FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Commercial brokers Steve Fithian and James Blake have merged their Fort Worth Sperry Van Ness offices together into Sperry Van Ness / Trinity Advisors. The merger brings together Fithian’s Sperry Van Ness / Visions Commercial office and Blake’s Sperry Van Ness / Summit Commercial office. The newly merged office, located at 5601 Bridge St., Ste. 504 in Fort Worth, provides commercial real estate brokerage, leasing, consulting and property management on all commercial property types. Fithian has more than 25 years of commercial real estate experience. His specialty primarily has been in multifamily, but has lately also focused on retail and office properties. Fithian also organizes, manages and acts as the general partner in real estate syndications. Blake has more than 30 years of commercial real estate experience. His primary focus is retail and industrial income-producing properties. He also specializes in single-tenant net lease retail and is working to put together a single-tenant net lease team at Sperry Van Ness / Trinity Advisors to represent clients in the purchase and sale of these properties. The company has a total of six advisors and eight employees.
BLOOMFIELD, N.J. — AvalonBay Communities Inc. has opened Avalon Bloomfield Station, its newest community in New Jersey. The 224-unit transit-oriented community, which is located near the Bloomfield New Jersey Transit Train station, features a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. On-site amenities include a fitness center with a fitness-on-demand and yoga studio, a rooftop patio lounge, a resident lounge and game room with complementary WiFi, and gas barbeque grills and fire pit, as well as on-site restaurants and retail, including Super Foodtown, Tilted Kilt Pub and Eatery and Taste of Tuscany.
SAN JOSE, CALIF. — Sundt Construction Inc. recently topped out Campus Village Phase II, a 10-story student housing building at San Jose State University. When complete, the building will feature 850 beds, common study rooms, a lounge, multi-purpose room, recreation room and more. Sundt is working with architects Solomon Cordwell Buenz on the $102 million project, which is expected to be completed in mid-2016.
DALLAS — Paradigm Tax Group has relocated its headquarters to Dallas and added a new CEO. Paradigm provides property tax consulting services for commercial property owners and has more than 30 regional offices across the U.S. Paradigm will retain its presence in its former headquarters in the Phoenix area. Steve Stubitz will remain chairman of the company but step down from his interim CEO role to welcome Mark Wanic as CEO. Stubitz held the position following the retirement of Paradigm’s prior CEO Bob Dunlap. Wanic comes to Paradigm after holding a variety of executive positions at Cushman & Wakefield. Wanic is the latest addition to a new management team, which includes new CFO Francoise Mattice, who joined Paradigm in March. Paradigm helps clients identify potential tax-saving opportunities.
PLANO, TEXAS — Boxer Property has concluded long-term lease negotiations on a 17,000-square-foot lease with GuideIT, a Perot company. GuideIT has been a tenant of Boxer in the Plano Tower building since early 2013. Plano Tower is located at 101 E. Park Blvd. and is owned and managed by Boxer Property. Mark Dowdle, of Boxer Property’s Dallas office, negotiated the agreement on behalf of Boxer, and Louis Pascuzzi of Jackson Cooksey represented GuideIT. Plano Tower includes 13 stories with a total of 225,445 square feet of office space for rent. The Class A building features a mirrored glass exterior, surface and covered parking, an upgraded lobby, granite floors, elevator service, on-site banking services and drop boxes.
WEEHAWKEN, N.J. — Roseland, a subsidiary of Mack-Cali Realty Corp., is developing two dual-branded Marriott hotels at Port Imperial, the company’s $3 billion mixed-use, master-planned waterfront development in Weehawken. Roseland and its partner, XSS Hotels, secured approximately $94 million in financing for a syndicated construction loan led by Fifth Third Bank, with additional syndicated lending institutions, including Santandar and Investors Savings Bank. Featuring a 210-key Renaissance hotel and a 154-key Residence Inn, the project will feature meeting and function space for 450 guests and a 15,000-square-foot deck off the sixth floor sky lobby offering views of Manhattan. The two hotels will be built on top of the 850-space Port Imperial parking garage with 17,000 square feet of ground-level retail space next to the New York Waterway ferry terminal. Expected to create more than 100 permanent full-time jobs, the hotels are slated for completion by the end of 2017.
HOUSTON — Construction has begun on 183 new residences at The Buckingham, a seniors housing community in Houston. Once completed, the $72 million construction project will add 80 new jobs to the local economy and provide living for nearly 200 additional residents. Located at 8580 Woodway Drive, The Buckingham currently includes 205 independent living residences, 43 private assisted living apartments, 16 private memory support apartments and 60 private skilled nursing suites. Six additional acres were acquired to accommodate the project, which will add 106 independent living apartment homes, 27 assisted living suites, 18 memory care residences, 32 private skilled nursing rooms, additional underground parking and more surface level spaces. The new independent living apartment homes will be offered in one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans.
NEW YORK CITY — Bottom Line Construction & Development LLC has broken ground for Baldwin Park, a boutique residential building at 306 W. 148th St. in West Harlem. The six-story property will feature six floor-through condominiums featuring two bedrooms, two baths, balconies and stainless steel appliances, as well as a rooftop deck. APEX Building Group is serving as general contractor, while financing was provided by 100 Miles Fund managed by Procida Funding & Advisors. The property is slated for a summer 2017 occupancy.
ROCKFORD, ILL. — Sunil Puri and business partner Dan Arnold have donated a 15,500-square-foot building to the YMCA. The building will be the site of the new YMCA Rockford branch, approximately 88 miles west of Chicago. The existing building is being renovated to incorporate cardio and weight training rooms, fitness classes, personal trainers, wellness coaches, senior social clubs, childcare and youth and sports programs and is slated to open in early 2016. The facility has an estimated value of $2.2 million and will be renamed the Puri Family YMCA. Sunil Puri is an international real estate entrepreneur and the founder of First Midwest Group, a full-service real estate development company based in Rockford.
NEW YORK CITY — Onex Real Estate Partners has launched sales for Grand Two, the second building within The Grand at Sky View Parc in Flushing, Queens. Currently under construction, the 258-condo Grand Two is the second phase of the three buildings that will comprise The Grand at Sky View Parc. Designed by Peter Clewes and architectsAlliance, the residential units feature top-of-the-line finishes, floor-to-ceiling windows, balconies, washers/dryers, stainless steel Bosch appliances, quartz countertops and spa-like bathrooms. The property will feature a mix of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom condos, ranging in size from 470 to 2,050 square feet with pricing ranging from $493,000 to more than $2 million. Upon build out, the development will bring a total of 750 additional homes and amenities to the mixed-use development. On-site amenities will include a 24-hour staffed lobby and concierge, a five-acre landscaped rooftop garden, and basketball court and tennis courts. During its opening weekend, Grand Two made $85 million in condominium sales.