Denver was one of the top major metros targeted by commercial real estate investors in 2018. This year is proving to be no different as the third quarter closes out with a flood of office deals. Office investors are being forced to look for deals outside Denver’s urban core. Value-add acquisitions are mainly redevelopments driven by tenant demand for “cool” workspace and talent wars. There is no arguing Denver’s office market is maturing, but there appears to be no threats of an impending plateau or decline. The headlines this year have been dominated by large office lease transactions, including WeWork tying up 220,000 square feet at McGregor Square in LoDo. WeWork has taken a commanding stance with 2 million square feet in Denver and counting. Much of that space is dedicated to enterprise office space solutions and headquarters locations. This year has also marked the notable expansion of coworking outside of Denver’s urban core into Midtown, Cherry Creek and Southeast Denver. Occupancy levels within WeWork locations historically ebb and flow with direct vacancy rates per submarket performance. For example, WeWork at Civic Center Plaza in Upper Downtown Denver has been slow to fill with memberships and term. A WeWork desk …
MESA, ARIZ. — Lincoln Property Co. (LPC) and Harvard Investments has broken ground for the first office building at Union, a four-building, 1.3 million-square-foot office project at the junction of Mesa, Tempe and Scottsdale. Union’s first building will total 238,348 square feet spread across four stories, as well as an adjacent four-level parking garage. All the buildings planned at Union will feature a modern glass exterior, an active first floor, large office floorplates with high ceilings, outdoor balconies and 10-foot vision glass offering views of the surrounding city and mountains. Building One will connect to the larger Union master plans via a main pedestrian plaza and indoor-outdoor features such as shaded gathering areas and outdoor linked by the Rio Salado Pathway. Situated on 28.2 acres, the buildings will range from four to eight stories and from 232,000 square feet to 450,000 square feet. Completion of the first building is slated for October 2020. DAVIS is serving as project architect and Wespac is serving as general contractor. LPC will serve as the project’s leasing agent and property manager.
PHOENIX — Astoria Healthcare Properties has started construction of its first seniors housing community, The Retreat of Alameda in Phoenix. The Kansas-based developer specializes in ambulatory surgery centers, surgical specialty hospitals and medical office buildings. “Adding senior living as a product type is a natural extension for us,” says John Foudray, the company’s CEO. “Our expertise is developing healthcare facilities with the goal of providing higher quality care at a lower cost. Not only is the demand for senior living increasing, but the ability to provide a product that provides quality care at an affordable price is in greater demand.” The new development will offer 72 assisted living units and 38 memory care units in a 93,000-square-foot building. triARC Design provided design work on the project. Paradigm Senior Living will operate the community upon completion, which is planned for March 2021.
MESA, ARIZ. — CBRE has brokered the sale of Avia 266, a multifamily property located at 2354 W. University Drive in Mesa. Seattle-based Thayer Manca Residential sold the property to Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Geringer Capital for $45.2 million. Avia 266 features two swimming pools, a 24-hour fitness facility, resident clubhouse, an outdoor gaming space with a bocce ball court, parcel pending locker for resident packages and a dog park. The property features 266 one- and two-bedroom units with well-appointed kitchens, walk-in closets, full-size washers/dryers and private patios or balconies. Tyler Anderson, Sean Cunningham, Asher Gunter and Matt Pesch of CBRE’s Phoenix Multifamily Institutional Properties represented the seller in the deal.
SANDY, UTAH — KeyBank Community Development Lending and Investment (CDLI) has arranged $23.5 million of construction and permanent financing for Arcadia Apartments II, a 177-unit affordable multifamily project in Sandy. The borrower is Salt Lake City-based Wasatch Residential Group, a real estate development, construction, finance and asset management company. Arcadia Apartments II will feature 52 one-bedroom units, 82 two-bedroom apartments and 43 three-bedroom units. The property will be limited to residents making 60 percent or less of the area median income. The asset is adjacent to Arcadia Apartments I and will share access to amenities including a pool, hot tub and fitness center. The project was awarded a 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), and Enterprise Community Partners, the equity investor, is providing $15.6 million in LIHTC equity. Additionally, the property was awarded private activity bonds, which were purchased by KeyBank as a private placement. Sarah Geis of KeyBank’s CDLI team arranged the financing.
BOTHELL, WASH. — JLL has secured $19.9 million in refinancing for Nexus Canyon Park Research Center, a life science, flex and R&D property in Bothell, a suburb of Seattle. The borrower is San Diego-based Nexus Properties. Located at 21720 23rd Drive SE, the two-story Nexus Canyon Park Research Center features 152,050 square feet of space. Constructed in 1999, the facility recently underwent a partial conversion into flex industrial space. Current tenants include Epoch Pharmaceuticals, Sony Biotechnology, Sound Biologics and Shimadzu Scientific. Tim Wright, Zack Holderman, Zack Goodwin and Anthony Rosetta of JLL arranged the loan for a national lender on behalf of the borrower.
MENLO PARK, CALIF. — Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has committed $1 billion and will partner with the State of California to build 20,000 affordable workforce- and low-income housing units over the next 10 years. Many of the units will serve first responders and teachers who can’t afford to live in the communities they serve, according to a press release from Facebook. According to David Wehner, CEO of Facebook, a family of four making $100,000 in San Francisco is considered low income. “The issue of affordable housing affects people across middle-class and low-income families alike,” says Wehner. Facebook will invest $1 billion over the next 10 years as follows: $250 million to a partnership with the State of California for mixed-income housing on excess state-owned land in communities where housing is scarce. $150 million for production of affordable housing, including housing for the homeless, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Facebook will contribute to the Bay’s Future Fund, the affordable housing investment fund of Partnership for the Bay’s Future, to work toward a more livable, equitable and racially and economically diverse Bay Area. $225 million in land in Menlo Park. This is land Facebook previously purchased, that is now zoned for housing, on which …
LA MIRADA, CALIF. — Cushman & Wakefield has arranged the sale of an industrial infill project located at 14001-14051 Rosecrans Ave. in La Mirada. Clarion Partners, on behalf of a separate account client, acquired the property from Bailard Inc. for $76.8 million, or $228 per square foot. Spanning 14.4 acres, the two-building, 337,125-square-foot project features 30-foot clear heights, an ESFR fire sprinkler system, large truck courts and street frontage along Rosecrans Avenue. Jeff Chiate, Jeffrey Cole, Mike Adey, Ed Hernandez and Brad Brandenburg of Cushman & Wakefield’s Irvine, Calif., office represented the seller in the deal.
ALBUQUERQUE — Phillips Edison & Co. has completed the sale of Juan Tabo Plaza, an institutional-quality shopping center located at 11000 Montgomery Road NE in Albuquerque. Samco Properties purchased the asset for an undisclosed price free and clear of existing debt. Anchored by Walmart Neighborhood Market, Juan Tabo Plaza features 74,393 square feet of institutional-quality retail space in a mix of grocery, hair salon, restaurants, tax preparation and health tenants. The property has been institutionally owned and maintained since the seller acquired the asset in 2014. Chris Gerard, Ryan Shore, Aaron Johnson and Wesley Gilmer of JLL Capital Markets represented the seller in the deal.
SANTA ANA, CALIF. — San Ramon, Calif.-based Meridian has acquired a two-story office building, located at 3601 W. Sunflower Ave. in Santa Ana, for $20.3 million. The buyer plans to invest an additional $5 million in building improvements to convert the building into a medical office space. Situated on 4.8 acres, the 53,500-square-foot property was originally constructed in 2000 as a special-use building for a culinary and arts school. The school went bankrupt earlier this year, and the building was vacant at the time of sale. During escrow, Meridian secured its first tenant, a large healthcare provider, for roughly half of the building on a long-term lease. The buyer will market the second-floor space, approximately 26,000 square feet, to medical office tenants. Jon Sweeney of Long Beach, Calif.-based CXI Realty and George Thomson of Newmark Knight Frank’s Irvine, Calif., office represented the seller, a local private investor, in the transaction. John Scruggs and Justin Hodgdon of Newmark Knight Frank’s Irvine office represented the buyer. Scruggs and Thomson will manage the continued leasing of the building.