Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Monday, July 28, 2025
Mapletree kicks off construction of 250,000SF industrial property in Philadelphia suburbs
By Linda Moss CoStar News
Singapore-based Mapletree Investments has broken ground on a state-of-the-art industrial facility in a Philadelphia suburb of New Jersey.
The 250,000-square-foot project is slated for 1960 Burlington-Mount Holly Road in Westampton Township. The development, situated on a 22.5-acre parcel, is scheduled for completion in the second quarter next year.
Once complete, the Class A facility will feature 36-foot-clear ceiling heights, 44 dock doors, two drive-in doors, 150 parking spaces, 62 trailer stalls, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, LED lighting, a solar-ready roof and smart meters, according to Chiagorom Osu, head of U.S. logistics development at Mapletree.
“We see strong, long-term value in the industrial sector, where development plays an essential role in our growth strategy,” Richard Prokup, U.S. CEO of Mapletree, said in a statement.
The planned facility is located near major transportation arteries, including the New Jersey Turnpike, airports and seaports, making it well positioned to serve as a distribution and last-mile delivery hub in one of the most strategic logistics corridors in New Jersey.
In addition to building U.S. industrial properties, Mapletree has also been offloading some. It recently announced it had a deal to sell a 2.4 million-square-foot industrial portfolio in the Southeast to EQT Real Estate for $241.2 million. That followed a portfolio sale in June, when Mapletree shed 1.8 million square feet across 30 buildings for $328 million.
Regarding this week's sale, Prokup said, “This divestment represents a strong outcome for our investors and affirms the value we’ve created across our U.S. industrial portfolio.”
The company plans to reinvest proceeds into warehouse assets that align with long-term growth objectives, according to Prokup.
Friday, July 25, 2025
Urban Edge sells PA & NJ shopping centers for $41 million
By Linda Moss CoStar News
Urban Edge Properties has closed on the sale of two shopping centers in North Jersey and the Philadelphia suburbs for roughly $41 million as it sheds noncore properties.
In one deal, the New York-based real estate investment trust last month sold a retail property to one of the site's tenants for $23.2 million, according to public documents. Grocer Food Bazaar, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, acquired Kennedy Commons on Kennedy Boulevard in North Bergen, New Jersey, for $23.2 million from Urban Edge. Food Bazaar has a store at the roughly 62,000-square-foot center, and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen also as eatery there, according to CoStar data.
And in a separate transaction in June, Urban Edge sold MacDade Commons in Glenolden, Pennsylvania, to Agree Realty for $18 million, according to public documents. That roughly 102,000-square-foot retail property is anchored by a Walmart store, according to CoStar. Agree is a REIT based in Royal Oak, Michigan.
Urban Edge declined to comment Wednesday.
But in an investor presentation this month, Urban Edge said it is undertaking "strategic capital recycling," by selling noncore, low-growth properties and acquiring high-quality shopping centers.
When it reported its first-quarter earnings in April, the REIT said it had two properties under contract for a combined sale price of $41.2 million. But it didn't identify the properties.
“Our capital recycling efforts are advancing with $66 million of assets sold or under contract at a weighted average capitalization rate of 5%," Urban Edge Chairman and CEO Jeff Olson said in a statement on the first quarter. "Our team is focused on continuing to execute on our strategic plan, capitalizing on the robust demand in our markets through our leasing, redevelopment, and investment strategies.”
The REIT is scheduled to report its second-quarter results July 30.
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Idled Conshohocken steel plant draws attention as redevelopment opportunity
By Paul J. Gough – Reporter, Pittsburgh Business Times
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.’s idled steel plants in Conshohocken and Steelton are garnering interest from both other manufacturers and also data center developers.
The Cleveland-based steelmaker said there’s been “inbound interest” in those two eastern Pennsylvania factories as well as a strip mill, Riverdale, in Illinois. It wasn’t clear whether that interest included companies that would buy the factories and return them to work.
Cleveland Cliffs fully idled the Steelton rail-steel plant and its Conshohocken plate finishing facility due to financial losses, at the same time it also said it wouldn’t be moving forward with a transformer production plant in Weirton, West Virginia. The Riverdale idling is expected to save $90 million a year, while Conshohocken saves $45 million a year and Steelton $30 million.
“These sites, particularly Riverdale, Steelton, and Conshohocken, are all uniquely positioned geographically and have what data center developers are looking for, access to power and water with the infrastructure already in place,” CFO Celso Goncalves said. “While these properties are idled, if opportunities don’t arise that justify restarting, they have good value and the amount of interest we have received in these properties so far is reflective of this.”
Data centers have proliferated with the rise in artificial intelligence. Their often-sprawling footprints are used to process and store mass quantities of data for major tech companies like Amazon, Google Cloud and Oracle. Several multibillion-dollar projects are being planned across Pennsylvania.
Full story: http://tiny.cc/f31q001
Thursday, July 17, 2025
Monday, July 14, 2025
Thursday, July 10, 2025
Office leasing diverges in the first half of 2025
By Phil Mobley CoStar Analytics
Office leasing activity edged higher in the first half of the year, though overall leasing volume remains stubbornly below its typical level from the late 2010s. While a few markets appear to be in full-blown recovery, others are still off the pace, hampered by both tepid demand and the absence of large blocks of available premium space.
Tenants executed new lease agreements for an estimated 220 million square feet in the first six months of 2025, a substantial increase from the approximately 195 million inked in the second half of 2024. Still, the first-half total trails the 230 million square feet that was typically leased over a given six-month period between 2015 and 2019.
Year-to-date leasing performance varies widely across the nation’s largest office markets. Increased hiring and a renewed focus on in-office work by financial institutions have catalyzed a robust leasing recovery in New York, with volume 20% higher than its customary pre-pandemic level.
Similar trends have benefited Charlotte, North Carolina’s office market, while strong population demographics and a comparatively robust delivery pipeline have underpinned robust office leasing in both Miami and Dallas.
The tech sector, led by AI-focused companies, has also contributed, boosting leasing activity on the West Coast. Volume in San Francisco is up 7% from its pre-2020 average so far in 2025 after being down nearly 30% in 2024. San Jose has also seen a meaningful increase in leasing activity over 2024, though not yet back to its late-2010s level.
In most other markets, however, office leasing activity remains stunted, and the composition of the market is one key factor.
The recent trend of smaller lease sizes shows no sign of reversing, with the typical office lease remaining 15% to 20% below its pre-pandemic average. Though slow job growth is a major factor on the demand side, the supply side is becoming increasingly important to the office market's dynamic.
As completions of new office space slows inexorably due to reduced construction activity, large occupiers have fewer opportunities to upgrade into first-generation space. With slow payroll growth currently presenting little pressure on office tenants to expand, many appear to be staying in place, renewing existing leases and waiting patiently for future construction activity to present them with relocation options in a few years.
Smaller tenants, meanwhile, look to be capitalizing on this situation by filling in the remaining available spaces in the most desirable locations and buildings. Until the office pipeline ramps back up, the trend toward smaller leases is likely to persist.
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Fully leased South Jersey shopping center sells for $8.5 million
By Paul Schwedelson – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
First National Realty Partners has acquired the fully leased, 40,700-square-foot Winslow Plaza strip mall in Sicklerville, New Jersey.
The Red Bank, New Jersey, firm paid $8.5 million for the property, according to an industry source.
The seller was Virginia Beach, Virginia-based Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust Inc. (NASDAQ: WHLR), which bought the shopping center when it was 91% leased in 2013 for $6.6 million. The value increased 29% since then.
The strip mall is at 542 Berlin-Cross Keys Road, at the intersection of Berlin-Cross Keys Road and Chews Landing Road and less than a mile from the Atlantic City Expressway.
Tenants include UPS, H&R Block and Asad’s Hot Chicken. The property’s average tenant tenure is more than 13 years, a reflection of the asset’s stability.
The shopping center is shadow-anchored by ShopRite, meaning the adjacent grocery property is under different ownership.
Full story: http://tiny.cc/bkxo001
