By Chad Thomas Hagwood, Hunt Real Estate Capital Thanks to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), forbearance is now one of the biggest buzzwords in multifamily finance. When the FHFA announced at the end of March that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would offer mortgage forbearance to multifamily properties facing hardship as a result of COVID-19, many multifamily owners adopted a wait-and-see attitude. That was the right decision. As April went on, the NMHC Rent Payment Tracker steadily trended higher. By May 13, full or partial rent for the month of May was 87.7 percent collected. But with unemployment spiking to record levels, rent collections through the spring and into the summer will most certainly decline at many properties, causing owners to give those forbearance offers a second look. My advice: if there is anything owners can do to avoid forbearance, they should. While tempting, mortgage forbearance should be considered a last resort. Forbearance could take a reputational toll It’s generally implied that entering into a forbearance agreement will not impact a borrower’s ability to secure financing in the future. In an age that obsessively collects and retrieves data of all sorts, experience — and common sense — suggests that …
Alabama
HOOVER, ALA. — SRS Real Estate Partners’ National Net Lease Group has negotiated the $18.3 million sale of Shops at Tattersall Park, a fully leased, grocery-anchored shopping center in Hoover. At the time of sale, the property was leased to Publix, Goodwill and regional tenants F45, Clean Juice and a nail boutique. The seller was an undisclosed Florida-based developer that built the property in 2019. Shops at Tattersall is situated within the 78-acre, master-planned Tattersall Park development, which is 12 miles southeast of downtown Birmingham. Matthew Mousavi and Patrick Luther of SRS represented the seller and buyer, a California-based company completing a 1031 exchange, in the transaction.
HUNTSVILLE, ALA. — Transwestern has negotiated the $83 million sale of a 1 million-square-foot, six-property office portfolio in Huntsville. Five of the buildings are situated within Cummings Research Park and the sixth is Regions Center, an 11-story, 154,297-square-foot office tower in downtown Huntsville. The five buildings in Cummings Research Park include Northrop Grumman’s regional headquarters, a 110,275-square-foot building; Intuitive Center I and II, which together comprise 133,967 square feet; Research Place, three one-story buildings comprising 274,657 square feet; and Research Office Park Center, which spans four one-story buildings totaling 121,839 square feet. The portfolio was 97 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems, Regions Bank, Toyota Motor North America Inc. and BAE Systems. Cummings Research Park is home to more than 300 companies and is situated six miles west of downtown Huntsville. John Bell and Kevin Markwordt of Transwestern represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. The buyer was also not disclosed.
The Birmingham multifamily market demonstrated its evolving strength last year. Continued job growth and limited apartment inventory led to the area reporting its highest occupancy rate in 10 years (94.8 percent) and monthly effective rent advancing 1.8 percent annually to $984 by year-end. In the early months of 2020, we did not see any slowdown in terms of deal volume. Due to rising concerns around market volatility and ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, we are faced with uncertainty in terms of how the local Birmingham area, along with the rest of the country, will perform in the year ahead. It is difficult to predict market activity, but Birmingham has demonstrated positive trends worth noting. Catching investors’ eyes In recent years, the area’s employment growth and strong fundamentals have piqued investor interest. Out-of-state groups are increasingly venturing into Birmingham. This trend has led local developers to emphasize merchant-builds, actively constructing and redeveloping properties to fill this competitive demand. Off-market transactions have recently seen an increase in frequency as investors are able to be more aggressive on pricing, which is enhanced by this unprecedented interest rate environment. Across all asset classes, the Birmingham market has enticed investors with a variety of …
MOBILE, ALA. — Easterly Government Properties has acquired a 79,212-square-foot outpatient facility leased to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Mobile. The facility provides a range of medical and ancillary services, including primary care, mental health services and laboratory services to the approximately 54,000 veterans in the surrounding region. The property was developed in 2018 on a 13-acre campus, five miles west of downtown Mobile. The VA signed a 15-year lease in 2018 that expires in 2033. Further details of the transaction were not disclosed.
HUNTSVILLE, ALA. — Cushman & Wakefield has arranged the $11.8 million sale of Chaney Place, an 80-unit multifamily community in Huntsville. The property offers two- and three-bedroom, townhome-style floor plans averaging 1,350 square feet. The property, which was delivered in 2015, is situated at 1060 Chaney Place Drive, 10 miles south of downtown Huntsville. Craig Hey and Andrew Brown of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, Morrison Avenue Capital Partners, in the transaction. Birmingham-based Red Street Investment Co. acquired the property.
GARDENDALE, ALA. — Dobbins Group LLC has broken ground on a yet-to-be-named multifamily community in Gardendale. The Birmingham, Ala.-based developer says the 204-unit community will offer one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans averaging 977 square feet and expects rent to range from $1,175 to $1,800 per month. All units will have nine-foot ceilings, granite countertops, oversized soaking tubs, walk-in closets in every bedroom, custom cabinetry and appliances. Communal amenities will include a saltwater pool, fitness center, fire pits, multiple grilling stations, walking trail and a dog park. Capstone Building Corp. is the general contractor, and Williams Blackstock Architects is the architect. Synovus Financial is financing the project, which has a budget of more than $30 million. Dobbins Group expects to complete the complex by the end of 2021.
What a time to write an article on the state of the retail real estate market in Birmingham. A few short weeks ago this would have been a much easier task. The fundamentals of the Birmingham retail market are healthy and exciting despite the current health crisis and the fact that we have experienced very little population growth. I travel across the country regularly, and there is a national undercurrent about Birmingham that is exciting. Birmingham is spoken about nationally as a city with great food and quality of life, which are the types of things always said about a city prior to it hitting a tipping point. We expect that consumer behavior is going to be different coming out of the pandemic, and that the way retail and restaurant businesses operate will continue to adapt to that consumer behavior. Traditional developments Traditional shopping centers continue to be strong regional draws, with tenant mixes focusing on local and national brands. Lee Branch is one of the most successful in Birmingham. The Dick’s Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy side-by-side concept opened in February at Lee Branch and is the first of its kind in the state. Discount retail, although not new, …
MOBILE, ALA. — Cushman & Wakefield has arranged the $20.5 million sale of Park West, a 278-unit apartment complex in Mobile. The property was originally built in 1977 and includes communal amenities such as two pools with sundecks, a 24-hour fitness center, courtyard picnic and barbecue pavilion and a playground. Park West offers one- and two-bedroom floor plans with rents ranging from $607 to $1,011 per month, according to Apartments.com. Craig Hey and Andrew Brown of Cushman & Wakefield represented the Lyndhurst, Ohio-based seller, Legacy Capital Partners, in the transaction. Alpharetta, Ga.-based Two Waters Capital Management acquired the property.
TUSCALOOSA, ALA. — SLH Tuscaloosa LLC will develop a 120-room Southern Living-branded hotel in Tuscaloosa. Included on the 38.7-acre site will be 32 cottages available for individual sale. The property is situated at the intersection of Rice Mine Road North and McFarlane Boulevard West, across the Black Warrior River from the University of Alabama. The 124,000-square-foot property will include a restaurant and rooftop lounge on the fourth floor, as well as a wellness center that will include massage and facial therapy rooms, a nail salon, blowout hair salon, exercise and yoga classes, fitness center outfitted with Peloton equipment, a pool, hot tubs and men’s and women’s locker rooms. Kennedy Funding provided the developer with a $2.8 million loan to acquire the land, which sold for a total of $5.5 million. A timeline for construction was not disclosed. There are 23 hotels currently in the Southern Living collection, ranging from Texas to Florida to Maryland.