ELYRIA, OHIO — Dougherty Funding LLC has provided a $2.7 million loan for the refinancing of Midway Mall in Elyria, about 30 miles southwest of Cleveland. The retail center encompasses 585,606 square feet of gross leasable area. The mall is approximately 80 percent occupied by 75 tenants, and is comprised of a mix of national, regional and local tenants. Elyria Realty LLC, Midway CH LLC and Midway Nassim LLC were the borrowers. Dougherty served as lead lender and is servicing the loan.
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. — BlackBird East will open a retail store in the Gas Light Village district of Grand Rapids. The men and women’s clothing store will occupy 2,744 square feet at 2166 Wealthy St. Renovations are currently being made to transform the space from a gym to the retail shop. BlackBird East anticipates opening by early March 2018. Bill Tyson of NAI Wisinski of West Michigan represented the landlord in the lease transaction. Dave Kwekel of Dave Kwekel Development LLC represented the tenant.
DALLAS — Gaedeke Group has signed four tenants to leases at three of its office towers in Uptown Dallas. The transactions include Bain & Co. expanding its footprint at 17Seventeen McKinney by 15,122 square feet; Native International Realty leasing 7,000 square feet of office space and Sallio Itallio leasing 5,216 square feet of dining space at One McKinney Plaza; and Priority Management Services leasing 6,780 square feet of office space at Regency Plaza. Elliott Prieur and Allison Johnston represented Gaedeke internally in all four transactions. The tenant representation in all four deals include Charlie Morris of Avison Young representing Bain & Co., Duke Biggers of Swearingen Realty Group representing Native International, Kimberly Rote of Allie Beth Allman & Associates representing Priority Management and John Evans and Emilie Gioia of John T. Evans Co. representing Sallio Itallio. Dallas-based Gaedeke Group’s portfolio spans 3.4 million square feet of Class A office buildings in Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Washington, D.C.
NEW YORK CITY — TerraCRG has brokered the sale of 1501 Pitkin Avenue, a 165,000-square-foot mixed-use building in Brooklyn. POKO Partners sold the property to an undisclosed buyer for $53 million. Built in 1929, the former movie theater has been redeveloped into a mixed-use property featuring retail and educational space. The building features 12,371 square feet of retail space occupied by Pizza Hut, Subway and Dollar Tree, and a 152,404-square-foot charter school that serves 1,000 students. Ofer Cohen, Dan Marks, Matt Cosentino, Fred Bijou and Eric Satanovsky of TerraCRG brokered the deal.
NEW YORK CITY — Forest City Realty Trust has completed the conversion of its common ownership interest to preferred interest in 10 specialty retail centers in the New York City metro area. The closing covers 10 of the 13 centers that are part of a joint venture between Forest City and Madison International Realty. Final closings on each of the individual centers are expected to occur as Forest City secures replacement assets into which to redeploy its preferred interest. The properties included in this round of closings are Shops at Gun Hill Road (Waring), Shops at Gun Hill Road (Ely) and Castle Center in the Bronx; Harlem Center in Manhattan; The Heights, Atlantic Terminal Mall and Atlantic Center in Brooklyn; Forest Avenue and Shops at Richmond Avenue in Staten Island; and Columbia Park Center in North Bergen, N.J. Closings on the conversions on the remaining two centers — Shops at Northern Boulevard and Queens Place — are expected by the end of the first quarter of 2018. The last center in the joint venture, a retail/entertainment complex on 42nd Street, is expected to transact at a later date upon resolution of the ground lease dispute with the city of New …
NEW LENOX, ILL. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of Calistoga Plaza in New Lenox, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, for $4.5 million. The 36,839-square-foot retail property is located at 2001-2131 Calistoga Drive. Tenants include Honeycuts, Grapple Games, Italian Fiesta Pizzeria, Arrowhead Ales, Badda Bings, Cedar Way Veterinary Clinic and Tuckers Doggy Delights. All of the tenants are currently operating under net leases. Sean R. Sharko, Austin Weisenbeck and Joseph Sigal of Marcus & Millichap marketed the property on behalf of the seller, a fund manager. Brian Parmacek, also of Marcus & Millichap, secured and represented the buyer, a limited liability company.
HOUSTON — Mattress Firm has announced plans to close 200 underperforming stores over the next 18 months. The retailer currently operates approximately 3,400 stores across the United States. Steinhoff International Holdings N.V., the parent company of the Houston-based retailer, made the announcement at a Dec. 19 lenders’ meeting. The locations to be shuttered have not yet been made public. The company said it will invest $200 million this year to continue restructuring, which includes reorganizing sales operations, upgrading internal leadership positions and removing leftover products from Tempur-Sealy International Inc., which cancelled its contracts with Mattress Firm in 2017. In addition to eliminating stores, the company announced it will increase its private labels, boost online presence and improve customer service, in an effort to reach its revenue goals. Mattress Firm currently generates $3.3 billion in revenue annually, and is aiming to reach more than $4 billion over the next five years. Additionally, Mattress Firm recently entered into a revolving credit facility for up to $225 million with Barclays for working capital needs and other general corporate purposes.
HOUSTON — LaSalle Investment Management has acquired Greenway Commons, a Costco-anchored shopping center in Houston, for $84 million. LaSalle acquired the property on behalf of its U.S. core open-end real estate fund, LaSalle Property Fund. A joint venture between DDR and Blackstone sold the asset. Greenway Commons was fully leased at the time of sale to tenants including LA Fitness, Iberia Bank, Buffalo Wild Wings and Panda Express.
BEAUMONT, TEXAS — Albanese Cormier Holdings (ACH) has sold Stadium Shopping Center, a 76,082-square-foot retail center located at 3210 Ave. A in Beaumont. A private investment firm purchased the asset from ACH for an undisclosed price. Kevin Holland of Edge Realty represented ACH in the sale. Built in 1970, Stadium Shopping Center was 82 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as Citi Trends, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Hibbett Sports and Metro PCS.
As 2018 gets underway, retail real estate finds itself at an odd juncture. According to CNN, more than 6,700 stores either closed or announced plans to close in 2017, leading many to consider last year to be the beginning of the end for brick-and-mortar shopping. Yet a new report from Tennessee-based retail advisory firm IHL Consulting Group notes that for every company that closed stores in 2017, there were nearly three companies opening new stores to offset it. Whether you believe retail is dying or evolving, there’s no arguing that the inability of certain tenants — mainly apparel-based department stores — to compete with e-commerce has caused millions of square feet of retail real estate to be returned to the market. Owners of these properties face the challenge of backfilling these spaces with tenants that aren’t likely to share the same fate — restaurants, gyms and entertainment concepts. But when it comes to backfilling a big box or anchor space with an entertainment concept, merging the existing space with the design requirements of the tenant can be a major headache for landlords. With 58 million square feet of project designs under his belt, Randy Stone, associate principal at Dallas-based architecture …
