Middle Market Digest – The Northeast

Here is a roundup of the latest leases, sales and other transactions in the Northeast middle markets.

Deal Tracker Daily

WORCESTER, MA—NorthMarq Capital arranged $15.6 million in construction financing for a mixed-use development in the Canal District of Worcester, MA. The project, called Harding Green, will include 48 market-rate apartment units, a restaurant and about 16,000 square feet of space for a public market. Construction commenced in late May with completion anticipated for early summer 2019. The NorthMarq team was led by Doug Nickerson, vice president and Katie Pontes, vice president, who together arranged the financing with a regional bank.

PHILADELPHIA, PA—Colliers International’s retail team in Philadelphia facilitated the sale of a 5,170 square-foot retail condominium located on the first floor of 1228-1232 Arch Street in the Philadelphia CBD for $2.57 million. The former CitiBank space sits directly across from the Pennsylvania Convention Center, a major attraction for the buyer, Maitay. The site will be converted to restaurant and other retail uses. The Colliers team of Todd Sussman, Josh Goldfine, and Anna MacDonald represented the seller, Independence Realty – Arch Street, in this transaction.

PHILADELPHIA, PA—Marcus & Millichap brokered the sale of Victory Square, a 38,234-square-foot grocery-anchored retail center located in Philadelphia. The asset sold for $9.25 million. Derrick Dougherty, Scott Woodard and Mark Taylor, investment specialists in Marcus & Millichap’s Philadelphia office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, Post Brothers.  Dougherty, Woodard and Taylor also represented the out-of-market buyer. The buyer acquired the property with assumable debt in place. Victory Square is located at 4424 N Broad St in North Philadelphia. The fully-occupied center is anchored by a 18,500-square-foot Save-A-Lot and includes Dollar Tree, Taco Bell and a laundromat. Originally built in 1980, the property was recently renovated in 2016. The retail center is situated on 2.04 acres with 94 parking spaces along North Broad Street, not far from Temple University.

LOWELL, MA—Trinity Financial says 110 Canal Street, a 55,000-square-foot spec office and commercial property that it redeveloped in Lowell’s Hamilton Canal District, is now fully leased. Just steps away from Lowell’s restaurants, entertainment and arts venues, the site offers energy-efficient office space in a unique urban environment. Major tenants include the New England Robotics Validation and Experimentation (NERVE) Center at UMass Lowell, the university’s new Fabric Discovery Center, the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub and the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2), a partnership between the UMass Lowell and Worcester campuses that is a business incubator for medical-device and biotech companies. 110 Canal, the former mill building located at the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, is a certified historic rehabilitation project which Trinity Financial transformed as part of a mission to revitalize the Hamilton Canal District, following the completion of the Appleton Mills redevelopment in 2011. The project was completed in three phases, including an initial phase to restore the project’s exterior and later phases to build out customized fits for each tenant. The total development cost of the three phases of the project was approximately $14 million, financed by a combination of private, city and state funding, and federal and state tax credits provided by the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation (MHIC), TD Community Capital, the City of Lowell, Lowell Development and Financial Corporation, and TD Bank.

EDISON, NJ—Bussel Realty Corp. says Main Attractions has leased 55,000 square feet of industrial space at 20 Harmich Road in South Plainfield, NJ. Gregory Irving, executive vice president of BRC, represented Main Attractions in the transaction, and has represented the firm for over 25 years.  The owner of the property, Role Realty, was represented by Archie Schwartz. Totaling 57,000 square feet, 20 Harmich Road is located near I-287 with access to the New Jersey Turnpike, Route 1 and 440, the Garden State Parkway and the Outerbridge Crossing to Staten Island and Brooklyn.  The property features 28-foot high ceilings, two tailboards and three drive-in doors for loading, wet sprinklers, and 100 surface parking spaces.  The owner will be adding an additional two tailboards to accommodate the tenant’s needs.

LANCASTER, PA—High Hotels Ltd. announced today it is installing a $1.5 million solar array that will generate 100% of the electrical power required to operate one of its existing hotels in Greenfield Corporate Center. The completed installation will make the 133-room Courtyard by Marriott-Lancaster at 1931 Hospitality Drive the first Marriott-branded hotel in the United States with 100 percent of its electricity needs generated from solar power. It is also believed to be the first solar array in the country installed for the sole purpose of generating 100 percent of the electricity needs of a hotel. The installation of more than 2,700 ballasted photovoltaic panels will fill an area more than two football fields in size. After evaluating several on-site and near-site alternatives, High Hotels decided to install the solar array on the roof of a nearby building in Greenfield Corporate Center. Using the existing roof saves more than three acres of open land and has additional aesthetic benefits. The solar array will produce 1,239,000 kWh of power for the hotel, which consumes 1,177,000 kWh. Any excess power will be sold to the utility.

ALTOONA, PA––Commercial real estate financial advisory and mortgage origination firm Uber Capital Group has sourced a $24.05 million debt refinancing of the acquisition loan for the purchase of the Logan Valley Mall. The client was a private national commercial real estate investment group. Uber sourced the financing from a regional bank based in Pennsylvania. The two-story, 785,000-square foot property is located at 5580 Goods Lane in Altoona, the largest city of Blair County. More than 100,000 people live within five miles of Altona’s center. The city is the home of the corporate headquarters of Sheetz gas and convenience store chain.

BRIDGEWATER, NJ—KRE Group has launched an amenity-centric renovation at 685 Route 202/206 in Bridgewater. Cushman & Wakefield is exclusive leasing agent for the 140,000-square-foot Somerset County office property. The improvements focus on the incorporation of indoor and outdoor community spaces for social and collaborative gatherings. These improvements include a reconfiguration with multiple seating areas in the property’s three-story, skylit atrium lobby. The addition of a tenant lounge within the property’s full-service cafeteria will accommodate small-group activities – complementing an existing shared conference facility. Additional outdoor installations within the landscaped patio at 685 Route 202/206 will encourage open-air meetings. Cushman & Wakefield’s William O’Keefe, Raymond Trevisan, Charles Parmelli, and Jackie Madden, based in Morristown, N.J., are heading the leasing team.

GLEN RIDGE AND MONTCLAIR, NJ—Hackensack Meridian Health has begin construction of a three-story, 45,735-square-foot state-of-the-art medical office building at the former School of Nursing site across from Hackensack Meridian Health Mountainside Medical Center on the border of Glen Ridge and Montclair, NJ. The project is being developed by The Hampshire Companies with Circle Squared Alternative Investments serving as the project investment advisor. Slated for completion in early 2020, the modern medical office building will enhance the scope and quality of comprehensive healthcare services and bring additional economic and quality-of-life benefits to the communities Mountainside Medical Center serves. Designed to meet the needs of 21st century health care providers, the Medical Office Building will offer high-quality, class A office space and enable the hospital to continue to attract and retain the best doctors and specialists.

Money Moves

MIAMI, FL—Todd Cohen, a commercial real estate broker homegrown in Philadelphia, has launched brokerage firm TCC Advisors. With offices in Miami and Philadelphia, the firm has already closed on retail and multifamily spaces totaling almost $14 million within weeks of officially starting the new shop. TCC Advisors offers brokerage, advisory and financing services. The firm assists clients with all elements of real estate investment from preliminary identification and acquisition through management, and, ultimately, disposition.

Executive Moves

NEW YORK, NY—Eisner PC, the Los Angeles-based law firm, has expanded in New York with the opening of a new Midtown office and the addition of Leslie Corwin (left)  and Simon Miller, highly respected litigators from Blank Rome. Eisner has leased the entire 48th floor of Carnegie Hall Tower, a 60-story skyscraper located at 152 West 57th Street. Arthur Draznin, executive managing director at Cushman & Wakefield, served as the broker. Eisner represents numerous REITs, media and entertainment companies, investment firms, banks, and ultra high-net-worth individuals and family offices, providing both transactional and litigation services. Corwin and Miller are known for litigating disputes surrounding the breakup of partnerships and other businesses.

NEW YORK, NY—The Venable law firm named Robert J. Gorzelany counsel in the Real Estate Practice in the New York office. Gorzelany, who focuses on commercial leasing, represents both landlords and tenants, in New York City and nationally. His representations regularly include owners/operators on the landlord side, and financial service, hedge fund, retail, media, healthcare/medical, sports, fashion, and publishing industry companies on the tenant side. He also advises clients in joint ventures, acquisition/dispositions (including office, industrial, multifamily, and retail properties), and finance and construction matters.

SADDLE BROOK, NJ—CBRE named Eric Brown a senior project manager on the Project Management team at the firm’s Saddle Brook and East Brunswick, NJ, offices. Before joining CBRE, Brown was a senior associate at VVA and managed several national headquarters projects in New Jersey. Brown has represented many national clients including Crayola, British Airways, New York Life, Dress Barn and Allergan, among others.