Lincoln Property Co. has commenced construction of Union 85, a 243,540-square-foot speculative distribution center in southern Atlanta. The project is anticipated to be completed later this year.

Located at 3725 Royal S. Parkway, the 24.4-acre project site is situated in Atlanta’s I-85 South corridor, which has seen a wealth of new industrial properties come online in recent years, occupied by major tenants including Procter & Gamble, Mondelez and XPO Logistics. The new building will sit just off Interstate 85, which connects the area to Atlanta’s urban core, 15 miles to the northeast…

JLL Spark, a division of JLL, has acquired a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based real estate technology platform. Stessa—“assets” spelled backwards—reportedly lets investors in income properties easily and cost-effectively track, manage and communicate the performance of their portfolios.

This is JLL Spark’s first strategic acquisition since its inception last year and is touted as delivering on the company’s mission “to transform the real estate industry through technology-based innovation.” Both JLL Spark and Stessa are headquartered in San Francisco…

JLL Spark Buys CRE Software Company

A partnership between Stan Johnson Co. and SVN/First Guardian Group has sold two office buildings near Orlando, Fla., known as the GE Transportation Building, for $25 million. Stan Johnson Co. Associate Director David Bailey and SVN/First Guardian Group Erik Carlson represented the seller, TIC Properties Management, in the transaction. Reserve Capital Partners was the buyer.

Washington Trust’s Commercial Real Estate Group has provided a $6.6 million loan to owners CH Commerce Drive Associates LLC and City Park Commerce Drive LLC, for the refinancing and tenant improvement of a mixed-use property in Connecticut. The office and industrial property in Trumbull, Conn., managed by Cambridge Hanover Inc., served as the North American headquarters of the Pilot Pen Corp.

Hines, in a joint venture with a fund managed by Oaktree Capital Management LP, has announced that The University of Kansas Health System has signed a lease for a 105,000-square-foot office space at 11300 Corporate Ave. in Lenexa, Kan. The space is used for support operations for the health system.

Luxury beauty and spa chain Bluemercury is getting ready to open its 11th store in Chicago as the company has leased 1,800 square feet within the 900 West mixed-use development. The new store, located at the corner of Sangamon and Randolph streets, is expected to open in the summer of 2018.

Donahue Schriber Realty Group has sold Westlake Village, a 31,980-square-foot retail center in Sacramento, Calif., located at 3501-3511 Del Paso Road. The sale also included an additional 4-acre site prone to future development.

Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors Executive Vice President Bill Asher, President Ed Hanley and Ten-X represented the seller, while Associate Eric Vu represented the buyer, a family trust from San Francisco’s East Bay which traded out of a northern California-based retail property to fulfill a 1031 exchange…

Liberty Property Trust, one of the largest office developers in the northeastern U.S., has sold an even dozen office properties in suburban Philadelphia in two separate transactions. The properties, totaling 779,190 square feet, changed hands for $106.9 million.

The assets in the larger sale are located at 440 and 460 E. Swedesford Road in Wayne, 2100 and 2201 Renaissance Blvd. in King of Prussia, 45 Liberty Blvd., and 300, 400 and 500 Chesterfield Parkway in Malvern. These buildings total more than 590,000 square feet and sold for $92 million…

The Country Inn & Suites by Radisson has opened a new 89-key property in Lawrence, Kan. The owner of the hotel in eastern Kansas, a legal entity affiliated with Diamond Everley Roofing Contractors, kicked off the building’s development in early 2017. Apex Engineers provided engineering services, and Heinen Custom Operations acted as general contractor.

Located at 2176 E. 23rd St., the hotel is situated approximately three and a half miles from the University of Kansas, with the Haskell Indian Nations University positioned two miles to the west. In the past, an antique dealer and a steakhouse operated on the 1.2-acre parcel…

QTS has signed new contracts with longstanding clients at its Atlanta metro hyperscale data center. Two lease extensions were inked, totaling 19 megawatts in aggregate capacity. The anchor tenants paid above pre-renewal rates.

J Donegan Co. has purchased a three-tenant shopping center in a record net lease sale in Loudoun County. The recently completed asset traded for $4.8 million, attaining $925 per square foot and a cap rate of 5.5 percent, in a transaction facilitated by Calkain Cos.

CenterPoint Properties has fully leased its recently completed speculative facility in Joliet, Ill. The building was leased to a large home improvement retailer and CTDI, a global engineering, repair and logistics company.

Located at 3900 Brandon Road, the building comprises 751,622 square feet and is situated within the CenterPoint Intermodal Center-Joliet/Elwood. The home improvement retailer signed a 15-year, six-month lease for 250,309 square feet of the facility, including:

Rockwood Capital has purchased Growers Square, a three-building, 195,372-square-foot Class A office project in Walnut Creek, Calif., in the East Bay, according to NKF Capital Markets, which represented the seller, Invesco.

The property, at 1646-1676 California Blvd., includes a four-level parking facility reportedly featuring one of the highest parking ratios in Walnut Creek. Growers Square also benefits from a location with immediate access to both BART and the area’s dense retail core…

Rockwood Capital Buys Bay Area Office Park

L3 Capital has acquired a retail building in Chicago for $23 million. Mid-America Real Estate Corp. brokered the sale on behalf of the seller.

Located at 118-120 East Oak St., the property comprises 10,141 square feet and is fully occupied by The Northern Trust Corp. The trophy-quality building is situated in Chicago’s prominent Oak Street luxury district…

L3 Snags Chicago Retail Building

PJP Group LLC has purchased a fully leased Class A office buildingin Kirkland, Wash. Claddagh Ventures LLC sold the property for $14.8 million, in a 1031 exchange deal. NAI Hunneman, in a collaboration with NAI Puget Sound Properties, represented the seller and procured the buyer.

Last year was an active period in commercial real estate technology, and the details are all broken down in CREtech’s 2017 End-Year Report, which indicates that there’s much more to come as the sector approaches a watershed period in its lifecycle.

In an $11.7 million deal, an affiliate of 1788 Holdings has acquired Riverside Business Center, a single-story light industrial buildingin Whitehall, Pa. Located at 1139 Lehigh Ave., the property comprises 423,900 square feet and was 87 percent leased to 11 tenants at the time of sale.

Hersha Hospitality Trust has sold its Hampton Inn Financial District hotel in Manhattan for $32.4 million. Solid Rock Advisors advised Hersha on the sale.

“This transaction highlights Hersha’s ability to successfully execute accretive dispositions and upgrade the portfolio with higher growth hotels in our core markets,” said Jay Shah, CEO of Hersha, in prepared remarks…

The owner of the 234-key AC by Marriott Seattle Bellevue/Downtown has selected Crescent Hotels & Resorts to manage the asset’s operations. General contractor Halvorson Construction began work on the Johnson Braun-designed mid-rise in 2015, and the building opened its doors for business in August 2017. Previously, Sage Hospitality served as property manager.

Located at 208 10th Place N.E., the building is strategically positioned in Bellevue’s vibrant central business district, with numerous office and residential high-rises in the immediate area. The seven-story asset sits a half mile from Interstate 405 and two blocks from the recently opened W Bellevue hotel…

Savanna has signed a 20,000-square-foot lease with the nation’s largest African and Caribbean-owned bank, Carver Federal Savings Bank. The tenant will relocate to Lee Building in Harlem, occupying the asset’s top floor, as well as part of the seventh floor. The lease follows the recent, record-breaking $20 million sale of Carver’s historic headquarters on 125th Street in Harlem. The bank plans to keep its 70-year presence in the building by retaining its ground-floor branch.

The Calida Group has acquired a 180-unit community located in the western part of Las Vegas. Hampton Garden traded for $27.5 million, with Pacific Coast Capital Partners providing a $24 million senior loan to the buyer.

A CBRE team arranged the financing package on behalf of Calida, with the capital used both for acquisition and renovations to the community. Located at 9750 Peace Way, Hampton Garden comprises 16 buildings, with a floorplan mix of 48 one-bedroom and 132 two-bedroom units. Sizes range from 800 to 1,100 square feet. Common amenities include:

Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of two FedEx Freight centers located in Atlanta and Marcus Hook, Pa. Both transactions amounted to $47.8 million. The Atlanta property, which encompasses 292,000 square feet, sold for $32.3 million, while the 150,000-square-foot Marcus Hook facility traded for $15.4 million.

It’s déjà vu—or at least it will be. Six properties that Boyne Resorts sold more than a decade ago will soon be part of its portfolio again. The mountain resort owner and operator recently entered into an agreement to repurchase the group of North American resorts and a scenic chairlift attraction from Ski Resort Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Oz Real Estate.

A team of REO Fund 2 principal Garrett Backman and Senior Vice President Jeff Taylor of Transwestern’s Atlanta Agency Leasing division represented REO Asset Strategies in closing a lease agreement with Newell Brands. The tenant will occupy almost all of Building 100, which encompasses 60,402 square feet of space, within Morgan Falls Office Park in Sandy Springs, Ga. Newell Brands was represented by CBRE in the lease negociations.

DoveHill Capital Management and the Wurzak Hotel Group have acquired the Sheraton Reston Hotel, a 298-key, full-service hotel in Reston, Va.

Cyrus Vazifdar, senior director of HFF, represented the seller in the transaction, who was not named. The price was also not disclosed…

DoveHill Capital, Wurzak Acquire NoVa Hotel

US Storage Centers has purchased Philly Self Storage, a 107,606-square-foot facility in Philadelphia. The asset will be rebranded as US Storage Centers. SVN Commercial Realty represented both parties in the transaction.

Located at 1910 S. Cristopher Columbus Blvd., the property is near Interstate 95, in a densely populated area. According to Yardi Matrix, approximately 302,599 people live within a three-mile radius, with roughly four net rentable square feet of self-storage space per capita. Completed in 2008, the facility occupies nearly three acres and features 1,545 units, ranging from 25 to 180 square feet. Characteristics of the property include climate control, electronic gated access carts and dollies and RV Parking…

Artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) products are cropping up in a growing number of office and retail buildings, but we are far from calling this the norm. Commercial real estate owners and property managers are slowly warming up to solutions that can help capitalize on the data captured from sensors and other software programs. In this industry, the adoption of new technologies is a very fluid and gradual process.

BUCHWALD has signed a 15,000-square-foot lease on the penthouse floor of a 31-story office building in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile district. The full-service talent agency will relocate its Los Angeles branch from 6500 Wilshire Blvd., more than doubling its space. This is the New York City-based company’s second location.

First Data Corp., a global payment technology solutions company, has signed an eight-year lease for 50,900 square feet of space at Zamir Equities’ office building in Marietta, Ga. Avison Young arranged the deal on behalf of the landlord. The building is currently 100 percent occupied.

Located at 1600 Terrell Mill Road S.E., adjacent to Interstate 75, the building sits on a 17.3-acre site and offers 253,096 square feet of rentable space. Leases range from 8,000 square feet of divisible space to 50,000 square feet of contiguous space…

Lone Star Funds has inked an expansion of an office lease in northern New Jersey with mem property management to double the property management firm’s space in Somerset Executive Square. Lone Star acquired the building in 2016 from Equity Office Properties Trust as part of a 24-asset, $333.4 million portfolio transaction, according to Yardi Matrix.

The 112,148-square-foot Class A office property is fully leased to Smith & Nephew, a global medical technology company, as the headquarters facility for its Advanced Surgical Devices division. The building is one of seven comprising Minuteman Park, a master-planned suburban campus totaling 1 million square feet. The campus offers onsite amenities within its newly renovated amenity center, including:

In an $18.8 million deal, Bixby Land Co. has purchased a 55,660-square-foot industrial facility in Sumner, Wash., from Panattoni Development. The transaction marks the duo’s fourth industrial transaction in the Seattle area since 2016.

The property is located at 1800 Fryar Ave., within a 40-minute drive south of downtown Seattle, in the Kent Valley submarket. The site is situated adjacent to Route 167 and in close proximity to routes 410 and 512. Constructed in 2004, the building is currently leased to Cummins Inc., a Fortune 500 company which designs, manufactures and distributes engines and power generation…

After selling its shares in Sundtkvartalet, a 103,000-square foot office building in Oslo, Skanska plans to invest roughly $72.7 million to develop Parallell, a 209,900-square-foot office project in Norway’s capital city. Construction will begin immediately and is slated for completion in spring 2020.

JCPenney has sold its Logistics Warehouse and Furniture Outlet Center in Wauwatosa, Wis., to an affiliate of Phoenix Investors for $31.3 million. The 2 million-square-foot property sits on a 77-acre lot adjacent to Interstate 45 and has been under JCPenney’s ownership for more than 50 years. The new owner plans to renovate all the facilities making up the industrial asset.

StorageMart has added a 78,979-square-foot facility to its self-storage portfolio in Virginia Beach, Va. The 560-unit asset marks StorageMart’s first facility in the area.

Located at 1889 Virginia Beach Blvd., the property is close to Interstate 264 and the Naval Air Station Oceana. The facility will serve the local community and businesses, as well as military personnel. According to StorageMart’s website, the new facility features small and extra-large units, ranging from 25 to 310 square feet. Characteristics include climate control, loading bays, drive-up storage units, individual pin-code access, video cameras and interior loading bays…

Strategic Storage Growth Trust Inc., a public non-traded REIT sponsored by SmartStop Asset Management LLC, has acquired an 86,000-square-foot newly constructed self-storage facility in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista, Calif.

Strategically located at 2380 Fenton St., the facility occupies 1.5 acres in the Eastlake area, near the South Bay Expressway. The region is densely populated, more than 89,000 people live within a three-mile radius, with only 2.2 square feet of storage space available per capita, according to Yardi Matrix. Additionally, the average household income is approximately $91,389. The three-story facility comprises roughly 900 climate-controlled units and features a covered loading area and drive-up units…

Miami City Self Storage (MCSS) has opened an 81,299-square-foot self-storage facility in Pembroke Park, Fla. The new asset marks the company’s fourth facility in South Florida and the first in Broward County. CubeSmart is the manager of the storage property.

The newly constructed property is situated at 1781 S. Park Road on 1.4 acres, near the intersection of Pembroke Road and Interstate 95. The facility comprises 795 climate-controlled units and features a concierge-style front desk, security system, motion-activated cameras, intercoms and sensor lighting…

California is one of the most active office markets in the country, with consistent development and leasing activity over the past decade. In Los Angeles, more than 2 million square feet of office space came online in 2017, while San Francisco added about 1.4 million square feet last year. Moreover, roughly 7 million square feet is expected to come online by the end of 2018 in San Francisco.

Colliers International South Florida has expanded its hotel brokerage expertise with the addition of John Wijtenburg as vice president. In this role, he will be focusing on hotel and resort investment sales throughout Florida. Wijtenburg brings more than a decade of commercial real estate and finance experience, having conducted underwriting, due diligence and transaction closing for more than $250 million of hotel real estate in the past five years.

JLL has arranged a headquarters relocation lease on behalf of the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) at Lockton Place, a 186,000-square-foot office building in Houston’s Westchase submarket. The tenant is scheduled to relocate to its new 18,920-square-foot space in the third quarter of 2018.

Located at 3657 Briarpark Drive, Triten Real Estate Partners and USAA’s recently completed Lockton Place is now 94 percent leased. The eight-story, Class A property features a fitness center, conference room, dining lounge and outdoor gathering space…

Office Evolution has signed a 7,721-square-foot office lease at Travelers Cos.’ Lincoln Center, a 217,695-square-foot Class B office building in Tampa, Fla. The owner picked up the asset in a $21.5 million sale in early 1998, according to Yardi Matrix. The lease comes on the heels of the firm’s recently inked deal for more than 8,000 square feet of new coworking space in Jacksonvile, Fla.

MicroStrategy, an IT and data analytics service provider, has renewed its lease at one of Quadrangle Development’s Towers Crescent Class A office towers in suburban Washington, D.C. The firm has occupied 200,000 square feet in the building since 2010, according to Virginia Business. MicroStrategy plans to upgrade its space with approximately $6 million in improvements and hire 300 new employees over the coming years.

Brown Commercial Group has negotiated the sale of three industrial assets in suburban Chicago. President Dan Brown was the sole broker for each deal, which Gilberts and Groves LLC purchased for a total of $7 million.

One of the buildings is located at 300-338 Arrowhead Drive in Gilberts, Ill. The facility comprises 24,400 square feet and offers six units, each with about 3,000 square feet of outdoor storage space…

Economic changes have influenced workspace strategies, from the remote-working trend of the mid-’90s and up to the Great Recession, to the following trend toward the densification of office space. The goal of current workplace strategy is to align a company’s work environment with the flexible needs of a multi-generational workforce, according to a new report from Newmark Knight Frank. The report was written by Tamar Moy, senior managing director of workplace strategy, Stephanie Jennings, managing director of research, and Jonathan Mazur, senior managing director of research.

Ivanhoé Cambridge and Natixis Assurances, partners in the DUO towers development in Paris, have been awarded the “Climate Bond Certified” label by Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) for the aforementioned project. The certification marks Europe’s first green-labelled commercial real estate loan, which totaled nearly $600 million (€480 million).

The W.W. Reynolds Cos. has received a $48 million loan to refinance a three-building office portfolio in Boulder, Colo., totaling 159,778 square feet.

HFF represented the company in the refinancing by securing the 12-year, sub 4.0 percent, fixed-rate loan through MetLife Real Estate Investments…

W.W. Reynolds Lands Refi for Denver Office Portfolio