TORRANCE, CALIF. — Grocery chain Fresh & Easy is relocating its executive and administrative hub from El Segundo to nearby Torrance. The hub will be located at 20101 Hamilton Place. NGKF’s David Kluth and Joel Smith negotiated the lease.
CHICAGO — Geller Investment Co. has closed on its acquisition of the iconic Waldorf Astoria hotel on Chicago’s Gold Coast. Sam Zell’s Zell Equity Group Investments completed the sale, but will maintain a minority stake in Waldorf. The 189-room hotel at 11 E. Walton St. sold for a record-breaking $111.9 million, according to a Cook County transfer tax form. The purchase equals just over $592,000 per room, well above the previously held record of $505,000 per room paid by Zell for the Elysian hotel. Geller plans to add 26 hotel rooms in the 60-story tower, which also features 52 private residences. The new owners also plan changes to the hotel’s food, drink and public areas.
RIVERWOODS, ILL. — Milton Podolsky, founder of Podolsky|Circle CORFAC International, passed away this past weekend at the age of 94. Born in 1921, Podolsky attended DePaul University and studied at John Marshall Law School before serving in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946. He first considered a career in commercial real estate in 1957 when a frequent customer of his family’s drug store encouraged him to do so. Over the next five years, he worked at two commercial real estate firms in the Chicago market doing primarily industrial brokerage. Then he began developing and managing buildings in what later became known as the O’Hare market. In 1962, Podolsky co-founded his first entrepreneurial firm. In 1971, he established Podolsky and Associates Ltd., which evolved into the company now known as Podolsky|Circle CORFAC International based in Riverwoods. His accomplishments include the development of seven industrial parks and myriad individual industrial and office buildings, as well as Westbrook Corporate Center, a 1.1 million-square-foot office complex in Westchester, Ill. He is survived by his wife, Lois; his brother, Jerry; his three children, Steven, Bonnie and Randy; and seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
TROY, MICH. — Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, has completed the sale of Somerset Park Apartments, a 2,226-unit, garden-style apartment community, for an undisclosed price. The apartment complex is located at 1911 Golfview Drive in Troy and is adjacent to Somerset Collection, a 1.4 million million-square-foot mall with more than 180 specialty stores. Major employers in the area include Bank of America, Delphi Corp., and ThyssenKrupp. All the apartments feature spacious kitchens with frost-free refrigerators and dishwashers, ceramic-tiled baths, large closets, window treatments, private patios/balconies, air-conditioning and individual alarm systems. Steve Witten and Victor Nolletti of IPA Northeast and Florida, along with Paul Davis and Andrew Daitch of Marcus & Millichap’s Detroit office, represented the seller and procured the buyer.
ALBANY, MINN. — Marcus & Millichap (NYSE: MMI) has arranged the sale of Norwood Inn & Suites, a 48-room hospitality property located in Albany, 22 miles northwest of St. Cloud, for $945,000. Norwood Inn & Suites is a two-story building built in 1998 and is located at 820 Shamrock Lane in Albany. It features 48 guestrooms and an indoor swimming pool and hot tub. Jon Ruzicka of Marcus & Millichap’s Minneapolis office represented the seller, an individual/personal trust. Ruzicka also represented the buyer, a limited liability company.
NEW YORK CITY — Savanna, a New York-based real estate private equity and asset management firm, has completed the disposition of 100 Wall Street to Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, acting on behalf of a Cornerstone-managed fund. The 29-story, 520,000-square-foot office building is 97 percent occupied by tenants, including Lester Schwab Katz and Dwyer, Loeb Holding Corp., Crenshaw Associates and Pcubed. Savanna acquired the property in 2011 and completed $25 million in capital improvements during its ownership period, including a successful prebuild program and future resiliency improvements following Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Douglas Harmon, Adam Spies, Joshua King and Adam Doneger of Eastdil Secured represented Savanna, while Carl Schwartz, Laurie Grasso, Susan Saslow, Larissa Kravanja, Ian Group and Barbara Lau of Hunton & Williams served as legal counsel in the transaction. The sales price was not released.
ATLANTA — Charlotte-based FCA Partners has purchased Parkway Pointe, a 196,664-square-foot retail center located in Atlanta’s Cumberland Galleria submarket, for $43.9 million. Anchored by a 15-screen AMC Theatres, the center is located at the northeast corner of Cobb Parkway and Cumberland Boulevard, a couple blocks from I-75 and roughly one mile from the future SunTrust Park, the Atlanta Braves’ new ballpark opening in April 2017. The center was approximately 85 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as Main Event Entertainment, Taco Mac, Copeland’s of New Orleans, Pier 1 Imports and Roam. Eastdil Secured represented the seller, Stockbridge Capital Group, in the transaction.
MILL VALLEY, CALIF. — Ultima Hospitality and Argosy Real Estate have sold the 100-room Holiday Inn Express in Mill Valley, a submarket in Marin County that is just north of San Francisco. The hotel is located at 160 Shoreline Highway. The price was not disclosed. The hotel was formerly known as the Larkspur Mill Valley Hotel until the partners rebranded it in fall 2012. The property’s guestrooms, common areas and exteriors were also renovated at this time.
MILL VALLEY, CALIF. — JLL has agreed to acquire Shelter Bay Retail Group, a retail property management firm based in Mill Valley, for an undisclosed sum. Shelter Bay manages 74 urban and suburban, open-air shopping centers throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, San Jose/South Bay, central and southern California and Arizona. The acquisition is expected to close later this month, subject to customary closing conditions. The properties’ management teams will remain intact to ensure a seamless transition when the deal closes. Shelter Bay’s team of 30 experts will join JLL at closing. Stephen Robertson, chairman of Shelter Bay, will join JLL as director of retail business development, West Coast, while Sondra Van Metre, president and CEO, will join as director of retail property management, West Coast. The two will lead the combined organization’s West Coast retail property management operations.
SOUTH BEND, IND. — Oak Coast Properties and Harp Group have acquired the 80-room Residence Inn hotel in South Bend for $8 million. The new owners plan to complete approximately $2 million in extensive renovations to the property. The value-add investment strategy is aimed at maximizing revenue per available room (RevPAR). As Indiana’s fourth largest city, South Bend boasts four higher education institutions in the area. The apartment-style hotel rooms include full kitchens with ovens. The average size of the rooms is approximately 50 percent larger than traditional hotel rooms. The property appeals to both families and business travelers seeking extended-stay options. The seller was RLJ Lodging Trust.