This Week's Philadelphia Deal Sheet
A cold storage development in Philadelphia's Port Richmond neighborhood is the recipient of the largest C-PACE financing package in Pennsylvania since the state approved its usage in 2018.
BG Capital and FreezPak Logistics secured a $30M Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy, or C-PACE, loan from Nuveen Green Capital for a $93M, 172K SF cold storage facility at 2201 East Allegheny Ave. in Port Richmond. New Jersey-based OceanFirst Bank is the senior lender on the project, having provided a $42M construction-to-permanent loan.
The Allegheny Avenue property is the first of a planned $3B joint venture called BGFP International, through which local developer BG Capital and national cold storage firm FreezPak will build new facilities near ports in major cities for FreezPak to operate. In exchange for taking advantage of C-PACE financing, BGFP has agreed to make the building 30% more energy-efficient than Philadelphia's building code requires.
PEOPLE
Colliers Executive Managing Director Tim Pulte, who leads the brokerage's practice in the Philadelphia area, has been named to Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro's Transition Advisory Committee for Economic Development.
Pulte is the senior ranking representative from Philly's commercial real estate industry on Shapiro's transition team, which also includes Wexford Science & Technology Senior Vice President John Grady, Philly Office Retail President Ken Weinstein and Iron Stone Real Estate Partners principal Michael Pearson as local representatives.
SALES
City Avenue Center, a three-building, 22K SF shopping center at 4030 City Ave. on Philly's border with Bala Cynwyd, has sold for $24.6M to a Maryland-based family office in a transaction brokered by Marcus & Millichap subsidiary Institutional Property Advisors. The property was 100% occupied at the time of sale, with tenants including Chipotle and Verizon. It is shadow-anchored by a Target, which sits behind the property on a separate parcel not involved in the transaction.
The seller, identified in city property records as MIF City LLC, was the original developer of the property, which was built in 2007. Court documents from a 2018 lawsuit regarding the property identify Jerald Batoff and Todd Pilgrim as principal actors for MIF. Batoff is the founder of Midlantic Real Estate Inc., which has addresses in Villanova and Bala Cynwyd; Pilgrim is a general manager for the company.
CONSTRUCTION
Federal Realty Investment Trust broke ground on the second phase of its Willow Grove Shopping Center development in the Montgomery County township of the same name on Thursday. Scheduled to be completed by the middle of next year, the second phase of the 211K SF center will include public amenities and restaurants, as well as an 18K SF outparcel building.
