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BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. — A joint venture partnership between Rockefeller Group Development Corp. and MeadWestvaco Corp. will begin construction on a 1.1-million distribution center in the fourth quarter. Completion is slated for late next year. The warehouse will be located in the Rockefeller Group Foreign Trade Zone/Charleston near the interchange of Interstate 26 and Jedburg Road in Berkeley County. The tire company TBC Corp. will base its East Coast wholesale operations at the property. “We are excited about the opportunity to consolidate a portion of our distribution network to a new and larger facility in the Charleston area,” Erik Olsen, president of TBC, said in a press release. “The infrastructure and location of the Port of Charleston complements our growth and will allow us to meet the growing demands of our customers.” Access to the port will give TBC easy access to foreign suppliers, and the firm expects to bring thousands of containers through the port each year. The public/private effort involved participation from a number of government agencies in the Charleston area. Representatives from the state senate, the county government and the South Carolina Department of Commerce all assisted in getting TBC to the county. “From the state level …

CHICAGO — It seems that Chicago's notorious Block 37 project is poised to foil yet another developer, as Bank of America filed to foreclose on the property early last week. The lender claims that the project's developer, Chicago-based Joseph Freed & Associates, has been in default on its construction loan since March 2008 and currently has $128.5 million in outstanding debt. In a statement, Bank of America said, “We always work with our clients to help them resolve their financial issues and have done so in this case. We have been working with the developer for over a year to help them resolved their financial issues.” The lender goes on to suggest that a court-appointed receiver be put into place to manage the property and complete its construction. Joseph Freed & Associates counters that the suit lacks merit and that it intends to fight it. The developer insists that the retail portion of the project on track and has tenants lined up. In a written statement, the company calls the suit “a misguided action that could halt the project” and goes on to claim that “once shuttered, this project will be near-impossible to restart.” Bounded by State, Dearborn, Washington and …

YONKERS, N.Y. — Brooks Shopping Center LLC has secured a $135 million loan to go toward the ongoing redevelopment of Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers. The first-mortgage financing carries a 5-year term with a fixed interest rate. The lenders are Prudential and New York Life. The 1 million-square-foot Cross County Shopping Center opened in 1954 at the intersection of Cross County Parkway and the New York Thruway. As part of the center's $225 million redevelopment, the mall will be converted into an open-air shopping center. The existing Macy's is being expanded by 93,000 square feet, and new retailers are being added, including Bebe, AX Armani Express, H&M, Forever 21, American Eagle and Victoria's Secret Pink. Upon completion , which is slated for the end of 2010, Cross County Shopping Center will total 1.2 million square feet. “It is a great piece of property and one of the premier retail locations in Westchester County. It is irreplaceable,” says James Stifel, chief investment officer of Benenson Capital Partners and manager of Dollar Land Associates, both stakeholders in Brooks Shopping Center LLC. Other stakeholders in the mall's ownership include Merchants National Properties. Macerich Cos. is managing the redevelopment project. Estreich & Company, …

TAMPA, FLA. — Eola Capital is continuing to take advantage of a buyer's market in commercial real estate with its latest acquisition: International Plaza Four in Tampa. The 247,000-square-foot office building is located at 4301 W. Boy Scout Blvd. in the city's Westshore submarket. It is a Class A building and is also LEED-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. Eola Capital sponsored the joint venture IP4 Owner LLC, the recorded buyer in the transaction. IP4 Owner consists of multiple real estate investors, including Richard Corbett and Jim Heistand. The seller was Crescent Resources and the recorded sale price was $25 million. As part of the transaction, Eola will also take over asset manager duties for the property. This most recent acquisition marks a busy year for Eola. In February, the company acquired another Class A office building in Tampa. The 130,000-square-foot property is located at 500 N. Westshore Blvd. “We want to try to do the smart thing right now: buy an asset that is, long term, going to be a good hold and provide some benefits and synergies with our portfolio,” says Kyle Burd, principal and regional vice president with Eola Capital. “This building certainly does that, as …

CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS — Transwestern has brokered the sale of Portairs Shopping Center in Corpus Christi. The 118,281-square-foot neighborhood retail property is located at the corner of Ayers Street and Horne Road at 4100-4302 Ayers. The center is anchored by a 16,650-square-foot Bealls and a 10,908-square-foot CVS/pharmacy. Additional tenants include Ace Cash Express, Colortyme, Cricket, Family Dollar, Hollywood Video, H&R Block, IBR Plasma Center, La Michoacana Meat Market, Radio Shack, Rent-A-Center, Rent America and Sally Beauty Supply. Occupancy was 92 percent at the time of closing. Rudy Hubbard, Scott Carter and Leah Gallagher of Transwestern's Houston office represented the seller, Weingarten Realty Investors. A representative from Transwestern said that Weingarten has been in the process of disposing of some of its older centers over the past few years, choosing instead to focus its efforts on newer, well-anchored neighborhood and community centers located in major metropolitan areas with strong population growth and high barriers to entry. The disposition of Portairs Shopping Center fits in with this business strategy. The buyer in the transaction was Portairs Partners LP. The acquisition price was undisclosed. — Coleman Wood

MILWAUKEE — In what has become a longstanding partnership between the two groups, Marquette University has selected Opus North Corp. as the design-build contractor for its new College of Engineering building. The first phase of the $100 million project will include a five-story, 100,000-square-foot building. The highlights of the project include the Discovery Learning Laboratory, a high-tech laboratory for the creation of new equipment and technologies, and the two-story Engineering Materials & Structures Testing Laboratory, which will serve as a learning and research lab for undergraduate and graduate students. It will also feature a high-bay area for the testing of larger-scale components. Other features of the building include a four-story open stairwell with glass walls and a glass building exterior, both of which will allow views into the labs. The building will eventually connect with a 150,000-square-foot building containing classrooms, offices and additional laboratory space. Opus North is partnering with Opus Architects & Engineers, which will serve as architect of record. Additional design services are being provided by Hammel Green & Abramson. Site preparation has already begun, including the demolition of four university-owned buildings. The groundbreaking is slated for spring 2010, with initial occupancy planned for August 2011. “We have …

PARK RIDGE, ILL. — Park Ridge-based Newcastle Properties has acquired a portfolio of CVS/pharmacy stores for approximately $30 million. The portfolio contains nine stores located in six states. They include: 542 Providence Rd. in Brooklyn, Conn.; 6202 Commerce Palms St. in Tampa, Fla.; 301 S. Sixth Ave. in Wauchula, Fla.; 4700 Piedmont Pkwy. in Greensboro, N.C.; 2902 Forestville Rd. in Raleigh, N.C.; 4 Hall St. in Concord, N.H.; 885 Central Ave. in Albany, N.Y.; 1571 Forest Ave. in Staten Island, N.Y.; and 1402 E. Lake Mead Pkwy. in Henderson Nev. The stores in the portfolio range in size from 12,900 to 13,225 square feet, and all of them are located on sites ranging from 1.21 to 2.98 acres. All are subject to 25-year, triple-net lease agreements. Newcastle acquired the portfolio on behalf of SVC Equity Partners LLC, one of its investment affiliates. Representation for Newcastle was provided by Jeffrey Gurian of Highland Park, Ill.-based Becker & Gurian. The seller was not disclosed. Newcastle's affiliates now own and operate approximately 3 million square feet of commercial real estate in 20 states. — Coleman Wood

BOSTON — A new residence tower has opened at Boston University. Located at 33 Harry Agganis Way, the 26-story building totals 396,000 square feet. It provides housing for 962 students in apartments and suites, along with 20 resident assistance units and three faculty apartment units. Features of the building include two classrooms, collaborative study spaces, music practice rooms, a video room, student life offices and a multipurpose room on the top floor. Artwork from the College of Fine Arts will also be displayed in the lobby and second-floor gallery spaces. In designing the new residence tower, project architect Cannon Design made an effort to incorporate numerous sustainable features. The building contains bamboo ceilings and walls at the entry, a reflective roof, low-E coated glass, occupancy sensors for mechanical systems and low-flow water fixtures. The exterior of the building features a terra cotta/metal panel rain screen system that reduces the overall weight of the building façade, also reducing the amount of structural steel needed to support it. The new residence tower is located within the John Hancock Student Village, a master-planned student activity area that was also designed by Cannon Design. The 10-acre area is situated along the Charles River and …

BRENTWOOD, TENN., AND MCLEAN, VA. — McLean-based Sunrise Senior Living has entered into an agreement to sell a 21-property senior housing portfolio to Brentwood-based Brookdale Senior Living for $204 million. The portfolio contains six properties located in Ohio; four located in Indiana; two located in Connecticut and Pennsylvania; and one property each in California, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia. The communities comprise a total of 1,389 units, breaking down to 876 assisted living units, 421 Alzheimer's units and 92 independent living units. As part of the agreement, BLC Acquisitions, an affiliate of Brookdale that is making the purchase, has put $5 million in earnest money into escrow toward the purchase price. The transaction is expected to close on November 16. Brookdale will finance the sale with approximately $134 million in mortgage debt and pay the rest with cash on hand. Upon closing, Sunrise expects to record a gain of approximately $50 million. “This is another important step in our restructuring process and provides us with needed funds to pay down our bank line and with additional working capital. We are particularly pleased that our residents and team members in these communities will join a fine and …

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — A partnership of Net Lease Capital Advisors, a private investor and Rainier Capital Management has purchased Birmingham’s Social Security Administration Center from 8th and 14th LLC for $147 million. The LEED-Silver office building, which was completed in January 2008, stands eight stories tall and is complimented with a 1,750-space parking garage. The General Services Administration has a 20-year lease on the building, which serves as the Social Security Administration’s regional processing center in the Southeast. According to Net Lease, the transaction is the largest single-asset office sale in the Southeast this year. The seeds for the deal were sown in April when the building’s developer, Opus South Corp., filed for bankruptcy. Suddenly, the 587,528-square-foot Social Security Administration Center became an asset of Transamerica Life Insurance Co., which won the Section 363 bankruptcy auction. The firm then selected the buyer and provided financing for the purchase. Jay O’Meara and Will Yowell of CB Richard Ellis’ Atlanta office represented the lender in the transaction. Rob Jones of the firm’s Dallas office represented the buyer. The quality of the asset attracted more than 20 qualified buyers, Yowell says, because of the quality of the space and the stability of the …