CHICAGO — KTGY Group Inc. has opened a new office in downtown Chicago to expand its services in the Midwest. Veteran designers Craig Pryde and David Kennedy, both former principals of PPK Architects, will head the new studio. Pryde has designed and managed commercial and residential projects of all sizes, from new construction to renovation, adaptive reuse and expansion of existing buildings, including historical structures. Kennedy has extensive experience in the design of mixed-use residential projects and urban infill development projects, including large-scale commercial and low-, mid- and high-rise residential developments. The new office is located at 343 W. Erie St., Suite 220 in Chicago.
Detroit is in a state of transition. It’s a process that has been simmering for some time, but really began in earnest about five years ago. This article discusses some of the property types, developments and neighborhoods that continue to reshape downtown Detroit and offers some insight into what the city might look like in five to 10 years. Fueled by a strengthening economy, there is an air of excitement in the Motor City, and the development climate is increasingly vibrant. The nexus of development and redevelopment activity is occurring in the same places — Downtown, Midtown, New Center — that were at the core of the city’s renaissance a century ago. In some respects, today’s Detroit is reinventing itself in the same way. Residential leads the way The foundation of Detroit’s development resurgence is residential growth. People are continuing to move to Detroit to work and to live — a trend that has accelerated dramatically in the last few years with downtown apartment buildings reporting upwards of 98 percent occupancy. It’s a phenomenon that shows no real sign of slowing down. It’s also an important and natural first phase. With residential comes the corresponding demand for dining, retail and …
MILWAUKEE, WIS. — Hammes Partners has closed on Hammes Partners II LP, a U.S. healthcare real estate private equity fund. Milwaukee-based Hammes Partners received $430 million in capital commitments, significantly over its original target of $300 million. The Hammes platform is focused exclusively on U.S. outpatient healthcare real estate, including investments in existing assets, entitled development projects and adaptive reuse opportunities. Institutional investors that committed capital to the fund include endowments, foundations, pension funds, insurance companies, fund of funds and family offices.
ATLANTA — SWH Residential Partners (SWHR) has purchased 3.3 acres of land adjacent to the Atlanta Beltline in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood for $5.3 million. The land is an assemblage of three tracts that front North Avenue and is adjacent to the Historic Fourth Ward Park. The sellers include the Atlanta Development Authority (d/b/a Invest Atlanta), The Atlanta Beltline Inc. and Southeast Capital Cos. (SEC). SWHR and SEC are co-developing an eight-story, 220-unit luxury apartment building and a 4,500-square-foot restaurant at the site. On the north side of the land assemblage, SEC intends to repurpose two existing mill buildings as part of a 24,000-square-foot adaptive reuse. SWHR is a partnership between Worthington Hyde Partners, Soundview Real Estate Partners and John Tirrill.
CHICAGO — Demographic shifts such as the impact of retiring Baby Boomers and the rise of the Millennial generation will likely have the most significant impact on real estate for the long term, according to The Counselors of Real Estate (CRE), which recently released its 2015-16 Top 10 Issues Affecting Real Estate. Many of the issues on the list have strong interrelationships and affect multiple property sectors. Excess capital supply — funds largely flowing into U.S. real estate purchases from foreign institutional and private investors, and rising interest rates — was ranked second and third on the list. “This list reflects a higher degree of economic uncertainty than in years past,” says Noah Shlaes, 2015 CRE chair. “Anticipation of rising interest rates, continued currency devaluation, and excess capital flowing into the United States are all on the minds of our membership. Combine this with a growing wage gap and major changes in demographics, and we’ve got a lot to think about this year.” The CRE 2015-16 Top 10 issues Affecting Real Estate 1. Demographic Shifts: Two key demographics groups, large numbers of retiring “Baby Boomers” (born between 1946-1964) and the next large population wave, the Millennials (born between 1980-2000), will have …
CRAWFORDSVILLE, IND. — Flaherty & Collins Properties will break ground on Historic Whitlock Place, an apartment project located at 306 Binford St. in downtown Crawfordsville, a city northwest of Indianapolis, on Monday, June 8. An adaptive reuse of Culver Union Hospital, the project will offer 56 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartment units. Community amenities will include a community atrium, a community room with a television, a computer room with free Internet access and an exercise room with equipment. Completion is slated for late summer 2016. The project is a collaborative effort between Sustainable Solutions, Vision Communities, Flaherty & Collins, the City of Crawfordsville, Palma Architects and McKinley Development.
OXNARD, CALIF. – The 18-unit Oxnard Art Lofts has sold to 2201 Statham LLC for $2.9 million. The live-work complex is located at 2201 Statham Blvd. The project was 90 percent vacant at the time of sale. The project was an adaptive reuse of an old industrial building. The 25,610-square-foot complex contains units ranging from 978 square feet to 1,615 square feet.
One of the biggest stories in the hotel industry today is the growth of the boutique segment. Independent groups such as Ace Hotels, 21C, Grupo Habita and citizenM registered record growth in the last few years. Meanwhile, all the major brands have incorporated a boutique component. That trend was reinforced last December when IHG purchased Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants. For its part, Hyatt launched Andaz several years ago, and Marriott has rolled out the Autograph Collection, Moxy, EDITION and AC Hotels in the past few years. Even Best Western has unveiled its new urban boutique concept — Vib. I get the following question a lot: “Why should we invest in boutique hotels?” The conventional wisdom among investment funds tasked with finding hotel assets is to look for branded assets in the top five markets that are deemed less risky by pundits. However, some hotel investors don’t realize the substantial RevPAR (revenue per available room) premiums you can get with boutique properties over standard branded hotels. Among boutique properties, we’re seeing RevPAR premiums of 10 to 20 percent — sometimes 50 percent — over traditional hotels (see chart). Boutique hotels have less rigorous brand standards, if any at all, and offer …
VINCENNES, IND. — Flaherty & Collins Properties and Myszak + Palmer will host a grand opening ceremony for Clark’s Crossing, a senior living center in Vincennes on March 18. The property is located at 300 N. 6th St. Clark’s Crossing features 47 one- and two-bedroom apartment homes, which include fully equipped kitchens with energy efficient appliances, hardwood flooring, oversized closets, and washers and dryers. The project is an adaptive reuse of two historic buildings. The development used the sale of historic tax credits and rental housing tax credits to turn the two buildings into a senior living facility. A collaborative effort between Myszak + Palmer, Flaherty & Collins Properties, Vincennes Community School Corporation (VCSC), The Vincennes Education Foundation and Vision Communities, the project involved the reuse of the old Clark Middle School and Adams Coliseum. Part of the project included the restoration of Adams Coliseum, which included the addition of new, brighter lighting, painted bleachers and new windows at the historic gym. Adams Coliseum will be run by The Vincennes Education Foundation, and will include programming that will encourage resident and community interaction. Kuhl & Grant LLP provided legal services and McKinley Development LLC provided consulting services on the project. …
Industrial real estate market fundamentals in the Toledo, Ohio, area remained quite sound at the end of 2014. Most key indices showed stability or improvement. The most noteworthy statistic is the 2.3 million square feet of positive net absorption recorded in the second half of the year — the highest amount in recent memory. The lion’s share of the absorbed space can be attributed to the delivery of the 1.6 million-square-foot Home Depot warehouse in Troy Township. Even if the Home Depot deal is excluded from the data, the total absorption notched in the third and fourth quarters was impressive. Absorption would have been higher had the nearly 400,000-square-foot former Ace Hardware distribution center in Perrysburg Township not become vacant. In 2014, Ace announced that it would relocate its warehouse in the Columbus, Ohio area. Dearth of Suitable Space Despite the generally strong performance of the industrial real estate sector this past year, one senses that many of the players in the market are feeling some level of frustration. The frustration stems from the sentiment that things could be better — a result of the generally tight supply of buildings and the even tighter supply of the right types of …