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MassachusettsMixed-UseNortheastRetailTop Stories

American Realty Advisors Purchases 400,000 SF Retail Center Near Boston for $206M

by Haisten Willis

WESTWOOD, MASS. — American Realty Advisors, an institutional real estate investment manager, has acquired the shops at University Station, a newly constructed, 400,000-square-foot retail asset in the Boston suburb of Westwood. Located within a 130-acre mixed-use development, the purchase price was $206 million. Wegmans, a regional supermarket chain, anchors the retail portion of University Station. Other tenants include Nordstrom Rack, Marshalls and PetSmart. “The average term of in-place leases for the property is approximately 15 years, while 95 percent of the asset’s total income is generated from its national tenant base,” says Shelley. “We believe these characteristics will provide stabilized, risk-adjusted returns for our investors over time.” University Station services a 13-town area with 214,700 residents and an average annual household income in excess of $121,000. The property is situated 15 miles from downtown Boston near I-95 and Route 128, which draw 140,000 vehicles per day. It is located across the street from the area’s sole Amtrak/MBTA commuter rail station, which transports 1.3 million travelers annually. New England Development will continue to serve as the management and leasing agent for the retail center. Robert Griffin Jr., who was with Cushman & Wakefield and is now with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, …

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GeorgiaMultifamilySoutheastTop Stories

Simpson Housing Acquires 370-Unit Luxury Apartment Complex in Atlanta for $136.5M

by Katie Sloan

ATLANTA — Simpson Housing LLLP has acquired The Residence Buckhead Atlanta, a 370-unit, high-rise apartment complex located in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, for $136.5 million. OliverMcMillan developed the property in conjunction with the company’s 300,000-square-foot mixed-use project, Buckhead Atlanta. The Residence encompasses two 20-story towers featuring a resort-style pool, fitness center, theater, study, conference room, demonstration kitchen and concierge service. The Buckhead Atlanta mixed-use development, located just around the corner, is largely focused on high-end fashion. Tenants include Hermès, Christian Louboutin, Tom Ford, Jimmy Choo, Warby Parker, Diptyque, Brunello Cucinelli, Flywheel, Doraku Sushi, Gypsy Kitchen, Le Bilboquet, The Southern Gentleman and Shake Shack. The project also contains 100,000 square feet of boutique office space serving as the corporate headquarters for Spanx Inc. Jason Nettles, Trey Morsbach and Megan Thompson of HFF represented the seller, OliverMcMillan, in the transaction. HFF previously worked on behalf of the developer to arrange construction financing for the project in 2013. OliverMcMillan has designed and developed more than 8 million square feet of projects, and currently has approximately $3 billion under development. Simpson Housing LLLP is a privately held developer and manager of residential properties throughout the U.S. — Katie Sloan

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Conference CoverageFeaturesGeorgiaRetailSoutheastTop Stories

Retailers Embracing Mixed-Use Projects, Technology to Reach Their Customers, Says CREW Atlanta Panel

by John Nelson

Around Atlanta and the rest of the country, there are few retail developments in the pipeline that aren’t attached to office or residential uses. During CREW Atlanta’s panel discussion titled “The Evolution of Retail,” experts agreed that retailers are embracing mixed-use projects out of necessity. “I’m not sure if in the near-term there will be any more retail-only projects. Retail alone can’t sustain a single development, it needs other users,” said Tisha Maley, founder and principal of The Maley Co., a retail real estate advisory company that spearheads the leasing efforts for Ponce City Market in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward district. The 2 million-square-foot adaptive reuse project is the gold standard of how retailers are integrating into larger multi-use developments to great effect. “Ponce City Market as an anchor of the BeltLine has changed Old Fourth Ward forever. What retailers are attracted to is that shoppers show up to Ponce City Market for one reason or another multiple times a week,” said Maley, referring to the office component of the development, as well as The Suzuki School and Core Power Yoga. “It’s about creating a place where retailers and restaurants can feel that they can do business.” In addition to …

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GeorgiaMultifamilySoutheastTennesseeTop Stories

Mid-America Apartment Communities to Acquire Post Properties in $4B Multifamily REIT Merger

by Nellie Day

MEMPHIS, TENN., AND ATLANTA — Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE: MAA) has agreed to acquire Post Properties (NYSE: PPS) in an all-stock deal that values Post, a developer and operator of upscale multifamily communities, at nearly $4 billion. The merger will create a Sunbelt-focused, publicly traded multifamily REIT. The acquisition brings together two multifamily portfolios totaling approximately 105,000 multifamily units in 317 properties. The combined company plans to focus on urban and suburban locations in large and secondary markets within the Sunbelt region, which stretches from coast to coast along the southern United States. The combined company’s 10 largest markets by unit count will be Atlanta; Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and Houston, Texas; Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C.; Orlando and Tampa, Fla.; and Washington, DC. Each share of Post common stock will be converted into 0.71 shares of newly issued MAA common stock, per the agreement. Former MAA equity holders will maintain about 67.7 percent of the combined company’s equity, while former Post equity holders will hold the remaining 32.3 percent on a pro-forma basis. The all-stock merger is intended to be a tax-deferred transaction. The combined company is expected to have a pro-forma equity market capitalization of about $12 billion, as …

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MultifamilyNew YorkNortheastRetailTop Stories

Extell Development, SMI to Develop 131-Story Central Park Tower in Manhattan for $3 Billion

by Christina Cannon

NEW YORK CITY — A joint venture between Extell Development Co. and SMI USA, the US subsidiary of Shanghai Municipal Investment, has unveiled plans to develop Central Park Tower, a $3 billion residential and commercial tower in Manhattan. When complete, it will be the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere, according to the developers. The 131-story building will feature condos and retail space, including Nordstrom’s first full-line location in New York. The retail space will serve as Nordstrom’s flagship store and will be its second largest location. The seven-story store will total 285,000 square feet, according to Bloomberg. Central Park Tower will be located along Billionaire’s Row on 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan and is slated to open in 2019. “We believe the superb location, views, design and quality of Central Park Tower will make it the most important residential building ever to be built in New York City and expect it to be a great success for Extell and SMI,” says Gary Barnett, founder and CEO of Extell Development Co. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, which designed the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and the future world’s tallest building, Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia, will serve as the architect …

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New JerseyNortheastOfficeTop Stories

Korean Investor Buys 760,000 SF Office Campus in New Jersey for $305M

by Nellie Day

PLAINSBORO, N.J. — Hana Asset Management Co., a Korean investor, has purchased a 762,000-square-foot office campus in New Jersey for $305 million. The Class A campus is located in Plainsboro, approximately midway between Philadelphia and New York City and nearby to Princeton University. The 58-acre property was originally built for Merrill Lynch in 1985. Novo Nordisk currently occupies 563,000 square feet of the campus, with expansion rights through April 2031, no termination rights and a 10-year renewal option. The pharmaceutical company has occupied the campus since 2013, when the property underwent a full redevelopment. The acquisition marks the largest single-asset sale in New Jersey so far in 2016, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group, which represented the seller. The firm’s Andrew Merin, David Bernhaut, Gary Gabriel and Brian Whitmer executed the transaction on behalf of a partnership between Ivy Equities, LCOR Inc. and Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. Ken Lorman of Lee & Associates represented the buyer. John Alascio, Alexander Hernandez and Alex Lapidus of Cushman & Wakefield Equity, Debt & Structured Finance’s team arranged acquisition financing and future funding for Novo Nordisk’s planned expansion at the campus. The campus is situated in the Princeton Forrestal Center …

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U.S. Payroll Change, July 2016
FeaturesTop Stories

Economists: Solid July Jobs Report Portends Future Good Times for Commercial Real Estate

by Jeff Shaw

For the second month in a row, U.S. nonfarm payroll employment experienced a big increase, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In June, employers added 287,000 net new payroll jobs, beating economist forecasts by more than 50 percent. The job gains in July generated more positive headlines, as employers added 255,000 new payroll jobs, once again blowing away economist forecasts that predicted 180,000. These numbers are especially welcome after a disappointing May, where job growth of 24,000 fell well short of predictions. REBusinessOnline asked two economists — Robert Bach, director of research for Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, and Ryan Severino, senior economist and director of research for Reis — what this news means for the commercial real estate industry as a whole. REBusinessOnline: The employment data has looked fairly healthy in the last few months. Yet, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) increased at a 1.2 percent annual rate in the second quarter (subject to revision), which isn’t terrific. What are we to make of these seemingly mixed signals about the health of the economy? Ryan Severino: GDP has never been the best measure of the health of the economy. That’s not really what it was intended to do, though …

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GeorgiaIndustrialSoutheastTop Stories

Adidas to Open Shoe Factory in Metro Atlanta, Move Production from Asia

by Haisten Willis

ATLANTA — German sportswear brand Adidas has announced plans to open a new footwear production site in the Atlanta area in 2017, eventually bringing part of the company’s manufacturing from Asia to the United States. The facility, which will be known as adidas Speedfactory, is designed to allow the company to create products more quickly and closer to U.S. consumers using a highly automated process. The 74,000-square-foot facility will be located in Cherokee County, a suburban area roughly 30 miles northwest of Atlanta. It is scheduled to open in the second half of 2017 and will produce 50,000 pairs of shoes a year while employing 160. The U.S. factory will complement another Speedfactory facility operating in Germany. Adidas’ strategic partner Oechsler will operate both the U.S. and German facilities. Adidas is headquartered in a small town in Bavaria. The company is publicly traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol ADS. Its parent company, Adidas Group, includes several other sports-goods brands such as Reebok and TaylorMade. — Haisten Willis

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CaliforniaHospitalityMixed-UseTop StoriesWestern

Waldorf Astoria to Anchor 2 MSF Mixed-Use Complex in San Francisco

by Katie Sloan

SAN FRANCISCO — Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts — Hilton’s (NYSE: HLT) luxury hotel arm — has unveiled plans for the new Waldorf Astoria San Francisco, which will anchor a 2 million-square-foot, mixed-use complex located on Mission Street in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. The hotel will occupy the first 21 stories of a mixed-use tower designed by architecture firm Foster + Partners. Hirsch Bedner Associates will be in charge of designing the interior. Amenities at the Waldorf Astoria San Francisco will include a spa and “Peacock Alley” restaurant offering San Francisco-inspired cuisine and libations. Development costs and a completion date for the project have yet to be announced. The new development will be located at the center of a vast redevelopment project surrounding the Transbay Transit Center. The Transbay Center District and Redevelopment Plans include more than 6 million square feet of new downtown office space; 4,400 units of new housing, 1,200 of which will be affordable; approximately 100,000 square feet of new retail space; and nearly 1,000 new hotel rooms. The redevelopment of the Transbay area will also incorporate more than 11 acres of new public parks and open space, including a 5.4-acre rooftop park at the Transit Center …

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The 807,137-square-foot CNA Center in Chicago.
FeaturesLoansTop Stories

Lending Community Remains ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ in Approach to Underwriting Deals

by Christina Cannon

Commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations during the first quarter of this year were flat overall compared with the same period in 2015, reports the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The MBA’s Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations also shows that the first quarter saw a 44 percent year-over year increase in the dollar volume of loans for retail properties and an 18 percent increase for office properties. Meanwhile, the dollar volume of loans for the hotel and multifamily sectors — two of the hottest property types among investors in recent years — rose only 3 percent and 2 percent respectively during the first quarter. On the flip side, the dollar volume of loans for healthcare and industrial properties during the first quarter plunged 57 percent and 56 percent, respectively. “In the aggregate, commercial real estate borrowing and lending started 2016 in a similarly strong fashion to 2015,” says Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s vice president of commercial real estate research. “Borrowing backed by retail, office, hotel and multifamily properties picked up, as did lending by banks. Disruptions in the broader capital markets pushed originations for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) down. Across property types and investor types, changes in regulation and broader market conditions …

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