CHARLOTTE, N.C. — CBRE has arranged the sale of the Charlotte Industrial Park Portfolio, a 13-property asset totaling 486,512 square feet of Class A office and warehouse space throughout the Charlotte area. Patrick Gildea, Anne Johnson and Bryan Crutcher of CBRE represented the seller, Maryland-based Artemis Real Estate Partners, in the transaction. At the time of sale, the Charlotte Industrial Park Portfolio was 95 percent occupied. Boston-based Albany Road Real Estate purchased the properties.
The Raleigh and overall Triangle retail markets ended 2016 in a very healthy position. The Triangle vacancy rate is currently at 6.09 percent, nearing 10-year lows dating back pre-recession and includes retail absorption nearing 900,000 square feet over the past four quarters. The region’s diverse economic engine driven by technology, university systems, heathcare and Raleigh as a state capital, combined with a relatively low cost of living and temperate climate, continue to push population growth and related retail expansion. With fierce grocery competition, a natural evolution of inward growth and urbanization and several large mixed-use development projects, the Triangle retail market is thriving. However, e-commerce, rightsizing and store closures continue to challenge the broader U.S. retail market and the Triangle has not been spared. Grocery Competition With several homegrown grocery brands, North Carolina and the Triangle region have historically been one of the most competitive areas for grocers in the United States. Regional players like Harris Teeter (now owned by Kroger), Lowes Foods, Food Lion, The Fresh Market, Ingles and Earth Fare (all based in North Carolina) have competed for years with out-of-state supermarkets Kroger, Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s and even Walmart. This year brought a new level of …
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The University of North Carolina at Asheville is set to break ground on a $33.8 million, 300-bed on-campus student housing community. The six-building development will feature four-, five- and six-bedroom units with full kitchens. The sixth building will offer a multipurpose room and visitor’s center, fitness center and an apartment for the community director. Adjacent parking is also planned as part of the project. Construction will begin this spring.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Development-Management Inc. (DMI) plans to develop a new two-story, 120,000-square-foot self storage facility at 536 W. Tremont Ave. in Charlotte’s South End. Situated on 3.5 acres between South Tryon Street and Toomey Avenue, the property will feature 98,000 square feet of rentable storage space, a wine cellar and exterior units that will be accessible by car. DMI purchased the site in a bankruptcy sale for $1.5 million. The developer expects to deliver the new property in 2018. The facility will be DMI’s sixth self storage property in Charlotte and its ninth in the Carolinas.
The Raleigh-Durham business climate has been on the climb for several years now and it doesn’t seem to be slowing anytime soon. The market continues to outpace most of the mid-tier markets across the country by all metrics of economic stability, quality of life, business environment, education, arts and quality of workforce. As a result, construction of office and retail projects has been strong, yet industrial construction and thus available space is lacking. Average asking rental rates have continued to rise in response to increasing demand and low supply. The remaining 550,000 square feet of industrial space that is expected to deliver has significant prelease commitments, creating competition for tenants looking for space. Raleigh-Durham’s warehouse market sits at a current vacancy of 3.8 percent with average asking rental rates at $5.01 per square foot triple net. The biggest challenge is for new and expanding tenants needing 35,000 to 200,000 square feet of space. Demand has been outpacing supply for several years in the market and industrial developers who recognized this trend were unable to fill the need because of the lack of available financing during the downturn. It has just been in the past 24 months that significant construction has …
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Cushman & Wakefield has brokered the sale of two apartment communities in Charlotte: the 252-unit Whitehall Estates and the 318-unit Stone Ridge. Gamma Real Estate LLC purchased Whitehall Estates for $30.9 million and Stone Ridge for $43.2 million, according to Charlotte Business Journal. Jordan McCarley and Marc Robinson of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, YFP/Yager Properties, in the transaction. Built in 1996, Whitehall Estates was 92.5 percent occupied at the time of sale. Built in 2001, Stone Ridge was 94 percent occupied at the time of sale.
At the close of 2016, over 1.9 million square feet of office space was absorbed in the Raleigh-Durham market and overall vacancy increased by one percentage point from 10 percent to 11 percent. Activity was strong and can partially be attributed to a very active suburban Raleigh submarket that absorbed over 1.1 million square feet. Vacancy in this submarket ended the year at 10 percent, down from a high of 17 percent in 2010. It was also an active construction year for Raleigh-Durham, with developers completing over 1.3 million square feet of new office space. There is currently another 2.7 million square feet of new projects underway, and an additional 2 million square feet of proposed projects. Downtown Durham, an approximately 4.5 million-square-foot market, has multiple office projects underway, including: The Chesterfield: Renovation on the 286,000-square-foot building should be completed soon with the first tenants moving in in July 2017. The project, being developed by Wexford Science + Technology, is approximately 75 percent leased. One City Center: The mixed-use, 432,000-square-foot project has 130,000 rentable square feet of office space and should open in late 2017. The office component is 50 percent preleased. Activity in downtown Durham has been driven by …
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Portman Holdings has added BDO USA LLP, an accounting and consulting firm, to the tenant roster at 615 South College in Uptown Charlotte. The 19-story office building is nearing completion, and BDO expects to occupy its new space as early as August. Located at Lynx Blue Line’s Stonewall Station, the 370,000-square-foot office building is situated near Whole Foods Market, the Charlotte Convention Center and Westin Charlotte. Travis Garland of Portman Holdings and John Ball of Trinity Partners represented the ownership in the lease transaction, and Brent Royall of Colliers International represented BDO. Other committed tenants include Regions Bank, which pre-leased 60,000 square feet of space in 2016.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Bissell Cos. Inc. has completed the sale of most of its interests in Ballantyne Corporate Park, a 535-acre, master-planned business community in Charlotte, to Northwood Investors, a global real estate investment and management firm. Northwood will acquire over 4 million square feet of Class A office space and nearly 600 hotel rooms within the development, including The Ballantyne Hotel Charlotte. Terms of the sale were not released, but the Charlotte Business Journal reports that the sale closed in more than 40 separate transactions totaling in excess of $1 billion. Current office tenants at Ballantyne Corporate Park include MetLife, Wells Fargo, Premier, TIAA, Liberty Mutual, Snyder’s-Lance, Synchrony Financial, Sonic Automotive, XPO Logistics and Siemens. “What Smoky Bissell and the Bissell team have created in Ballantyne Corporate Park is remarkable,” says John Kukral, president and CEO of Northwood Investors. “We are excited that the Bissell team will join Northwood and help lead the next phase of Ballantyne Corporate Park. This transaction represents one of our largest acquisitions to date and reinforces our commitment to Charlotte.” Northwood has been an active investor in the Charlotte market since 2011, when Northwood and David Ravin formed Northwood Ravin, a multifamily development …
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — JLL has arranged a new 102,660-square-foot lease for showroom and distribution space at Steele Creek Commerce Center in Charlotte. John Cashion of JLL represented the tenant, Hearth and Home Technologies, the world’s largest manufacturer of hearths. The Minnesota-based company is a subsidiary of HNI Corp. and operates 14 brands of fireplaces, stoves and inserts. The manufacturer also leases space within North Park Business Park and sought additional space in Charlotte to meet growing business demands. Brad Cherry, Spencer Yorke and Matt Greer, also with JLL, represented the landlord, EastGroup Properties, which owns both Steele Creek Commerce Center and North Park Business Park.