This Week's Baltimore Deal Sheet
Advisory and accounting firm BDO USA is relocating its Baltimore headquarters from the county to downtown.
The firm signed a 12K SF lease at the Candler Building at 700 East Pratt St. with the building's owner, American Real Estate Partners.
BDO plans to relocate to the recently renovated Class-A building, which totals nearly 590K SF, in January. Existing tenants in the building include the National Aquarium, Johns Hopkins University and RK&K.
Transwestern’s Ashley Tarran-Jones, Larry Serota and Cece Conway represented BDO. JLL's Tony Gross, Peter Jackson and Anne Marie Paintsil provided transaction advisory and consulting services to AREP.
The deal comes after DLA Piper last month announced plans to move from Baltimore County to downtown. Shelonda Stokes, president and CEO of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore said the BDO deal is part of a trend of downtown relocations.
"The momentum we are seeing in downtown Baltimore is indicative of a true renaissance,” Stokes said in a release. “BDO’s commitment to the Candler Building and Baltimore’s CBD is a testament of the value of doing business downtown."
LEASES
Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation signed leases for 72K SF at St. John Properties’ Arundel Overlook complex. The foundation plans to open its first elementary school at the site, with classes starting in the fall of 2023.
The foundation, part of the Chesapeake Science Point Charter School campus network, signed leases for space at 1503 and 1513 Signature Drive. Lacey Johansson of St. John Properties represented the landlord. Chuck Breitenother and Austin Eber of KLNB represented the tenant.
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Baltimore-based St. John Properties has landed national security firm Peraton Inc. at the Melford Town Center in Prince George’s County. The firm has agreed to lease roughly 18K SF at 16901 Melford Blvd., where it intends to relocate its Global Health & Financial Solutions sector headquarters, currently located in McLean, Virginia.
Peraton’s new offices are located in a four-story building containing 150K SF of Class-A office space and part of a 466-acre mixed-use business community. Bill Jautze of St. John Properties represented the landlord. Daniel Rasmussen of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant.
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Sherwin Williams signed two leases totaling 13K SF at a pair of St. John Properties’ locations. The company intends to open a 9K SF site at Timonium Exchange to serve contractors. The second site is a 3,708 SF retail store at the Magothy Beach Plaza.
Michael Sacks of St. John Properties represented the landlord in the Timonium Exchange lease. In the Magothy Beach Plaza lease, St. John Properties' Eric Llewellyn represented the landlord, and Matt Copeland and Cooper Henry of KLNB represented the tenant.
SALES
Celebree School paid $3M to acquire the 25K SF building at 8029 Corporate Drive in Baltimore, where it intends to relocate its headquarters by the first quarter of 2023.
Currently based in Lutherville, Celebree School runs 34 early childhood education and care centers in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania. It plans to expand to 150 schools in the next three years.
MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services Vice President Sean Langford represented the buyer. Lincoln Property Group Vice President of Leasing Kyle Bell represented the seller.
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MCB Real Estate purchased four Class-B and Class-C multifamily properties in Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County and Montgomery County for nearly $295M, according to the Baltimore Business Journal. MCB Real Estate, which intends to purchase Harbor Place once it clears receivership, has emerged as one of the Baltimore area’s most active developers.
FINANCINGS
Towson-based Continental Realty Corp., in partnership with Brown Advisory, has closed its Core Multifamily Fund after raising more than $146M in private equity to acquire multifamily assets in the Southeast. The fund's targets include Class-A garden and mid-rise apartment assets with high-end amenities delivered within the past four years in urban and suburban markets.
“Given our deep understanding of the Southeast markets and current market conditions, especially the job and population growth in the Southeast, our vertically integrated team believes this is the optimal time to invest in a core multifamily strategy for long-term holds," Continental Realty Corp. CEO JM Schapiro said in a release.
PERSONNEL
Continental Realty Corp. has hired Samantha Lange as an acquisitions associate in its multifamily division. Previously, Lange worked as manager of acquisitions for Fogelman Properties, where during a single year, she helped identify and close nine investments valued at more than $300M.
Lange will assist the firm’s Multifamily Acquisitions team in identifying, analyzing and acquiring value-add and core multifamily investments throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southeast. She has eight years of experience at Freddie Mac and Starwood Property Trust/LNR Partners LLC.
