Equity Partners Negotiates New Leases at University Science Center and Alafaya Corporate Center in Orlando

 Applied Visual Technology Takes 10,247 SF in University Science Center

ORLANDO, FL - Equity Partners negotiated a lease agreement with Applied Visual Technology, Inc. d.b.a AVT Simulation for 10,247 square feet of office space at 12001 Science Drive in University Science Center (middle left photo) in East Orlando.

 Michael Fess (top right photo), president of Equity Partners Inc., and Faith Thompson (top left photo), Leasing Associate, represented the landlord, University Science Center, Inc. and Steve Coughlin of Coughlin Commercial represented the tenant.

Computerized Training Systems Leases 2,099 SF at Alafaya Corporate Center

ORLANDO FL - Equity Partners negotiated a lease agreement with Computerized Training Systems for 2,099 square feet of office space at 2100 North Alafaya Trail in Alafaya Corporate Center (middle right photo) in East Orlando.

Michael Fess president of Equity Partners Inc., and Faith Thompson Leasing Associate, represented the landlord, Alafaya Corporate Center, LC.

 Allen Sportswear Contracts for 1,539 SF at Alafaya Corporate Center

ORLANDO - Equity Partners negotiated a lease agreement with Allen Sportswear for 1,539 square feet of office space at 2100 North Alafaya Trail in Alafaya Corporate Center in East Orlando.

Michael Fess, president of Equity Partners Inc., and Faith Thompson, Leasing Associate, represented the landlord, Alafaya Corporate Center, LC.

Contact:

 Faith Thompson, Leasing Associate, Equity Partners, Inc.

Licensed Real Estate Broker, 201 South Orange Avenue, Suite 720, Orlando, Florida 32801

407.660.4949 phone

407.808.2656 cell

407.660.4995 fax

www.equitypartners.net

Marcus & Millichap Promotes Peggy Brooks Smith to Associate Vice President Investments--Washington, DC

  

WASHINGTON, DC – The board of directors of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, the nation’s largest real estate investment services firm, has promoted Peggy Brooks Smith (top right photo) to associate vice president investments.

 This achievement is one of the highest levels of recognition the firm awards to its investment specialists. It represents excellence in the development and servicing of long-term client relationships, according to David Feldman (top left photo), regional manager of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.

 Most recently, Smith held the title of senior associate in the Washington, D.C. office.

Since joining Marcus & Millichap in 1997, Smith has brokered the sale of numerous multifamily and retail assets in the District and in Montgomery County. She was named an associate of the firm in January 2001 and was promoted to senior associate in September 2003.

In November 2010, Smith became an associate vice president investments. During her tenure at the firm, she has received three sales awards and is a director of the National Multi Housing Group.

A 35-year veteran of the commercial real estate industry, and a designated CCIM, Smith has arranged multiple commercial real estate transactions in the Capital region, including the initial land assemblage for 1200 K Street N.W., one of D.C.’s major office buildings.

A graduate of the American University and recipient of an Alumni Recognition Award, Smith was recently named chairwoman of the newly formed Real Estate Council of the American University Kogod School of Business. Smith was also a founding member and former President of CREW Washington and serves on the Chapter’s Advisory Council.

 Mark Thomson Moves Up to Associate Vice President Investments-Philadelphia

 PHILADELPHIA, PA – The board of directors of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, the nation’s largest real estate investment services firm, has promoted Mark Thomson (middle right photo)  to associate vice president investments.

This achievement is one of the highest levels of recognition the firm awards to its investment specialists.

It represents excellence in the development and servicing of long-term client relationships, according to Spencer Yablon (middle left photo), vice president and regional manager of the firm’s Philadelphia office.

 Most recently, Thomson held the title of senior associate in the Philadelphia office.

Thomson joined the firm as a sales intern in June 2005 and was named an associate in June 2007. In 2008, Mark was ranked as the No. 1 agent in the Philadelphia office. He was promoted to senior associate in June 2009 and associate vice president investments in November 2010.

Tammy Saia Earns Associate Vice President Investments Post—Oak Brook, IL

OAKBROOK TERRACE, IL– The board of directors of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, the nation’s largest real estate investment services firm, has promoted Tammy Saia (lower right photo) to associate vice president investments.

This achievement is one of the highest levels of recognition the firm awards to its investment specialists.

It represents excellence in the development and servicing of long-term client relationships, according to Steven Weinstock (lower left photo), regional manager of the firm’s Oak Brook office.

 Most recently, Saia held the title of senior associate in the Oak Brook office.

After being named an associate of the firm in November 2004, Saia was promoted to senior associate in September 2006. She has received three sales awards from Marcus & Millichap and is a designated CCIM.

Currently, Saia serves as a senior director of the National Retail Group and Net Leased Properties Group, specializing in the sale of retail and net-leased assets nationwide.

 Contact: Stacey Corso, Public Relations Manager, (925) 953-1716

Residential Shortsales Spike 49% In South Florida In 2010

 MIAMI, FL--The number of residential shortsale transactions in the tricounty South Florida region jumped by 49 percent on a year-over-year basis in 2010, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com.

Buyers purchased nearly 16,800 residential properties in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties in 2010 at prices below - or short of - the outstanding loan amount owed by sellers.

In 2009, buyers purchased nearly 11,300 properties short of the financing amount due, according to an analysis by the licensed Florida sell-side brokerage CVR Realty™.

"All indications are that shortsales will increasingly be the primary focus of buyers searching for properties in the South Florida market," said Hernan Osorio (top right photo), the director of sales for CVR Realty™.

"With the federal government's loan modification program having a minimal effect and the economy failing to create enough jobs to jump start the South Florida housing market, more homeowners are being faced with the prospect of losing their residences, either through foreclosure or shortsales.

“ Luckily for sellers who do want out but are mindful of their credit, several lenders are beginning to view shortsales as a viable alternative to the foreclosure process."

Lenders sold 19,800 residences in South Florida in 2010, down six percent from 2009 when 21,050 bank-owned properties were transacted, according to the report based on Florida Association of Realtors data.

Buyers are still anxious to acquire bank-owned properties but lenders have grown more hesitant to unload these repossessions given the economics involved.

 Peter Zalewski of Condo Vultures® can be reached at 800-750-0517 or by email at peter@condovultures.com.

Arbor Closes Three Fannie Mae DUS® Loans Totaling $8.5M Across Midwest

Uniondale, NY (Jan. 4, 2011) - Arbor Commercial Funding, LLC (“Arbor”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arbor Commercial Mortgage, LLC, announced the recent funding of three loans totaling $8,510,000 under the Fannie Mae DUS® Loan, Fannie Mae DUS® Small Loan and Fannie Mae DUS® Multifamily Affordable Housing (MAH) Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Loan product lines across the Midwest.

These loans include:

 Northland Park Apartments, Sterling, IL (top left photo) – The 160-unit complex received $4,135,000 funded under the Fannie Mae DUS® Loan product line. The 10-year loan amortizes on a 30-year schedule.

Curtiss Apartments, Downers Grove, IL (middle right photo) – The 26-unit complex received $1,875,000 funded under the Fannie Mae DUS® Small Loan product line. The 10-year loan amortizes on a 30-year schedule.

Lamar Place, Mission, KS (lower left photo) – The 84-unit complex received $2,500,000 funded under the Fannie Mae DUS® Multifamily Affordable Housing (MAH) Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Loan product line. The 10-year loan amortizes on a 30-year schedule.

The loans were originated by Patrick McNulty (lower right photo), Director, in Arbor’s full-service Chicago, IL, lending office.

“Although the Northland Park Apartments are located in a smaller market area, Arbor was comfortable with the financing given the high quality of the asset and the property’s solid operating history,” McNulty said.

“An exceptional rate near historic lows was delivered, With regard to Lamar Place, we took the deal under application with a short closing timeframe on the underlying acquisition.

“Despite last minute obstacles, Arbor was able to deliver the loan within the promised timeframe.”

Contact: Christopher Ostrowski, costrowski@arbor.com.

Joint Venture Acquires City Center Office Building in St. Petersburg, FL

 ST. PETERSBURG, FL, Jan. 4, 2011 – A joint venture consisting of affiliates of Second City Capital Partners, Feldman Equities, Inc., and Tower Realty Partners, Inc. has acquired the 242,115 square-foot City Center office building complex  (top left photo) at a price of $16.5 million or $68 per square foot.

Tower Realty Partners, Inc. will manage and lease the building.

City Center is a Class A office property consisting of two buildings that are connected by an enclosed, glass atrium lobby. The atrium features a glass skylight ceiling suspended 35 feet above a marble floor with abundant sunlight and a dramatic lobby entrance.

The two towers of four and twelve stories provide unmatched views of Tampa Bay and the downtown St. Petersburg skyline. With the largest floor plates in downtown St. Petersburg, City center provides exceptional office layout efficiency.

 City Center was awarded the 2006 and 2007 BOMA Toby Award for Building of the Year, as well as the BOMA Toby Award for Property Manager of the Year 2006.

The new ownership will be investing over $6 million dollars into the property, including at least $1.7 million in capital improvement upgrades.

These upgrades will include the complete modernization of all of the building’s elevators and garage elevators, new elevator cabs with high end finishes, lobby upgrades, and common area improvements. In addition, ownership is planning to upgrade the elevator lobbies of the multi-tenanted corridors.

(Towers Realty founders Reid Berman, left and Clifford Stein, right)

Second City Capital Partners (“SCCP”) is a private equity company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia and is led by world renowned investor Sam Belzberg (top right photo).

SCCP is a multi-fund private equity group, targeting mid-market companies and distressed real estate assets across Canada and the United States. SCCP offers investors a range of alternative investment solutions and strategies through a multifaceted venture platform. SCCP seeks controlled buyout structures including minority equity interest positions with trusted partners.

 Please contact Jamie Farrar at 604 806-3353 with any inquiries.

Tower Realty Partners is an Orlando based commercial real estate owner focusing on value-added opportunities throughout the state of Florida. Tower was formed in 1987 by Cliff Stein and Reid Berman (middle left photo).

 Since its inception, Tower has acquired over $1 billion of office properties. Currently, Tower’s assets consist of over 3.5 million square feet office property throughout Florida.

For more information, please go to http://www.towerrealtypartners.com/

Feldman Equities is the modern business entity that encompasses a century of success in commercial real estate development. In the last 25 years, Larry Feldman and his father Ed Feldman, have developed or acquired over 11 million square feet of office and retail properties with an aggregate value in excess of $2.5 billion.

Mr. Feldman gained a national reputation as a property turnaround specialist when he was the Chairman and CEO of the publicly traded Tower Realty Trust, Inc (NYSE: TOW).

Feldman Equities recently acquired the debt on the Class A Fountain Square II office building in Tampa, Florida, in a joint venture with Trigate Capital and Tower Realty Partners. Feldman Equities is recognized for its hands-on approach to turning around distressed assets.

Contact: Larry Feldman (516) 509-6775

HFF closes sale of two Port of Houston industrial buildings

HOUSTON, TX – The Houston office of HFF (Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P.) has closed the sale of Barbour’s Cut Business Park (top left photo) and Bayport Container Terminal (middle right photo), two industrial properties totaling 582,840 square feet in the Port of Houston.

The HFF investment sales team was led by senior managing director Rusty Tamlyn (middle left photo)  and real estate analyst Trent Agnew who represented the seller, Granite Properties, Inc. 

 Duke Realty Corporation (“Duke Realty”) purchased the properties for an undisclosed amount in an all cash transaction. 

The properties are part of a larger 15-property industrial portfolio HFF is marketing on behalf of Granite Properties in Houston and Dallas.

 Granite Properties made a strategic decision to divest of their industrial holdings and focus on office acquisitions in their existing markets and expand to the east and west coasts of the United States.

Barbour’s Cut Business Park and Bayport Container Terminal were developed in coordination with the Port of Houston Authority (lower right photo) and are fully leased to Gulf Winds International with more than 10 years of remaining lease term. 

They are located adjacent to container terminals at 1000-1200 East Barbour’s Cut in Morgans Point (Barbour’s) and 5300 State Highway 146 in Sea Brook (Bayport) along Houston’s Ship Channel.  Barbour’s Cut Business Park includes two buildings totaling 356,600 square feet and Bayport Container Terminal consists of a 226,240-square-foot building.

“Houston’s industrial market has outperformed its peers across the country and going forward it should show strong growth as absorption picks up due to the minimal overhang of supply,” said Tamlyn. 

“The assets Duke Realty acquired are in irreplaceable locations directly across the two container yards and fit nicely with their port/gateway city strategy.”

Granite Properties, Inc. is a diversified real estate investment and management company with offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, and Houston.  Currently they own, manage and lease more than 10.5 million square feet of office, industrial and retail property.

Duke Realty is a real estate investment trust, publicly traded on the NYSE with a market cap of $2.78 billion.  Duke Realty currently owns more than 135 million square feet of industrial, office and medical office properties in 18 major U.S. cities.

Contacts:                      

Rusty tamlyn, CCIM, SIOR, HFF Senior Managing Director, (713) 852-3500,

rtamlyn@hfflp.com 

 Kristen Murphy, HFF Associate Director, Marketing, (713) 852 3500,

\krmurphy@hfflp.com

                                                           

HFF closes $18.7 million sale of residential development site in Manhattan’s Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood

NEW YORK, NY – The New York and New Jersey offices of HFF (Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P.) have closed the sale of a residential development site on 37th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in Manhattan’s Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.

HFF senior managing directors Andrew Scandalios (middle right photo) and Jose Cruz (middle left photo) along with directors Jeffrey Julien and Kevin O’Hearn represented the buyer, Jackson Development, LLC, who purchased the site for $18.7 million free and clear of debt.

The development site is located at 431-439 West 37th Street within the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Site (top left rendering), which upon completion will include 24 million square feet of office space, 13,500 units of housing, one million square feet of retail and two million square feet of hotel space all within walking distance of the New York City subway system,

Times Square and Penn Station.  The proposed property is a 12-story luxury residential building totaling 110,700 gross square feet. 

“Currently in New York City, we are seeing a historic lack of new construction; only 0.8 percent of supply this decade, which points to excellent rent and sale price appreciation over the short to mid-term for projects like the 37th Street development,” said Scandalios.

“The Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen area is one of the fastest growing residential neighborhoods in New York City and this was an outstanding opportunity to develop a prime site in Hudson Yards, which is fast becoming a popular, vibrant mixed-use neighborhood,” added Cruz.

Contacts:      

Andrew G. Scandalios, HFF Senior Managing Director, (212) 245-2425 ascandalios@hfflp.com

Jose R. Cruz, HFF Senior Managing Director, (973) 549-2000, jcruz@hfflp.com

Kristen M. Murphy, HFF Associate Director, Marketing, (713) 852-3500

 krmurphy@hfflp.com

HFF closes sale of Atlanta area grocery-anchored retail center

ATLANTA, GA – The Atlanta office of HFF (Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P.) announced today that it has closed the sale of Everson Pointe (top left photo), an 81,428-square-foot, grocery-anchored retail center in Snellville, Georgia.

HFF directors Richard Reid (middle right photo) and Jim Hamilton (lower left photo) led the investment sales team on behalf of the seller, Edens & Avant.  The property was purchased free and clear of debt for an undisclosed price.

Everson Pointe is situated on a 9.8-acre site at 3035 Centerville Highway (State Highway 124) in Snellville, an east Atlanta suburb.  The property is anchored by Kroger and is 86% leased.

“Everson Pointe is a well-located suburban grocery-anchored shopping center.  The property benefits from excellent fundamentals such as layout, visibility, traffic counts and Kroger, a dominant grocer in the market,” said Reid.

Edens & Avant develops, owns and operates neighborhood shopping places in primary markets throughout the East Coast. 

Focusing on retail in major metro areas, the company has built a portfolio of more than 128 retail centers in 15 states with regional headquarters in Washington D.C., Atlanta, Boston, Miami and Columbia, South Carolina.

Contacts:   

Richard M. Reid, HFF Director, (404) 832-8460 rreid@hfflp.com

Jim R. Hamilton, HFF Director, (404) 832-8460 jhamilton@hfflp.com

 Kristen M. Murphy, HFF Associate Director, Marketing, (713) 852-3500,

krmurphy@hfflp.com

                 

Colliers International Negotiates $5.482 Million Lease of a 15,444-SG Office Space in Los Angeles

 LOS ANGELES, CA – Colliers International, the second largest real estate services organization globally, has negotiated a 10-year lease for a 15,444-square-foot office space located at 221 S. Figueroa St (top left photo). in Downtown Los Angeles for The Associated Press.  The transaction is valued at $5.5 million.

 Nathan Pellow (middle right photo), senior vice president, based in Colliers International’s Downtown Los Angeles office represented the tenant along with Brian Feist, senior managing director of Colliers International in New York.  Chris Runyen, managing director with Charles Dunn Company represented the landlord, US Bank.

 Built in 1977, the building is part of a multi building campus in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles and is home to US Bank (Formerly California National Bank), One Legacy, and UCLA Extension.

“This deal represents a significant lease extension by a quality national tenant in DTLA in the last quarter of 2010,” said Pellow. “AP had already invested significant money into the space with respect to IT infrastructure.  We were able to lock in the lease on this facility at below market rates with a sizeable TI allowance.”

 For further information,  please contact:

Angela Hwang, Regional Marketing Coordinator

Greater Los Angeles, Colliers International

Tel: 213 532 3258

angela.hwang@colliers.com

http://www.colliers.com/

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