MCLEAN, VA. — Capital One served as a co-lender and the administrative and collateral agent for a $5.1 billion, adjustable-rate Freddie Mac warehousing facility. The borrower, Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, will use the loan to bridge the timing gap between the origination of 107 individual loans needed to fund Lone Star Funds’ acquisition of Home Properties Inc., a multifamily REIT, and the sale of these loans to Freddie Mac. Home Properties’ 107 communities are located in Illinois and on the East Coast from Maine to Virginia, and total 38,965 units. TD Bank and Wells Fargo participated alongside Capital One in the facility.
ARLINGTON, VA. — HFF has arranged $65 million in financing for Tellus, a 254-unit, 16-story mixed-use development in Arlington’s Courthouse neighborhood. Tellus is located at 2009 14th St. N. two blocks from the Courthouse Metro. Completed in 2014, the transit-oriented property offers views of downtown Washington, D.C., and has studio, one- and two-bedroom units averaging 789 square feet each. The LEED Gold-certified property features a rooftop swimming pool, indoor yoga studio, fitness center, business center, oversized courtyard, cyber café, 273-space parking garage and more than 13,300 square feet of street-level retail and office space. At closing, the residential portion of the property was 93 percent occupied. Sue Carras, Walter Coker and Brian Crivella of HFF worked on behalf of the developer, a joint venture between Jefferson Apartment Group and Erkiletian Development Co., to secure the 15-year, fixed-rate loan through TIAA-CREF. Loan proceeds were used to replace construction debt on the property, which is managed by JAG Management Co.
TYSONS CORNER, VA. — Cambridge Property Group LLC has brokered the $21.5 million sale of a 101,440-square-foot office building located at 1760 Old Meadow Road in Tysons Corner. Built in 1999, the Class A office building features a two-story marble lobby and a five-level parking garage connected to the building via a covered breezeway. The buyer, Galaxy Metro LLC, plans to make capital improvements to the property and rename the building Cambridge Metro Outlook. Galaxy Metro has also retained Cambridge Property Group to manage and lease the five-story property. Galaxy Metro purchased the asset from TIAA-CREF. HFF represented the seller, and Cambridge Property Group represented the buyer in the transaction.
Greater Richmond’s industrial market is as strong as it has been in a generation. Given the overall growth of the economy, including industrial employment and investment, it appears that the engines driving industrial economic growth will remain steady and the need for industrial real estate will continue to be steady. Greater Richmond’s industrial market is moving fast and on most cylinders, with the only laggard being pure speculative development of high-bay large block industrial and small incubation flex product. All other cylinders are pumping, including industrial and flex leasing, design build-to-suits, land sales, freestanding occupier building sales and investment sales. Absorption and general growth activity is coming not only from local existing companies and start-ups, but also by companies outside of the area looking to relocate or open additional facilities here. The flavor of the demand has been relatively diverse reflecting the Greater Richmond area’s stable economy and Mid-Atlantic location with its superior logistic opportunities. Economic Trends Greater Richmond’s population is nearly 1.3 million people, and total employment is more than 650,000 in the Richmond metro area. The diverse economy includes 10 Fortune 1000 headquarters; pharmaceutical, chemical, biotech and other 21st century manufacturers; financial and information technology services; Fifth District …
HAMPTON, VA. — MCR Development LLC has completed the renovation of the 149-room Hilton Garden Inn Coliseum Central in Hampton. The renovation included updates to the hotel’s guestrooms and common areas. Each unit received new furniture and design décor, and the pool, meeting rooms, event space and fitness center were updated. The hotel is located off I-64 and in close proximity to the Boo Williams Sportsplex, NASA’s Langley Research Center and the headquarters of Riverside Health System.
FREDERICKSBURG, VA. — Coldwell Banker Commercial Elite has brokered the $5.6 million sale of The Free Lance-Star’s headquarters in downtown Fredericksburg. The 90,000-square-foot office building is located at 616 and 620 Amelia St., and the property’s 2.9-acre parking lot, which is part of the sale, is located at 700 and 710 William St. Local developer William Vakos Jr. purchased the property. Sandton Capital Partners, owner of Free Lance-Star Publishing Inc., says the newspaper plans to continue to operate out of the building for another year. Ben Keddie and Heather Hagerman of Coldwell Banker Commercial Elite brokered the transaction.
This year is shaping up to be very exciting and productive for the Richmond retail market. The Richmond retail market has started at a brisk pace for the first half of 2015, similar to the end of 2014 as it absorbed 111,889 square feet. The vacancy rate has continued to decline over the past 12 months as well. The overall retail vacancy rate in Richmond tightened to 6.6 percent, a 50 basis point improvement over last year. The main drivers of retail activity throughout the Richmond MSA continue to be grocery stores, fitness centers and restaurants. Early this year we saw the commencement of construction at two Wegmans-anchored developments in Richmond, one in Short Pump and another in Midlothian. The Midlothian Wegmans will anchor the new Stonehenge Village and is on pace to open in early 2016. The Short Pump Wegmans will join Cabela’s in the new West Broad Marketplace, a 400,000-square-foot development on the western edge of Short Pump. There has also been solid activity in the market from several other grocers, including Walmart Neighborhood Market and Aldi. Each of these concepts has opened four new stores in the market. Another grocer poised to enter the market is LIDL, …
The Richmond metropolitan area, with a population of 1.3 million, is bursting with multifamily development. The growing MSA contains more than 72,000 apartments units (45 percent Class A) and has 2,018 units under construction with another 5,826 in various stages of pre-development. On top of all this activity, the overall market occupancy remains at 96 percent. The fuel for these conditions comes from the many amenities in the market, from the University of Richmond and a robust sports scene to the proximity to Atlanta, the Atlantic coast and Washington, D.C., as well as the encouraging employment picture. The city’s unemployment stands at 5 percent compared to the U.S. average of 6.3 percent; since 2000 the city’s population has grown by nearly 15 percent. These conditions allow property owners to leverage this diverse and sustainable market for multifamily investments. Richmond development also benefits from the attractive interest rates, which remain low despite having climbed 80 basis points since late January. Along with monitoring this upward trend, news earlier this month from the Federal Reserve of a rate hike will serve as a caution sign for investors. Whether we see this hike in the next couple of months, or not until 2016, …
TYSONS, VA. — Akridge and the Ronald D. Paul Cos. have acquired 1690 Old Meadow Road in Tysons, a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., for $7.6 million. The pair plans to redevelop the existing 13,000-square-foot training facility for GEICO into a 250,000-square-foot office building. Upon completion, the 11-story project will sit atop a five-story parking garage and offer ground-floor retail space and on-site amenities such as a conference facility, in-building wireless, a restaurant and a landscaped terrace with common space and bocce ball courts. The property sits directly across the street from the McLean Metro Station and planned Wegmans grocery store. KGD Architecture is designing the redevelopment. The sale of 1690 Old Meadow Road resulted from a tri-party agreement with GEICO and Merritt Properties. GEICO is relocating its current training facility to a new build-to-suit facility in Merritt’s Ashbrook business park in Ashburn, Va. Jeff Groh and Michael Blyumin of JLL represented GEICO, and Joseph Svatos of Akridge represented the buyers in the transaction. Andrei Ponomarev of Akridge represented GEICO in the development and construction phase of the project.
Richmond has become a multifamily safe haven with unemployment rates below the national average and the second-best annual rental returns in the nation at 20.42 percent. Richmond’s high annual returns are due in large part to its population. The city has become a mecca for young adults as 32.2 percent of the population is in its 20s and 30s — well above the national average of 22 percent. This population’s drive for an urban, walkable lifestyle is generating a great deal of development in the CBD, as well as the Manchester submarket where Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Institute for Contemporary Art is located. VCU’s art institute is the No. 1 art and design school in the country, and continues to draw in Millennials looking to take advantage of the open and historic downtown district surrounding the James River. Richmond’s flourishing, younger population is demanding adaptive re-use and new development and developers in Richmond are answering the call. Areas such as Scott’s Addition, Shockoe Bottom and Manchester have all seen new mid and high-rise developments in recent months that are attracting a plethora of new tenants. Highlights of Richmond’s apartment market include: • 1,000 units are currently under construction with an …