the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
640-Unit Connecticut Apartment Portfolio Fetches $75M
Chestnut Hill and Northwoods Apartments, two multi-family communities accounting for an aggregate 650 residences in Middletown, Conn., have just come under new ownership. Entities operating as Northwoods Apartment Associates L.L.C. and Chestnut Apartment Associates L.L.C. took the two Class A properties, located approximately 15 miles south of Hartford, off the hands of Middletown-Oxford L.P. and Connecticut Colony Associates L.P. in a transaction valued at $75 million. Carrying the address of 4 Town Colony Dr., Chestnut Hill features 314 units encompassed in seven three-story structures. The community was developed on nearly 30 acres in 1986. Northwoods occupies approximately 17 acres at…
Anbau Snaps Up $19M Manhattan Parcel for Condo Project
While the condominium market is pretty much in freefall in most metropolitan cities, it continues to experience relatively significant demand in New York City, and Anbau Enterprises Inc. plans to take advantage of the positive climate now that it has acquired a 55,000-square-foot parcel at 124 West 23rd St. in Manhattan for $19 million.The New York-based developer was able to obtain an acquisition and construction loan from the Bank of New York Mellon in what has become one of the most unfriendly lending markets the country has ever experienced. Plans call for the erection of a 16-story luxury condominium tower…
NetLease Q&A: American Realty Capital Exchange’s Watt Says 1031, TIC Slowdown is Cyclical
The 1031 exchanges and tenant-in-common deals have had a rough time of it lately. Until last year, there was a booming volume of real estate investment sales, which provided the necessary folder for a healthy 1031 exchange and TIC market. In particular, as apartments went condo, the sellers needed a tax-advantageous exit strategy. Those days are gone. But 1031s remain an important part of the real estate market, and companies such as American Realty Capital Exchange L.L.C. (ARCX), an arm of American Realty Capital Advisors, remain active participants in the market, especially those exchanges that facilitate subsequent TIC investments. Recently…
Hotel Executives Offer Navigation Strategies for Rough Waters
At The Lodging Conference last week in Phoenix, those three little words–“I don’t know”–were on many hotel industry executives’ lips, as many seemed unsure of the industry’s path in light of the uncertainty caused by a Wall Street bailout plan that was still being negotiated, rising oil prices and concerns about how much further the economy could deteriorate.Industry executives on one conference panel revealed some of their strategies to navigate these turbulent seas—strategies that in some cases actually look toward growth and not just survival.Stephen Joyce, president & CEO of Choice Hotels, was happy to report that so far owners…
Greener Cars Recharge Building Plans
A stop-gap funding measure passed by the Senate last Saturday may have significant implications for a mainstay of the United States industrial sector. A $630 billion federal funding bill would provide the Big Three automakers with $25 billion worth of low-cost loans for developing clean technology and re-tooling manufacturing plants. It may be too early to say when–or if–Detroit can catch up to foreign automakers in the race to build low-emission vehicles. But the federal funding could help increase demand for both new projects and re-purposing of existing manufacturing facilities. That, in turn, could increase the demand for site-selection consulting…
Orange County: Canary in the Coal Mine
One of the early signals of the credit crisis that has turned the U.S. financial markets upside down showed up in Orange County, Calif. There, the office market featured a 7 percent vacancy rate as recently as the fourth quarter of 2006–a number that has inflated to 20 percent today.The market is home to a large number of mortgage firms, and consequently began to suffer as those firms either ceased operations or shed workers as the subprime housing crisis began to unfold, with serious tremors felt throughout the market. Ameriquest has given back the most office space in the market,…
Holidays Look Less Merry to Retailers
Each year, the retail sector counts on big holiday sales to beef up its bottom line. The way things look now, retailers and retail property owners, developers and advisors are more likely to find lumps of coal in their stockings this year than candy and presents. According to the National Retail Federation’s annual estimate published on Sept. 23, holiday sales will creep up only 2.2 percent this year–only half of the 4.4 percent gain that the retail sector has averaged over the past decade. To put that in perspective, a gain of 2.2 percent would be the smallest year-over-year increase…
Hotel Sales Dive, but Local Properties See Occupancy Rise
The hospitality market pulled in $8.7 billion in sales during the first half of 2008, the lowest level among major property types and down 77 percent from the same period a year ago, according to Grubb & Ellis Co.’s second quarter “Capital Markets Update.” The cap rate hit 8 percent for full-service hotels, a 50-basis-point decline over the past quarters, while the cap rate for limited-service properties came in at 9.7 percent, an increase of 70 basis points.While higher prices at the pump have caused many consumers to shrink their retail expenditures, it appears that local hotels are seeing a…
Industrial Transactions Rise Slightly, but Owners Averse to Distressed Sales
August saw the sales of significant industrial properties jump slightly from the previous month, but price tags for such assets were lean, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc.’s latest Capital Trends Monthly report on the sector. The value of closed transactions came in at only $1.6 billion, and while another $1.5 billion worth of deals were under contract at the beginning of September, given the fiscal crisis, the future of some deals that haven’t closed yet may be up in the air. The good news is that the industrial segment is less susceptible to distressed transactions. About 1.6 percent of…
Conservatorship Could Benefit Multi-family
The federal bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the beginning of September may have roiled the markets, but it has a positive side, too: It presents an opportunity to help ease the severity of the housing crisis and strengthen investor confidence, according to a paper by Glev Nechayev, senior economist for Torto Wheaton Research. While multi-family activity accounts for just a small fraction of the government-sponsored entities’ business, these companies have a massive impact on the property sector. They represent more than $300 billion, or 35 percent of the total multi-family debt through their portfolios and mortgage pools,…