Regions

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…

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…

ING Clarion Partners appointed Florencio Beccar as managing director of its new office in São Paulo, Brazil. Beccar established ING”s investment management office in Italy and headed the firm’s acquisition team in Spain. He most recently served as managing director and portfolio manager for the ING Real Estate Southern European Fund, and before that was acquisition manager for the ING Real Estate Iberica Fund.  Additionally, Marcela Drigo joins Beccar in the São Paulo office as a vice president.  Drigo comes to ING from Capital Trust Inc., where she was responsible for Brazilian investments.  Prior to that, she was with AIG…

Just days before the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is due to release an update on the construction timetable and costs of rebuilding the 16-acre World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, new reports have surfaced claiming the planned transit hub is $500 million over budget and five years behind schedule. The Port Authority is scheduled to issue an update on the WTC rebuilding at its board meeting Thursday and is also expected to announce a redesign of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava’s initial $2.5 billion plan. As previously reported by CPN, Christopher Ward, the new Port Authority…

CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust, acting in a joint venture with Childress Klein Properties, has acquired nearly 296,400 square feet in the 470,300-square-foot Afton Ridge Shopping Center in Kannapolis, N.C., in a transaction valued at $50 million. Afton Ridge sits within a 260-acre master planned destination, serving as the mixed-use development’s retail segment. CBRE Realty Trust worked on the acquisition with CBRE Investors. Located at the intersection of I-85 and Kannapolis Parkway, about 25 miles north of Charlotte, Afton Ridge has a tenant roster that includes such national chain stores as Ashley Furniture, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hallmark, Lane…

Skidmore, Owings & Merill L.L.P. have announced the groundbreaking for the White Magnolia Plaza in Shanghai. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and their partner in the project, Shanghai Jinjang North Bund Realty Co. began construction on Sept. 26, having just recently received authorization for the plans from the Shanghai City Planning Administrative Bureau. The plans for the White Magnolia Plaza call for a 320-meter-high office building and two hotel towers to be built atop a mixed-use base and an underground parking facility. The development is located on a 57,000-square-meter plot of land on the Huang Pu River. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s…

Taurus Investment Holdings L.L.C. and DivcoWest have acquired two properties in North Reading, Mass., from Teradyne Inc., for $27.5 million. CB Richard Ellis Inc. of New England arranged the transaction.The properties are two separate buildings in the Riverpark Office Park in the Boston suburb, located in Middlesex County. Riverpark is a one-million square-foot property with a total of seven buildings.One of the two buildings purchased is a 150,000 square-foot office building. The other is a 200,000 square-foot light industrial research and development facility.As part of the deal, Teradyne has arranged to lease back 50,000 square feet for five years.  Teradyne’s…

Undeterred by the overall decline in the auto industry, General Motors has announced plans to develop a 552,000-square-foot plant in Flint, Mich. where it will manufacture engines for its Chevrolet Volt line of fuel efficient vehicles. GM will shell out $349 million to construct the facility and another $21 million for vendor tooling to back facility operations. The new plant will sit about an hour from GM’s Detroit-based global headquarters, which the company acquired from its landlord for $626 million in May. GM considered building the Volt plant at other locations around the country, but overseas sites were not among…

Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II today announced it has taken majority ownership at the newly built global headquarters building of Newell Rubbermaid in suburban Atlanta. With the completion of the property, Wells REIT II owns a majority stake in Three Glenlake, the 354,963-square-foot office tower recently completed on Glenlake Parkway, near Georgia 400 in Sandy Springs. The new headquarters was dedicated in ceremonies with Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, Newell Rubbermaid President & CEO Mark Ketchum and Wells Real Estate Funds President Leo Wells.The new tower is next door to UPS’ world headquarters, in Atlanta’s Central Perimeter submarket. The modern,…

AvalonBay Communities Inc. has received $135 million in financing–the multi-family REIT’s largest bond financing ever closed–to fund construction of Avalon Walnut Creek at Contra Centre, a $400 million mixed-use, transit-oriented development next to the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit’s Pleasant Hill Bay station. Serving as AvalonBay’s finance counsel, law firm Goodwin Procter L.L.P. helped AvalonBay secure the letter of credit from Bank of America N.A., comprising $116 million in tax-exempt and $19 million in taxable multi-family housing revenue bonds. AvalonBay, Millennium Partners and the San Francisco BART comprise the partners investing in the public-private venture. While the first phase…