RICHMOND, VA. — Capital One Multifamily Finance has provided a $12.7 million Fannie Mae loan to refinance Wilde Lake Apartments, a 190-unit apartment community in Richmond. Sadhvi Subramanian and Mike Antonelli of Capital One originated the 10-year loan with a 30-year amortization schedule on behalf of the borrower, an affiliate of Lerner Enterprises. The property’s amenity package includes a pool, fitness center with a sauna, tennis courts and a clubhouse with a billiards room.
RICHMOND, VA. —Thalhimer Realty Partners Inc. has purchased Cornish Brewery and the Kinney Street Apartments in Richmond for a combined $4.6 million. The two apartment communities total 49 units and are located on Virginia Commonwealth University’s Monroe Park Campus. Mac Wilson of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer represented Thalhimer Realty in the transaction. Thalhimer Realty has tapped Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s student housing management group to manage the two properties. Thalhimer Realty Partners is the investment and development subsidiary of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer.
CHANTILLY, VA. — NAI KLNB has brokered the $60.5 million sale of a five-building office portfolio totaling 318,000 square feet in Chantilly, roughly 30 miles west of Washington, D.C. Hayden Maguire Real Estate Fund purchased the portfolio, which is located in Avion Business Park, from JPMCC 2006-CIBC14 Chantilly Office LLC. The Class A properties included MidRise I at 14500 Avion Parkway; MidRise II at 14520 Avion Parkway; Service Center III at 3650 Concorde Parkway; Avion Tech Center II at 14700 Avion Parkway; and Avion Tech Center III at 3635 Concord Parkway. Avion Business Park was originally developed by Trammell Crow Co. between 1987 and 2001. Kevin Goeller, Chris Kubler and Josh Simon of NAI KLNB, along with C-III Realty Services LLC, represented the seller in the transaction.
HAMPTON AND NEWPORT NEWS, VA. — ARA has brokered the sale of a three-property apartment portfolio in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia totaling 641 units. The assets include Bridgewater on the Lake and Lake Ridge Apartments in Hampton and the Reserves at Arboretum in Newport News. Mike Marshall, Drew White and Wink Ewing of ARA represented the seller, Berkshire Property Advisors, in the transaction. The buyer was Charlotte-based Ginkgo Residential.
ARLINGTON, VA. — Kettler is planning to develop an 11-story, 198-unit high-rise apartment community in Arlington’s Crystal City neighborhood known as m.flats Crystal City. Capital One is providing construction financing for the project. KTGY Group Inc. has designed m.flats Crystal City to meet LEED Silver certification. The transit-oriented development will be located one block from the Crystal City Metro station and will feature a resident lounge with a gaming area, fitness center, street-entry bike room, landscaped courtyard with fire and water features, outdoor seating and dining areas, outdoor kitchens and a swimming pool with a sundeck and cabanas. The project team includes civil engineer Bohler Engineering and general contractor John Moriarty & Associates. The property will be Kettler’s sixth multifamily project in the Crystal City/Pentagon City market. Kettler is expecting to break ground this month and wrap up in October 2016.
STERLING, VA. — NAI KLNB has brokered four leases totaling 180,000 square feet at Airport Commerce Center, a five-building, 408,000-square-foot industrial park in Sterling, near the North Gate of Washington-Dulles International Airport. With these four lease transactions, the industrial park is now 100 percent occupied. Marc Tasker and Kevin Goeller of NAI KLNB represented the owner, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, in all four lease transactions. The leases consisted of Eastern Motors signing a lease for 77,488 square feet at 22705 Commerce Center Court, with Bob Gibbs of CBRE representing the tenant; ViON Corp. signing a lease for 42,766 square feet at 22704 Commerce Center Court, with Chet Rao of NGKF representing the tenant; Cardinal Bakery signing a lease for 36,122 square feet at 22704 Commerce Center Court, with Bob White of Landmark Commercial representing the tenant; and Simplex Grinnell signing a lease for 23,787 square feet at 22712 Commerce Center Court.
RICHMOND, VA. — Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer has brokered the $1.9 million sale of a 15,220-square-foot retail strip center located at 7601 W. Broad St. in Richmond. C. Richmond Properties LLC purchased the asset from HM Real Estate Holding LLC. The strip center was fully leased at the time of the sale. Catharine Spangler and Bruce Bigger of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s capital markets group represented the seller in the transaction.
The first half of 2014 has produced a tremendous amount of activity in the Richmond retail market. The vacancy and unemployment rates have both seen a reduction within the past 12 months. The overall vacancy rate for retail in Richmond is 8.3 percent, down from 8.6 percent this time last year, and unemployment is down 70 basis points to 5.6 percent for the same period. The main drivers of activity throughout the Richmond MSA are grocery stores. The most impactful announcement is Wegmans committing to open two stores in the market, one in Short Pump and one in Midlothian. Another newcomer to the market is A Southern Season, a gourmet food emporium based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. A Southern Season will open a 53,000-square-foot gourmet food emporium in the new Libbie Mill at MidTown development. The grocer’s offerings include cooking classes, a restaurant, gift baskets, accessories, cookware, and a large selection of specialty food items. Libbie Mill is a mixed-use project that Gumenick Properties LLC is developing on Staples Mill Road near Willow Lawn. Kroger has also been active in Richmond with two new Marketplace format stores in the last 12 months and a third to-be-built in Colonial Heights. …
Did Richmond get hip while you weren’t looking? If you missed all of the skinny jeans, slim-fit plaid, tattoos, beards and craft breweries, then you were not paying attention. Is there a correlation between the amount of breweries, luxury apartments and historic rehabs? Maybe, but something is happening here and it has little to do with Richmond’s former designation as the Capital of the Confederacy and more to do with a vibrant and diverse culture, native-brick buildings, the James River, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and a great quality of life. Millennials are flocking here and Richmond has gotten cooler (i.e. better) every year, albeit somewhat slowly. In terms of apartments, there are several hotspots in the area that continue to be, or are becoming, destinations to live, work, shop and play, and multifamily developments are leading the way. Shockoe Bottom is booming, Manchester is coming to life, Scott’s Addition & Boulevard could become Richmond’s SOHO, Short Pump is moving into Goochland County and does not seem to be stopping anytime soon, and Chesterfield County, once you get around the cash proffers, continues to surprise. Richmond has just over 70,000 units and a very stable vacancy rate of 4.5 percent. Class …
Hampton Roads, the grouping of cities clustered around the meeting of the Atlantic Ocean, the Chesapeake Bay and the Intracoastal Waterway, is long known for its huge and vital military installations, and its tremendous maritime/shipping industries. The Port of Virginia is one of the busiest ports on the Eastern Seaboard, and is about to become even busier. At the end of the second quarter of 2012, the port posted a 7.2 percent year-over-year increase in cargo. Furthermore, with the widening of the Panama Canal, there will be a new breed of container ships carrying vastly more cargo than conventional ships. Only a few ports will be able to handle those ships, and Hampton Roads is the first to be ready. This increase in container shipments through our 55-foot, ice-free harbor will be an economic boon for Hampton Roads. The military has had, and will continue to have, a major impact on the local economy. However, there has been a concerted effort among all the cities of Hampton Roads to diversify the economic base. Technology-driven industries, including healthcare, modeling and simulation and research and development are all growing industries in the region. Seven of the world’s 10 largest aerospace and defense …