Mercantile Capital Corp. closes 24 loans during First Half of 2011 to Finance Projects Valued at More than $69.1 Million

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL. --- Mercantile Capital Corporation, one of the nation’s largest providers of  U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 504 loans for small business owners who want to acquire or develop their own facilities, reported it closed 24 commercial loans from Jan. 1 through June 30 to finance projects valued at a total of more than $69.1 million.

Their largest loan, year to date, was for a healthcare management facility in Houston, Texas, worth more than $8.3 million in total project costs.

Christopher G. Hurn (top right photo), chief executive officer of Mercantile Capital Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Old Florida National Bank, said these loans helped small businesses in nine states create 381 jobs.

Mercantile has now closed loans in 32 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia for over $644.1 million in total project costs since it began eight years ago.

For more information, please contact:

 Geof Longstaff, Chairman, Mercantile Capital Corporation, 407-786-5040 GLongstaff@Mercantilecc.com

Chris Hurn, Chief Executive Officer Mercantile Capital Corporation, ChrisHurn@MercantileCC.com, 407-786-5040

Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications Inc., 407-644-4142

NAI Realvest Negotiates $590,000 Sale of Longwood, FL Industrial Building

MAITLAND, FL – NAI Realvest recently negotiated the $590,000 sale price for a 7,840 square foot industrial building on a 0.75 acre site at 910 Waterway Place in the Big Tree Crossing Industrial Park off C.R. 427 in Longwood. 

 Michael Heidrich (top right photo), a principal at NAI Realvest, who negotiated the sale of the 15-year- old building, represented the landlord Cambay Corporation of Longwood.   The buyer, Metal Essence, Inc. who relocated from Altamonte Springs, was represented by Becky Courson Real Estate Broker. 

 The sale included approximately 1,300 square feet of office space in the building and 15 paved parking spaces. 

For more information, please contact:

Michael Heidrich, Principal, NAI Realvest 407-875-9989 mheidrich@realvest.com

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

Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications Inc., 407-644-4142

Marcus & Millichap Facilitates Sale of Courtyard Apartments in St. Petersburg, FL for $1.175 Million

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, the nation’s largest real estate investment services firm, has announced the sale of Courtyard Apartments (top left photo), a 59-unit multifamily property located in St. Petersburg, Fla., according to Bryn D. Merrey, Regional Manager of the firm’s Tampa office. The asset commanded a sales price of $1,175,000.

Associate Vice President Investments, Michael P. Regan (lower right photo) and Senior Associate, Francesco P. Carriera in Marcus & Millichap’s Tampa office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, a limited liability company from St. Petersburg. 

The buyer, a limited liability company, was secured and represented by Regan, Carriera and Nicholas Meoli, a multifamily specialist.

Courtyard Apartments was built in 1960 and is located at 2400 15th Avenue South.  The property consists of two, two-story concrete block buildings with flat roofs.  They are all two-bedroom, one-bathroom units with 600 rentable square feet.  Property amenities include:  two laundry facilities, a playground and ample parking. 

“This property was listed by another brokerage firm before we acquired the listing. It was a challenging transaction because it was a short sale and the property was only 60 percent occupied. In the end though, we found the right buyer. The buyer appreciated the level of rehab that had been completed and saw tremendous upside in operations and long term appreciation”, said Carriera.

 Press Contact: Bryn D. Merrey, Regional Manager, Tampa, (813) 387-4700

Marcus & Millichap Sells 52,800-SF Self-Storage Facility in Jacksonville, FL for $1.25 Million

JACKSONVILLE, FL – Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, the nation’s largest real estate investment services firm, has announced the sale of Mandarin Mini Storage (top left photo), a 52,800-square foot self-storage facility located in Jacksonville, Fla., according to Bryn D. Merrey, Regional Manager of the firm’s Tampa office. The asset commanded a sales price of $1,250,000.

Michael A. Mele (lower left photo), first vice president investments, and senior director of the National Self-Storage Group in Marcus & Millichap’s Tampa office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, a REIT. The California-based buyer, a limited liability company, was secured and represented by Mele.

Mandarin Mini Storage is located at 10601 San Jose Boulevard. This investment consists of eight one-story buildings which were constructed in 1977.  The facility offers 546 units, 12 of which are parking spaces.  The units range from 50 to 200 square feet.  Amenities include roll-up doors, drive-up units, wide driveways, gated entry and a manager’s office. 

Press Contact: Bryn D. Merrey, Regional Manager, Tampa, (813) 387-4700

HFF closes sale of and arranges financing for two Houston area multi-housing communities

                                                            

HOUSTON, TX – HFF announced that it has closed the sale of and arranged financing for Shadowbrooke (top left photo) and Silverbrooke (middle right photo), multi-housing communities totaling 552 units in Stafford, Texas.

HFF marketed the properties on behalf of the sellers, Shadowbrooke Apts, Ltd. (Shadowbrooke) and Shadowbrooke Partners, L.P. and CTDB Funding Company, a joint venture between Captec Financial Group and Drawbridge Special Opportunities Fund (Silverbrooke).

 Venterra Realty purchased Shadowbrooke and Silverbrooke in two separate transactions, which were facilitated by fixed-rate acquisition loans that HFF secured through PPM Finance, Inc.  Purchase price and loan amounts are confidential.

Shadowbrooke and Silverbooke are located at 1025 Dulles Avenue and 1020 Brand Lane respectively in Stafford, about 18 miles southwest of downtown Houston. 

Shadowbrooke was completed in 2003 and features 240 units that are 95.8 percent leased.  Completed in 2007, Silverbrooke has 312 units and is 96.5 percent occupied.

The HFF investment sales team representing the sellers included senior managing directors Craig LaFollette, Todd Stewart and Todd Marix, director Tre Banks and associate director Chris Curry.  HFF’s debt placement team representing Venterra Realty was led by director Cortney Cole.

Venterra specializes in the identification, finance, acquisition and management of multi-family residential communities in the southern United States.  Venterra currently manages a portfolio of multi-family real estate assets totaling over $600 million in value that generates gross annual income in excess of $80 million.  The organization has completed in excess of $1.3 billion of real estate transactions.  Venterra has offices in both Houston and Toronto and employs over 350 people.

Contacts:                     

 Todd Stewart, HFF Senior Managing Director, (713) 852-3500 tstewart@hfflp.com                                                                                     

Cortney Cole, HFF Director, (713) 852-3500, ccole@hfflp.com                                                             

Kristen Murphy, HFF Associate Director, Marketing, (713) 852-3500,

krmurphy@hfflp.com

Debt placement team joins HFF Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – HFF announced that the team of Walter Coker and Brian Crivella has joined the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.  The two producers will be a part of HFF’s debt placement group and will focus on debt and equity transactions in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

Mr. Coker and Mr. Crivella were previously co-heads of Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman’s Washington, D.C. debt and equity platform and have arranged more than $6.5 billion of debt and equity transactions in their combined tenures there.  Recent financing assignments include work on behalf of Clark Enterprises, Comstock, The JBG Companies, Archstone and Shooshan Companies. 

Mr. Coker, who joins HFF as a managing director, has more than 12 years of commercial real estate finance experience.  Prior to C&W, he worked as a senior analyst at Spaulding & Slye and prior to that, as an analyst at Walker & Dunlop.  Mr. Coker has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington and Lee University and is a licensed real estate salesperson in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Mr. Crivella joins HFF as a director and has more than six years of commercial real estate finance experience.  While completing his degree at the University of Richmond, he interned at Legg Mason Private Client Group and Matrix Capital Markets Group.  He also worked as a financial analyst at Jones Lang LaSalle prior to joining C&W.  Mr. Crivella is a licensed real estate salesperson in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

“With the addition of respected brokers such as Walter and Brian, plus their former colleague Susan Carras who joined the firm in May, HFF’s debt placement team is well positioned to serve our client’s growing needs in this ever changing capital markets environment both locally and nationally,” said Steven Conley (top  right photo), executive managing director of HFF’s Washington, D.C. office.

Contacts:                     

Stephen Conley, HFF Executive Managing Director, (202) 533-2500 sconley@hfflp.com                                   

Susan Carras, HFF Senior Managing Director, (202) 533-2500 scarras@hfflp.com                                                               

Kristen Murphy, HFF Associate Director, Marketing, (713) 852-3500,

krmurphy@hfflp.com

HFF closes sale of Corporate Ridge in Dallas, TX

DALLAS, TX – HFF announced that it has closed the sale of Corporate Ridge (top left photo), a four-building, 478,000-square-foot industrial portfolio located just north of the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas, Texas. 

HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller, Champion.  Colony Realty Partners purchased Corporate Ridge for an undisclosed amount. 

Completed in 2007, Corporate Ridge is comprised of two warehouse buildings totaling 394,500 square feet and two industrial / flex buildings totaling 83,500 square feet.  Corporate Ridge is located at 1200 Lakeside Parkway within Lakeside Business Park close to State Highways 121 and 114.

  

 The HFF team representing the seller included senior managing director Randy Baird (middle right photo), managing director Jud Clements and associate director Robby Rieke.

Champion is a privately-owned firm employing a disciplined value-creation focus across a wide spectrum of commercial real estate investment opportunities, primarily in Texas within the office, industrial, and commercial land sectors.

Colony Realty Partners  is a privately held real estate investment company that acquires and manages commercial real estate properties on behalf of many of the world’s leading institutional investors, including pension funds, public corporations, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and high net worth individuals.

Contacts:                     

Randy Baird, HFF Senior Managing Director, (214) 265-0880,  rbaird@hfflp.com 

Jud Clements, HFF Managing Director, (214) 265-0880, jclements@hfflp.com                   

 Kristen Murphy, HFF Associate Director, Marketing, (713) 852-3500,

krmurphy@hfflp.com

Office NetAbsorption Increases 40% from Q1 to Q2

ATLANTA, GA– The office market made a strong showing in the second quarter, renewing hopes for a solid recovery.

 The “Commercial Real Estate Show” this week provided an update on the U.S. office market with the latest statistics from CoStar andinsights from our panel of industry experts. We also got an inside look at how the federal government is trying to reduce its real estate portfolio.

 After a rough start to 2011, the office market rebounded in the second quarter.

 “The second quarter had a strong uptick,” said Chris Macke (top right photo), senior real estate strategist at CoStar Group Inc. “Net absorption increased about 40 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter.”

 The vacancy level nationally held steady at 12.6 percent, according to CoStar. There continues to be strong interest from investors in office properties and a rise in sales. Most signs — except for declining rental rates — point to a healthy recovery.

 But there’s one major caveat: Supply must continue to be restrained.

 Both office and retail construction are at 40-year lows, which is enabling the market to recover without tremendous demand, Macke explained.

 “It’s really critical that that dynamic stays in place,” he said.

It’s even more important in some markets than others. Cities like Washington, D.C. and San Francisco are thriving, while Phoenix and LasVegas are still trying to regain ground.

 “The office fundamentals remain choppy from market to market,” said Casey Keitchen (middle left photo), vice president of the National Office Group of Bull Realty, Inc. “In Atlanta, the vacancy rate has actually increased over the previous quarter so we are seeing some more challenging times ahead.”

 In markets that are still in recovery mode, landlords work overtime to attract tenants and keep them happy with perks like generous tenant improvement packages and one month’s free rent per year.

The show aired Saturday on Biz 1190 in Atlanta and is available for download here. Other guests included Robert Peck (lower right photo), Commissioner of Public Buildings at the U.S. General Services Administration and Court Thomas, partner at Atlanta Property Group.

 The next “Commercial Real Estate Show” will air July 16 and offers an inside look at the national multi-family sector. Tune in to get the latest details on this very important market, including rental rates and occupancy levels.

 Contact:

Christin Clay

Wilbert News Strategies

1720 Peachtree St, Suite 1040

Atlanta, GA 30309

p 404-965-5025 | m 404-405-2354

cclay@wilbertnewsstrategies.com

or  Tony Wilbert,404.965.5022

twilbert@wilbertnewsstrategies.com

Twitter: @christinclay10

www.CREshow.com