FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — The Miami office of Berkadia Commercial Mortgage has arranged a $25 million construction loan for The Queue, a 192-unit mid-rise multifamily community. The property will be located at SE 9th Street and SE 2nd Avenue in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Brad Williamson and Mitchell Sinberg of Berkadia arranged the three-year, floating rate loan through Mutual of Omaha Bank.
The Jacksonville multifamily market can lay claim to being the healthiest in Florida, not because of blockbuster demand or rapid construction, but because steady growth has kept it from overheating. The pace of construction and absorption should sustain the market for at least the next six months to a year. With an unemployment rate at 5.8 percent in September, it’s clear that the metro market has bounced back from the recession, boosting demand for housing. GE announced that same month they would be opening a new plant, adding 500 jobs. Additionally, Forbes ranks the city sixth nationally in its list of best cities for tech jobs, just ahead of Silicon Valley. Unlike other regions of the state that attract retirees and foreigners, Jacksonville is drawing young professionals and recent college graduates who are well-matched to small-scale multifamily projects. These single, well-educated and childless individuals tend to be renters. And because of their sophisticated tastes, they are driving the creation of live-work-play communities that resemble well-established submarkets like Brickell in Miami and along Magnolia Avenue in Orlando. Residents who want to be close to entertainment districts are moving into the Southside submarket, which is close to downtown and the St. John’s …
JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — Lingerfelt CommonWealth Partners has acquired Riverplace Tower, a Class A, 28-story office building in Jacksonville’s central business district. The 425,223-square-foot tower is located at 1301 Riverplace Blvd. The property was built in 1967 and renovated in 1994 and 2005. Gate Riverplace Co., a subsidiary of Gate Petroleum, sold the office tower to Lingerfelt CommonWealth. Riverplace Tower’s tenant roster includes Rogers Towers PA, Rayonier Inc., Adecco USA and ClubCorp USA Inc. The buyer has selected a property management affiliate, CommonWealth Partners, to manage the property. JLL will handle leasing the property.
MIAMI — Miami-based Mayan Properties, 3H Group Hotels and Arti Hersi Inc. have teamed up to break ground on the new Hampton Inn & Suites in Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard corridor. The 151-room hotel will be located at the intersection of Biscayne Boulevard and Northwest 35th Street. The hotel will feature 4,400 square feet of street-level retail space and an eight-story parking garage. 3H Group Hotels will manage the hotel upon completion, which is slated for first quarter 2016. The design team includes architect Israel Bigelman, exterior architect Kobi Karp and interior designer Monioni Design. Michael Comras of Comras Co. will handle leasing the retail space.
MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. — Meridian Capital Group LLC has arranged a $25.5 million CMBS loan to refinance Crystal Lakes Apartments, a 491-unit multifamily community in Miami Gardens. The property is located at 2545 N.W. 207th St. near the Calder Race Track and Sunlife Stadium. Michael Brown and Brad Beattie of Meridian Capital Group’s Boca Raton office arranged the 10-year loan at a fixed 4,89 percent interest rate on behalf of the borrower, Ytech International. The loan features a 30-year amortization schedule and five years of interest-only payments.
STOCKBRIDGE, GA. — Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT II Inc. has purchased Spivey Junction, an 81,475-square-foot grocery-anchored shopping center in Stockbridge, a southern suburb of Atlanta, for approximately $11.7 million. The property’s tenant roster includes Kroger, Kroger Fuel Center, Great Clips, Workout Anytime, Domino’s Pizza, Subway, Goodwill and Miracle Ear. The seller was MK EP Spivey LLC, a Delaware-based limited liability company. As of Dec. 9, Phillps Edison Grocery Center REIT II owned and managed 17 grocery-anchored shopping centers totaling 1.9 million square feet.
MARIETTA, GA. — The Cooper Commercial Investment Group has brokered the $8.5 million sale of the Village at Old Trace shopping center, a 40,985-square-foot retail property in Marietta, a northern suburb of Atlanta. The property was built in 2006 and was 93 percent leased at the time of sale. Dan Cooper of Cooper Commercial’s Cleveland, Ohio office represented the seller, a private investment group based in Ohio. The buyer was a local entity.
MCDONOUGH, GA. — Ridgeline Property Group plans to develop a 714,560-square-foot speculative industrial building in McDonough, a city in the South Atlanta industrial submarket. The property, known as McDonough Commerce Center, will sit on a 53-acre site off the I-75 and Highway 155 interchange. Clarion Partners will be Ridgeline’s capital partner on the project, which is slated for a late summer 2015 completion. The facility will be able to handle large-scale distribution operations and e-commerce order fulfillment. Ben Logue and Price Weaver of Colliers International’s Atlanta office will lease the property. McDonough Commerce Center will feature 36-foot clear heights, 56-foot wide bay spacing, concrete truck courts, ESFR fire suppression, 431 parking spaces and 160 trailer spaces (expandable to 240 trailer spaces).
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — NXT Capital has provided a $33.9 million first mortgage loan for the acquisition of First Central Office Tower in downtown St. Petersburg. Proceeds from the loan will fund an extensive renovation plan, as well as tenant improvements and commissions for future leasing.
WINTER PARK, FLA. — Crossman & Co. has brokered the $24.8 million sale of Hollieanna and Oakley Center, a Publix-anchored shopping center in Winter Park, a suburb of Orlando. The 102,000-square-foot center was 98 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as Tuesday Morning, AAA, Moe’s Southwest Grill, T-Mobile and Sherwin Williams. Mark Thompson and Leah Harrington of Crossman & Co. represented the seller, a family in Indiana who had owned the center since its original construction in 1953. The property was redeveloped in 2011.