“The office market for 2017 continues to look promising…and we think we’re going to finish strong. Challenges and what remains to be seen is what happens in the coming years as additional inventory comes to the market and there’s continued densification in the market,” noted John Santora, Cushman & Wakefield’s vice chairman & president of the Tri-State Region, at the firm’s mid-year 2017 outlook on the region’s commercial real estate industry.

Calare Properties purchased 234 Taylor St. in Littleton, Mass. The new owner secured a 10-year absolute net lease with Premier Health Group LLC for the 36,000-square-foot warehouse. The tenant will also manage the industrial facility, which was previously occupied by VJ Electronix.

Bellomy & Co. closed the sale of Discount Self Storage in Shreveport, La., to a Salt Lake City-based investor. The seller was a company from Marshall, Texas. The 70,057-square-foot asset offers 578 units, 93 percent of which were occupied at the time of the transaction.

Discount Self Storage is located at 900 E. 70th St. and includes climate and humidity-controlled units, as well as traditional and warehouse space. The property also features a security fence, 24-hour video surveillance, keypad access, outdoor parking and pest control. Supplies, dollies and carts for move-in are also available…

Key International topped off phase I of construction of the Embassy Suites by Hilton St. Augustine Beach Oceanfront Resort in Florida. The project is slated for delivery in the first quarter of 2018.

Great Far East acquired Bridgegate Plaza, a 135,000-square-foot office building in Diamon Bar, Calif., from PM Realty Group.

HIGH OCCUPANCY

Located at 1440 Bridgegate Drive, the three-story asset offers quick access to and from Orange and Pomona freeways. Bridgegate Plaza is situated in the vicinity of multiple public transportation and dining options, including Deli at Vista Pointe and Mansun Japanese Restaurant. Constructed in 2002, the Class A office building features a stone lobby and sky-lit atrium. At the time of sale, the property was 89 percent occupied. Tenants include Insperity, Novatime and QTC Management…

In separate deals, Axel Springer has sold the Axel-Springer-Neubau and Axel-Springer-Passage, both located in Berlin, for a combined price of $865 million.

Axel-Springer-Neubau, a 13-story office building complex which is currently being developed, was acquired by Norges Bank Real Estate Management, a Norwegian sovereign wealth fund. Designed by noted architect Rem Koolhaas, the project is set to be finished in December 2019.

Industrial Property Trust Inc. acquired a 104,339-square-foot industrial building in the Rancho Dominguez submarket of Los Angeles County. The national REIT purchased the property for $12 million from Benetti’s Italia and has commenced a $2.5 million capital improvement plan. Daum Commercial Real Estate Services negotiated the transaction on behalf of IPT.

Tavistock Development Co. has signed Orange Lake Resorts to a build-to-suit lease in Orlando, Fla., and it’s a big one. Tavistock will develop a 240,000-square-foot corporate campus for the vacation ownership industry leader at Infinity Park, the 200-acre, mixed-use business park.

Tavistock’s lease agreement with Orange Lake marks one of the largest office transactions in Orange County year-to-date. “There is a dearth of large blocks of vacant office space in the Orlando metro area, and current office rents do not justify speculative new construction. These factors have combined to limit very large deals,” Skipper Peek, senior vice president, Tavistock Development Co., told Commercial Property Executive.

Skanska appointed Robert Ward as president & CEO for Skanska USA Commercial Development. Ward will oversee the company’s commercial and multifamily development operations. Succeeding Shawn Hurley, Ward will join the USA senior leadership team and report to Skanska AB Executive Vice President Claes Larsson.

DEVELOPMENT & CONSTRUCTION EXPERIENCE

Ward has more than two decades of experience, recently serving as chief operating officer for Skanska USA Commercial Development. In that position, he evaluated all project investments, refined the national leasing and customer strategy, explored new market opportunities and managed the group’s professional service functions…

TPA Group retained Avison Young as the exclusive leasing team for The Edison Pembroke Pines, a proposed creative office park totaling 330,000 square feet of Class A space in Pembroke Pines, Fla. Avison Young Principal Greg Martin and Vice President Justin Cope will lead marketing and leasing efforts on behalf of the Atlanta-based developer.

The soon-to-be-vacated top position at Choice Hotels International Inc. has been filled. The hotel company’s board has appointed Patrick Pacious, currently president & COO with Choice, to the position of CEO. He’ll take the reins from Stephen Joyce, who will step down at the end of 2017. Pacious will continue to hold the role of president, while the replacement for the COO position has yet to be determined.

CBRE brokered the sale of Golden Bear Plaza, a Class A office campus totaling 245,673 square feet in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Equus Capital Partners Ltd. sold the three-building asset in a $62.3 million deal to an affiliate of Alliance Partners HSP, the East Coast operating platform of The Shidler Group.

Atlanta has become an economic powerhouse in recent years. It’s currently one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the nation—a result of its broad-based job growth, 18-hour lifestyle and healthy rental and housing market. A rapidly rising population is adding to the city’s congestion issues, but also fostering demand for apartments and pushing rents higher.

ICM Realty Group completed the purchase of Jefferson Plaza, a 118,000-square-foot, multi-tenant office building in Norcross, Ga. The new owner committed to a capital improvement program, including material exterior and interior renovations.

Located at 3169 Holcomb Bridge in the Norcross/Peachtree Corners submarket, the property was completed in 1978. The seven-story building underwent significant upgrades and features floor plans ranging from 813 square feet up to 11,348 square feet, a conference facility and a parking ratio of four spaces per 1,000 square feet…

Monday Properties has received $250 million in refinancing for 1812 North Moore St., a 580,000-square-foot office tower in the Arlington submarket of Rosslyn, Va.

The refinancing was finalized ahead of the scheduled maturity date, coming up this December, and includes up to $70 million in the form of a future funding facility that Monday can leverage for future leasing and capital investment activity…

NoVa Office Tower Lands $250M Refi

Cohesity, a computer data storage company, signed a 40,000-square-foot lease on the seventh and eighth floors of the second building of River Park Tower in San Jose, Calif. The firm is relocating from Santa Clara, where it occupies 14,000 square feet, and is expected to move in the new space in the fourth quarter of this year.

Mason Capitani CORFAC International negotiated the sixth acquisition of California-based investor LSTC Michigan in the Detroit metro area. Wilson Real Estate II, the previous owner of the 30,760-square-foot office building in Troy, Mich., listed the property for $4 million. Following the transaction, the building will change its name from the Wilson Office Building to Butterfield Park Place, although Wilson Real Estate will continue to oversee the leasing efforts.

HSA Commercial Real Estate has secured a long-term lease for Gateway Industrial IV, a 151,220-square-foot distribution center in Plainfield, Ind., a suburb southwest of Indianapolis. Kuehne + Nagel, a global logistics service provider, will lease 55,500 square feet, in addition to the 160,230 square feet it occupies in a separate building on the campus. KJG Architecture designed the project.

It may have been only a slight decrease, but it was one nonetheless—and it was a decrease with meaning. According to a new report from commercial real estate services firm CBRE, the average U.S. industrial availability rate dropped 10 basis points to 7.8 percent in the second quarter, marking the lowest level since the first quarter of 2001.

JLL closed on the $8.85 million sale of 2100 Directors Row, a 213,290-square-foot warehouse building within Orlando Central Park, one of Florida’s largest industrial parks with approximately 12.5 million square feet of product. JLL represented the buyer, Exeter Property Group, a real estate investment manager focused on industrial properties across North America and Europe. Cambridge Hanover is the former owner of the building.

Goodwin Procter will move to a new location in late 2019. The firm signed an 80,329-square-foot lease at a JBG Cos. trophy development in D.C.’s Dupont Circle and Farragut area. JBG, which has recently celebrated the ground breaking on another office building on Bethesda Avenue, will work with Goodwin to ensure the latter’s relocation to the top three floors of its upcoming 11-story development.

One World Trade Center will welcome a new tenant to its 62nd and 63rd floors. The Stagwell Group, an investment advisory company, signed a 13-year lease for 83,955 square feet of office space, as it plans to integrate its portfolio of companies into one location.

After leasing 99,000 square feet of soundstages and other space at Sunset Bronson last September, Netflix has signed a deal to lease another 43,000 square feet at the famous Hollywood studio from Hudson Pacific Properties Inc.

The new space includes the historic mansion on Sunset Boulevard where the Warner Brothers had their office for decades.

After teaming up with KDC earlier this year to construct The Epic, a mixed-use, transit-oriented Dallas development, Westdale Real Estate Investment and Management secured the debt financing for the redevelopment of Mid Elm Lofts in Dallas. The funding incorporates a recourse loan originated by a Texas-based bank, state and federal historic tax credits, a city tax incremental financing and a tax abatement from the Landmark Commission of Dallas.

JBG Smith, the Washington, D.C.-area commercial real estate powerhouse that is being created through a merger of The JBG Cos. and Vornado/Charles E. Smith this month, will soon have a new trophy office building in Bethesda, Md., for its headquarters.

DC Partners selected Jordan Foster Construction as the general contractor for the Thompson San Antonio Hotel and The Arts Residences, a $116 million, 20-level mixed-use hotel-condominium tower on the San Antonio River Walk. In addition, the developer announced the opening of The Arts Residences Sales Center in the historic Tobin Center for the Performing Arts Administration Building, 115 Auditorium Circle, San Antonio.

Rubicon Cos. disposed of a two-property, 596-room hotel portfolio comprising an Aloft and Fairfield Inn & Suites near Los Angeles International Airport in El Segundo, Calif. HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller.

Transwestern has negotiated leases for Bank of the West and Drybar at Lyric, a mixed-use development in Walnut Creek, Calif. Managed by Berkshire Communities, the project will feature 18,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and 140 residential units, still under construction. Lyric is slated for full completion by fall.

Stan Johnson Co. completed the sale of two office buildings in Nashville, Tenn., totaling 135,003 square feet. The buyer, a New-York-based boutique investment and asset management company, acquired the portfolio for $25 million from YTG Nashville LP. The sale closed in June.

“This deal represents the exponential recognition of Nashville as a premier investment market, and the increasing demand for high-quality office space therein,” said Britton Burdette, a director with Stan Johnson Co., in prepared remarks…

Trammell Crow Co. teamed up with Meadow Partners to purchase an 80 percent condominium interest in the Motion Picture Association of America Building, located in D.C.’s central business district. TCC also revealed plans to undertake an extensive redevelopment of the building, which is located one block from the White House, transforming the 50-year-old property into a 150,000-square-foot office building.

The Boulder Group closed on a $2.5 million retail property sale in Niles, Ill. The company represented both the seller, a Midwest-based investor, and the buyer, a private individual.

The 13,122-square-foot property is located at 9207 N. Milwaukee Ave. and fully leased by MobilityWorks, a provider of wheelchair accessible vans. The company recently renewed its agreement for the next 12 years. The net lease features a rental escalation in the eighth lease year and in each of the two five-year renewal option periods.

Alexander & Baldwin appointed James Mead as chief financial officer, effective immediately. Mead succeeds Paul Ito, who will continue as senior vice president of finance and treasurer of the company through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition.

Kimco Realty Corp. continues to add to its portfolio with the acquisition of Jantzen Beach Center, one of the largest retail centers in the State of Oregon. The REIT purchased the 746,000-square-foot property from Jantzen Dynamic Corp., according to City of Portland records, in a $131.8 million transaction.

MCA Realty has sold the final building in the Brookhollow Freeway Showroom Center in Santa Ana, Calif., to WTW Properties LLC for $3.3 million. The facility is part of an 87,609-square-foot multi-tenant retail/showroom project made up of four separate buildings alongside one of Orange County’s busiest freeways.

Joe Winkelmann, Nick Velasquez and Michael Hartel of Colliers International represented MCA Realty. Ryan Swanson and Chris Conway of Lee & Associates represented the buyer…

Credit Suisse has acquired an eight-story, Class A creative office building in Glendale, Calif., from a joint venture between Lincoln Property Co. and Morgan Stanley, for $59 million.

Newmark Knight Frank represented the sellers in the transaction. The buyer was self-represented. The sellers originally purchased the property in 2013 for $23 million.

Lingerfelt CommonWealth Partners LLC acquired 1700 West Loop–Burns & McDonnell Plaza, located in Houston, Texas. The company purchased the office property from Bridge Investment Group for $52 million. According to Yardi Matrix data, the sale was subject to a $37.4 million loan held by Citizens Bank.

In its latest of a string of purchases, Sealy & Co., of Dallas and Shreveport, La., has acquired a privately traded REIT and its assets, which included a 17-building, 1.2 million-square-foot portfolio of warehouse/distribution buildings in the Southwest submarket of Oklahoma City, Sealy announced.

No dollar amount was disclosed in connection with the transaction, which was made on behalf of Sealy Strategic Equity Partners. The seller also was not disclosed.

Terreno Realty Corp. continues to expand its Seattle industrial portfolio with the addition of a $4 million property.

Located at 53 S. Dawson St., adjacent to Seattle’s Port and SoDo district, the asset sits on approximately 1.4 acres. The property consists of one industrial trans-shipment building featuring more than 13,000 square feet, 12 dock-high and three grade-level loading positions…

Terreno Expands Seattle Portfolio

Friedman Integrated Real Estate Solutions mediated the sale of Richmond Plaza, a 155,781-square-foot retail center in Richmond, Mich. Statewide Richmond LLC, a local investor, acquired the property from Madison Realty Capital.

The multi-tenant asset occupies 21 acres at 67300-67500 Main St. and is anchored by Kmart. The shopping center is located just outside downtown and offers 825 parking spaces and excellent visibility from Main Street. Currently, Richmond Plaza has roughly 39,000 square feet of space available for lease. Suites vary in size from 1,200 to 31,170 square feet, according to Friedman’s website…

Energy benchmarking ordinances are increasing in the United States and appear to be having an impact on the office market. Nine of the cities that placed in the top 10 of the fourth annual Green Building Adoption Index have implemented the new rules and the number of green certifications have risen.

Kearny Real Estate has appointed Sonia Miró as director of property management in the firm’s San Diego office. In her new role, Miró will oversee the firm’s growing local portfolio, leading the property management efforts for both of Kearny’s San Diego assets, as well as for its additional third-party assignments.

CBRE hired four commercial real estate professionals to support the expansion of the company’s footprint in South Florida. Ana Barcelo returns to CBRE as first vice president of advisory and transaction services, Erin Efstathion joins the firm’s capital markets team as vice president of debt and structured finance, Love Levy joins as general manager of asset services, while Ali Brody joins as manager of the business development team. In their new roles, the executives will lead statewide efforts and focus on the high-street retail sector in CBRE’s Miami office.

HFF secured the sale of Sunset Corporate Park, a 133,814-square-foot office building in Portland, Ore. The company closed the $24.5 million sale on behalf of the seller and procured the buyer, Swift Real Estate Partners.

Located at 22823 NW Bennett St., the two-story, Class A property consists of three buildings with a 22,867-square-foot floor plate. Sunset Corporate Park is situated adjacent to Intel’s $3 billion Ronler Acres Campus and two miles from Orenco Station…

HFF Closes $25M Portland Office Sale

Rainier Realty Investment acquired Wheatland Towne Crossing, a 207,669-square-foot shopping center in Dallas, from Kite Realty Group. Metropolitan Capital Advisors’ Sunny Sajnani secured a $23 million three-year bridge loan, on behalf of the buyer.

HIGH OCCUPANCY

Located at 2525 W. Wheatland Road, at the intersection of Interstate 20 and S.G. Alexander Freeway, Wheatland Towne Crossing is approximately nine miles from downtown Dallas. The shopping center is shadow-anchored by Target and ALDI. Tenants include Office Depot, Sprint and Conn’s. At the time of sale, the property was 92 percent occupied. The new owners plan to keep existing tenants and to reposition the remaining vacant space…

Marcus & Millichap has been selected by a West Virginia-based development company to secure a buyer for a group of 17 net-lease properties. Consisting of drugstores and discount stores, the approximately 200,000-square-foot portfolio carries a price tag of roughly $77.3 million.

Dallas-based Ashford Hospitality Trust has sold the 495-key Crowne Plaza Ravinia in Atlanta for $88.7 million, or about $179,000 per key, to an unidentified buyer.

Ashford Trust paid off an existing allocated debt balance of approximately $65.6 million as well as an additional $13.1 million of debt that was used to release the asset from the loan pool, according to the REIT. After debt payoff and transaction costs, the net proceeds from the sale were approximately $9 million. The REIT also noted in a prepared statement that the sales price “represents a trailing 12-month cap rate of 5.6 percent on net operating income and a trailing 15.3x EBITDA multiple.”…

Quantum Real Estate Advisors Inc. brokered a $1.8 million retail deal in Skokie, Ill. The 5,000-square-foot property is leased to ATI Physical Therapy and I Love Kickboxing, boasting full occupancy.

A BARRIER TO ENTRY LOCATION

The property sits on a small lot at 4730-4750 W. Dempster St., right across the street from a Bank of America office and Evanston Golf Club. Several other retail and dining businesses operate in the area as well…

Quantum Closes on Illinois Retail Deal

BMG, a record label and music publisher, arranged a deal to consolidate its operations at a soon-to-be constructed 120,000-square-foot, Class A office building in Nashville, Tenn. The property, to be named The BMG Building, will rise on the site of the Country Music Association’s former headquarters and is slated for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2017.