DOWNINGTOWN, PA. — BWE has arranged $45 million in first mortgage financing for Brandywine Square Shopping Center, a 607,999-square-foot retail center located roughly 40 miles outside Philadelphia in Downingtown. Regional grocer Wegmans anchors the center. Other tenants include BJ’s Wholesale, Dick’s Sporting Goods, DSW, PetSmart, Regal Cinema and Best Buy. Kevin Hicks of BWE originated the financing through a life insurance company on behalf of the borrower, Delaware-based development and management firm Allied Properties.
HAMILTON, N.J. — Pickleball Kingdom will open a 40,500-square-foot, full-building lease at 1100 Negron Drive, an industrial flex property in the Central New Jersey community of Hamilton. The space will house 14 courts as well as conference rooms, meeting areas and a lounge. New Jersey-based Denholtz Properties owns the building, which was completed in 2023 and features a clear height of 26 feet. The opening is scheduled for the fall.
DARDENNE PRAIRIE, MO. — St. Louis-based developer Mia Rose Holdings has broken ground on The Prairie Encore, a $90 million apartment and retail development in the northwest St. Louis suburb of Dardenne Prairie. The property will include 190 luxury apartment units along with a 3,000-square-foot, standalone Sugarfire Smokehouse with sand volleyball and pickleball courts. There will also be a Small Sliders restaurant, an 11,000-square-foot building for Mac-A-Doodles Fine Wine, Beer & Spirits, a Starbucks with a drive-thru, a Circle K convenient store and a 7,500-square-foot animal hospital. Sugarfire and Mac-A-Doodles are scheduled to open late this fall. Starbucks is slated to open in mid-2025, with the multifamily and animal hospital following in fall 2025. The four-story apartment building will feature two interior courtyards, a 3,000-square-foot lobby with a leasing office, coffee bar, kitchen, bar and fitness center and various coworking spaces. Outside, there will be surface parking, a large dog park, resort-style pool and community gathering spaces. Rosemann & Associates was the consulting architect, and Hurford Architects was the project architect. The property manager will be 2B Residential.
SAN JOSE, CALIF. — Marcus & Millichap has facilitated the purchase of a 1.1-acre ground lease at 3155 Stevens Creek in San Jose. The property sold for $10 million in an off-market transaction. The land is encumbered by a long-term lease to Lincoln Auto Dealership. The buyer is the tenant that owned the leasehold improvements on the property. Yuri Sergunin and J.J. Taughinbaugh of Marcus & Millichap represented the buyer in the deal. The seller was not disclosed.
Remember the “retail apocalypse”? Fast forward to today and it seems to be quite a different story. Retail is currently viewed by many as the most attractive sector within the commercial real estate industry, due in part to an all-time low vacancy rate and increasing rental rates. Atlanta’s retail vacancy rate has dropped to 3.6 percent, which is the lowest rate on record according to CoStar Group. The low vacancy rate coupled with an extremely limited amount of new retail space under development due to high construction costs has created a market unlike anything we have seen in a long time. Increased construction costs along with higher interest rates have made it cost-prohibitive to build traditional retail power centers; however, grocery-anchored retail is the anomaly with Publix taking the lead. Several mixed-use developments that include a large retail component are underway as well, including High Street in Dunwoody, Medley in Johns Creek and Centennial Yards in downtown Atlanta, just to name a few. Additionally, some retail space has been taken off line as malls reinvent themselves. Examples include the partial demolition of North DeKalb Mall in Decatur to make way for a new mixed-use development known as Lulah Hills; Northlake …
CORDOVA, TENN. — The Shopping Center Group (TSCG) has brokered the sale of Market at Cordova Shopping Center, a 98,466-square-foot retail center located at 1800 N. Germantown Parkway in Cordova, roughly 20 miles east of Memphis. N&L Holdings acquired the property for an undisclosed price. John Reed and Hurston Reed of TSCG represented the undisclosed sellers in the transaction, and Jon Isbell of TSCG represented N&L Holdings. Anchor tenant The Life Church will vacate the center, opening up space that the new owner plans to populate with an Asian supermarket, food hall and a community gathering spot dubbed Grand Super Market, which will occupy the 55,000-square-foot anchor space.
RALEIGH, N.C. — CBRE has arranged two new retail leases in Raleigh on behalf of ParTee Shack, a miniature golf-focused entertainment concept. ParTee will occupy 19,590 square feet at Celebration at Six Forks and 17,000 square feet at Capital Marketplace. These mark the second and third locations in the city for the brand. Jon Stanley of CBRE represented the tenant in both lease negotiations. Charlie Coyne of CBRE represented the landlord of Capital Marketplace, Finmarc Management, and Tiffany Barrier of CBRE represented the landlord of Celebration at Six Forks, FCA Partners. Founded in 2020, ParTee offers miniature golf, go-karts, laser tag, arcade and virtual reality games, as well as food and alcoholic beverages.
THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS — Conn’s HomePlus, a home furnishing retailer based in the Houston area, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will close at least 70 stores nationwide, according to reports from multiple media outlets including CNN and USA Today. The latter publication reports that Conn’s filed for bankruptcy protection this past Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas amid slumping revenue reports and that the impacted stores are scattered across 13 states. Both news organizations report that the state with the highest concentration of closures is Florida (18), followed by Texas (nine). Conn’s was founded in 1890 and operates about 150 stores across the country, according to the company’s Wikipedia page.
MOKENA AND WOODRIDGE, ILL. — Colliers has brokered the sale of two retail strip centers in metro Chicago. The first property totals 16,482 square feet and is located in Mokena. Five of the tenants have been onsite since 2015, while the sixth has occupied space since 2003 when the property was developed. The second asset in Woodridge is anchored by a food mart and service-oriented tenants. Peter Block and Rachel Patten of Colliers represented the seller, Armco Properties. The buyer, a private investor, purchased the properties at close to asking price, which was $6.8 million.
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Lee & Associates Second Quarter Report: Industrial, Office Market See Continued Challenges While Retail, Multifamily Trends Follow Region-Specific Patterns
In the first half of 2024, high interest rates led to decreased demand, higher vacancy rates, reduced construction starts and lower property sales in industrial and office, according to Lee & Associates’ 2024 Q2 North America Market Report. Meanwhile, retail saw minimal development and continued low vacancies. Retail rent growth was particularly strong in the South and Southwest. Finally, high demand for multifamily, coupled with a sudden influx of supply in the second quarter of the year, has created a market where outcomes are highly tied to region. Midwest and Northeast multifamily markets have remained stronger than their counterparts in the South and Southwest, while Western markets saw mixed growth. Lee & Associates has made their full market report available here (with complete breakdowns of cap rates by city, market rents, vacancy rates, square footage information and more). The summaries for the industrial, office, retail and multifamily sectors below provide detailed insight into the trends and trajectories likely through the end of 2024. Industrial Overview: Activity, Growth Checked by High Interest Rates Industrial market performance across North America continued to downshift in the first half of this year. Although net absorption remains positive, demand for industrial space has fallen to the lowest levels …