LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles-based Tauro Capital Advisors, on behalf of borrower IBF Properties, has facilitated a $149.7 million, one-year, floating-rate bridge loan for a 24-property Walgreens portfolio. The stores are located in nine states across the United States, primarily in Tennessee, Wisconsin and Alabama. The borrower is purchasing retail assets occupied by investment-grade tenants and plans to create a REIT to hold and operate the portfolio of income-producing real estate. Matt Bucaro, Eric Alvarez, Michael Bucaro, Matthew Ingle and Garryn Laws of Tauro Capital Advisors arranged the financing transaction. Benefit Street Partners was the lender. Totaling 314,852 square feet, the borrower purchased the portfolio in 2021. After acquisition, longer leases were negotiated for the majority of the tenants, which provided stability for those investors purchasing dividends within the REIT and offering a level of commitment by Walgreens to the sites and a low probability of leaving.
ALABASTER, ALA. — Growth Capital Partners (GCP) and Highline Real Estate Partners have acquired Shelby West, a 404,000-square-foot industrial park in suburban Birmingham. The property represents the third investment for the GCP-Highline investment platform, which also includes strategic equity placements from the McWane Family and other third-party investors. The facilities at Shelby West include a 250,000-square-foot building at 175 Airview Lane and a 154,000-square-foot property at 1840 Corporate Woods Drive. The Airview building was built in 2006 and recently leased to MailSouth and AGC. The Corporate Woods building was built in 2009 and leased to The Home Depot and U.S. AutoForce. Adam Eason of Cushman & Wakefield | EGS Commercial Real Estate represented the seller in the transaction. Brad Moffatt of Cushman & Wakefield | EGS is handling the leasing at Shelby West. The sales price was not disclosed but the sellers were entities doing business as Shelby West Industrial Enterprises and Shelby West Industrial Enterprises II.
While the Birmingham market never fluctuates too heavily in either direction, it typically remains relatively stable compared to national trends. Such has been the case with the effects of COVID-19. Birmingham is well-positioned for a return to the office, thanks in large part to our economy’s heavy makeup of local and regional businesses. Most smaller businesses have been in the office for some time, while large national enterprises still wrestle with what normal operations will look like moving forward. General market information Birmingham saw some positive absorption in 2021, with the occupancy rate holding steady at 81 percent, around the historical average. Birmingham comprises approximately 20 million square feet of office space with five main submarkets. Midtown, comprising mostly mid-size, Class A office buildings, remains the strongest submarket with an occupancy rate over 92 percent and rental rates in the mid to high $20s per square foot ($24.12 per square foot average). The Central Business District has seen companies leave for suburban submarkets like Midtown and Highway 280/Interstate 459, however the occupancy rate of 78 percent has remained relatively stable over the past couple of years, with rents in the low to mid $20s per square foot ($21.07 per square …
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Hoar Construction has topped out Phase I of the new Science and Engineering Complex at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The $76 million, 138,842-square-foot development represents Phase I of a three-part project that aims to consolidate all the basic science undergraduate and graduate studies into one complex. Construction of Phase I began in February 2021 and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2023. The first phase of the concrete structure features four levels that will house biology, chemistry and physics labs and classrooms alongside faculty and staff offices. The project will also feature specialized labs, including an optics lab and cold-growth environment rooms. Collaboration spaces will be designed to allow students across different disciplines and levels of education to mingle and work together in a cohesive learning environment. Located on 14th Street South between University Boulevard and 10th Avenue South, the property is situated 1.6 miles from downtown Birmingham. Additional project partners include Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood as lead architect; Lord Aeck Sargent as lab and research spaces consultant; MBA Engineers as structural engineers; Schoel Engineering as civil engineers; Newcomb & Boyd as mechanical engineers; and Hyde Engineering as electrical engineers.
Like many of the markets within the Sun Belt, Birmingham’s economy remained relatively resilient through the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite its share of small business and restaurant closures, leasing activity is back to par, and owners continue to see steadily rising rental rates — up 3.1 percent over the last 12 months — as tenant demand continues to be robust. Retail absorption over the last 12 months is a healthy 400,000 square feet compared to -510,000 square feet a year ago, which is a phenomenal 909,000-square-foot change just 18 months out from the emergence of the Coronavirus and effective shutdown of the U.S. economy. As Americans return to whatever the new normal is deemed to be and retail conditions continue to rebound, Birmingham is poised and ready to stake its claim in the South’s hierarchy of bourgeoning retail markets. Over the course of retail’s revival during the last 12 to 15 months, development has picked up throughout the Birmingham MSA, fueled primarily by build-to-suit projects for established chains in rapidly expanding suburban markets like Hoover. Stadium Trace Village, a master-planned, mixed-use development at Interstate 459 and Ala. Highway 150, has been one of the most recent projects to …
AUBURN, ALA. — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of the Auburn Summit Portfolio, three apartment communities with a total of 187 units in Auburn. Josh Jacobs, Andrew Jacobs, Matthew Prozzillo and Benjamin Skinner of Marcus & Millichap represented the undisclosed seller and procured the Utah-based buyer in the transaction. The sales price was $19 million, or about $101,500 per unit. The Auburn Summit Portfolio includes the following: • The Summit at Glenn is a 72-unit multifamily property located at 516 E. Glenn Ave. that was built in 1974. • The Summit at Dean is a 54-unit multifamily property located at 555 N. Dean Road that was built in 1977. • The Summit on Ross is a 60-unit multifamily property located at 650 N. Ross St. that was built in 1964. The properties are locally managed assets located less than two miles from Auburn University.
The Sun Belt is experiencing unprecedented growth with in-migration trends setting the stage for further expansion and bolstering in-place multifamily product. This includes Birmingham, which has weathered COVID-19 well not only from an employment perspective, but from a rent growth perspective too. The latter is not sustainable without the former, and local capital investments point to more tailwinds. Birmingham has been on the move, adding 60,000 jobs since April 2020 and becoming the primary driver of economic growth in Alabama. With the influx of new jobs, the city has surpassed its pre-pandemic peak and as a result, the city’s rent growth has outperformed the national average for several years. There was a short period where downtown rents and velocity fell off during the pandemic, but it came back fast and strong. Riding the tailwinds One notable example of in-migration, both investment and population wise, was when Landing announced it would be relocating its headquarters from San Francisco to Birmingham. Landing is a tech startup that provides access to a network of fully furnished apartments, and its move to the city is expected to create more than 800 direct, full-time jobs. The announcement was exciting locally as Birmingham presumably wouldn’t have …
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I-85 Corridor Markets See Explosion of Industrial Development, But InterFace Panelists Wonder if Housing Will Follow
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — During the closing panel at France Media’s InterFace I-85 Industrial Corridor conference, brokers from the major markets along the 666-mile interstate gave updates about developments and opportunities in their territories. Brockton Hall, vice president of Colliers’ Upstate South Carolina office, said that the Greenville-Spartanburg industrial market in South Carolina had 16 million square feet of industrial space under construction, which represents an inventory growth of approximately 7.4 percent. Graham Stoneburner, senior vice president of Cushman & Wakefield, said that the Richmond, Va., market currently had 11 million square feet underway, which represents an inventory growth of 11 percent. Similarly Robbie Perkins, shareholder and market president at NAI Piedmont Triad, said North Carolina’s Triad region had 8.7 million square feet in the development pipeline, a nearly 11 percent growth rate compared to the market’s 80 million-square-foot inventory. During nearly every panel throughout the conference, which was held on Wednesday, April 13 at the Hilton Uptown Charlotte, brokers, investors and developers described the industrial growth along the I-85 Industrial Corridor as “unprecedented.” “There’s a real lack of supply at the moment, but we have a lot coming,” said John Montgomery, managing director of Colliers’ Upstate South Carolina office, during …
MOBILE, ALA. — Carter Multifamily has acquired a four-property apartment portfolio in Mobile for $121 million. The seller was not disclosed. The portfolio had a total of 876 units. The four properties include Arbor Gates (184 units), The Gates at Jubilee (248 units), Lenox Gates (228 units) and Regency Gates (216 units). Built between 1992 and 1999, the properties had overall occupancies ranging from 92 percent to 96 percent at the time of sale. Carter Multifamily intends to execute a value-add strategy that will feature operational improvements, including implementing institutionally based property management best practices, upgrades to community amenities and interior unit renovations.
HUNTSVILLE, ALA. — MH Hospitality has acquired the Holiday Inn Express Hotel, a 98-room, four-story hotel in Huntsville. Wealth Hospitality Group sold the property for $13.9 million. The Holiday Inn Express Hotel is a newly constructed, 56,963-square-foot hotel that features two elevators, 1,200 square feet of meeting space, an outdoor pool and a fitness center. Situated on 2.7 acres, the property is located about one mile from the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville Botanical Garden and the Huntsville campus for the University of Alabama.