Monday, March 26, 2012

Spence Hill Associates Arranges $1.4 Million Permanent Financing for Warrenton, VA Retail Center



FALLS CHURCH, VA – March 26, 2012 – Spence Hill Associates announced today that it has arranged $1,400,000 of permanent financing for North Rock Plaza (top left photo), a 9,300 square-foot retail center located at 484 Blackwell Road, Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia.

 Michael H. Trauberman, Managing Director of Spence Hill Associates, arranged and negotiated the financing on an exclusive basis on behalf of a Falls Church-based commercial real estate investor.

The loan was placed with a community bank, and refinanced an existing loan with a different bank.  The 78% loan-to-value financing features a fixed interest rate of 4.375%, a five-year term with a five-year extension option, 25-year amortization, and the ability to prepay without penalty.

 Mr. Trauberman commented:  “The loan drew the attention of a large number of lenders due to the property’s excellent sponsorship, location, demographics, and tenancy.  The bank that ultimately won the day offered an extremely attractive combination of pricing, structure, flexibility, and customer service.”

North Rock Plaza’s tenants include Northern Piedmont Federal Credit Union (lower left photo), MBH Settlement Group, Vocelli Pizza, and Nail Designs.

 Spence Hill Associates, a real estate investment banking firm founded in 1993, arranges the financing and sale of commercial real estate, and provides financial advisory services to real estate owners, developers, and institutions throughout the United States.  Spence Hill Associates is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia.


For additional information, please contact:

Michael H. Trauberman
Spence Hill Associates
571-641-3050

Marcus & Millichap Sells Vacant Croydon Arms Apartment Building in Miami Beach, FL for $6.75 Million


 MIAMI BEACH, FL, March 26, 2012 – Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, the nation’s largest real estate investment services firm, has announced the sale of Croydon Arms (top left photo), a 96-unit vacant apartment building in Miami Beach, according to Greg Matus, Vice President/Regional Manager of the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office.

The asset commanded a sales price of $6,750,000 representing $71,809 per unit.

Vice President Investments Felipe J. Echarte (middle right photo) and Senior Associate Joseph P. Thomas (lower left photo) of the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office represented the buyer, a private investor from Miami Beach in the off-market transaction of the Croydon Arms. 

“The sale of Croydon Arms is a good indicator that investors are aggressively looking for well-located properties.  The buyer plans to make extensive renovations to restore the property to a trophy asset,” says Echarte.

Croydon Arms is a 94-unit, seven-story apartment building located on the southwest corner of Collins Avenue and 38th Street in Miami Beach, Florida.

The property is currently a concrete shell and the building has been vacant for a few years. The building was constructed in 1937 as a hotel and most units have ocean views and some have balconies.   It is located at 3720 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach.

Press Contact:
Ashley Steele,  (954) 245-3400

NAI Realvest Negotiates New Lease for Timeshare firm at SouthPark Business Center in Southwest Orlando

  
 ORLANDO, Fla. – NAI Realvest recently negotiated a new office lease agreement for 2,094 square feet at 8600 Commodity Circle, Suite 119 in South Park Business Center in Southwest Orlando.

 Tom R. Kelley II (top right photo), CCIM, principal at NAI Realvest, brokered the transaction representing the landlord Miami-based South Park, LLC.  The tenant, Vacation Innovations LLC is based in Orlando. 

For more information, please contact:

Tom R. Kelley II, CCIM, Principal, NAI Realvest, 407-875-9989, tkelley@realvest.com;

Patrick Mahoney, President, NAI Realvest, 407-875-9989 pmahoney@realvest.com;

Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142 lvershelco@aol.com.      

Is South Florida Commercial Real Estate Making a Comeback?



ATLANTA, GA, March 26, 2012 — February 2012 marked the fewest commercial real estate foreclosures over $250,000 since November, further pulling down the average number on a monthly basis, according to an exclusive report by Off-Market RADAR, the only source for direct contact information to decision-makers on commercial real estate transactions.

Miami-Dade and Broward counties combined for 35 foreclosures in February after posting 67 in January, near a seven-month record. There have been an average of 45 foreclosure filings each month on commercial properties over $250,000 over the past seven months and this average has been drawn up by two significant spikes in August and January. Every other month has been below the average for the time period, some significantly lower.

Off-Market RADAR tracks foreclosures, loan sales, mortgages, deeds, CMBS loans and other transactions in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa Bay. The Atlanta-based firm utilizes information from public records as well as its own, independent research.

Miami-Dade County

Brian McCarthy, (top right photo) Vice President of Off-Market RADAR says, “It seems like there was an onslaught of filings in Miami-Dade County in January which really disrupted a significant downward trend in South Florida.” Prior to January, the most filings in Miami-Dade County were 45 last August. As expected, Miami-Dade has a higher number of filings on average at 27 than Broward County.

McCarthy adds, “The larger difference is that when you look at those 55 commercial foreclosure filings in Miami-Dade in January, only four were over $2 million. Our clients are primarily looking for deals over $2 million and in months like this, it can take a lot of time spent just digging through the data to uncover the four or five deals worth chasing.”

Broward County

Broward County is much more consistent in filing volume, with an average of 18 filings per month over the past seven months.  Nevertheless, with January and November having very low filing counts of 12 and 13 respectively, the trend is towards fewer commercial foreclosures.

Larger Deals


“Most of the filings for properties under $1 million are for owner-occupied properties in non-investment-grade assets which are very hard for all but the most management-intensive investors to tackle,” McCarthy continues. November was clearly the slowest month from September to January, with only two foreclosures over $2 million, but September and October were very active with a dozen in each month.

Most Active Banks


Bayview Loan Servicing was the most active foreclosing lender since August of last year. Bayview went after 22 commercial properties over $250,000, almost double the next most-active filer.

 Bayview primarily buys small-balance commercial loans from banks and other lenders, then attempts to work out those loans with borrowers. US Bank and Wells Fargo, both in second place with 14 filings, have Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) Trustee divisions, which may account for a larger portion of their filings.
 
Tied for third place are Florida Community Bank, SunTrust Bank, and US Century Bank, all with 11 filings over the same time period.

Looking Forward

“There are a lot of maturities on the horizon,” says McCarthy. “We really see lots of investors chomping at the bit to scoop up deals this year before they hit the auction block in 2013 or beyond. Filings will likely start towards the middle or end of this year as borrowers find they are unable to refinance or sell above the debt levels, and opportunistic investors are looking to buy notes or judgments instead of waiting for the foreclosure to play out.

“Now that banks are generally better capitalized, the losses they’ve been ignoring over the past couple years are going to start hitting the books and at that point, there’s not a huge reason for them to wait for the drawn-out foreclosure process to play out,” adds McCarthy.

www.OffMarketRADAR.com

 The goal of Off-Market RADAR is to relentlessly pursue transparency of commercial real estate information to drastically increase the efficiency of the market, drive down transaction costs, and increase transaction probability.

For more information, contact Brian McCarthy at 404.939.7256 or brian@offmkt.com.



Marcus & Millichap Names Kevin W. Boeve Senior Director of National Retail Group in Ontario, CA



ONTARIO, CA – Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, the nation’s largest real estate investment services firm, has named Kevin W. Boeve (top right photo) senior director of the firm’s National Retail Group in Ontario, according to Bill Rose, national director of the National Retail Group.

Boeve joined Marcus & Millichap in June 1999. During his career, he has closed 188 transactions valued at more than $591 million.

Contact: Stacey Corso, Public Relations Manager, (925) 953-1716

Colliers International South Florida Sells Airport West Flex Unit at Miami Airport Center





MIAMI, FL- Colliers International South Florida is pleased to announce the sale of a 1,400-square-foot flex unit located at Miami Airport Center (top left photo) at 7640 NW 25th Street, Miami, FL.

Kristopher Wagner, Senior Commercial Associate, represented the seller, FVP Airport LLC in the all cash transaction. The buyer is a foreign investor from Colombia who purchased the leased unit as an investment. The property sold at a 9.2% cap rate.

For further information, please contact:  

 Crystal Proenza
Vice President of Marketing
Colliers International South Florida
Commercial Real Estate Services
Tel: 305 476 7138

Crossman & Co. Names Amanda Steidtmann senior associate for new Atlanta office


 
ORLANDO, FL and ATLANTA, GA. --- Crossman & Company, the Orlando and Atlanta commercial property firm that ranks as one of the largest retail leasing and management firms in the Southeast, has named Amanda Steidtmann (top right photo) senior associate.

John Zielinski (lower left photo), who heads the Atlanta office of Crossman & Company, said Steidtmann has 10 years of experience as a commercial real estate executive.  She was formerly a regional leasing director for Equity One, Inc. and most recently a partner with DART Retail Advisors -- both in the metro Atlanta area.

Steidtmann attended the College of Charleston and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Affairs, concentration on International Business.

For more information, contact:

John Crossman, CCIM, President, Crossman & Company, 407-581-6218, jcrossman@crossmanco.com;

 Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142, lvershelco@aol.com.

Cantor Fitzgerald Makes Investment in EL Media Company



PHOENIX, AZ,  March 26, 2012.-- EL Media, a division of Phoenix-based Ellman Companies, announced today that Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P., a leading financial services firm, purchased a stake in EL Media and all of its subsidiary media entities (EL Media) for an undisclosed sum.

The transaction follows last year’s venture that EL Media entered with a division of Panasonic Corporation to help further a massive network of digital signage throughout North America.

 EL Media's current outdoor signage business includes operations in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver and San Jose in the United States and its joint venture with Clear Channel Outdoor in Canada with operations in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

EL Media has an exclusive digital venture with Panasonic throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico and a venture with Swift Transportation in Truckside Media for exclusive advertising rights on their 47,000 truck trailers.

 “Today’s announcement involving a renowned Wall Street firm like Cantor Fitzgerald, and last year’s affiliation with Panasonic, provides EL Media with significant capital to grow and establish a global outdoor media network,” said Steve Ellman (top right photo), Founder and CEO of EL Media.

 “We plan to continue to grow our media presence through both acquisitions and organic development,” he said.  EL Media currently has over 2,000 billboards in its portfolio.

Steven Kantor (middle left photo), Global Head of Investment Banking at Cantor Fitzgerald stated, “We were attracted to EL Media’s near debt-free balance sheet, goal to create one of the largest digital networks in North America, its growth opportunities and technological market advantages due to its exclusive venture with Panasonic.”

 Under the terms of the agreement, Ellman will continue to be responsible for all day-to-day operations of EL Media and its subsidiaries.

 Ellman has been involved in the outdoor signage business since the mid-1990s.  Ellman bought Clear Channel Outdoor's majority interest in Clear Channel Branded Cities in October 2010 after being a partner with Clear Channel Outdoor in the U.S. for several years.  Ellman remains a partner with Clear Channel Outdoor throughout Canada.

 EL Media will deploy Panasonic cloud technology to distribute specialized, targeted advertising and information content to digital signs across North America, offering customers the ability to advertise in major city centers seamlessly.

Contact:

David Ebeling
Ebeling Communications
949.861.8351
949.278.7851 (Cell)