthorne. A private family office acquired the property from Hawthorne Gateway, a private Los Angeles-based partnership, for $14 million. Bed, Bath & Beyond occupies the property. Bill Bauman, Kyle Miller, Michael Fogel and Matt Schwartz of NKF and Michael Grannis of Highland Partners represented the seller in the transaction.
CLEAR LAKE OAKS, CALIF. — Colliers International has brokered the sale of Big Oaks Center, a mixed-use property located in Clear Lake Oaks in Northern California. Las Vegas-based Crystal View Capital sold the property to Redding, California-based Berg Family for $7.2 million. Totaling 98,811 square feet, Big Oaks Center features 78,845 square feet of self-storage space, 17,086 square feet of retail space and a 2,880-square-foot United States Postal Service location. Tom de Jong of Colliers International National Self Storage Group represented the seller in the deal. The purchase was partially completed via a 1031 exchange, with the balance financed by Five Star Bank.
O’FALLON, ILL. — GBT Realty Corp. will develop Shoppes at Richland Creek, a 53,000-square-foot retail center in O’Fallon, an eastern suburb of St. Louis. In March, GBT purchased the 17-acre site from Vantage Credit Union for an undisclosed price. Shoppes at Richland Creek is approximately 70 percent pre-leased to tenants such as Smoothie King, Chicken Salad Chick, Pacific Dental, Five Guys Burgers + Fries, Taco Bell, Burger King, Popeyes and Tidal Wave Luxury Car Wash. Completion is slated for summer 2021. “The area’s growing population and solid workforce, combined with the city’s willingness to assist us in the development process, made this site — and this community — the ideal place for GBT’s next shopping center,” says Jeff Pape, managing director with GBT. O’Fallon has experienced significant growth over the past two decades with nearly 2,000 new homes and over $400 million in residential and commercial development, according to GBT. Tennessee-based GBT currently has more than $1 billion of commercial development totaling 5 million square feet in the pipeline or under construction.
NORTHBROOK, ILL. — Cannabis Facility Construction (CFC) has broken ground on a new recreational and medical cannabis dispensary for Greenhouse in Northbrook. Located at 755 Skokie Blvd., the nearly 10,000-square-foot dispensary will serve as a flagship location for the brand. The design ensures all points of sale are six feet apart in order to accommodate social distancing. In addition to the retail space up front, there will be back office space and a vault for inventory storage. A timeline for completion was not disclosed. Greenhouse currently operates four dispensaries in Illinois. CFC, a division of Mosaic Construction, is a cannabis design-build firm based in Northbrook.
As pandemic-driven restrictions steadily ease across the country, all 50 states have now entered some form of gradual economic reopening. Customers are returning to retailers and office workers returning to their cubicles, but businesses are still struggling to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. In a webinar titled “The Future of Real Estate,” Michael Acton, head of research at AEW Capital Management, addressed key reopening data, demographic trends and his real estate outlook for the remainder of 2020 on into 2021. Natixis Investment Managers, a French-based global asset management company, hosted the event on Thursday, June 11. AEW is one of the largest real estate investment managers of all property types in the world, and both companies are headquartered in Boston. One piece of surprisingly good news came early this month when the Department of Labor reported that the U.S. economy added 2.5 million jobs in May. On the downside, slightly over 1.5 million Americans filed for unemployment for the week ending June 6. Approximately 44 million Americans — about one-quarter of the nation’s workforce — have filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March when huge swaths of the American economy went into a lockdown mode to prevent the spread of …