NEW ORLEANS — The Howard Hughes Corp. has sold the Outlet Collection at Riverwalk, an outlet mall near the Port of New Orleans. An entity doing business as Rockstep Riverwalk LLC purchased the property for $34 million. Outlet Collection at Riverwalk spans 264,000 square feet of open-air retail space and houses retailers such as Calvin Klein, Carter’s, Crocs, Gap Facory, Kate Spade, Levi’s, Nordstrom Rack, Polo Ralph Lauren, Samsonite, Tommy Bahama Outlet and Under Armour. Food-and-beverage tenants include Auntie Anne’s, Café Du Monde, Fat Tuesday, Green Leaf’s, Häagen-Dazs, Mandarin Express, Raising Cane’s, Smoothie King and Villa Italian Kitchen. Tom Salanty of NAI Robert Lynn represented Howard Hughes Corp., a publicly traded real estate owner and developer based in Houston, in the transaction.
BUFORD, GA. — RangeWater Real Estate has purchased 50 acres in the Atlanta suburb of Buford with plans to build two adjacent residential communities totaling 488 units. The properties include The Mabry, a build-to-rent community with 156 single-family homes, and The Margot, a 332-unit apartment community. The Mabry will feature three- to four-bedroom homes, each with its own backyard and patio. Amenities will include a pool, events lawn, dog park and a walking trail around a pond. The Margot will feature a garden, pool, outdoor kitchen, two dog parks and a clubhouse that will feature work and study pods and a coffeehouse open to the public. The communities will be located near Coolray Field, home ballpark of the Atlanta Braves’ Minor League Baseball affiliate Gwinnett Stripers, as well as The Exchange @ Gwinnett and Mall of Georgia. Additionally, RangeWater launched an in-house construction division called RangeWater Construction that will build both The Mabry and The Margot. Alp Kirmizioglu is overseeing the new division. RangeWater expects to begin construction in July for both communities, with first units slated to deliver in October 2023.
There is no denying in-migration is a driving factor in South Florida. Over 650,000 people moved to Miami at the height of the pandemic — nearly 89,000 came from out of state and a quarter of those came from New York. Year-over-year job growth is up 6 percent and is back at peak levels seen prior to the pandemic, while over 27 percent of employment is in office-using sectors for the first time ever. CBRE’s Spring 2022 Occupier Sentiment Survey revealed that most companies are back to developing long-term plans to expand or contract their office space now that employees are returning — at least some of the time — after two years of mostly remote work. For the second quarter in a row, net absorption in Miami totaled over 200,000 square feet, with the majority occurring in Miami’s central business district (CBD). Driven by expansions, Class A product accounted for approximately 85 percent of total absorption in the first quarter. The growth of Miami is starting to solidify as new-to-market tenants that looked to relocate to Miami during the pandemic are starting to move into their office spaces. Since 2020, over 1.3 million square feet of office leasing activity …
CUMMING, GA. — Green Brick Partners Inc., a homebuilding and land development firm, has purchased 152 acres in the Atlanta suburb of Cumming. The Plano, Texas-based company plans to develop a mixed-use campus valued at $400 million at the site named Sawnee Village. The development will include 474 detached and attached homes built by Atlanta-based Providence Group, as well as more than 250 apartments, 220,000 square feet of seniors housing and office and retail space spanning 106,000 square feet. The master-planned campus will be situated near Ga. Highway 400 and Lake Lanier, as well as close to the New Cumming City Center, Avalon, Halcyon and Northside Forsyth Hospital. Nelson Architecture is designing Sawnee Village, and Providence Group is managing the overall development. Green Brick, which owns a controlling interest in Providence Group, plans to break ground on Sawnee Village this summer.
SPRINGFIELD, VA. — Finmarc Management, a real estate investment and management firm based in Bethesda, Md., has purchased an 11-building portfolio from Boston Properties in Springfield for $127.5 million. The portfolio spans 740,000 square feet of industrial, flex/office and data center space in one- and two-story properties. Situated near Fort Belvoir and I-95, the portfolio was 74 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including ADT Security Systems, Avaya, SAIC, The Vomela Cos. and the U.S. General Service Administration (GSA). William Collins and Eric Berkman of Cushman & Wakefield represented Boston Properties in the transaction, and Finmarc was self-represented. Michael Zelin and Marshall Scanlon of Cushman & Wakefield, along with consultant Cliff Mendelson of Met Cap Advisors, arranged acquisition financing on behalf of Finmarc.
MIAMI BEACH, FLA. — A partnership between investors Pebb Capital and LeaseFlorida has sold Hampton by Hilton at The Continental, a historic hotel located at 4000 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach. The undisclosed buyer, a privately held limited liability company, purchased the 100-room hotel for $43.9 million. According to the sellers, the transaction marks the second-highest price per room sale in Hampton’s portfolio. The sellers invested $25 million to renovate the five-story property in 2016. The renovation included repositioning the property back to lodging and restoring its historic façade, the pool and its original reception desk. Built in 1948 as the Continental Hotel, the property served as a condominium community in the early 1990s before converting back to its original use. Situated one block from the Atlantic Ocean, the Hampton by Hilton hotel features a pool, fitness center and business center, as well as complimentary breakfast and to-go breakfast bags for guests.
LOXLEY, ALA. — Imperial Dade, a food packaging and janitorial supplies distributor based in Jersey City, N.J., has opened a new logistics hub in Loxley, a city in Alabama’s Baldwin County situated along I-10. The $20 million warehouse and office facility will support the company’s growing customer base in the Gulf Coast and create 55 new jobs. The Class A facility is situated on 29 acres and features a concrete tilt-wall construction. Zach Plevritis and Mary Mozejko led Imperial Dade’s integration team internally and worked with city and county officials for the project.
MEMPHIS, TENN. — Drapac Capital Partners, a real estate investment firm based in Australia, has sold a 23,362-square-foot retail property located at 2 N. Main St. in downtown Memphis. A flagship Walgreens occupies the bottom two levels of the property, and the top level is vacant space. Studio Capital, an investor and developer based in California, purchased the multi-story property for $2.7 million. Drapac Capital purchased the property in 2015 for $715,000. St. Bourke, a community placemaking and development firm, refurbished the property last year that included new windows, facades, finishes, paint, signage and entryways.
CHESTERFIELD, VA. — Danish toymaker LEGO Group has released plans for a 1.7 million-square-foot factory in Chesterfield, a southern suburb of Richmond. Over the course of 10 years, LEGO estimates it will invest $1 billion in the project and generate 1,760 jobs. Located on 340 acres, the project also includes a solar park that will produce 100 percent of the factory’s energy needs. Construction is scheduled to begin this fall, with full production beginning in 2025. The property will be LEGO’s seventh factory worldwide, its second in North America and its first in the United States. LEGO factories in Europe and China are also being expanded, and in December 2021, the privately held toymaker announced plans to build a factory in Vietnam to support further growth in Asia. The industrial expansion is part of the company’s goal to shorten supply chains and reduce its carbon footprint. The project is also designed to meet LEED Gold standards. “More and more families are falling in love with LEGO building, and we are looking forward to making LEGO bricks in the United States, one of our largest markets,” says Niels Christiansen, CEO of LEGO Group. “The location in Virginia allows us to build …
SNELLVILLE, GA. — Stan Johnson Co. has brokered the $97 million sale of The Shoppes at Webb Gin, an open-air shopping center in the Atlanta suburb of Snellville. Baltimore-based Continental Realty Corp. (CRC) purchased the 330,000-square-foot center, which was originally branded The Avenue Webb Gin when it was delivered in 2006 by Atlanta-based Cousins Properties. Margaret Caldwell and Patrick Kelley of Stan Johnson Co. represented the seller, New York City-based Olshan Properties, in the transaction. Sprouts Farmers Market, Barnes & Noble and DSW anchor the center, which offers 70 units across eight buildings. The property was 89 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including H&M, LensCrafters, Kirkland’s, Victoria’s Secret, American Eagle, LOFT, Chili’s Grill & Bar and Sephora. The center is situated on 48 acres, which includes available land for additional development along with a build-to-suit outparcel.