The Deal Sheet
California-based Laurus Corp acquired the Hilton Garden Inn located in Fort Washington, Pa. The six-story hotel features 146 rooms, an indoor swimming pool, business center, guest laundry facility, restaurant and bar, and three meeting facilities totaling 3,350 SF.
The property, which is adjacent to the 6M SF Fort Washington Office Park, sold for an unspecified price, but Laurus CIO Austin Khan notes that the deal came "at a significant discount to replacement cost." (Mom always said, "don't throw the hotel out with the bathwater.") Company prez Jean Paul Szita adds that Laurus is bringing in a new management company to further drive RevPAR, as well as executing a $1.9M property improvement plan.
CONSTRUCTION
Liberty Property Trust and Synterra Partners broke ground this week on 201 Rouse Blvd, their eighth building in the Navy Yard. It will be the new HQ for Franklin Square Capital Partners.The 80k SF office building is located on 4.4 acres just south of the Courtyard by Marriott (currently under construction) and will front a newly developed five-acre park with various recreational amenities. This is the 12th development project by Liberty at the Navy Yard in nine years, representing over 1.2M SF of office, industrial and hotel space.
SALES
Beechwood Gardens, a 160-unit apartment property at 9805 Haldeman Ave in northeast Philadelphia, traded for $13M. Clarke Talone, Ridge MacLaren, and Andrew Townsend, investment specialists in Marcus & Millichap's Philadelphia office, facilitated the transaction between the seller, a New York-based LLC, and the buyer, a local LLC. Clarke says they oversaw the sale of the asset four years ago during a time when not much was trading, and the owner consistently maintained occupancy in the mid-to-high 90% range since then. The buyer assumed an agency loan with a rate higher than current market rates.
LEASING
Wayne, Pa.-based SunGard Availability Services (SunGard AS) has picked Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) Global Corporate Services as its corporate real estate provider for North America, managing real estate transactions for all SunGard AS facilities, as well as lease administration. SunGard AS's North American portfolio includes about 5M SF of data center and operations space. NGKF had been providing lease audit services to SunGard AS before this assignment.
DEVELOPMENT
Marlton, NJ-based Hill International has received a contract extension from Jabal Omar Development Co in connection with the Jabal Omar development in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Hill has been the project manager on the development since 2010. The two-year extension has an estimated value to Hill of about $29M. The Jabal Omar development, which is on 57 acres, includes 37 towers with a total built-up area of 21.5M SF of space, including hospitality, residential, retail, commercial and religious facilities.
FINANCING
Meridian Capital Group negotiated a $37.5M mortgage to refinance the Thomas Meeting Apartments in Exton, Pa., on behalf of the Klein Co. The seven-year balance sheet loan features a fixed-rate of 3.25% and one year of interest-only payments. This deal was negotiated by Meridian Capital Group SVP David Cohen and senior loan officer Max Beyderman, both in the company's Iselin, NJ office. The Thomas Meeting Apartments contains 32 two-story garden apartment buildings totaling 278 units.
KUDOS
Future Cities has named Center City District CEO Paul Levy one of the Top 100 City Innovators in the world--in fact, he's No. 6. Futures Cities is a publication that focuses on the issues surrounding urban centers. (We've know Paul as an idea leader for a while now--he's snapped a previous Bisnow event with Deputy Mayor for environmental and community resources Michael DiBerardinis.)
