Momentum Gathers Around Adaptive Reuse

Add a former Colonial Nursing Center in Weymouth, Mass., to the list of properties being converted into workforce housing assets.

JLL Capital Markets announced that it closed the former nursing center’s sale, which sits on 2.11 acres and totals 72,999 square feet.

The current layout of the nursing center seems to make it a good candidate for conversion. It includes 93 units with various amenities, including a commercial kitchen, dining room, activity areas, outdoor courtyard, common gathering areas and outdoor walking trails.

Colonial Nursing Center is an attractive location for a conversion, according to JLL. The transit-oriented property is near various public transportation lines, Route I-93 and Route 3, providing direct access to downtown Boston and Cape Cod.

The JLL Capital Markets team representing the seller was led by Jason Skalko, Zach Rigby, Brannan Knott and CJ Kodani.

Anecdotal evidence does suggest that more conversion projects are coming online. 

Also, this week, a newly formed partnership between affiliates of Blaze Partners and Argosy Real Estate Partners acquired a nationally branded extended stay hotel in Charlotte with plans to convert it to a market-rate apartment community.

Blaze and Argosy plan to reposition the community over the coming months, with a full rebranding and comprehensive capital plan focused on community enhancements and targeted unit upgrades. The partnership intends to construct additional units as part of the vacant land acquired in the transaction.  

While residential conversions are a popular strategy, other sites are ripe for reuse. In Farmington, NM, U-Haul took over a former Kmart store and will soon be adding 600 indoor climate-controlled self-storage rooms to the facility.

“There is currently no climate-controlled self-storage in Farmington,” said Tom Neill, U-Haul Company of Northern New Mexico president in a prepared statement. “So U-Haul is eager to meet that need and be the leading provider here.”

Investors even see an opportunity in lodging, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. CGI Merchant Group made a $30 million investment in a ground-up development project to convert the existing facilities at the historic Morris Brown College in Atlanta into an upscale hotel. CGI made the investment through its $650 million hospitality opportunity fund, which plans to invest in 20 total hotel projects in North America and the Caribbean over the next three years. 

Expect to see more investors look at repositioning assets this year across different property types. “Repurposing existing assets is a major area of opportunity, including mixed-use and specific sector prospects such as supporting click and collect and ‘last meter’ inner urban logistics and evolving areas of tech infrastructure,” according to a recent Cushman & Wakefield report.