Inaugural Japan-South Florida Business Forum Presents Leaders in Innovation and Collaboration in Miami, FL on July 31

Ken Okaniwa

MIAMI, FL – The Consulate-General of Japan in Miami in cooperation with PortMiami present the Japan-South Florida Business Forum on Tuesday, July 31 from 5 to 7 p.m. at PortMiami Terminal E, located at 1265 N. Cruise Blvd.

Brad Larsen

Following a host welcome by PortMiami and opening remarks by Consul General of Japan for Florida Ken Okaniwa, the forum will feature presentations by top executives from five leading Japanese technology and engineering companies that are the result of direct foreign investment in the United States.

Presenters include:

·         Hitachi Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development Yushi Akiyama, who will talk about smart spaces and digital railway transit solutions;

·         Senior Director for North American Business Development Brad Larsen of Mitsubishi Electric, which is manufacturing and installing elevators, linear escalators and two spiral escalators at the Tampa Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino;

·        

Shin Gomi

 Vice President and General Manager Darin Friedmann of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which manufactured the SkyConnect Automated People Mover system at Miami International Airport;

·         Vice President of Marketing Shin Gomi of Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas, which operates from its global headquarters in Orlando;

·         and President & C.E.O Masahiro Ikeno from NEC Corporation of America, which has supplied U.S Homeland Security and theme parks with cutting-edge facial recognition technology.  

“With investments exceeding $411 billion, Japan is the second largest foreign direct investor in the U.S. economy and contributes to more than 840,000 jobs,” Okaniwa said.

Masahiro Ikeno

“This forum is an opportunity to establish contacts for future collaboration, which has the potential to spark industry growth and expansion, create new jobs, and benefit the local, regional and national economies.”

To attend, RSVP at https://goo.gl/SxKpo8.

For more information, please contact

Miwako Patton at culture@mi.mofa.go.jp or

Hector Franco at webmaster@mi.mofa.go.jp and

www.miami.us.emb-japan.go.jp/itprtop_en/index.html.   

OR

Lexi Robinson

(954) 776-1999, ext. 255

lrobinson@piersongrant.com

Phoenix, AZ office market reaches over 2.7 million square feet under construction

Brett Abramson

PHOENIX, AZ – The more than 2.7 million square feet of office space now under construction in metro Phoenix is the most seen since 2015. But, according to the Q2 2018 Phoenix Office Insight report from the Phoenix office of JLL, it still may not be enough to meet an estimated 4.6 million square feet of demand that is in play by companies ranging from business and financial services to high-tech and healthcare.

“The healthy mix of industries active in Phoenix is a good sign for the market’s continued success,” said JLL Senior Vice President Brett Abramson. “Gone are the days where there are hubs of certain industries all locating in one submarket. What we’re seeing now is simply a heavy dose of demand, coming from varied industry interest in most submarkets.”

According to JLL, nearly 100 companies are now in the market – looking for 20,000 square feet or greater of Phoenix office product. 

Of those, 24 percent are business services companies, 21 percent are healthcare, 14 percent are high-tech and 10 percent are financial services.

Together, they represent 4.6 million square feet of demand. This is above and beyond the 2.7 million square feet of office space that is currently under construction – which itself is already 30 percent pre-leased.

If there is one geographical leader on the construction front, Abramson says it would be the Southeast Valley, which represents 77 percent of active office construction – 36 percent in Chandler, 29 percent in Tempe and 12 percent in South Tempe.

“An even better sign for Phoenix than the construction is the increase in our average size requirements,” said Abramson, noting that larger and larger companies are looking to relocate and expand in the Valley. “We have grown from an average requirement of 5,000 square feet to average requirements in the 10,000 to 20,000 square foot range in the core submarkets.”

According to JLL’s Q2 report, vacancy is still hovering near record lows and rents have increased 6 percent year to date.

To access JLL’s Q2 Phoenix Office Insight report or other local and national JLL research reports, visit the JLL Phoenix research page at www.jll.com/phoenix/en-us/research.

For more information, please contact:

Stacey Hershauer

focusAZ

Marketing & Public Relations

(480) 600-0195

www.focusaz.com

HFF announces financing for development of mixed-use project in Houston, TX

Rendering of planned Megacenter Willowbrook,
Northwest Houston, TX

HOUSTON, TX –– Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF) announces financing for the redevelopment of a former Walmart Supercenter building into Megacenter Willowbrook, a 235,627-square-foot mixed-use project comprising industrial flex, self storage, retail and office space in northwest Houston, Texas

The HFF team worked on behalf of the borrower, Megacenter Willowbrook LLC, to place the three-year, floating-rate loan with Icon Bank.  Loan proceeds will be used to fund construction and the conversion of the property into Megacenter’s fifth redevelopment project in the U.S.

Michael Johnson

Megacenter Willowbrook will be constructed in three phases, with phase one including the 113,940-square-foot gym and 47,319 square feet of flex space in addition to a 6,810-square-foot auto center; phase two consisting of 30,754 square feet of self storage space and 15,101 square feet of office space; and phase three adding 18,439 square feet of self storage space and 10,165 square feet of office space. 

 The project, which broke ground earlier this year, has an expected final completion date of November 2019.  

Situated on 24 acres at 7075 FM 1960 about 23 miles northwest of downtown Houston, the property is across the street from Willowbrook Mall, a 1.45 million-square-foot regional mall with more than 19 million annual shoppers, an in an affluent area of Houston with 103,630 residents earning an average household income of $89,102 within a three-mile radius.

Stuart Hepler

The HFF debt placement team representing the borrower included director Michael Johnson and real estate analyst Stuart Hepler.

 “The Megacenter partners have proven to be market leaders in the adaptive reuse space and are poised for great success at Megacenter Willowbrook with an innovative mixed-use strategy that plays to the strong demographics in the area and creatively reconfigures the existing Walmart structure into a diverse and resilient income stream,” Johnson said.

For more information, please contact:

KIMBERLY STEELE

HFF Digital Content/Public Relations Specialist

(713) 852-3420

ksteele@hfflp.com

http://www.megacenterus.com/  or follow MegaCenter U.S. on Facebookor Twitter @megacenterus.

Hold-Thyssen Negotiates $1.12 Million+ Cash Sale of Fully-Occupied Building at Trinity Professional Center in Clearwater, FL

Carol L. Kinnard

Trinity, FL --- Hold-Thyssen, LLC, a full service commercial real estate firm based in Winter Park, with offices in Clearwater, recently negotiated the $1,125,000. all cash sale of Trinity Professional Center Building 7 located at 8827-8833 Hawbuck St. in Trinity.

Carol L. Kinnard, Transaction Specialist for Hold-Thyssen, negotiated the sale representing the seller, KD Trinity, LLC.   The 7,240 square foot building composed of four units was fully occupied by three tenants with long term leases at the time of the sale.  The investment property was offered at CAP rate of 8.9 percent.

Private investor Carl Musial of North Reddington Beach, Fla. purchased the property to complete a section 1031 tax deferred exchange.    Buyer was represented in the transaction by La Rosa Realty.   

Hold-Thyssen based in Winter Park with offices in Clearwater, provides commercial property brokerage and leasing and management services to institutional and private investor clients nationwide.  The 40-year old firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 commercial properties throughout the United States.

For more information, please contact:

  

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