This Week's Philadelphia Deal Sheet
First National Realty Partners, a Red Bank, New Jersey-based private equity firm on an acquisition spree of grocery-anchored shopping centers, has bagged another one in the southern part of its home state.
FNRP acquired the 227K SF Eagle Plaza in Voorhees Township from Hutensky Capital Partners in a deal brokered by Marcus & Millichap affiliate Institutional Property Advisors. Eagle Plaza has been anchored by a 66K SF Acme supermarket since 1981, and currently has about 67.8K SF of vacancy. No sale price was disclosed.
LEASING
Puttshack, an indoor mini-golf venue operator, has signed a 26K SF lease at the Shops at Liberty Place, the ground-floor retail component of the Two Liberty Place skyscraper in Center City. The space, which stretches the full block of Chestnut Street between 16th and 17th streets, had been emptied out by the pandemic, and will look to add vibrancy to a key retail stretch when Puttshack opens next year.
SALES
Velocity Venture Partners has acquired a fully occupied, single-tenant industrial facility in Northeast Philadelphia from an unnamed seller for $22.25M, brokered by a Colliers team of Larry Bergen and Carl Neilson The 471K SF distribution center, with dual addresses of 5660-70 Rising Sun Ave. and 400 Adams Ave., will continue to be occupied by auto parts manufacturer Cardone Industries, but upgrades planned by Velocity will open up the possibility for the facility to house multiple tenants.
FINANCING
A joint venture of MCB Real Estate and The Hampshire Cos. has secured a $43M construction loan for a grocery-anchored shopping center redevelopment in the Drexel Hill neighborhood of Upper Darby, just west of Philadelphia. The project's first phase will include a 72K SF ShopRite grocery store and a Wawa convenience store, while latter phases will include multifamily and self-storage components.
A JLL Capital Markets team of Jon Mikula, Michael Klein and Michael Lachs arranged the placement of the loan, which was provided by Citizens Bank affiliate Investors Bank.
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Buccini/Pollin Group has secured a new loan to refinance the WSFS Bank Center, a 371K SF office tower in Downtown Wilmington, Delaware. The 10-year, $85M loan was provided by 3650 REIT, a privately held balance sheet lender that advertises holding loans through maturity. BPG built the property in 2006 to serve as WSFS' corporate headquarters, which it remains to this day.
PEOPLE
Joe Latina, Chris Moore and Jim Tancredi have formed a new commercial real estate services company, LMT Commercial Realty, based out of an office on Rockford Road in Wilmington. Latina and Moore departed Patterson-Woods & Associates to join with Tancredi, who had most recently worked at DSM Commercial.
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Ensemble/Mosaic, the joint venture of Mosaic Development Partners and Ensemble Real Estate Investments responsible for leading development efforts at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, have launched a nonprofit foundation focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The Ensemble/Mosaic TNY Empowerment Foundation launched with a $1M initial donation from the JV, which has pledged to donate 2% of the operating income from each Navy Yard property it develops to sustain its operations in the future.
