CARY, N.C. — Accesso has executed 30,000 square feet of leases at Weston I, a two-building office property located at 1001 Winstead Drive in Cary, a suburb of Raleigh. The deals include 12,000 square feet in new leases and 18,000 square feet in renewals. New tenants include K&A Engineering, a global engineering consultancy, and Contiem Inc., an international content management company. Hall & Burns Wealth Management LLC and Western & Southern Life Insurance Co. are two of the tenants that have renewed at Weston I. Brian Carr and Brad Corsmeier of CBRE represented Accesso in the lease transactions. Accesso cites the property’s recently renovated lobby, fitness center and tenant lounge as helping drive the recent leasing activity.
North Carolina
Branch, Columbia Acquire Development Site in Fayetteville, North Carolina for Publix-Anchored Shopping Center
by John Nelson
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Branch Properties and Columbia Properties have purchased a 16.7-acre development site in Fayetteville, a city in south-central North Carolina. The Atlanta-based developers plan to break ground on Rockfish Village, a grocery-anchored shopping center that will span 76,237 square feet, including a 48,387-square-foot Publix store. Situated at the signalized intersection of Rockfish and King roads, the property will also feature 27,850 square feet of inline retail space and 2.4 acres of outparcels. Branch and Columbia plan to break ground on the development early next year and deliver the center by the end of 2025. In addition to Kingfish Village, Branch is underway on five other Publix-anchored shopping centers across the Southeast, including One Nexton in the Charleston suburb of Summerville, S.C.
Ozempic Manufacturer Novo Nordisk Breaks Ground on $4.1B Production Facility Near Raleigh
by John Nelson
CLAYTON, N.C. — Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical giant, has broken ground on a 1.4 million-square-foot manufacturing facility in the Raleigh suburb of Clayton. The drugmaker plans to invest $4.1 billion in the development in order to boost the production of diabetes treatment Ozempic, weight loss drug Wegovy and other injectable therapies. Operations at the 56-acre site will include filling and packaging syringes and injection pens. According to CNBC, the demand for Wegovy and Ozempic has outstripped supply in the United States over the past year. The disparity has led to “intermittent shortages,” reports the national news outlet. In 2024 alone, Novo Nordisk is investing $6.8 billion into pharmaceutical production, up from approximately $4 billion last year. “It took us a century to reach 40 million patients, but through this expansion and continued investment in our global production, we’re building Novo Nordisk’s ability to serve millions more people living with serious chronic diseases in the future,” says Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, president and CEO of Novo Nordisk. “This is yet another real signal of our efforts to scale up our production to meet the growing global need for our life-changing medicines and the patients of tomorrow.” The expansion project will double …
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Constellation Real Estate Partners has acquired 41.4 acres of land in Charlotte, with plans to develop a speculative industrial building at the site. Upon completion, the property, dubbed Constellation 485 South, will total 374,220 square feet. The rear-load building will feature 36-foot clear heights, trailer parking, ESFR sprinkler systems and LED lighting. ARCO Design/Build designed the development, which will accommodate tenant occupancies ranging from 100,000 to 374,000 square feet. Construction is scheduled to begin in July and expected to be completed in August 2025. Henry Lobb, Abby Rights and Garrott Braswell of Avison Young will manage marketing and leasing for the project, with Chris Skibinski of Avison Young providing capital markets strategic advisory services.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — McShane Construction Co. has completed The Kendry, a 300-unit apartment community situated on 28 acres in Charlotte, on behalf of developer RangeWater Real Estate. Poole & Poole Architecture designed the development, which features 10,000 square feet of amenity space. Amenities at the property, which is positioned near the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus, include a swimming pool, two courtyards with firepits, a dog park, fitness center, craft and game room, and workspace.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Avison Young has arranged the $97 million sale of an industrial building located at 1900 Continental Blvd. in Charlotte. The multi-tenant property totals 1.4 million square feet. LM Real Estate acquired the building from a joint venture between Somerset Properties and Waterfall Asset Management. Chris Skibinski, Chris Loyd and Erik Foster of Avison Young brokered the transaction. According to the firm, this marks the largest industrial sale within the Charlotte market this year.
Concord Summit Capital Arranges $75M Construction Financing for Multifamily Development in Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Concord Summit Capital has secured $75 million in financing for the construction of a multifamily development in Charlotte. Upon completion, the community will feature a swimming pool and sun deck, rooftop terrace, fitness center, private work and conferencing spaces, garage parking with electric vehicle charging, a top-floor lounge and kitchen with a bar, bike parking and repair shop, grilling areas, a dog park and spa, community WiFi and elevators connecting parking to interior corridors. Daniel Eidson of Concord Summit arranged the financing — which will be used to refinance the existing land loan and complete construction — on behalf of the undisclosed borrower. According to Concord Summit, the initial lender for the project “encountered fiscal difficulties and could no longer fund” the development.
Inland Ports Serve As Vital Link in Supply Chain for Industrial Users, Say InterFace Panelists
by John Nelson
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Inland ports are a growing transportation option in the national supply chain. These facilities provide users — including automotive suppliers, retailers, manufacturers and agricultural producers — an option to import and export their wares to seaports via shipping containers by rail as opposed to trucking their products directly to a port terminal. One of the more prominent inland ports in the country is Inland Port Greer in Upstate South Carolina. The facility’s anchor client is BMW, which operates its mega manufacturing campus in nearby Spartanburg, S.C. Class I freight railroad operator Norfolk Southern Corp. provides rail services from the inland port to the Port of Charleston. Brian Gwin, senior industrial development manager for Norfolk Southern, said that when the railroad operator and the South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) established Inland Port Greer in 2013, it was apparent almost immediately that they had a behemoth on their hands. “We knew it was going to be mostly BMW, but we designed Inland Port Greer for 50,000 lifts a year,” said Gwin, referring to the number of shipping containers moved on or off Norfolk Southern trains at the inland port. According to multiple media outlets, the inland port exceeded 100,000 …
CBL Properties Adds New Tenants, Expands Existing Retailers at Mayfaire Town Center in Wilmington, North Carolina
by John Nelson
WILMINGTON, N.C. — CBL Properties has signed female apparel retailers Free People and FP Movement to open new stores at Mayfaire Town Center, a 610,000-square-foot open-air shopping mall in Wilmington. The affiliated brands will open their stores on Main Street totaling 5,500 square feet this fall. Additionally, CBL is set to open a new Claire’s store this month and reopen Chick-fil-A later this summer. Vochos Urban Mexican Kitchen and Potbelly Sandwich Shop are also set to debut their restaurants at Mayfaire soon. CBL is also expanding Reeds Jewelers, which has been a tenant at Mayfaire since the mall opened 20 years ago. The retailer will operate a newly expanded store on Inspiration Drive spanning 9,000 square feet. Set to open in July, the flagship store will carry Rolex and David Yurman brands and feature a bar and lounge. CBL also agreed to relocate and expand lululemon, which has been a tenant since 2021, to a new 5,200-square-foot store on Main Street. Rack Room Shoes also recently relocated to a new 4,000-square-foot store.
Industrial Investors Are More Selective in Wake of Rising Interest Rates, Say InterFace Panelists
by John Nelson
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Despite strong fundamentals and a plethora of buyers waiting to transact, the industrial sector is experiencing dwindling sales as the industry is still reeling from the impact of rising interest rates. The U.S. industrial sector recorded $82 billion in sales volume in 2023, a 46 percent year-over-year decline and the lowest sales volume in about six years, according to data from Matthews Real Estate Investment Services. Newmark tallies the first three months of the year totaling $16.9 billion in U.S. industrial sales volume, which would be the seventh consecutive quarter of annualized declines. Michael Brennan, co-founder, chairman and managing principal of Brennan Investment Group, said that the rising cost of debt inherently makes values a moving target even in a healthy sector like industrial real estate, especially with such a massive upswing in interest rates over a short time frame. “Interest rates are the No. 1 problem for real estate,” said Brennan. “Buyers and sellers can’t see eye to eye. And make no mistake, prices went down, though maybe not as much as we thought they would have.” The data backs Brennan up as the average price per square foot was recorded at $130 at the end …