Thursday, December 24, 2020
Monday, December 21, 2020
Global Investor KKR Makes Entry Into Major East Coast Logistics Market Lehigh Valley
International investment firm KKR made its entry into Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley market with its acquisition of a distribution warehouse that opened last year and is leased to one of the nation’s largest logistics and trucking companies.
The New York-based firm bought the 600,238-square-foot property at 30 Ludwig Court in Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania, from developer The Keith Corporation, according to CoStar research and a statement from KKR.
The price was not disclosed. The average sale price of industrial properties in the Lehigh Valley area is $85 per square foot, according to CoStar. At that rate, the property would be valued at $51 million.
Ryder Integrated Logistics, a division of Miami-based logistics and trucking company Ryder, occupies the entire property, according to CoStar research. Ryder operates more than 300 warehouses spanning 55 million square feet across the nation, according to its website.
This is KKR’s first industrial purchase in Pennsylvania’s sprawling Lehigh Valley, which is the state's third-largest metropolitan area and has 132 million square feet of industrial space.
The property sits roughly 70 miles northwest of Philadelphia and 120 miles from New York City. The Lehigh Valley's proximity to those cities as well as Boston has helped to establish the area as a significant East Coast logistics market.
“Some of the biggest names in logistics occupy millions of square feet here."
In the past 10 years, Walmart, Amazon, Kellogg’s and Nestle have all signed industrial leases for more than 1 million square feet in the area, according to CoStar research.
Dow Chemical Site to Become Distribution Campus in East Philadelphia
Industrial developer DH Property Holdings plans to build a sprawling last-mile distribution campus on the site of a former chemical plant in Philadelphia.
The company and its capital partner acquired a 69-acre parcel of land at 5000 Richmond St. that once housed a chemical refinery owned by Dow Inc., according to CoStar research and a statement from commercial real estate financing firm Walker & Dunlop. It plans to develop a 733,800-square-foot distribution campus on the land.
The land acquisition and development represent a capitalization of more than $115 million, according to the statement.
The Rohm and Haas Philadelphia Plant operated on the site from 1920 until 2011, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Rohm and Haas, a chemical manufacturer, was acquired by Dow in 2009, after which Dow assumed control of the plant until its closure. The plant was demolished in 2011, and Dow listed it for sale this year.
A construction timeline was not disclosed. The distribution center is planned in Northeast Philadelphia, where logistics properties account for approximately 10.5 million of the area’s 13.9 million square feet of space.
The region has also maintained a tight vacancy rate of 4.5%.
There is also no new industrial product underway in the area, which could allow the new development to capture some of the steady demand that remains in the Northeast.
King of Prussia flex building trades for more than $9M
by Natalie Kostelni Reporter Philadelphia Business Journal
Velocity Venture Partners has paid $9.3 million for 780 Fifth Ave., a 97,000-square-foot flex building in King of Prussia.
The acquisition is one of a series that Velocity has made this year as it spent $150 million to double its industrial holdings in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The company bought 2 million square feet across 21 buildings and now owns a portfolio totaling 4 million square feet.
Among its acquisitions this year was 771 Fifth Ave., a 30,300-square-foot building next door to its latest acquisition; a 667,019-square-foot industrial building at 2750 Morris Road in the Lansdale area; and several buildings in Pennsauken, New Jersey, including a 37,856-square-foot warehouse facility located at 2301 Haddonfield Road.
Full Story: https://tinyurl.com/y7dawou4
Friday, December 18, 2020
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Scranton's Industrial Market Holds on Strong Through 2020
With just a few weeks left in the year, it appears increasingly likely that Scranton will be crowned the 2020 Queen of Pennsylvania logistics.
Her ascension to the throne is somewhat surprising. There were some troublesome signs within the market at the onset of the pandemic. And for years, Northeast Pennsylvania has played second fiddle to Lehigh Valley, which offers better access to New York and Philadelphia.
But CoStar data shows industrial net absorption, the difference between move-ins and move-outs, in Scranton totaled nearly 4 million square feet over the past 12 months, more than every other market contained within the North Atlantic trade corridor.
This region runs from Scranton down to Hagerstown, Maryland, and over the past decade, nearly every serious player in e-commerce has moved into at least one of its small markets. That’s because from them, every major city along the northeastern coast can be reached within hours.
Even with this strong demand, it appeared Scranton was possibly in for some short-term pain the second quarter.
No one had a clue how leasing any commercial property type would function at the onset of the pandemic, and Scranton had millions of square feet of speculative industrial space nearing completion. There was also a concentration of tenants that appeared to be at risk of downsizing within the market.
This could've compounded the disruption the new supply would create, and with a surplus of projects set to come online in nearby Lehigh Valley, the competition for new tenants looked like it would be fierce.
Instead, local demand spiked.
The exposed tenants have not downsized their local presence, and most of Scranton’s industrial tenants remain in place. Additionally, major leases were signed by Geodis, Kane Logistics and Lowe's. Even with millions of square feet in speculative space arriving, the market's overhead vacancies actually trended down over the second half of the year.
"The Greater Scranton industrial market is not only surviving the pandemic, but thriving in it," said Jim Cummings, vice president of marketing for Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services, the market's largest developer of logistics space. "We traditionally compete against northern and central New Jersey and other parts of eastern Pennsylvania, but those areas are becoming overdeveloped and expensive. Right now, we have the right combination of interstate access, tax incentives and workforce.'
This bodes well for Scranton’s future. There's still about 2.5 million square feet of logistics space under construction; much of it is speculative. Given the market easily filled this amount of space throughout this turbulent year, it looks likely that demand will keep up with the new supply through 2021.
"The key for us going forward is whether we'll be able to find enough developable land in this market to keep up with demand," Cummings said. "Our mountainous terrain and past industrial history mean we don’t have a lot of available flat land with utilities near our interstates. We often have to take sites most other developers would pass up and find creative ways to shape them into viable business parks."
Experience with creative development might be a plus in the near future as developers look to rapidly adapt to the e-commerce boom. Empty shopping malls, vacated department stores and even repurposed mines are being sought after across the state for redevelopment and expansion.
There are more than a few high-vacancy shopping malls in Scranton and quite a bit of empty shopping centers, too. It probably won't come to this, but there's plenty of abandoned coal mines here as well.
Scranton's reign might be brief; there’s a lot of space in Lehigh that could lease any day. Regardless, her future looks quite promising.
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Top 10 CRE Investment Predictions for 2021
By Joseph J. Ori Globest.com
By all accounts, 2020 was a shocker. Predictions made at the beginning of the year were, by mid-March, hardly worth the paper or electronic screen they were written on. With a vaccine for Covid-19 now beginning to be distributed, hopes are high that 2021 will be easier to navigate. As such, following a ten predictions for what CRE’s investment landscape will look like.
Long Term Interest Rates Will Continue to Increase
The 10-Year T-Note which is up from .49% in March 2020 and is currently at .97% will continue to increase due to the booming economy, deferred consumer demand from the pandemic, low unemployment, and higher inflation expectations. Higher inflation expectations will cause the 10-Year Treasury Note yield to rise to 2.0% by mid-2021.
REIT Returns Will Accelerate
REIT returns for 2020 as measured by the FTSE-NAREIT All Equity Index will most likely be down about -8.0% from 2019 when the index was up 28.66%. Due to the receding pandemic, vaccinations and Covid fatigue, the CRE markets will continue to stabilize and REITs will benefit. I expect the FTSE-NAREIT All Equity Index to increase 8% in 2021 with 3.5% from the dividend and 4.5% from capital gain. Some REIT sectors like hotels and malls will still be distressed, however, this is where there will be significant investment opportunities.
CRE Investment Returns Will Rise
The CRE industry which has suffered dramatically during the pandemic in 2020, is set for a major turnaround in all property sectors. The pandemic caused almost all sectors to suffer nonpayment and forbearance of rent, lease defaults, historic low occupancy, loan defaults and foreclosures. However, there is over $200 billion in real estate equity capital on the sidelines and much of this capital will be put to work in 2021 in all property types. There are also many discounted CRE assets that are ripe for investment including hotels, malls, office buildings and urban apartments.
Apartment Rent Control Will Continue to Spread in the US
New rent control laws were enacted in Oregon, California, and New York in 2019 and will spread to other states in 2021 and beyond. Look for Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, and other states to adopt new and disastrous rent control laws in the next few years. The apartment market across the country will become bifurcated with Class A tier red states without rent control and pro-real estate policies and the B tier blue states with rent control and anti-real estate policies. Cap rates will rise 1.0%-1.5% in the B tier states due to the negative effects of rent control.
Consolidation in the CRE Service Sector Will Continue
The CRE service sector has four subsectors, brokerage, software, data analytics and apartment listing services. All of these four sectors have been consolidating over the last 10 years to gain scale, provide services on a global basis, diversify the service offering, acquire new clients and customers, and increase revenue, profits, and cash flow. The six largest CRE brokers (CBRE, JLL, Cushman, Colliers, Newmark, and Marcus & Millichap) are all public today and look for one or two of these firms to merge with a larger player. The software sector, which is controlled by the big four of, Yardi, MRI, Skyline and RealPage will see more consolidation as the larger and well-capitalized firms gobble up their smaller and weaker competitors. The same consolidation will occur with the data analytics firms and look for the large software firms to be key buyers of the larger data analytic firms.
Overall Cap Rates for CRE Will Increase
Cap rates for all CRE properties will increase .5% to 1.0%+ due to higher interest rates, the outmigration of residents and investment in blue cities and the large number of distressed assets. The only property sector that may not see an expansion of cap rates is the vaunted industrial market, which has seen cap rates compress about 2.0% from 2015.
The Shadow Lenders Will Take More Market Share from Regulated Lenders
The shadow lending market in the U.S. consists of CRE lenders that are unregulated and include mortgage REITs, private loan funds, private debt funds, hard money lenders and large mortgage bankers. The shadow lending market which typically provides short-term, bridge, permanent, mezzanine and high yield construction loans will increase its market share from approximately 10% of total loans to 15% of total CRE loans. The total volume of new loans originated in 2019 was approximately $500 billion with the shadow lending market accounting for approximately $50 billion of that total.
New CRE Loan and Transaction Activity will be Strong in 2021
In 2019, approximately $500 billion in new loans were originated and overall transaction volume was $750 billion. Although these were very healthy metrics, they were down about 10.0% from the record activity in 2018. The pandemic has significantly reduced this activity in 2020 with the volumes down about 50%. I predict that the 2021 amounts for both loans and transactions will rise significantly and be close to the levels reached in 2019. This is welcome news for the real estate brokerage industry as exemplified by the stock prices of the six public real estate brokers, which are at or near record highs.
CRE Investment will Continue to Decline in Urban Blue Cities
The historic out-migration of residents and businesses from urban blue cities like, San Francisco, New York, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, and others will continue. This generational demographic shift has caused high apartment, office and retail vacancies, closures of many retail outlets and less demand for single-family homes and condominiums. CRE investment capital will decline significantly in these cities and will be refocused on suburban areas around these cities and red states.
The Ugly Ducklings of CRE Investment will Shine
The ugly ducklings of CRE investment, malls and hotels will be the favored investment sectors due to large discounts in value, the receding pandemic, and a growing economy. Many CRE investment firms are having a difficult time acquiring industrial, manufactured housing, suburban office and apartments and fully leased food store/drugstore shopping centers at acceptable cap rates. This will cause a flood of new private equity capital into these two distressed sectors and institutional capital into retail and hotel opportunity and distressed investments.
Monday, December 14, 2020
Trammell Crow Breaks Ground on Two-Building Industrial Park in Aston, PA
Trammell Crow Co.'s Northeast Metro Business Unit has broke ground on Springbrooke Trade Center, a two-building industrial park about 22 miles southwest of Center City Philadelphia in Aston, Pennsylvania.
Springbrooke Trade Center is set to include a 210,400-square-foot building at 300 Springbrooke Blvd. and a 273,600-square-foot building at 500 Springbrooke Blvd. Both facilities are set to include a 36-foot clear height, 7-inch concrete floor slabs, LED high-bay motion sensor lighting, truck queuing lanes and segregated car and truck areas. Each building can also be fully secured without limiting access to the other and are divisible.
The industrial development sits on a 36-acre site about a mile from Interstate 95 and 12 miles from the Philadelphia International Airport.
Springbrooke Trade Center is set to be completed by the third quarter of 2021.
Conewago Enterprises Inc. is the general contractor for the project. KSS Architects is serving as the architect of record and Bohler Engineering is the project’s civil engineer.
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Maxon Auto Subleases Industrial Facility in Pennsauken, NJ
Maxon Auto Corp. has subleased an industrial building at 500 Griffith Morgan Road in Pennsauken, New Jersey.
The subtenant, a growing performance auto parts firm, is going to occupy the entire 140,800-square-foot industrial property in the second quarter of 2021. The facility includes a 24-foot clear height, 29 loading docks and three drive-in doors.
Mistfits, a subscription box service, moved to a new build-to-suit facility in Delanco a few months ago. As a result, Misfits needed to find a new tenant to fulfill its existing lease at the Griffith Morgan Road facility.
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Forward Air Corporation Lease 37,000Sf in Lehigh Valley
A leading asset-light freight and logistics company based in Tennessee has chosen the Lehigh Valley as the location for its newest facility serving the East Coast.
Forward Air Corporation will be leasing 37,718 square feet of space in the Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII in Bethlehem, a project that will create new jobs for the region in the areas of office and sales personnel, dock workers, and independent contractors.
The company chose Lehigh Valley for based upon the region’s significant economic growth in recent years, as well as Forward’s prior success with its less-than-truckload (LTL) business in the area using a local partner.
“The Lehigh Valley area is highly attractive for us,” said Tom Schmitt, Chairman, President & CEO of Forward Air Corporation. “With manufacturing on the rise and a very capable workforce, we see a tremendous opportunity to grow with the region.”
Construction is expected to be completed next month, with the facility up and running in March or April.
“It’s a pleasure to welcome Forward Air to the Lehigh Valley,” said Don Cunningham, President & CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC).
“Forward is a large national company with more than 5,000 employees and a significant role in America’s supply chain,” Cunningham said. “As a major manufacturing center, the Lehigh Valley needs companies like Forward Air to continue its economic growth. We are grateful to all the stakeholders like developer J.G. Petrucci that helped to make this project happen.”
Schmitt said the new Lehigh Valley location at 2675 Commerce Center Blvd. signals Forward’s growth trajectory into cities that are not adjacent to major airports.
“Job growth should always be applauded, but especially so in these turbulent times,” said Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure. “This announcement of Forward Air Corporation’s is timely and the location in Bethlehem is the right fit for the nature of the work they’ll be doing there.”
The project will significantly improve freight options for Lehigh Valley businesses thanks to Forward’s nationwide network covering 98% of the U.S. population, and its portfolio of premium freight management services, Schmitt said.
“Forward’s expansion into Bethlehem is a benefit to Lehigh Valley companies of all sizes who use trucking services to get their products in the hands of consumers,” said Bethlehem Mayor Robert J. Donchez. “I welcome Forward to the city of Bethlehem and look forward to working with them in the years to come.”
Forward’s Bethlehem facility will bring local sales and operational support, allowing the company to better serve customers by offering customized transportation solutions through a consultative approach, Schmitt said.
Headquartered in Greeneville, Tenn., Forward operates approximately 200 facilities across the country and employs more than 5,200 people nationwide. The company provides LTL, final mile, truckload, intermodal drayage, and pool distribution services across the United States and in Canada.
Forward is the second company to find a new home in LVIP VII this year. EcoTech Marine, a Bethlehem-based designer and manufacturer of high-quality aquarium equipment, announced in March that it will lease 88,007 square-feet there.
Flight to Quality for Office Tenants Touring Now-Affordable Trophy Space
By Les Shaver Globest.com
Even though Class A office space is now generally more available than pre-crisis and at more affordable rates, the share of tours in premium spaces has remained remarkably stable at 62% of all tours in each period.
Except for one city, that is—New York.
There, during the recovery months of June through October, tours of Trophy or Class A share rose to nearly 70% of all tours. In the pre-crisis months of January, February, and early March, with fewer options to choose from, a little over half (55%) of tours in New York were for Trophy or Class A office spaces.
This is one of the findings of VTS’ new office demand index, or VODI, which was designed to provide visibility into real-time tenant demand in the US office leasing market by capturing tenant tours.
For all cities, there have been some commonalities: Activity in the typical peak months of spring was lost to the COVID-19 crisis, for starters. Then, after posting positive growth during the summer months, the threat of rising COVID-19 cases eliminated the October bump in almost all markets.
But, it noted, while US markets share similar timing, the size of the demand shock and pace of recovery has varied significantly. In New York City, that has translated into a flight for quality that is now affordable for many tenants.
Other cities have different stories to tell.
When COVID hit, New York, along with San Francisco, suffered the most contraction, according to VTS. Both cities lost more than 90% of their office space demand between mid-March and spring. But major markets suffered across the board. Boston and Washington, DC, for example, were the least affected markets but still dropped 71 and 75%, respectively.
Los Angeles was among the leading markets in recovering, gaining three-quarters of the demand lost after stay-at-home orders were issued in March 2020. Los Angeles’ 41 index point quarter-over-quarter growth was followed by 24 and 22 index point gains in Seattle and Washington, respectively.
The city’s 12 index point growth in October was slower than its 18-point September gain. Washington, like LA, saw slower growth in October. Seattle, however, fell 2 points over October.
While steady government demand historically boosts Washington, Seattle’s recovery indicates that the tech industry may not be embracing remote work as much as some observers think, according to VTS. However, it notes that the recovery has been broad-based across industries.
In New York, which was hardest hit initially by COVID, tenant demand jumped 9 points in June and 14 points in July to a VODI of 31. Other markets didn’t match this pace until September. The city’s recovery slowed afterward and fell five-point in October.
Boston experienced one of the smallest VODI declines from February levels and has seen little growth in demand after making progress in May and June. San Francisco, the hardest-hit market, faced issues coming into the pandemic and has seen a nine-point increase since hitting bottom.
“Where industry experts look to Seattle as a hopeful harbinger of tech’s future office space use, San Francisco—with its exposure to more speculative leasing demand fueled by venture capital funding—is the only market where tech has yet to renew interest in more office space,” according to VRS.
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
TJ Maxx Parent Company Inks Lease for Build-to-Suit Distribution Facility in Northeast Philadelphia
TJX, the parent company of retailers T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods, has signed a lease for a build-to-suit distribution facility in northeast Philadelphia.
TJX is set to occupy an entire 282,800-square-foot facility that will be located on 21 acres at 9801 Blue Grass Road. The Blue Grass property is owned by DH Property Holdings and Bridge Development is serving as the developer for the project.
The existing building at 9801 Blue Grass Road was originally constructed in the 1950s and owned by Horn & Hardarts. At the time, it was the largest commercial bakery in the United States and was built to produce the company's own line of baked goods for sale in its chain of so-called automat stores in New York and Philadelphia.
The building was later used by Hostess Bakery to produce Twinkies until 2012. Since then, it has been leased to a variety of local warehousing and distribution companies.
Another Intriguing Development Unfolds in Reading's Industrial Market
by By Ben Atwood CoStar Analytics
In an expensive indication of trust in the market’s dormant strength, three major Reading, Pennsylvania, industrial properties were acquired this past week by large outside investors as part of a nationwide portfolio deal involving properties owned by the Hillwood Group.
The buyers, Stock Bridge Capital and the National Pension Service of Korea, spent close to $2 billion on 23 properties totaling nearly 14.3 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space across the United States. This ranks as the third-largest industrial property sale of 2020 by value and the largest in the country since the onset of the pandemic in March
The joint venture now owns all the properties at the Hamburg Logistics Park, a 163-acre development a few miles north of Reading proper and 3 miles south of Interstate 78. These facilities are about 15 miles east of the I-78/I-476 interchange in Lehigh Valley, which allows truckers access to every major market on the northeastern shore and has made Lehigh County the epicenter of Pennsylvania logistics.
What is interesting about Reading and this sale is the market’s overhead numbers should not inspire much confidence. While leasing activity has ticked up in 2020, there’s been a surplus of construction activity within the market over the past few years.
Vacancies were well into the teens at the start of the year, and CoStar data shows 325,000 square feet, or slightly more than 15%, of the Reading industrial properties Stock Bridge Capital and the National Pension Service of Korea acquired are currently vacant.
But things might be changing. By the end of the year, Reading will have absorbed over 3.1 million square feet of industrial space, the highest figures in decades. This uptick in demand is likely due to the coronavirus spiking e-commerce levels, which has led to a surge in demand for industrial space.
Monday, December 7, 2020
Friday, December 4, 2020
Two Vineland, New Jersey, Apartment Complexes Sell for $15 Million
Two garden-apartment complexes in South Jersey have traded for $15.1 million, the largest multifamily transaction in Vineland and Cumberland County since 2015, according to CoStar data.
The complexes have 152 total units and are located about a half-mile apart.
Regency Court is a two-story garden-apartment complex with a brick-and-siding exterior and 104-units on 4.5 acres. The property includes 72 one-bedroom units and 32 two-bedroom units. The unit amenities include individual climate control, private patios or balconies, and walk-in closets. The common areas include a courtyard and recently renovated laundry facilities.
Similarly, Chestnut Court is a two-story, brick garden-apartment complex. It has 48 units and is situated on 2.4 acres. The property includes four one-bedroom units and 44 two-bedroom units. Unit amenities include balconies, air-conditioning and hardwood floors. Complex amenities include a courtyard, playground and laundry facilities.
The properties are both in Vineland, a city in southeastern New Jersey with about 60,000 residents located 40 miles south of Philadelphia and 45 miles west of Atlantic City.
“The seller is a longtime professional who managed the properties well, and the properties’ financials improved throughout our marketing and sale process despite the pandemic,” Sweetwood said in a statement. “There was very strong demand among investors for these properties as soon as we were engaged by the seller. Given the demand, after only one day of tours, we received two non-contingent offers that ultimately exceeded the asking price.”
Saudi Investment Firm Snags $225 Million Majority Stake in Philadelphia Biotech Campus
By Cara Smith-Tenta CoStar News
A Saudi Arabian investment engine acquired a majority stake in a life science campus in Philadelphia in a $225 million deal, part of a broader trend of Saudi capital flowing into the U.S. tech, life sciences and health care industries.
Sidra Capital, based in Saudi Arabia, acquired a 90% ownership stake in Arborcrest Corporate Campus, an 855,600-square-foot suburban office campus spanning five buildings in northern Philadelphia, according to a statement from JLL, which brokered the sale.
The sale is part of a recapitalization deal for the property’s previously sole owner, Spear Street Capital. The San Francisco-based investment firm retained a 10% ownership interest in Arborcrest Corporate Campus.
In 2016, Spear Street Capital bought the campus for $142.8 million, according to CoStar research.
According to CoStar, the campus is composed of the following properties:
- 731 Arbor Way, a 137,680-square-foot building that was built in 1960, renovated in 2013 and is 100% leased.
- 721 Arbor Way, a 183,000-square-foot building that was built in 1960, renovated in 2013 and is 100% leased.
- 785 Arbor Way, a 202,962-square-foot building that was built in 1970, renovated in 2018 and is 100% leased.
- 751 Arbor Way, a 115,749-square-foot building that was built in 1991, renovated in 2011 and is 83.2% leased.
- 801 Lakeview Drive, a 213,412-square-foot building that was built in 1974, renovated in 2010 and is 100% leased.
Since Spear Street bought the property in 2016, a handful of sizable leases have been inked at the campus. Many of those leases were signed by companies in the pharmaceutical, tech and healthcare industries, which have gained popularity among investors as they gain more funding and expand amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Last year, Signant Health, a company that produces technologies used in medical clinical trials, leased 105,538 square feet in the campus.
The healthcare analytics company Cotiviti leased 80,187 square feet in the property in 2018. The computer technology company Unisys Corp. leased 100,000 square feet in the campus the same year.
Saudi Arabia has had a long tradition of investing in major American tech companies. CNN once called Saudi Arabia an “unofficial bank” of Silicon Valley tech companies, as a nod to just how much capital the country funnels to U.S. companies.
In 2018, some U.S. companies temporarily boycott deals with Saudi Arabia after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, while at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Last year, Saudi companies beefed up their investments in global healthcare and tech companies, many of which are in the United States.
One example is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund backing a $550 million investment in Babylon, a British tech company that primarily works in health care administration.
That fund is a $360 billion sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund, which Saudi Arabia uses to invest in business enterprises around the world.
Thursday, December 3, 2020
Blackstone Buys $358M Industrial Iron Mountain Portfolio in Sale Leaseback
By Erika Morphy Globest.com
Blackstone has extended its substantial industrial holdings a bit more with its acquisition of 13 properties from Iron Mountain in a $358 million sale leaseback transaction.
The purchase was by the company’s REIT, Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust. The 2.1 million square feet portfolio is located predominantly in California, northern New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley. Iron Mountain will remain in these facilities under an initial ten-year lease term, with options to renew up to an additional 20 years.
“The industrial sector continues to benefit from strong demand driven by e-commerce tailwinds, and we believe these well-located assets are a great addition to our portfolio, which is heavily weighted toward faster-growing sectors like logistics,” David Levine, senior managing director in Blackstone Real Estate, said in prepared remarks.
This transaction is part of Iron Mountain’s ongoing capital recycling program, and Iron Mountain says it plans to use the proceeds to reinvest in higher growth areas of its business.
“This transaction frees up approximately $260 million of investable capital on a leverage-neutral basis, that we intend to redeploy into faster growing areas, including our data center business,” says Barry Hytinen, executive vice president and CFO at the REIT.
Tuesday, December 1, 2020
Monday, November 30, 2020
Burlington to Shrink Store Footprints, But Still Expand Its Brick-and-Mortar Network
By Linda Moss CoStar News
Unlike many retailers, Burlington Stores is still adding brick-and-mortar locations in the pandemic. But it will be doing so while reducing the store footprints by more than half, to 25,000 square feet from 40,000.
Michael O’Sullivan, CEO of the Burlington, New Jersey-based off-price chain, on Tuesday said the company is developing a national prototype for a “smaller box size” for its stores, which “are bigger and less productive than our peers.”
The goal of the retailer, which has roughly 770 stores, is to reduce real estate occupancy costs and to improve store-level efficiency, he said in a third-quarter earnings call with Wall Street analysts.
“Our real estate and store operations teams have done a lot of work in the past year on a 25,000-square-foot store prototype,” O’Sullivan said. “We feel good about the merchandising and operational plan that we have developed for this smaller prototype. We expect the economics of this format to be very favorable and we anticipate that it will become a central part of our new store opening and relocation programs, especially from 2022 onwards.”
Burlington raised eyebrows in March when it announced it was pulling the plug on its e-commerce business to focus on increasing its store fleet. It continues to open brick-and-mortar sites, even as this year has seen the demise of a number of retail chains and the downsizing and bankruptcies of others.
“Here at Burlington we have ambitious growth plans over the next several years,” O’Sullivan said. “We believe, as I described in my prepared remarks, that we have an opportunity to take significant market share in the years ahead.”
Store Portfolio Changes
As “the smallest, least-developed and least profitable of the major off-price retailers,” Burlington is in a position to benefit from the national retail trends that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak, according to O’Sullivan, who joined the New Jersey company from one of its much bigger rivals, Ross Stores. Consumer desire for value has risen, as has e-commerce at the expense of full-price bricks-and-mortar retailers, according to the CEO.
Value-oriented shoppers will migrate to off-price retail, O’Sullivan said.
“This is consistent with what has actually been happening over the last several years," he said. "E-commerce has been growing rapidly, and bricks-and-mortar off-price retail has been growing in parallel. In the category that where compete, and the low-price points that we offer, e-commerce is much less effective or competitive in meeting the needs of value-oriented shoppers. As the [full-price] store closings that I described play out, there will be an opportunity for bricks-and-mortar, off-price retail to gain significant share.”
During the third quarter Burlington opened 30 new stores, bringing its total store fleet to 769, according to Chief Financial Officer John Crimmins.
“In the fourth quarter, we do not expect to open any new stores but do expect to close eight stores, resulting in an expected fiscal year-end store count of 761 stores,” he said.
In its statement, Burlington reported it will have a total of 34 net new stores in fiscal 2020.
The retailer plans to open 18 new stores in fiscal 2021 whose debuts were shifted from fiscal 2020, according to Crimmins.
One of Burlington’s strategies has been to operate with leaner inventories, and as a result it’s been able to begin reducing its store footprints, Crimmins said.
“This year our average store size is just under 40,000 square feet,” he said.
The 25,000-square-foot prototype is likely to “be a central element” to the retailer’s new store and existing store-relocation plan, according to Crimmins.
Joint Venture Buys Former NE Philadelphia Sears in Redevelopment Play
By Ann Warren Harless CoStar Research
A joint venture between Abrams Realty and Development and Bock Development has purchased a former Sears store in Northeast Philadelphia and plans to redevelop it.
Abrams and Bock acquired the three-story, 237,151-square-foot retail property located in the Great Northeast Plaza from Rialto Capital Advisors for $28.75 million.
The Great Northeast Plaza Sears store closed in April 2018 when parent company Sears Holdings announced it was closing over 100 Sears and Kmart stores across the country.
Abrams and Bock plan to redevelop the former Sears store into a new retail center called the Court at Cottman, which is named after the store's address, 2201 Cottman Ave. Details regarding the redevelopment project, though, have not yet been disclosed.
"Our team has an exciting and creative game plan to bring this outstanding real estate back to life," Peter Abrams, owner of Abrams Realty and Development, said in a statement.
Monday, November 23, 2020
Friday, November 20, 2020
Target to Open New Store at Former Kmart Location in Somers Point, NJ
Target is set to open a new 101,000-square-foot store within the Somers Point Plaza shopping center in Somers Point, New Jersey.
The national retailer will be taking the former Kmart space within the South Jersey shopping center. The Kmart store closed last year when parent company Sears Holdings closed four additional stores across the Garden State.
Somers Point Plaza landlord Brahin Properties is planning to complete extensive renovations to the shopping center facade, parking lot and lighting in conjunction with the new Target store.
Somers Point Plaza totals 279,026 square feet and is located on a 35-acre site at 212 New Road. The shopping center includes over 25 stores, including ACME Markets, PetSmart, West Marine, Big Lots, Verizon Wireless and Chipotle Mexican Grill.
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
More Positive Developments in Allentown’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone
It was a busy week for the commercial property market in downtown Allentown, Pennsylvania.
For those tracking the growth and development occurring within the unique tax-incentive program contained entirely within Pennsylvania’s third largest city, the past 10 days have offered plenty of reasons for optimism.
The biggest news is the Jaindl Group’s announcement that it will be proceeding with construction on a 125,000-square-foot Class A office on Allentown’s riverfront before the end of the year.
Last week, the local developer told the Neighborhood Improvement Zone authority it would soon break ground on the first project on its long-planned Riverfront development.
Jaindl, one of the region’s largest land owners, has long had big plans for the riverfront, but redevelopment proved trickier than anticipated. It has put more than $18 million into getting the infrastructure set in the 26-acre site, which sits alongside the Leigh River.
If Jaindl fully follows through with its current plans, it will put more than $425 million into the Waterfront development before it’s all said and done. That would bring 690,000 square feet of premium office space, 165,000 square feet of retail and more than 550 units of four-star multifamily to Allentown's 6th Ward.
Jaindl will have some help from the state of Pennsylvania. The entirety of the Waterfront is contained within Allentown's "Neighborhood Improvement Zone," which incentivizes developers to build within the city by offsetting the financial risk of doing so.
So far, only one group has taken advantage of this plan. City Center, another local developer, has put more than $700 million building modern offices, apartments and retail in the Hamilton District. These projects have been largely successful at lease-up, and the firm recently notched up another pair of wins.
In the past 10 days, the group has filled nearly 20,000 square feet at Five City Center, its newest four-star office. One of those firms to take space, Raymond James and Associates, consolidated three regional offices across the Lehigh Valley for city space.
Monday, November 16, 2020
Utopia Fulfillment Expands Lease at Pennsauken Logistics Center in S NJ
E-commerce company Utopia Fulfillment has expanded its footprint at the Pennsauken Logistics Center, taking an additional 103,275 square feet of industrial space at the South Jersey warehouse facility it began occupying just two months prior.
Utopia originally leased 120,000 square feet at the 355,000-square-foot industrial building after it was made available by Velocity Ventures following its purchase and subsequent renovation of the complex. With this expansion, Utopia will now occupy 223,275 square feet at Pennsauken Logistics Center.
Located at 9600 River Road in Pennsauken, New Jersey, the logistics center was originally built in 1964 and recently underwent a full renovation from Velocity Ventures. Property improvements included white boxed interior, roof replacement, new LED lighting, repaving the parking lot, exterior painting and loading dock upgrades. The facility features clear heights ranging from 20 feet to 35 feet, a 100% wet sprinkler system, 28 tailgate loading docks with four drive-in doors and over 3 acres of dedicated trailer/vehicle storage.
Something Big is Going on in Little Reading, PA for Real Estate and Development
by Ben Atwood Costar
Reading is officially Pennsylvania's most mysterious market.
Those following the industrial development unfolding along the Interstate 81 corridor can't help but notice some anomalies in this small market's data set that might indicate something big is afoot.
For instance: This was a dormant region until 2017 when, out of nowhere, construction popped off like a firecracker. Over the past four years, there’s been more than 11 million square feet of industrial construction, but in the 20 years prior to that period, developers added just over 7 million square feet.
In the midst of a pandemic, Reading isn't letting up. Since July, developers have broken ground on nearly 4 million square feet of new space here. That’s roughly equivalent to the market's total inventory expansion between 2004 and 2016, and much of this is speculative, meaning no tenant has been locked in before construction began.
On the surface this makes some sense, as Reading is in a nice spot for shippers. It sits on I-81, which allows goods to be moved into New York City and its sprawling suburbs in a few hours, and the interstate also serves as a direct pipeline from shipping nodes from the west and south. Reading’s also close to the I-476/I-81 intersection that makes Lehigh Valley so popular, and most of the new and underway facilities can reach that interchange within half an hour.
But it takes a lot of conviction to build on spec, and Reading's overhead data does not inspire confidence. The vacancy rate is near 13% and demand has not kept pace with the recent supply wave at all. Absorption levels from 2016 to 2019 were piddling, and a survey of the new properties shows that more than 65% is empty.
Obviously, the companies behind these projects don’t throw darts on a map when deciding where to build next. For some reason, these developers with decades of experience felt confident enough to commence construction on these massive facilities, even with the market’s historic lack of demand.
Why? The coronavirus probably plays a big part. While the pandemic has created enormous uncertainty in the office and retail sectors, it has sent e-commerce traffic through the roof and likely changed how Americans shop forever.
Across the country, industrial demand is heating back up. CoStar data shows national leasing activity for the third quarter was at some of the highest levels seen in a decade, and sifting through Reading’s data and local news reveals peculiar anecdotes.
For instance, Amazon is bolstering its presence notably within the market. Since August, the e-commerce titan announced its intentions to expand its Reading footprint by more than 1.5 million square feet in two distribution centers. Interestingly, local officials say they didn’t court Amazon — the behemoth just showed up.
Previous CoStar Insight articles noted a number of at-risk tenants occupying large space in Reading and warned some softening could be possible. But as we enter the last few months of 2020, this hasn’t happened.
In fact, local industrial demand has strengthened, and the market’s vacancies are tightening.
Amazon isn't the only tenant sniffing around and other large deals have been closed since the second quarter. CoStar forecasts Reading will absorb just over 3.5 million square feet of industrial space by the end of 2020, which is more than the combined demand the market saw between 2014 and 2019.
Where Reading goes from here is anyone’s guess. This situation has never happened before, and the coronavirus still casts a shadow of uncertainty across everything. But the acceleration of e-commerce, the strengthening local demand and the confidence national logistics developers are showing in the market mean that lots of eyes may remain glued on central Pennsylvania for some time.
TJ Maxx parent company signs lease for build-to-suit distribution center in Philadelphia
By Natalie Kostelni – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
The parent company to TJ Maxx, HomeGoods and Marshalls has signed a long-term lease on a proposed 300,000-square-foot building in Northeast Philadelphia that will be developed for the company.
Once built, TJX Cos. will use the building at 9801 Blue Grass Road to expand it local warehouse-distribution operations, according to market sources. The company has maintained a 1.015-million-square-foot distribution center at 2760 Red Lion Road since 2001.
DH Property Holdings, a New York real estate firm run by Dov Hertz, owns the 21-acre property and will have Bridge Development of New Jersey build the project. A representative from TJX and DH Property couldn’t be reached for comment.
The property had been owned by Sant Properties, a Huntingdon Valley real estate firm, since 2015 when it was purchased for $1.65 million, according to Philadelphia property records. Sant sold the property to DH Property in May for $10.5 million.
The Blue Grass Road property is part of a bygone era in Philadelphia. Hostess Brands Inc. once made Twinkies at the property and ceased operations there in 2012. A vacant 446,000-square-foot food processing facility on the site was bought in 2013 by Hackman Capital Partners of Los Angeles. Hackman paid $62.5 million for the real estate and other Hostess property, such as machines and equipment, at a bankruptcy auction.
Full story: https://tinyurl.com/y295e8sm
Friday, November 13, 2020
King of Prussia's Apartment Market Bounces Back After Rough Start to 2020
By Adrian Ponsen CoStar Analytics
The initial weeks of the coronavirus pandemic were challenging times for luxury apartment properties across America. But King of Prussia, one of the Philadelphia area’s recent hotspots for suburban multifamily construction, faced particularly challenging circumstances heading into the crisis.
As developers sought to diversify King of Prussia’s office- and retail-heavy built environments, more than 1,800 new luxury apartments completed there between 2017 and 2018, doubling the local inventory of high-end units.
Property managers were pleased to see occupancy rates within most of these new projects surpassing the 90% benchmark for the first time heading into early 2020. Proximity to the more than 27 million square feet of office parks within a 5-mile radius proved key as many renters jumped at the chance to live closer to work and shorten their commutes. The newly built Villages at Valley Forge mixed-use development had also begun to differentiate King of Prussia from its surrounding suburbs, providing an oasis of walkable restaurants and other retail options in a county otherwise inundated with congested interstate highways.
Unfortunately, just as this new generation of apartment properties were nearing stable occupancy levels, public health concerns, mass layoffs and government-imposed business closures ground leasing to an almost complete standstill during the initial months of the pandemic.
To make matters even more difficult, another 638 units had just delivered in King of Prussia during late 2019 and early 2020. This tally was made up of two large projects, Le Cesse Development's Skye 750, and Hanover Cos.' Hanover Town Center. The pandemic thrust these properties into one of the most challenging periods for lease up in decades.
In order to coax new tenants into filling King of Prussia's large batch of vacant units, landlords of high-end properties dropped average asking rents by almost 6% between March and June, a time of year when rents normally rise coming out of the slow winter leasing period.
Skye 750 and Hanover Town Center, the pair of apartment communities that completed during late 2019 and early 2020, reached occupancy rates of 71%, and 41%, respectively, by the fall of 2020. Together, the two projects have averaged 17 move-ins per month since opening, a healthy pace that is slightly ahead of Philadelphia’s average lease-up rates during the three years prior to the pandemic.
King of Prussia has also had one advantage many other apartment development hotspots in and around Philadelphia haven’t. Residential development sites are beginning to run low in the Villages at Valley Forge master-planned community. After Hanover Town Center completed in February 2020, there were no other apartment projects left under construction in King of Prussia, and none have broken ground since.
All of this means that King of Prussia's latest batch of luxury communities won’t have to compete with any newer projects delivering nearby until at least mid-2022. This leaves King of Prussia’s high-end properties well positioned to outperform most luxury apartments in the Philadelphia area during the months ahead.
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Speculative Project’s 57-Acre Site Was Recently Acquired in NJ
Owners have kicked off construction of a two-building warehouse project, without any tenants lined up, in Burlington, New Jersey.
The developer secured the necessary entitlements and will serve as development manager for the 289,042-square-foot project at 2609 Rancocas Road on behalf of its partner Cabot Properties, a private equity firm. The buildings, being built on speculation, are expected to be completed by early in the fourth quarter next year.
The first building, at 217,986 square feet, will offer 36-foot-clear ceilings and will be equipped with 42 loading docks, two drive-in doors, LED lighting, 180 car-parking spaces and 28 trailer-parking spaces. The second building, at 71,056 square feet, will feature 32-foot-clear ceilings, 13 loading docks, one drive-in door and 69 car-parking spaces.
The development is located in the central New Jersey industrial market of Burlington, with quick access to Exit 47 of Interstate 295 and Exit 5 of the New Jersey Turnpike
"Despite the current health crisis, the strength of the Burlington County submarket and all of New Jersey has not slowed a bit and, if anything, tenant demand has accelerated."
Cabot Properties purchased the nearly 57-acre Burlington site for the development this month.
Earlier this year, Endurance and PCCP acquired a seven-building industrial portfolio totaling 554,000 square feet in southern New Jersey for roughly $43 million. Those properties were located in Delran, Mount Laurel and Swedesboro.
Industrial Remains 2020’s Top Performer in Commercial Real Estate Sector
By Les Shaver Globest.com
While most commercial real estate sectors are suffering from rising vacancies and falling rents during the pandemic, industrial keeps outperforming its peers.
Buoyed by continuing strength in e-commerce, the warehouse/distribution vacancy rate was unchanged in the Q3. It posted positive net absorption for the 40th quarter in a row.
Overall, net absorption came in at 20.74 million square feet in the quarter, increasing from 15.2 million in the second quarter. However, the third quarter’s net absorption was lower than the 41.7 million square feet posted in 2019.
Construction fell to 17.6 million square feet in the quarter, down from the 29.2 million square feet added in Q2. According to Moody’s Analytics, the vacancy rate remained unchanged at 10.5% in the Q3 but increased from 10.1% year-over-year.
Average asking and effective rents grew 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively, in Q3, which was an increase over the 0.1% both posted in Q2.
The flex and R&D space didn’t do as well in the quarter. Its vacancy rate increased by 0.2% to 10.3%, while it incurred negative net absorption. Overall, net absorption was negative 2.4 million square feet, which was an improvement compared to Q2’s 4.0 million square feet decline.
New completions of flex and R&D space came in at 240,000 square feet, which was the lowest quarterly change since 2012. Rent growth in flex and R&D space was nearly flat at 0.1% for asking rents and 0.0% for effective rents. In Q2, the average rent grew by 0.2%, and the effective rent fell 0.1%.
“In short, the warehouse/distribution sector is withstanding the pressures from the pandemic, while the flex and R&D sector is showing some signs of distress, similar to the office sector,” according to Moody’s Analytics. “With two full quarters into the pandemic and no end in sight, these trends of a flat warehouse and distribution and weakness in flex and R&D should continue over the next quarter and next year.”
In a separate report, Moody’s Analytics projected that industrial vacancy rates are expected to rise to 11.8% in 2021. It projects that the sector will incur its most significant drop in effective rents in 10 years, down 4.5% in 2021.
The downturn shouldn’t last long, though. Moody’s predicts that online commerce will drive a rebound in industrial. As vacancy rates decline steadily over the next five years, effective rents will rise by 1.4% in 2022.
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
A Pivotal East Coast Trade Network Looks Primed for More Industrial Development
Even before the pandemic hit, markets along vital trade arteries were experiencing rapid logistics development because of an increasing preference by consumers to shop online.
Retailers were restructuring company supply chains and leasing tens of millions of square feet of warehouse space across the country to remain competitive in a world where overnight delivery was becoming the norm.
This shopping shift set off a frenzy of development along the North Atlantic trade corridor, a region that runs roughly from Hagerstown, Maryland, to Scranton, Pennsylvania. These markets provide immediate access to every major city along the Northeastern shore, as well to respective ports and sprawling suburbs.
Since the virus has rapidly accelerated, and necessitated, the expansion of e-commerce, growth in the 10 markets that make up the North Atlantic trade corridor could continue into the future. The corridor already contains more than 1,400 warehouses and distribution centers of at least 100,000 square feet, and have a collective logistics footprint of over 445 million square feet.
“The region is just so well connected with all the nearby cities that more growth wouldn’t be surprising at all,” Doug Enck, vice president of ECD Services in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Enck’s firm is a third-party logistics provider, and a substantial chunk of his company’s revenue comes from driving goods from one warehouse to another. “Our biggest issue isn’t demand. It's labor.”
Since 2016, the region’s logistics stock has grown by 25%. That’s nearly 85 million square feet of commercial real estate development in a little less than five years. Much of the new inventory has consisted of buildings measuring at least 500,000 square feet, and a substantial chunk of it was contained in Harrisburg and the Lehigh Valley.
These markets are the hearts of Pennsylvania logistics. Both contain multiple major interstates, and from there, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore can be reached in under two hours.
Lehigh’s growth over the past five years is particularly remarkable. In that time, developers have added more than 40 large-scale logistics facilities over 500,000 square feet and expanded Lehigh’s overall inventory by about 27%. In that same time, developers have added 10 massive logistics centers in Harrisburg, and demand has since spilled over into neighboring markets.
Lebanon, Chambersburg, Reading and York have experienced a remarkable uptick in construction of large-scale centers. These markets are particularly useful for servicing densely populated Maryland nodes. Hagerstown’s supply of large-scale facilities grew by over 30% since 2016, while Chambersburg’s grew by nearly 25%.
Even in large cities such as Baltimore that are not necessarily known for their logistics prowess, there has been notable growth in large facilities. About 72% of Baltimore’s logistics growth since 2016 has come by way of large-scale facilities, slightly outpacing the 68% average rate of growth of large-scale facilities across these 10 mid-Atlantic markets over the past five years.
This growth was occurring pre-pandemic, and the coronavirus has spiked e-commerce levels into the stratosphere. This has led to a surge of industrial demand across the country, and CoStar’s national-level data shows that third quarter industrial leasing volume is at the highest levels in over 15 years.
In spite of the recent wave of supply, vacancy rates in the markets along the North Atlantic corridor align with the respective historical averages. Leasing activity remains strong and, according to local shippers, the markets quickly recovered from the coronavirus.
“We saw a drop off in late April, but by June everything had normalized,” Enck said.
The shutdown brought an end to construction for much of the second quarter, but groundbreakings have ticked back up in the second half of the year. Across these 10 markets, more than 6.4 million square feet of logistics space of at least 100,000 square feet broke ground in the third quarter alone.
That marks the highest single quarter total since 2018, further underscoring developers’ eagerness to bring additional supply to these emerging nodes across Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Monday, November 9, 2020
Lowe's Inks Massive Industrial Lease in Central Pennsylvania
Lowe's has inked a massive distribution warehouse lease in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, as the home improvement retailer is expanding its supply chain.
Lowe's signed a 10-year deal with Equus Capital Partners to occupy an entire 1.1 million-square-foot distribution facility within the Shippensburg 81 Logistics Center, the private real estate investment firm said in a statement.
The distribution facility is located at 1 Walnut Bottom Road and was built this year. It sits on a 100-acre site with frontage along Interstate 81. The cross-docked facility features a 36-foot clear height, 50-foot by 50-foot column spacing with 60-foot speed bays, 189 dock doors, 185-foot truck court and 631 trailer spaces with concrete dolly pads.
This deal comes amid Lowe's plan to grow its supply chain to improve same-day and next-day fulfillment options for customers and speed up e-commerce shipping across the country. In an August announcement, the North Carolina-based retailer unveiled its plans to open 50 cross-dock terminals, seven bulk distribution centers and four e-commerce fulfillment centers over the next 18 months. It also said it would open a West Coast e-commerce fulfillment center in Mira Loma, California, in October. Lowe's opened its first direct fulfillment center in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2018.
"Providing customers more ways to shop has never been more important," Don Frieson, Lowe's executive vice president of supply chain, said in the August announcement. "Opening these new facilities will allow our stores to operate more efficiently through improved flow management and inventory visibility and improve the customer experience with more predictable deliveries, better in-stock rates and faster fulfillment options."
Sunday, November 8, 2020
HQ in Wayne, PA Pet Valu to Shut Nearly 360 Retail Stores and Warehouses in US
By Linda Moss CoStar News
In yet another casualty of the pandemic, pet-supply retailer Pet Valu plans to shutter all its nearly 360 U.S. stores and warehouses.
The chain said it is winding down its operations, its brick-and-mortar sites in the Northeast and Midwest, as well as closing its corporate headquarters in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
"The company's stores have been significantly impacted by the protracted COVID-19-related restrictions," Jamie Gould, Pet Valu's recently appointed chief restructuring officer, said in a statement. "After a thorough review of all available alternatives, we made the difficult but necessary decision to commence this orderly wind down."
Pet Valu joins a long and seemingly ever-growing list of brick-and-mortar retailers that have been put out of business amid the COVID-19 outbreak, including Lord & Taylor and Pier One Imports.
Pet Valu U.S., operating for more than 25 years, licenses its name and contracts for services from Pet Valu Canada, a separate company headquartered in Markham, Ontario. The Canadian business, a chain with about 600 stores, is not affected by the U.S. move.
Pet Valu is owned by Roark Capital Group, a private equity firm based in Atlanta. The retailer operates small-format stores that sell premium pet food and supplies.
All Pet Valu's U.S. stores currently remain open, but the retailer said it expects to start store-closing sales in the coming days.
Friday, November 6, 2020
TSW Alloy Wheels to Open New Lehigh Valley Distribution Center
TSW Alloy Wheels has purchased an industrial building in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley and will be using it as a new distribution center.
The aftermarket automotive alloy wheel maker acquired the building, located at 4650 Braden Blvd. E. in Easton, from developer J.G. Petrucci Company Inc., which completed construction on the distribution warehouse this year.
TSW was drawn to the Braden Boulevard facility's access to the Northeast's major metropolitan regions, allowing TSW to further expand into the Northeast. The property's location puts more than 40% of the nation's population within a single-day's drive and will allow TSW to provide customers with their products within 24 to 48 hours, J.G. Petrucci said in a statement.
TSW's new distribution property totals 105,840 square feet and features a 36-foot clear height, a capacity of up to 26 dock doors, two drive-in doors, motion sensor LED lighting, ESFR fire sprinkler system and 4,000 amps of power. The industrial building will be divided into two suites, with TSW occupying about 60,000 square feet of the building.
TSW first opened a distribution center in Southern California before expanding its presence in the United States to eight distribution centers.
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Monday, November 2, 2020
Mall Owners Pennsylvania REIT and CBL File for Chapter 11
By Mark Heschmeyer CoStar News
Just as the holiday shopping season swings into gear, two major shopping center and mall real estate investment trust have succumbed to the hardships retailers are facing after the pandemic forced many businesses to close and led to a rapid and massive shift in consumer spending.
Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust and CBL & Associates Properties filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization overnight after vying unsuccessfully for months to restructure their debts out of court. The REIT has owned and operated millions of square feet of retail space in more than a dozen sites up and down the East Coast and Michigan.
The owners and operators of enclosed malls and shopping centers were among the first REITs to acknowledge last spring that ongoing retailer bankruptcies and consumer and government responses to curb the COVID-19 pandemic made bankruptcy a real possibility.
PREIT filed a prepackaged financial restructuring plan under which the company seeks to be recapitalized and have its debt maturities extended.
PREIT announced last month that it had entered into restructuring agreement with more than 95% of its bank lenders. The deal was contingent upon getting approval from 100% of its lenders.
The plan calls for providing an additional $150 million to recapitalize the business. The Chapter 11 filing looks to secure court approval for a similar plan.
“We are grateful for the significant support we have received from a substantial majority of our lenders, which we expect will enable us to complete our financial restructuring on an expedited basis,” Joseph F. Coradino, CEO of PREIT, said in a statement. “With the overwhelming support of our lenders, we look forward to quickly emerging from this process.”
CBL & Associates and 176 affiliated companies also each filed petitions in the bankruptcy court seeking relief under Chapter 11, retaining the Berkeley Research Group to advise it.
CBL owns and manages more than 100 properties in 26 states, including dozens of enclosed, open-air and outlet retail centers. It said the bankruptcy filing came after months of discussions about alternatives, before executives decided Chapter 11 offered the best choice.
“With an aggregate of approximately $1.5 billion in unsecured debt and preferred obligations eliminated and a significant increase to net cash flow, upon emergence, CBL will be in a better position to execute on our strategies and move forward as a stable and profitable business,” Stephen D. Lebovitz, CEO of CBL, said in a statement.
Friday, October 30, 2020
Top Commercial Real Estate Deals Sales and Leasing Philadelphia
Sales
TOP SALE: 2005 Market St., Philadelphia, PA, and 2001 Market St., Philadelphia, PA
Sale Price: $115,000,000
Sale Date: July 23, 2020
Size: 1,896,142 SF
Seller: Brandywine Realty Trust, Philadelphia, PA
Deal Commentary: Brandywine Realty Trust sold a 30% stake in One and Two Commerce Square in Philadelphia while still holding onto the remaining 70% equity. This sale allowed Brandywine to create liquidity and accelerate other company business plans. The two properties total almost 1.9 million square feet and were renovated in 2013.
TOP SALE: Portfolio of 33 Properties
Sale Price: $83,250,000
Sale Date: August 3, 2020
Size: 1,252,168 SF
Buyer: Walton Street Capital, Chicago, IL, and Wharton Equity Partners, New York, NY
Seller: The Bloom Organization, Mount Laurel, NJ
Deal Commentary: Walton Street Capital and Wharton Equity Partners paid $83.25 million for Twinbridge Industrial Park and Veterans Industrial Park, two business parks in Pennsauken, New Jersey, that combined total more than 1.2 million square feet across 33 properties. Colliers International brokered the sale for the seller, The Bloom Organization, and will handle leasing and property management for the portfolio moving forward.
TOP SALE: Portfolio of 2 Properties
Sale Price: $47,525,000
Sale Date: July 9, 2020
Size: 423,217 SF
Buyer: Angelo, Gordon & Co., New York, NY
Seller: Goodman Properties, Jenkintown, PA and EKahn Development, Frazer, PA
Deal Commentary: Angelo Gordon & Co. acquired the two-building headquarters and manufacturing center for United Safety and Survivability Co. in Exton, Pennsylvania. USSC is leasing the 420,000-square-foot complex on a deal that runs through mid-2035.
TOP SALE: 2320 Newlins Mill Road, Easton, PA
Sale Price: $40,000,000
Sale Date: July 24, 2020
Size: 358,375 SF
Buyer: Exeter Property Group, Conshohocken, PA
Seller: DRA Advisors, New York, NY
Deal Commentary: Exeter Property Group purchased the 358,375-square-foot warehouse at 2320 Newlins Mill Road in Easton, Pennsylvania. The property is fully leased to Fanatics, a Florida-based online retailer of licensed sportswear, sports equipment and merchandise.
TOP SALE: 1851 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia, PA
Sale Price: $37,450,000
Sale Date: July 14, 2020
Size: 140,418 SF
Buyer: Paramount Realty Services, Lakewood, NJ
Seller: The Blackstone Group, New York, NY
Deal Commentary: The Columbus Crossing shopping center in Philadelphia was acquired by Paramount Realty Services in July for $37.45 million. This center was attractive to the buyer due to it being fully occupied as well as the immediate access to two major bridges and roadways in the area that help to drive traffic.
TOP SALE: 4125-4136 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA
Sale Price: $36,000,000
Sale Date: July 22, 2020
Size: 76,698 SF
Buyer: XIX Companies, New York, NY
Seller: Alterra Property Group, Philadelphia, PA
Deal Commentary: XIX Cos. paid $36 million to acquire LVL 4125, a 141-unit apartment building completed last year in Philadephia's Spruce Hill area. This property boasted 98% occupancy and was sold after only 30 days on the market.
TOP SALE: 2750 Morris Road, Lansdale, PA
Sale Price: $33,000,000
Sale Date: September 15, 2020
Size: 667,000 SF
Buyer: Velocity Venture Partners, Bala Cynwyd, PA
Seller: Advance Realty Investors, Bedminster, NJ, and The Davis Companies, Boston, MA
Deal Commentary: Velocity Venture Partners added the 667,000-square-foot industrial property at 2750 Morris Road in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, to its portfolio. The asset was roughly 60% leased at the time of the sale, which offers value-add upside. The buyer plans to start some interior renovations to aid with leasing up the remaining space.
TOP SALE: 3018 W. Thompson St., Philadelphia, PA
Sale Price: $23,500,000
Sale Date: July 20, 2020
Size: 100,692 SF
Buyer: The Streamwood Company, Haddonfield, NJ
Seller: Westrum Development Company, Fort Washington, PA
Deal Commentary: The Flats at 31 Brewerytown, a 114-unit apartment building in Philadelphia, was acquired by The Streamwood Co. out of New Jersey. This was an upleg of a 1031 exchange for the buyer, and at the time of sale only four units were vacant.
TOP SALE: 3100 N. Mill Road, Vineland, NJ
Sale Price: $23,200,000
Sale Date: July 24, 2020
Size: 432,000 SF
Buyer: High Street Logistics Properties, Boston, MA
Seller: Vineland Construction, Vineland, NJ
Deal Commentary: Vineland Construction Co. sold the 432,000-square-foot industrial building at 3100 N. Mill Road in Vineland, New Jersey, in July. The property is 100% leased to Ardagh Glass until 2030. The building lies in the Vineland Industrial park, which is comprised of 43 buildings totaling over 2.7 million square feet.
TOP SALE: State Route 924 & Scotch Pine Drive, Hazle Township, PA
Sale Price: $22,500,000
Sale Date: September 11, 2020
Size: 91.63 Acres
Seller: CAN DO, Hazleton, PA
Deal Commentary: CAN DO Inc. sold just under 92 acres in the Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazle Township, Pensylvania. The plans for the land are to develop a 1.2 million-square-foot industrial facility. This property also falls into the Keystone opportunity zone, making it an appealing acquisition for the buyer.
Retail Leasing
TOP LEASE: 240 N. Reading Road, Ephrata, PA
Space Leased: 25,750 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: September 15, 2020
Size: 42,360 SF
Tenant: Fashion Cents Consignment
Deal Commentary: Fashion Cents Consignment signed a 25,750-square-foot lease at 240 N Reading Road. The space was vacated earlier this year when cultural goods market Ten Thousand Villages relocated.
TOP LEASE: 1336 Bristol Pike, Bensalem, PA
Space Leased: 19,425 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: September 22, 2020
Size: 223,118 SF
Tenant: Goodwill
Deal Commentary: Goodwill signed a lease to fill the remaining retail suite at the Home Depot Plaza in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, that was previously occupied by Babies R Us. Paramount Realty Services owns the shopping center in Lower Bucks County.
TOP LEASE: 760-780 Souderton Road, Souderton, PA
Space Leased: 13,000 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: August 31, 2020
Size: 94,599 SF
Tenant: Bucks County Intermediate Unit
Deal Commentary: Bucks County Intermediate Unit, a regional educational service agency, executed a 13,000-square-foot lease in the Hilltown Plaza.
TOP LEASE: 950 W. Landis Ave., Vineland, NJ
Space Leased: 12,000 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: July 14, 2020
Size: 12,000 SF
Tenant: Dollar Tree
Deal Commentary: Dollar Tree signed a sublease to take over the former Walgreens location at the northwest corner of the West Landis Avenue and North Deslea Drive intersection in Vineland.
TOP LEASE: 197C E. Dekalb Pike, King of Prussia, PA
Space Leased: 11,500 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: July 29, 2020
Size: 30,000 SF
Tenant: AAA
Deal Commentary: Relocating within the King of Prussia Center, AAA has signed a new lease to double its size. The new location sits adjacent to its previous space, and AAA will now be next door to discount grocer Aldi, which is filling space previously left dark by Petco.
TOP LEASE: 1503-1505 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA
Space Leased: 11,450 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: July 24, 2020
Size: 15,540 SF
Tenant: Sola Salon Studios
Deal Commentary: Signing its sixth lease in the Philadelphia market, Sola Salon Studios will now be joining the retailers of Walnut Street in the Market Street West corridor. The salon is anticipated to open by the end of the year.
TOP LEASE: 2011-5031 Shoppes Blvd., Moosic, PA
Space Leased: 10,300 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: September 3, 2020
Size: 266,684 SF
Tenant: Versona
Deal Commentary: Versona, a women's clothing retailer, signed a lease to open a new store at the Shoppes at Montage Mountain in Moosic, Pennsylvania.
TOP LEASE: 300 Lincoln Ave., East Stroudsburg, PA
Space Leased: 10,112 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: August 18, 2020
Size: 79,080 SF
Tenant: Dollar Tree
Deal Commentary: Shopping center operator Kimco Realty Development Corp. and its leasing team at CBRE signed Dollar Tree to a lease at the Pocono Plaza retail strip center. Weis Market previously occupied the space until its departure in 2012. Home Goods would later sign for 22,500 square feet of the property in early 2019, and Dollar Tree has now signed for the remainder the space.
TOP LEASE: 202-280 Schuylkill Road, Phoenixville, PA
Space Leased: 9,493 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: July 1, 2020
Size: 173,811 SF
Tenant: Creamery Tire
Deal Commentary: Family-owned tire retailer and operator Creamery Tire has expanded its presence in Phoenixville with a new lease. The business was founded in 1988, and with this recent lease now operates three locations in the Philadelphia market.
TOP LEASE: 3601-3661 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA
Space Leased: 3,500 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: July 16, 2020
Size: 304,108 SF
Tenant: Hello World
Deal Commentary: Locally owned go-to gift shop and lifestyle store Hello World has signed a lease for a new location in University City. The retailer joins other street level retailers at The Inn at Penn hotel.
Office Leases
TOP LEASE: 400 Highpoint Drive, Chalfont, PA
Space Leased: 67,200 SF
Deal Type: Renewal
Sign Date: August 4, 2020
Size: 67,200 SF
Tenant: JBT FoodTech
Deal Commentary: Food processing solutions firm John Bean Technologies Corp. has renewed its full-building lease at 400 Highpoint Drive in Chalfont, Pennsylvania, for five years. The company has occupied the building for more than three decades, and with the extension is set to remain in the property through February 2026.
TOP LEASE: 735 Chesterbrook Blvd., Chesterbrook, PA
Space Leased: 58,877 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: August 17, 2020
Size: 84,350 SF
Tenant: BNP Paribas
Deal Commentary: French international banking firm BNP Paribas expanded its footprint significantly in the Philadelphia market, filling a void created by Shire Pharmaceutical as a result of its departure from 730 Chesterbrook Blvd. back in 2016.
TOP LEASE: 401 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA
Space Leased: 33,274 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: September 16, 2020
Size: 1,296,804 SF
Tenant: Nerd Street Gamers
Deal Commentary: Nerd Street Gamers, a national esports infrastructure company, signed a lease in September to open what it's calling the world's first esports industry campus at the historic Terminal Commerce Building in Center City Philadelphia. Called The Block, the campus will also serve as Nerd Street Gamers' new corporate headquarters.
TOP LEASE: 300 Willowbrook Lane, West Chester, PA
Space Leased: 23,000 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: August 10, 2020
Size: 60,000 SF
Tenant: CDHA
Deal Commentary: CDHA has signed a lease in the Willowbrook Business Park for its relocation and expansion. Previously occupying 200 Willowbrook Lane, CDHA’s new lease will double its size.
TOP LEASE: 1 Meridian Blvd., Wyomissing, PA
Space Leased: 21,876 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: July 6, 2020
Size: 336,000 SF
Tenant: Worley
Deal Commentary: Global project and asset services provider Worley has signed a lease at One Meridian at Spring Ridge. The master-planned development offers a unique campus setting with numerous on-site amenities.
TOP LEASE: 2700 Kelly Road, Warrington, PA
Space Leased: 20,659 SF
Deal Type: Renewal
Sign Date: July 24, 2020
Size: 60,676 SF
Tenant: Langan Engineering
Deal Commentary: Langan Engineering has renewed it space in the Stone Manor Corporate Center in Warrington, Pennsylvania. The office park's amenities include restaurants, hotels and shopping within walking distance.
TOP LEASE: 1001 E. Hector St., Conshohocken, PA
Space Leased: 15,195 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: September 23, 2020
Size: 131,918 SF
Tenant: ZoomInfo
Deal Commentary: Market intelligence company ZoomInfo signed a new 15,000-square-foot lease in Conshohocken. The company is scheduled to take occupancy of its new space in the Quaker Park office building later this year.
TOP LEASE: 1700 Market St., Philadelphia, PA
Space Leased: 14,653 SF
Deal Type: Renewal
Sign Date: August 7, 2020
Size: 848,709 SF
Tenant: Cooke & Bieler
Deal Commentary: Investment firm Cooke & Bieler has renewed its headquarters lease at 1700 Market St. in downtown Philadelphia. Cooke & Bieler has been a tenant in the 32-story high-rise since 1988.
TOP LEASE: 400 Berwyn Park, Berwyn, PA
Space Leased: 13,594 SF
Deal Type: Renewal
Sign Date: August 6, 2020
Size: 124,182 SF
Tenant: Global Atlantic Financial Group
Deal Commentary: Global Atlantic Financial Group extended its lease at 400 Berwyn Park, where it has been a tenant since 2013. The property is also home to national law firm Troutman Pepper, aerospace company Triumph Group and Kistler Tiffany Benefits, among others.
TOP LEASE: 300 Conshohocken State Road, Conshohocken, PA
Space Leased: 10,013 SF
Deal Type: Renewal
Sign Date: August 1, 2020
Size: 298,482 SF
Tenant: Stewart Smith
Deal Commentary: Law firm Stewart Smith executed a lease renewal at Four Falls Corporate Center 300, a building that sits along the Schuylkill riverfront in West Conshohocken.
Industrial
TOP LEASE: 1002 Patriot Parkway, Reading, PA
Space Leased: 609,000 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: July 1, 2020
Size: 708,960 SF
Tenant: Amazon
Deal Commentary: E-commerce giant Amazon signed its latest industrial deal in greater Philadelphia as it continues its aggressive expansion across the country. The company's 609,900-square-foot lease in Reading was the largest industrial lease signed in the Philadelphia market in the third quarter and will allow Amazon to open its second fulfillment center in Berks County.
TOP LEASE: 7058 Snowdrift Road, Allentown, PA
Space Leased: 540,000 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: September 25, 2020
Size: 540,000 SF
Tenant: Allen Distribution
Deal Commentary: Third-party food and beverage logistics operator Allen Distribution relocated and expanded to Iron Run Corporate Center. The operator nearly doubled its size with the move from 30 Ludwig Court.
TOP LEASE: 1225 Forest Parkway, West Deptford, NJ
Space Leased: 313,523 SF
Deal Type: Renewal
Sign Date: August 17, 2020
Size: 354,083 SF
Tenant: CompuCom
Deal Commentary: CompuCom will continue to anchor Building 19 in the Forest Park Corporate Center after signing a renewal at the property it shares with Amazon. The company is a technology managed services provider and product reseller headquartered in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
TOP LEASE: 30 Ludwig Court, Shoemakersville, PA
Space Leased: 272,921 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: August 4, 2020
Size: 600,238 SF
Tenant: Ryder Integrated Logistics
Deal Commentary: Ryder Integrated Logistics has expanded into the space recently vacated by Allen Distribution at 30 Ludwig Court in Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania. An American transportation and logistics company out of Miami, Ryder now fully occupies the 600,238-square-foot distribution center within Hamburg Commerce Park.
TOP LEASE: 9 Gateway Blvd., Pedricktown, NJ
Space Leased: 213,900 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: September 24, 2020
Size: 213,900 SF
Tenant: Premier Packaging
Deal Commentary: Package solution operator Premier Packaging leased a speculative distribution center that was completed earlier this year in Pedricktown, New Jersey. The company will be the newest single tenant occupant to join the Gateway Business Park roster.
TOP LEASE: 3025 Meeting House Road, Philadelphia, PA
Space Leased: 207,370 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: July 24, 2020
Size: 207,370 SF
Tenant: Amazon
Deal Commentary: Amazon continued to build out its distribution network in the Philadelphia area after signing a lease for a newly built speculative distribution center on Meeting House Road. Black Creek Group owns the property, which Transwestern Development Co. completed last year.
TOP LEASE: 2020 Route 130 N, Burlington, NJ
Space Leased: 180,000 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: August 27, 2020
Size: 1,030,050 SF
Tenant: Subaru
Deal Commentary: Subaru expanded its footprint at a more than 1 million-square-foot distribution center it has anchored in Burlington, New Jersey, since 2013. With the expansion, the automobile manufacturer will now occupy 87% of the fully leased building it shares with owner NFI Industries.
TOP LEASE: 1 Advantage Court, Bordentown, NJ
Space Leased: 170,007 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: August 18, 2020
Size: 170,007 SF
Tenant: Legacy Converting
Deal Commentary: Disposable wiping producer Legacy Converting has relocated its headquarters and main manufacturing facility from Cranbury, New Jersey, to a new building at 1 Advantage Court in Bordentown. With the move, the manufacturer of paper towels, wet wipes and other similar products has also increased its market presence with the deal set to more than double its footprint..
TOP LEASE: 6736 Tilghman St., Allentown, PA
Space Leased: 150,000 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: August 17, 2020
Size: 150,000 SF
Tenant: ShipHero
Deal Commentary: ShipHero expanded into the Philadelphia market with a lease to take over the 150,000-square-foot warehouse at 6736 Tilghman St. in Allentown. The fulfillment and cloud software provider is subleasing the building from TrueValue, which vacated the property earlier this year.
TOP LEASE: 2041 Route 130 N, Burlington, NJ
Space Leased: 72,411 SF
Deal Type: New Lease
Sign Date: September 1, 2020
Size: 72,411 SF
Tenant: Bonduelle
Deal Commentary: French vegetable processor Bonduelle is adding a second location in the Philadelphia market after signing a full-building lease in Burlington, New Jersey. The company also has a manufacturing plant at 30 Keystone Drive in Lebanon, Philadelphia.