WAXAHACHIE, TEXAS — NorthMarq has brokered the sale of Solon Place Apartments, a 120-unit complex in Waxahachie, a southern suburb of Dallas. Amenities include a pool, playground and onsite laundry facilities. VaultCap Partners purchased the property from MacDonald Realty Group for an undisclosed price. Taylor Snoddy, James Roberts, Phillip Wiegand and Eric Stockley of NorthMarq brokered the sale.
By Robert Flores, Senior Vice President, CBRE Not too long ago, industrial real estate was generally viewed as an obscure and often unpopular subset of commercial real estate. Instead of owning a concrete box, many investors and developers were drawn to the flashier structures in Central Business Districts and hip submarkets. Fast forward a few short years, and industrial has firmly taken center stage for many who might have previously shunned the sector. The Greater Los Angeles area is one of the beneficiaries. The Greater Los Angeles region is the second-largest metro in the U.S. and is home to some of the nation’s most critical infrastructure. With the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach accounting for more than 40 percent of the country’s inbound container traffic and Los Angeles International Airport serving as a major gateway for passengers and air cargo, the local industrial market is ground zero for industrial users. At the close of the second quarter, the Greater Los Angeles industrial market totaled more than 1 billion square feet of rentable space with a vacancy rate of just above 1.5 percent, according to our CBRE research. Based on current activity levels and leasing velocity in the market, …
LAS VEGAS — DraftKings Inc., a fantasy and digital sports betting company based in Boston, plans to open its second largest office hub within UnCommons, a $400 million mixed-use development underway in southwest Las Vegas. DraftKings will occupy 90,000 square feet and ultimately house more than 1,000 employees at the new offices. Matter Real Estate Group, a San Diego-based developer, broke ground on the 40-acre project last summer and plans to deliver the first phase of the campus in early 2022. “Our goal is to create another world-class workplace environment that will foster DraftKings’ innovation, further bolster our local presence and deepen community involvement,” says Matt Kalish, co-founder and president of the North America division of DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG). “With these lofty aspirations, we were thrilled to discover that UnCommons mirrors these high standards.” Designed by IA Interior Architects, DraftKings’ new space will mirror its Boston headquarters with 130 sports trading desks surrounded by multimedia walls. The property will also include collaborative work spaces, a cafeteria, putting green, custom casino training pit, private and public outdoor spaces, mothers’ rooms, prayer suites and salons for haircuts and manicures/pedicures. UnCommons will comprise more than 500,000 square feet of modern office space; more …
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) has broken ground on the Moderna Science Center, a 462,000-square-foot research and development facility located at 325 Binney St., less than one mile from the company’s global headquarters in the Boston-area community of Cambridge. The biotechnology company is a pioneer in the usage of messenger RNA (mRNA) for therapeutics and vaccines, including one of the earliest and most effective vaccinations against the COVID-19 virus. Moderna plans to use this site to advance its pipeline of mRNA research, which includes 37 programs currently in development and 22 ongoing clinical studies. Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. is developing the property, which will include custom scientific spaces for research and development, as well as collaborative office space. JLL represented Moderna in the acquisition of the development site. The project is targeting LEED Platinum certification and is scheduled for completion in 2023. “We have been located in Massachusetts since our founding more than 10 years ago and are proud to be based here,” says Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna. “As we advance our mRNA platform and science, our new science center will integrate digital-first scientific research and development labs along with space for innovation and co-creation with our …
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Small-Balance Multifamily: Sizable and Resilient
While new-builds and top-of-the-line, large-scale developments typically attract the most buzz in the multifamily world, the vast majority of apartment properties in the United States have fewer than 100 units. These smaller properties play a vital role in delivering affordable and workforce rental housing inventory to the U.S. population. While the commercial real estate industry may refer to this sector of the multifamily market as “small,” make no mistake, “small” multifamily is not insignificant or inferior — it’s sizable and resilient. As other commercial real estate sectors paused during COVID-19, smaller multifamily properties and small-balance lending thrived. What does the future hold for this market? The Small Multifamily Market Defined The small multifamily market is highly fragmented with no clear definition of what constitutes “small” among capital sources. Generally, market statistics define the “small” multifamily sector by at least one of two measures: Unit count between five and 99 units; and/or Principal loan balance at origination between $1 million and $10 million[1] Strong Demand and Operating Fundamentals While the pandemic negatively impacted many areas of commercial real estate, with offices, retail shops and hotels largely shuttered across the U.S., the multifamily market remained resilient. Despite the past year’s challenges, multifamily …
STANTON, TENN., AND GLENDALE, KY. — Ford (NYSE: F) has unveiled plans to build Blue Oval City, a massive manufacturing campus for its electric vehicles in the tiny town of Stanton, approximately 50 miles northeast of Memphis and with a population of fewer than 500 people. In addition, the car builder is planning the BlueOvalSK Battery Park manufacturing campus in Glendale, approximately 50 miles south of Louisville, to produce the lithium-ion batteries that power those electric vehicles. Ford estimates development costs for Blue Oval City at $5.6 billion and BlueOvalSK Battery Park, which will comprise two separate manufacturing facilities, at $5.8 billion. Both plants are scheduled to begin production in 2025. The auto maker predicts the Stanton location will create 6,000 jobs, while the Glendale location will create 5,000 jobs. Blue Oval City will span 3,600 acres — nearly six square miles — and focus on producing F-Series electric pickup trucks. The company noted that it will work with Redwood Materials on domestic battery recycling and that the facility will be carbon neutral, producing zero landfill waste once fully operational. In addition to the new plant, Ford said it will make a new investment to increase production of the F-150 …
LAS VEGAS — Blackstone (NYSE: BX) has entered into an agreement to sell The Cosmopolitan hotel and casino in Las Vegas to locally based hospitality and entertainment owner-operator MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) for $5.6 billion. Blackstone originally acquired The Cosmopolitan in 2014 for approximately $1.6 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. The firm subsequently invested more than $500 million in capital improvements to renovate the property’s 3,000 existing hotel rooms; add 67 new rooms and suites; enhance and expand the food and beverage offerings; and upgrade common areas and amenity spaces. Under the terms of the agreement, MGM will acquire the operations of The Cosmopolitan and sign a long-term net lease with a partnership between Cherng Family Trust, alternative investment firm Stonepeak Partners and Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. The deal is expected to close in early 2022. The Journal also reported that as of Friday, Sept. 24, The Cosmopolitan’s hotel rooms had been 87 percent occupied during the current month, with an average daily room rate of $448. The Cosmopolitan originally opened in 2010. In addition to its 3,000-plus hotel rooms, the development features a 110,000-square-foot casino; 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space; 150,000 …
WASHINGTON, D.C. — JLL Capital Markets has arranged the sale of a portfolio of eight infill neighborhood retail assets totaling 695,991 square feet in Washington, D.C., northern Virginia and southern Maryland. Stephen Conley, Danny Finkle, Jordan Lex and Kim Flores of JLL represented the D.C.-based seller, WashREIT (NYSE: WRE), which sold the portfolio for $168.3 million. The buyers were Rosenthal Properties and an undisclosed institutional partner, according to the Washington Business Journal. The news outlet also reports the seller had acquired the eight properties over the span of five decades. The portfolio includes two properties in Washington, D.C., two in Northern Virginia and four in Maryland. The properties in D.C. include Chevy Chase Metro Center and Spring Valley Village. The Virginia properties are 800 S. Washington St. in Alexandria and Concord Centre in Springfield. The southern Maryland properties are Montrose Shopping Center and Randolph Shopping Center in Rockdale; Takoma Park Shopping Center in Takoma; and Westminster Shopping Center in Westminster. The properties are 82 percent leased collectively. Four of the shopping centers are grocery-anchored by stores such as Mom’s Organic Market at Montrose Shopping Center and Aldi at Springfield’s Concord Centre. Other grocery anchors include Food Lion and Giant. The …
TORONTO AND MIAMI — Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM) and Elion Partners have announced a $1 billion strategic partnership. The venture will expand Toronto-based Brookfield’s logistics portfolio across core infill markets in the U.S. Through the investment, Brookfield recapitalized Elion Logistics Park 55, a master-planned industrial park in Wilmington, Illinois, approximately 60 miles southwest of downtown Chicago. Located adjacent to the BNSF railway, the property features five Class A, fully leased industrial buildings totaling 4 million square feet. The site offers the potential to develop up to 15 million square feet of additional industrial space. Park Madison Partners acted as advisor for the recapitalization. Brookfield has also committed $80 million to Elion’s latest affiliated value-add fund — Elion Real Estate Fund V — which held its final closing last month, achieving a capitalization of $500 million. A majority of the fund’s portfolio was pre-specified prior to Brookfield’s investment and includes 3.2 million square feet of logistics properties across infill coastal markets in the U.S. “Industrial logistics real estate continues to experience positive momentum and now is the logical time to seek long-term capital,” says Juan DeAngulo, managing partner at Miami-based Elion. “This partnership structure and Brookfield’s support will enable Elion …
NEW YORK CITY — Google has announced plans to acquire St. John’s Terminal, a 1.3 million-square-foot office redevelopment underway in Manhattan that will anchor the search engine giant’s Hudson Square campus. Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) intends to purchase the development site at 550 Washington St., which the company signed a lease agreement for in 2018, for approximately $2.1 billion. The company is exercising its purchase agreement with the landlord and developer, an ownership group comprising Toronto-based Oxford Properties Group and CPP Investments, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Journal also reports the transaction is the most expensive sale of a single U.S. office building since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing data from research firm Real Capital Analytics. The sale is also among the priciest for a single office property in U.S. history. Google plans to open its offices at 550 Washington by mid-2023. Although the company expects to operate the office with a flexible hybrid approach to in-office versus work-from-home concepts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Google says that “coming together in person to collaborate and build community will remain an important part of our future.” The St. John’s Terminal transaction is expected to close in …