This Week's Philadelphia Deal Sheet
The Philadelphia Housing Authority completed a $48M redevelopment of a 116-unit senior housing complex on the edge of the Yorktown and Ludlow neighborhoods north of Girard Avenue.
Perryman Shoemaker, a joint venture of Perryman Construction and Shoemaker Construction Co., led the gut renovation of Harrison Plaza Senior Tower at 10th and Master streets, funded by a 4% Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.
PHA converted the building to senior housing for residents using Project Based Voucher assistance, made possible because the agency operates under the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Rental Assistance Demonstration program, which allows qualified housing authorities to use HUD funding for capital projects.
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
SSH Real Estate has acquired property management company Advantage Building & Facilities Services to expand its geographical reach and property management offerings. SSH's property management arm will now operate as SSH Advantage, with coverage growing to include Western Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware and Washington, D.C.
SALES
Pennsylvania-based cannabis company Agri-Kind has acquired a 3.7-acre site in Atlantic City for a cultivation facility in a transaction brokered by Vantage Commercial Real Estate, which called it one of the largest noncasino, nonentertainment transactions in the coastal resort city in 30 years.
Two families, the Trupos and the Angelonis, assembled the lot, with addresses 1705-1717 Atlantic Ave. and 19 Martin Luther King Blvd., over the course of 30 years and over 40 transactions before the sale. The site falls within the Green Zone that Atlantic City established last year to encourage and curate the growth of recreational cannabis businesses in a stretch of downtown that does not include the boardwalk.
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Forman Arts Initiative, a nonprofit founded by FS Investments CEO Michael Forman and his wife, Jennifer Rice, bought four properties — three buildings and one empty lot — on the 2200 block of North American Street in West Kensington, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports.
Forman Arts purchased the parcels, representing a combined 64K SF of land, from four different entities for $13M total, PBJ reports. The organization, which prolific art collectors Forman and Rice founded two years ago, focuses on arts engagement and appreciation. It has not announced any plans for the properties.
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Velocity Venture Partners bought a 94K SF warehouse in the Bucks County township of Bensalem, just northeast of Philadelphia's northeast border, for an undisclosed price. Colliers represented the seller, an affiliate of mechanical contractor A.T. Chadwick Co., and procured Velocity as a buyer.
The warehouse at 2260 State Road is net leased to packaging materials company ProCorr Display & Packaging, but an 8K SF office unit is soon to be available for lease.
CONSTRUCTION
Federal Realty Investment Trust is rebranding Bala Cynwyd Shopping Center as Bala Cynwyd at City Avenue as part of an $8M improvement project at the 68-year-old center. Beyond the aesthetic portion of the rebrand, Federal plans to add both common and tenant-specific outdoor seating and update the pedestrian and traffic flow of the property.
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The city of Philadelphia launched a $6.9M renovation of the Dell Music Center with a ceremonial groundbreaking on March 3. The nearly 100-year-old outdoor venue in East Fairmount Park will see its biggest changes since it was opened, including a new amphitheater backdrop for the stage, improved facilities for performers, guests and staff, and environmental updates to mitigate flooding risks.
The city-funded updates, led by Bittenbender Construction, are scheduled to be completed in August, just in time for an abbreviated concert series running from August to October.
