NEW YORK CITY, LOS ANGELES, MIAMI AND CHICAGO — Queensgate Investments has acquired Freehand Hotels from a seller consortium including The Yucaipa Cos. and Sydell Group for approximately $400 million. Freehand is a lifestyle hotel brand, owner and operator of hotel assets with 922 rooms across four hotels in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, downtown Los Angeles, Miami Beach and River North Chicago. The brand advertises itself as combining the social culture of a hostel with top-shelf design, food and beverage. Included in the acquisition is the Broken Shaker bar concept that operates within the hotels. Generator, a hostel business that Queensgate acquired in 2017, will manage Freehand. Generator seeks to appeal to millennial customers, focusing on capital city addresses, design-led interiors and shared social spaces. “The acquisition of Freehand is of strategic importance to Generator, and the combined portfolio represents one of the largest asset-rich lifestyle hospitality platforms globally with 19 hotels in 17 gateway cities,” says Puneet Kanuga, investment director at Queensgate. “There is now a significant push to grow the presence of both Freehand and Generator across the United Kingdom and Europe, with opportunities currently being evaluated in London, Edinburgh, Milan, Amsterdam and other gateway European cities.” London-based Queensgate …
Western
As brokers, we are often asked our opinion on the local market. The topic seems to have garnered even more interest than normal as of late. There is a multitude of variables investors will point to as they attempt to define what is happening in the market. The new legislation coming down the pipeline has probably caused the biggest challenges to the local multifamily market. Nationally, there are a lot of people worried about a recession because of the inverted yield curve. However, a recession hasn’t occurred every time the curve has inverted. There is no crystal ball to look at and make our investment decisions, but I think the outlook for Portland is still rosy. What appears to be happening is we are going from a rising market to a more normalizing market. In a rising market, prices increase, buyer demand increases, velocity increases, yield spread narrows and inventory moves fast as investors speculate on the market. In a normalizing market, prices become more realistic for in-place yield, there are fewer buyers in the market, velocity drops and the buyer/seller gap widens, which causes assets to sit or not sell. This seems to be the case here in Portland …
RedHill Realty Investors Divests of 168-Unit Apartment Complex in Washington for $34.5M
by Amy Works
KENT, WASH. — RedHill Realty Investors has completed the sale of RedHill Pines, a garden-style multifamily community located in Kent. An undisclosed buyer acquired the property for $34.5 million. Located on more than 7 acres off Canyon Drive, RedHill Pines is a 10-building multifamily complex made up of the 98-unit RedHill Pines, which was built in 1980, and the 70-unit RedHill Pines North, which was built in 1988. The adjacent communities share a centralized clubhouse and leasing office. The communities offer a total of 168 units with an average unit size of 796 square feet, with private patios or balconies at each unit. Institutional Property Advisors, a division of Marcus & Millichap, represented the seller and procured the buyer. Additionally, IPA Capital Markets arranged $23.4 million in acquisition financing for the buyer. The 10-year loan features a fixed rate at 3.8 percent with five years of interest-only payments. Philip Assouad, Giovanni Napoli, Ryan Dinius and Sidney Warsinske of IPA handled the transaction, while Ray Allen and Seth Heikkila of IPA Capital Markets arranged the financing for the buyer.
SAN DIEGO — San Diego-based Sunroad Enterprises has completed the disposition of Sunroad Plaza, an office campus located in the Rancho Bernardo submarket of San Diego. Texas-based Virtus Real Estate Capital purchased the property for $19.9 million. Located at 11770 Bernardo Plaza Court, the 71,934-square-foot asset consists of one three-story building and one four-story building. The campus features on-site showers and lockers, executive conferencing facilities and 423 parking spaces. At the time of sale, Sunroad Plaza was 82 percent leased to a mix of government, medical and professional office users. Matt Pourcho, Anthony DeLorenzo, Gary Stache, Doug Mack and Bryan Johnson of CBRE represented the seller, while Lars Eisenhauer of CBRE represented the buyer in the deal.
OAHU, HAWAII — Hunt Capital Partners has provided $10.4 million in federal and state low-income housing tax credit financing, as well as federal solar tax credit equity financing, for the construction of Hale Makana O Maili in Oahu’s Waianae district. Upon completion, Hale Makana O Maili will feature 52 affordable housing units spread across six garden-style residential buildings. Construction began in late September, with completion slated for November 2020. The development team comprises the Hawaiian Community Development Board, Pacific Development Group and 3 Leaf Holdings. Moss & Associates is serving as general contractor and Mark Development will serve as property management for the project.
FORT COLLINS, COLO. — Landmark Properties has started construction of The Standard at Fort Collins, a 780-bed community serving students and young professionals near Colorado State University in Fort Collins. The community is set for completion in fall 2020. The property will offer studio, one-, two-, three-, four- and five-bedroom units. Shared amenities will include a rooftop swimming pool, coffee bar, study lounge, private study rooms, a 24-hour fitness center, clubhouse, grilling spaces and outdoor courtyards. Katerra is serving as general contractor for the project.
Marcus & Millichap Brokers Sale of 172-Unit Self-Storage Facility in California’s Inland Empire
by Amy Works
HIGHLAND, CALIF. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the acquisition of International Self Storage in Highland. A local investment company purchased the asset for an undisclosed price. The 17,905-square-foot International Self-Storage features 172 non-climate-controlled, drive-up units ranging in size from four feet by four feet to eight feet by 10 feet. Additionally, the property is fully fenced and equipped with security monitoring systems, including electronic gate access and individual alarms. The property also features an on-site manager’s office with residence. Keith Phillips of The LeClaire Group of Marcus & Millichap’s Encino, Calif., office procured the buyer, while the undisclosed seller was self-represented in the deal.
Portland’s office market is experiencing strong growth as it continues to benefit from an influx of Bay Area and Seattle tenants moving into the city. This is due to the relatively affordable rental rates and positioning between the two booming tech hubs along the West Coast. The city is seeing an increase of large tech tenants making their home in Portland, starting with Intel, which is Portland’s largest employer. Other companies, such a Genentech, Google, Oracle, Salesforce and many others have also taken up tenancy in the Portland Metro area. Seattle-based Amazon recently leased 83,995 square feet in Portland’s newest Class A office building, Broadway Tower, while Amazon’s AWS Elemental division leased 101,000 square feet in the former Oregonian headquarters, which is adjacent to Broadway Tower. The office market continues to perform well with a vacancy rate of 7.3 percent, beating out the 10-year average of 8.65 percent. All of these new companies making their way to Portland are creating substantial job opportunities for Portland’s ever-growing population. Portland is home to several large industry-leading companies, such as Nike, Intel, Columbia Sportswear and Adidas, which attract workforce talent across the world. This has helped spur the growth of Portland’s economy, which …
PORTLAND, HILLSBORO, ORE., AND SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO AND MILPITAS, CALIF. — Through its recently formed joint venture with GIC, Summit Hotel Properties has agreed to acquire four hotels located on the west coast for $249 million. The portfolio is located in three high-growth markets. The properties are the 258-key Residence Inn by Marriott Portland Downtown/RiverPlace in Portland; the 122-guestroom Residence Inn by Marriott Portland Hillsboro in Hillsboro; the 169-key Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco Airport North in South San Francisco; and the 161-room Hilton Garden Inn San Jose/Milpitas in Milpitas, Calif. The total purchase price of $249 million, or approximately $351,000 per key, represents an average capitalization rate of 8.4 percent based on management’s current estimate of the hotels’ net operating income for the full-year 2019. The joint venture plans to invest approximately $23 million of capital on the four hotels during the first three years of ownership. The pending transaction is expected to close in fourth-quarter 2019.
LOS ANGELES — An affiliate of San Francisco-based The Roxborough Group, in partnership with Los Angeles-based The Ruth Group, has completed the disposition of an office tower located at 5901 W. Century Blvd. in Los Angeles’ LAX submarket. A partnership led by North Sea Capital acquired the property for $45 million. Kevin Shannon, Michael Moore, Ken White and Sean Fulp of Newmark Knight Frank represented the seller, while the buyer was self-represented in the transaction. The 15-story tower features 306,243 square feet of office space along Century Boulevard. At the time of sale, the property was 92 percent leased. Along with recent building systems upgrades, 5901 Century was heavily rebranded and features a newly renovated lobby and common areas, an executive clubhouse, dog park and bicycle-sharing program. The seller acquired the asset in early 2017 and invested in excess of $8 million to renovate and reposition the property.