News

Lee & Associates has named Phil Royster as its president of strategic growth. The newly created position will have Royster overseeing all of the company’s expansion efforts. Among the responsibilities will be identifying growth opportunities and establishing the company’s strategy for new office acquisitions and the formation of new Lee & Associates companies nationwide. Plan’s call for Royster to work closely with Lee’s regional company presidents in indentifying these potential partners. He will be based in the company’s Sherman Oaks office where he will work alongside Lee’s L.A. North group president Mike Tingus. The appointment is effective immediately. Royster is…

Long Branch, N.J.–In an area that was once considered the epitome of oceanfront blight in New Jersey, a multi-million dollar upscale redevelopment project is now being built.The Applied Development Co. is developing Pier Village, a spectacular mixed-use development of restaurants, retailers, residential and open spaces, spanning Laird to Melrose streets between Ocean Avenue and Ocean Boulevard, in the city of Long Branch, N.J.Minno & Wasko Architects and Planners and Dean Marchetto Architects P.C.  are designing this project.“Some surrounding areas in Long Branch are still blighted, but the city is working on several fronts and making redevelopment possible in multiple locations…

New York–The boards of the New York State Housing Finance Agency (HFA) and its subsidiary, the New York State Affordable Housing Corp. (AHC), recently approved more than $317 million in financing to build and preserve 278 units of affordable housing in all five boroughs of New York City.The approvals included $315 million in financing for a multifamily 80/20 rental project in the Hudson Yards section of the far West Side of Manhattan; a $400,000 grant to the Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City (NHS) to finance home improvements for 85 housing units on sites in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens…

Ten months after submitting a proposal to the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City for the development of a $750 million resort casino, Las Vegas Sands Corp. has taken itself out of the game with the abandonment of its bid for a gaming license in Kansas. With the decision, the company has removed itself from what had been a competition among five development entities to build a new destination casino in the state. For Las Vegas Sands, the prospect of taking its legendary brand to Kansas became undesirable upon recent closer inspection. The currently unfavorable lending market played a role…

Resort giant Diamond Resorts International has inked a letter of intent to acquire Bluegreen Corp., which also specializes in resort and vacation properties. The letter cited a price of $15 a share, which would value the deal at about $500 million, not counting Bluegreen’s outstanding debt. Under the terms of the letter, Bluegreen has granted Diamond Resorts an exclusive right of negotiation through September 15, during which time Diamond Resorts will conduct more extensive due diligence. According to Bluegreen, the offer was unsolicited, but Bluegreen had been preparing for an eventual sale in any case. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Bluegreen Corp….

NorthMarq Capital Inc.’s Washington, D.C., office arranged a $46 million senior mortgage acquisition financing for the The Park at Kingsview, a 326-unit multi-family property in Germantown, Md. Christopher Feeley and Gary McGlynn, both serving as NorthMarq’s senior vice presidents & managing directors, along with the firm’s vice president Frank Relihan arranged the financing, which was based on a seven-year term and was arranged for the borrower through NorthMarq’s seller-servicer relationship with Freddie Mac. NorthMarq Capital provides more than $11.8 billion in annual production volume and services a loan portfolio of more than $36.5 billion.

Los Angeles-based investment firm Kayne Anderson Capital Partners has acquired a 212-unit student-housing complex in Riverside, Calif., for $45 million, or $212,000 per unit. Constructed in 2001, the Class A apartment complex, GrandMarc at University Village (pictured), houses students at the University of California, Riverside. The property consists of eight four-story apartment buildings and one single-story leasing office/clubhouse. The apartments range in size from one-bedroom/one-bathroom to four-bedroom/four-bathroom units. Average size is 1,310 square feet.The unit price ranks above the average for apartment complex sales in the U.S. this year, according to data supplied by New York-based Real Capital Analytics. Real…

Despite a slowing office leasing market in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, a Dallas-area based smartphone software retailer signed a seven-year lease of about 50,000 square feet in the master planned commerce center of Las Colinas in the Dallas suburb of Irving. Handango, an online retailer of smartphone software, signed the long term lease of 48,660 square feet in Corporate Point at Las Colinas (pictured) after leasing 11,800 square feet about nine months ago. The move coincides with Handango’s decision to move its corporate headquarters from the mid-cities area of Hurst to Corporate Point. Since acquiring the 10-story, 223,500-square-foot office building…

Pratt Industries U.S.A., one of the country’s largest paper and packaging companies, has secured $112 million through GE Commercial Finance Corporate Lending to fund the development, construction, and operation of a greenfield recycled containerboard facility in Shreveport, La. Once operational, The project will use 100 percent recycled fiber input to produce approximately 360,000 tons of containerboard per year. A Pratt spokesperson told CPN that GE’s knowledge of the corrugated packaging manufacturing industry coupled with its project finance expertise allowed the firm to get the capital it required for the Louisiana mill. The mill will open late this year and is…