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AUSTIN, TEXAS — A joint venture between Generational Commercial Properties and Fairway Real Estate has received $124 million in construction financing for Zilker Point, a 207,000-square-foot office development in Austin. The project, which is located at 218 South Lamar Blvd. in the city’s Central Business District South, will offer 192,000 square feet of office space across the building’s top six floors upon completion. The development will also feature 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and amenity space and 635 parking spaces.  Building amenities are set to include a 3,600-square-foot rooftop deck with views of the downtown Austin skyline; a 1,240-square-foot fitness center with men’s and women’s showers and lockers; an art gallery with exhibitions by local artists; bike storage; and a courtyard with shaded seating, an outdoor bar and a live music stage. Zilker Point is located across from Lady Bird Lake and adjacent to hiking and biking trails including the Barton Springs Road Bike Trail, Barton Creek Greenbelt Trail and West Bouldin Creek Preserve Trail. The development was designed to meet the WELL Building Standard and will include open floor plans with expansive window walls, an advanced hybrid HVAC system, a clean air system with hospital-grade filtration and touch-less technology. …

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BOSTON — Electra America Hospitality Group (EAHG) has acquired the 225-room Loews Boston Hotel in the heart of Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. The purchase price was undisclosed. The buyer plans to rebrand the upscale asset as Hotel AKA Back Bay, marking hospitality operator AKA’s debut in the city. Built in 1925 and located at 154 Berkeley St., the historic stone and masonry building served as the headquarters of the Boston Police Department from 1926 to 1990. The property is situated near many of Boston’s cultural attractions as well as its colleges and universities. The new owner plans to invest roughly $20 million in design upgrades and renovations, which will be undertaken while the hotel remains open. The 222 guestrooms, two suites and penthouse suite will undergo a soft design update. The lobby will feature a library with an intimate seating area. Additional enhancements include a second-floor fitness center, spa, theater and a newly imagined rooftop. Renovations will also be made to the hotel’s restaurant, Precinct Kitchen+Bar, which serves classic American dishes and New England seafood. The restaurant will feature a whiskey cellar, wine tasting room and a new private dining room with a spiral staircase. The acquisition marks EAHG’s sixth …

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Mesirow, a financial services firm based in Chicago, has provided the $275 million refinancing for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) headquarters offices in Washington, D.C. Located at 300 E St. SW, the nine-story office building spans more than 600,000 square feet and was built in 1991, according to LoopNet Inc. The borrower is a partnership between Hana Alternative Asset Management and Ocean West Capital Partners. Proceeds from the financing provided the partnership with fixed-rate debt that is interest-only for the full term. The loan has a 2028 maturity date, which is coterminous with NASA’s lease. With the funds, the Hana and Ocean West partnership is recapitalizing its equity interest at the property, which is subject to the sixth-largest lease by the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal government’s independent agency that oversees certain operations like office and research space. (The GSA is the leaseholder for NASA.) Mesirow served as placement agent and administrative agent on the financing. Cushman & Wakefield arranged the financing on behalf of the borrower and negotiated terms between the borrower and Mesirow. Mesirow was founded in 1937 and offers credit tenant lease and structured debt products to borrowers. The company’s services …

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TAMPA, FLA. — JLL has provided $262 million in Freddie Mac loans for the refinancing of a portfolio of six Southeastern multifamily properties totaling 1,494 units. Tampa-based Carter Multifamily owns the properties, which are located in Maryland, Virginia and Alabama. The portfolio comprises all garden-style assets, including: the 326-unit Park at Kingsview Village in Germantown, Md. the 240-unit Stonecreek Club in Germantown, Md. the 336-unit Hunt Club in Gaithersburg, Md. the 220-unit Springwoods at Lake Ridge in Woodbridge, Va. the 180-unit Windsor Park in Woodbridge, Va. the 192-unit Oaks of St. Clair in Moody, Ala. Melissa Marcolini Quinn and Lee Weaver of JLL originated the debt through Freddie Mac. Each of the loans was features a seven-year term and a floating interest rate. JLL, which will service the loans, also secured $40 million in new equity as part of the larger recapitalization of the portfolio. The equity partner was not disclosed. “Despite turbulent debt markets, we were able to facilitate a refinance of the portfolio with favorable senior financing from Freddie Mac, which was attracted to the deal due to the portfolio’s contribution to its mission and the borrower’s strong track record,” says Quinn. — Taylor Williams

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BOULDER, COLO. — Breakthrough Properties, a developer of life sciences real estate backed by a joint venture of Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital, has acquired a 9.3-acre, four-building campus in Boulder. The company plans to transform the campus into a 164,000-square-foot office, lab and flex development named Boulder 38 by Breakthrough. Located at the intersection of 38th Street and Arapahoe Avenue, the campus is one mile from Jennie Smith Caruthers Biotechnology Building, a 400,000-square-foot research and technology facility at the University of Colorado Boulder. Research conducted at the university and the surrounding ecosystem has established Boulder as a regional bioscience hub. According to CBRE market report data, the Boulder life sciences market has maintained approximately 1 million square feet of active life science requirements over the past 18 months. “Boulder has succeeded in cultivating a unique ecosystem propelled by leading research and academic institutions, creative residents and premier outdoor recreational amenities,” says Paul DeMartini, senior managing director of Tishman Speyer. “We are excited by this opportunity to create a world-class research campus that will serve as a magnet for life sciences innovation and talent.” The acquisition and redevelopment of Boulder 38 is being capitalized by the Breakthrough Life Science Property …

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NEW YORK CITY — A joint venture between two New York City-based investors, Turnbridge Equities and Fundamental Advisors LP, has sold its five-building Northern Virginia Cybersecurity and Defense Infrastructure office portfolio for $220 million. The buyer was undisclosed. The joint venture began assembling the 860,000-square-foot portfolio in 2018 with the goal of mitigating rollover risk related to single-tenant occupancy by creating a multi-tenant portfolio with staggered lease terms. The properties were 96 percent occupied at the time of sale by tenants that include Lockheed Martin Corp., General Dynamics Corp., Boeing and Northrop Grumman Corp.   The portfolio includes a 205,074-square-foot property at 460 Herndon Parkway in Herndon; a 84,652-square-foot property at 14700 Lee Road in Chantilly; a 112,623-square-foot building at 21700 Atlantic Blvd. in Sterling; a 184,414-square-foot property at 12450 Fair Lakes Circle in Fairfax; and a 273,713-square-foot complex located at 10302 and 10304 Eaton Place in Fairfax. Eric Berkman, Shaun Weinberg and Kevin Sidney of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller in the transaction.   “Cybersecurity is among the fastest growing areas of government contracting, and the portfolio was assembled to take advantage of these trends with a strong roster of leading tenants that are immune to work-from-home trends …

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CHINO, CALIF. — Lewis Retail Centers has unveiled plans to build Town Center at The Preserve in Chino, a city in Southern California. The retail and office development, which will span 169,590 square feet, is slated to open in summer 2023. Town Center at The Preserve will be situated within a master-planned community named The Preserve at Chino and adjacent to multifamily units. The pedestrian-friendly development will feature Main Street-oriented retail space, as well as open spaces for gatherings and events. The office space will be positioned on the second level, above the street-level retail space. KTGY is the project architect. Stater Bros., a privately held supermarket chain based in San Bernardino, Calif., will serve as the grocery anchor tenant. The store will span 46,109 square feet and will feature full-service meat, seafood, deli and bakery departments. The store marks the third location for Stater Bros. in Chino. Additionally, Kenwood’s Kitchen and Tap, a family-owned and operated restaurant and bar serving American comfort food, will open at Town Center at The Preserve in fall 2023. The restaurant marks the second location for Kenwood’s. Other food-and-beverage tenants committed to the development include 7 Miles Tea Lab and Chipotle Mexican Grill. Ken …

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PLEASANT PRAIRIE, WIS. AND NORTH CHICAGO, ILL. — EQT Exeter, a global industrial and residential investment firm, has purchased an eight-property industrial portfolio in Wisconsin and Illinois totaling 3.8 million square feet. CenterPoint Properties, a warehouse and distribution center investor and developer based in Oak Brook, Ill., and an unnamed investment partner sold the portfolio to EQT Exeter. John Huguenard and Kurt Sarbaugh of JLL represented CenterPoint in the transaction. The sales price was not disclosed, but the Milwaukee Business Journal reports the assets traded for $290 million. The properties include seven facilities within the master-planned LakeView Corporate Park in Pleasant Prairie, which is situated near I-94 and provides users with connectivity to population centers in Milwaukee 40 miles north and Chicago 60 miles to the south. The lone Illinois asset was a facility located at 3200 Skokie Highway in North Chicago. The eight properties were fully leased at the time of sale to nine tenants. The facilities feature clear heights averaging 32 feet, ample loading options and fully circulating truck courts. “In these times of economic uncertainty, we are even more focused on selectively buying high-quality and well-located real estate like LakeView to serve our global tenant relationships,” says …

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CINCINNATI — A partnership between two regional developers, Indiana-based Trinitas Ventures and Ohio-based Crawford Hoying, has started construction of the $250 million second phase of The District at Clifton Heights, a mixed-use project in Cincinnati. The District at Clifton Heights is located across the street from the University of Cincinnati at the site of the former Deaconess Hospital. The first phase of the project centered on construction of The Deacon, an eight-story, 351-bed student housing building that opened in August 2019. Development costs for all phases of the project are estimated at $640 million. The largest piece of the second phase also revolves around student housing. Chicago-based Core Spaces is leading the development of a 14-story tower that will feature 1,112 beds across 380 units. Branded Hub Cincinnati, the project is scheduled for completion in advance of the fall 2024 semester. The other major component of the second phase involves the development of Hotel Celare, a $65 million project. The hotel will rise seven stories, house 171 rooms and 18,000 square feet of meeting space and feature a rooftop bar overlooking the campus entrance. Crawford Hoying is leading the development of the hotel, which is slated for a summer 2024 …

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NEW YORK CITY — Walker & Dunlop Inc.’s New York capital markets team has arranged $388.4 million in construction financing for The Brook, a mixed-use development in downtown Brooklyn consisting of 448,000 rentable square feet of multifamily and retail space. Bank of America provided the funds. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Inc., which is managed by an affiliate of Apollo Global Management, and Witkoff are developing the property at the cross-section of Fulton Street, Flatbush Avenue Extension, and DeKalb Avenue, next to Brooklyn landmarks such as the Fulton Mall and the Barclays Center. The mixed-use property will be split between two development sites, with the eastern site located at 565 Fulton St. and the western site at 547-557 Fulton St. The eastern site will consist of a 51-story mixed-used tower that will feature 561 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartment units utilizing the Affordable New York and Inclusionary Housing programs, as well as approximately 30,000 square feet of common space. Amenities will include a pool with cabanas, dog park, fitness center, half basketball court and multiple resident lounges. The base of the building will feature 17,200 square feet of ground-level retail space. The western site will consist of approximately 14,000 square feet of retail space next to Albee Square and is poised to attract retail brands and wholesalers looking to establish or strengthen their foothold in Brooklyn. …

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