HOBOKEN, N.J. — Locally based intermediary G.S. Wilcox & Co. has arranged a $5.4 million loan for the refinancing of a 48,268-square-foot retail and healthcare property in the Northern New Jersey community of Hoboken. The property was fully leased at the time of the loan closing to a pharmacy, bank and a primary care provider. David Fryer of G.S. Wilcox arranged the loan, which carried a seven-year term with full-term interest-only payments, through an undisclosed life insurance company. The name of the borrower was also not disclosed.
Amid a slump in investment sales volume, investors eagerly welcomed the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut in September. The half-percentage point decrease was more than what many in the industry had anticipated, but Fed Chairman Jerome Powell recently indicated that additional rate cuts this year will likely not be as aggressive. The move by the Fed came after a spike in the federal funds rate from near zero in March 2022 to a range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent in July 2023 — a period during which the central bank raised the federal funds rate 11 times. Ultimately, the higher interest rate environment has led to a major slowdown in the sales volume of net lease properties this year, says Randy Blankstein, president of The Boulder Group based in Wilmette, Illinois. “Transaction volume is down approximately 60 percent from 2022 levels,” he says. In a net lease transaction, the tenant pays a portion or all of the taxes, insurance fees and maintenance costs for a property in addition to rent. For the 12-month period that ended in June, net lease investment volume across property types decreased by 34 percent from the same period a year ago to $35.4 billion, according …
ATLANTA — Entertainment retail concept The Game Show Challenge has signed a 3,889-square-foot lease at Lee + White, an adaptive reuse development located in the West End of Atlanta. Kelly Wilson of Ackerman Retail arranged the lease on behalf of the developers, Ackerman & Co. and MDH Partners. Located in Building 1000, the space will feature two studios with interactive games. The venue is scheduled to open later this year and marks the third location for The Game Show Challenge, which also operates outposts in Columbia and Greenville, S.C. Ackerman & Co. and MDH Partners acquired the Lee + White mixed-use property, which totals 442,562 square feet, in 2019. The latest phase of development includes a food hall, creative office space, retail space and a “Great Lawn” with gathering and event space.
HOBOKEN, N.J. — Locally based intermediary Cronheim Mortgage has arranged a $1.6 million loan for the refinancing of 40 Hudson Place. The property, the square footage of which was not disclosed, was originally constructed in 1935 and was fully leased at the time of the loan closing to two tenants: Dunkin’ and Pump Pilates. Brandon Szwalbenest, Dev Morris and Andrew Stewart of Cronheim arranged the loan, which carried both a term and an amortization schedule of 25 years, through an undisclosed, Oregon-based life insurance company. The name of the borrower was also not disclosed.
HUNTLEY, ILL. — Geis Cos. has begun development of a 65,720-square-foot service and sales facility for Rush Truck Centers in the Chicago suburb of Huntley. The development marks the 15th Rush Truck Centers project for Geis. Rush purchased 12 acres next to its existing facility for the new project. Geis will demolish an existing 32,000-square-foot building on the property. Completion is slated for the first quarter of 2026, and the project will be done in three phases.
MILWAUKEE — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of a 25,154-square-foot retail property occupied by grocer Sentry Foods in Milwaukee for an undisclosed price. The asset was built in 1960, and Sentry has occupied the space since 2008. There are 4.5 years remaining on the lease. Ben Kohl and Mitchell Kiven of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, a local family. The property sold at 95 percent of the list price and a cap rate of 7.94 percent. Todd Lindblom, broker of record in Wisconsin, assisted in closing the transaction.
PONTIAC, ILL. — Quantum Real Estate Advisors Inc. has brokered the $1.4 million sale of a 5,246-square-foot retail building in Pontiac, about 100 miles southwest of Chicago. The fully leased property is home to Jimmy John’s, T-Mobile, SmokeZone and Great Clips. Dan Waszak, Zack Hilgendorf and Nick Hilgendorf of Quantum represented the seller, a Midwest-based developer, which constructed the building in 2019. The asset sold to a Southeast-based investor completing a 1031 exchange.
BRENTWOOD, CALIF. — CenterCal Properties and Heitman, through a joint venture, have purchased The Streets of Brentwood, a shopping destination in Brentwood. Terms of the transaction were not released. The Streets of Brentwood offers 358,700 square feet of retail and mixed-use space that serves four major California regions — Bay area, Tri-Valley, Sacramento Delta and the Central Valley. The buyers plan to reimage and enhance the center’s offerings, including the addition of a community gathering space for seasonal events and more lifestyle brands and restaurants.
NEW YORK CITY — Locally based real estate giant Tishman Speyer has completed the $3.5 billion refinancing of Rockefeller Center, a 7.3 million-square-foot mixed-use campus in Midtown Manhattan. Bank of America and Wells Fargo led the consortium of lenders that provided the CMBS financing, which carries a fixed interest rate of approximately 6.23 percent. Tishman Speyer will use the proceeds to pay off a 20-year, $1.7 billion CMBS loan and additional mezzanine financing that will mature in May 2025, as well as to fund reserves for contractual leasing costs. Dechert LLP advised Bank of America and Wells Fargo on the transaction. Rockefeller Center was originally developed in the 1920s and comprises more than a dozen buildings across 22 acres between 48th and 51st streets. The campus features office, retail, restaurant and entertainment space, as well as a 24,000-square-foot park atop Radio City Music Hall. Tishman Speyer is currently nearing completion of a redevelopment of the property. The office component of Rockefeller Center is currently 93 percent leased to global occupiers such as Deloitte, Lazard, Christie’s, Simon & Schuster and J.P. Morgan Chase. Retail and entertainment users include LEGO, Banana Republic, Anthropologie, Michael Kors, Catbird, FAO Schwarz and Nintendo. The lineup of …
— By Jacob Pavlik, research manager, Colliers — A 10-mile drive east of Seattle, Bellevue is the top destination for urban retail activity in the Puget Sound. High incomes, healthy daytime employment and the most active office leasing market in the Pacific Northwest means not much more is needed to make a retail space thrive. That is, except reasonable fit-out costs for new space. The Bellevue CBD has seen significant new construction for office buildings (with lots of ground-floor retail opportunities), delivering 3.3 million square feet over the past year alone. Unfortunately, sky-high construction pricing and office market financing challenges have made it difficult to get retail leases done in new buildings. Second-generation spaces in the submarket are the reasonable but diminishing alternative. Second-generation spaces are filling up faster than they become available. The demand is partially from tenants whose buildings were torn down for redevelopment. Given the cost of fitting out a space in a brand-new building elsewhere in the Bellevue CBD, second-generation space is the most lucrative alternative. First-generation space, which delivers as a cold shell without HVAC, plumbing or dry wall, can cost upward of $400 per square foot to build out. Landlords tend to offer $100 …