Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Real Estate Industry Hit Hard in 2020; Health Concerns Drive the Economy

John Oharenko
 

Chicago, IL, Jan. 5, 2021 – Real Estate Capital Institue reports the year 2020 closed as one of the most tumultuous in modern history, with health concerns driving the economy.  

Few could have predicted the unforeseen financial and social impacts on the real estate industry, in particular. 

Office Space Suffering

·        Space needs almost instantly shifted with traditional lodging, office, and retail usage quickly vaporizing.  

·        Meanwhile, industrial and multifamily assets continued to thrive.  

·        And realty capital markets forcefully responded backed by flexible fed policy, as historically low-interest rates prevailed.

 What lies ahead for realty capital markets this year?  The supply of capital remains at peak levels.  So investors need to turn to the demand side, seeking income-property aligned to pandemic economics.  

More than ever, properties must offer competitive health and safety standards while providing relevance of usage.  Investors focus on "essential" types of assets, such as personal living space (e.g., apartments). 

 Investors gravitate to those property types linked to personal attention, mainly properties offering direct distribution of goods and services to the consumer.   As such, this year's investors bypass social-gathering facilities such as shopping centers, entertainment, and office buildings.  

 Investors Bypass Shopping Centers 

·        As investor demand shifts, yields remain highly competitive, fueled by favorable borrowing rates and the lack of desirable assets.

·        Fewer opportunities exist in the financial engineering of deals, unlike in the past decade. 

·        Instead, the best routes to profitability focus on repurposing existing brick-and-mortar and creating new developments tuned to the pandemic's new realities.

 The Real Estate Capital Institute's Director, John Oharenko, predicts, "Today's 'distressed' deals will be tomorrow's opportunities, as investors learn how to reposition retail, office and lodging assets to function within ever-changing health-safety space needs."

 The Real Estate Capital Institute® is a volunteer-based research organization that tracks realty rates data for debt and equity yields.  The Institute posts daily and historical benchmark rates, including treasuries, bank prime, and LIBOR.  

 CONTACT:

John Oharenko, Executive Director

director@reci.com / www.reci.com

The   Real Estate Capital Institute®

Chicago, Illinois USA 60622

McHugh Construction Completes Four Seasons Hotel Chicago Renovation

Kate Ivanova
                                                                                            

CHICAGO, IL, Jan. 5, 2021  – James McHugh Construction Co., one of the country’s largest commercial contractors with a concentration in high-end hospitality, announces it has completed the multimillion-dollar renovation of Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, located on floors 30-46 of the 900 North Michigan skyscraper.

 

The project, which marks the hotel’s largest renovation since its opening in 1989, ushers in a contemporary design for the luxury hotel’s public spaces as well as its 347 suites.

 

“We have completed nearly every high-end hotel renovation project in the city of Chicago, so we were eager to dive in and apply our experience to the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago,” said Kate Ivanova, vice president of McHugh Construction.

 

“Executing luxury renovation on a tight schedule requires a certain vernacular and meticulous execution of work that we’ve mastered. It’s why we’re so proud of our hospitality teams and why we acutely vet each subcontractor and supplier to ensure only the finest craftsmen and curators are on a project like this.”


Chef Jonathon Sawyer

Beginning in November 2019, McHugh started renovating the nearly 55,000 square feet of public space at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago in phases so the hotel could remain open throughout the process.

 

Designed by international architecture and design firm Rottet Studio, the newly renovated hotel features a lighter interior color palette and an open floor plan throughout the lobby that invites guests to linger and enjoy live entertainment.

 

As part of the hotel’s lobby renovation, an expansive social lounge was created using various seating configurations to accommodate a wide audience – from intimate guest gatherings to follow social distancing practices to those more suitable for larger groups in the future. 


 Four Seasons Hotel Lobby

 

Other spaces that underwent a major transformation at the hotel included the Grand Ballroom on the seventh and eighth floors and all smaller event spaces and boardrooms on the seventh floor.

 

 In addition, McHugh renovated the hotel’s one- and two-bedroom suites; its two- and three-bedroom apartment units; and the presidential suite, a 2,700-square-foot luxury suite occupying the corner of the 46th floor.

 

The hotel’s former restaurant space was gut-rehabbed for the new signature Adorn Bar & Restaurant, Chicago’s first restaurant in partnership with James Beard award-winning chef Jonathon Sawyer. In the restaurant’s bar, nearly 1,000 pieces of glass were installed to create a show-stopping chandelier.

 

For some of the hotel’s most intricate and distinct renovation details, McHugh worked with Chicago-based commercial stone subcontractor GI Stone, who sourced, fabricated and installed nearly 20,000 square feet of stone, with approximately 8,000 square feet dedicated to the lobby and restaurant floor.



 Four Seasons Hotel Bar
 

GI Stone was also responsible for restoring parts of the hotel’s original stonework. Several types of stones were hand selected and installed, including polished marble from Spain, Italy, Pakistan, Turkey; quartzite from Brazil; and travertine from Turkey.

 

High-touch areas, such as the restaurant bar, were made with engineered quartz from Israel and the U.S.

 

“The complexity of the project, which included carved portals and stone slab installation, required highly skilled craftsmen,” said Sandya Dandamudi, president of Chicago-based GI Stone.

 

“The reception desks had to be elaborately bookmatched, a process where multiple slabs are ‘opened up’ and polished on surfaces facing each other to create a mirror image. And to match the original stone of the hotel’s grand staircase, we traveled to a quarry in Italy to find the perfect slab.”


Four Seasons Hotel Social Lounge

The entire project required extensive demolition and restructuring of space, including raising ceiling heights in some areas as well as floor reconstruction.

 

According to McHugh, one challenge of the project included redesigning the bar area to ensure that the plumbing would not interfere with the jumbotron televisions on the ceiling of the shopping center below the Four Seasons.


 Sandya Dandamudi

 

“The Four Seasons is the epitome of luxury, so it was an honor to deliver a fresh new aesthetic for this iconic hotel’s 30-year anniversary,” said Kevin Maguire, McHugh’s senior project manager on the job. “Everyone on the project knew how special it was and scrutinized every detail to ensure hotel guests would be in awe from the moment they stepped into the stunning lobby.”

 

Renovations were completed in early October 2020. Located at 120 E. Delaware St., the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago is just steps from the Magnificent Mile with sweeping views of Lake Michigan and the city.

 

In addition to the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, McHugh Construction’s hospitality division has completed the renovations of some of the city’s most luxurious hotels, including The Peninsula Chicago, Waldorf Astoria Chicago, Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile, Hyatt Regency, and The Ritz-Carlton Chicago, on which GI Stone served as stone subcontractor.

 

CONTACTS:

 Paula Widholm, pwidholm@taylorjohnson.com

 (312) 267-4520

 

Kim Manning, kmanning@taylorjohnson.com

 (312) 267-4527

Steeplechase and Park Forest Apartments in Greensboro, NC sold for total $74 million

 

Andrea Howard

CHARLOTTE, NC, Jan. 5, 2021 – JLL Capital Markets announced today that it has closed the $56.2 million sale of the Steeplechase Apartments and $17.8 million sale of the Park Forest Apartments, both located in Greensboro, North Carolina.

 JLL worked on behalf of the seller, Hudson Capital Properties, to complete the sales to two separate buyers. Steeplechase Apartments sold to Florida-based Advenir, and Park Forest to New Jersey-based Eminent Capital.

 John Currin

Steeplechase Apartments, located at 1338 Adams Farm Pkwy, consists of 420 one-, two- and three-bedroom units, totaling 451,080 rentable square feet.

Units feature in-home fireplaces and vaulted ceilings, with select units including a screened-in patio or porch, in-unit washer and dryer and a stainless-steel appliance package.

Community amenities include outdoor barbecue grills, fitness center, laundry room, resort-style pool, playground and a tennis court.

 Park Forest Apartments, located at 3214 Brassfield Rd., totals 135,749 rentable square feet and consists of 151 one- and two-bedroom units.

The boutique garden community features a resort-style swimming pool with a sundeck, two grilling areas, picnic pavilions, a business center, 24-hour fitness center and a lounge with complimentary coffee bar.

Jeff Glenn


 Greensboro is part of the Piedmont Triad, one of the largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) in North Carolina with a population of over 1.6 million, which includes Greensboro-Winston/Salem-High Point.

 The Piedmont Triad has a deep history in being a national leader in textiles, furniture, aviation, logistics, laboratory sciences and medicine; with recent economic growth in the manufacturing, grocery and distribution.

 Continuously growing in population due to being a highly-amenitized and affordable city, there is currently 850,000 square feet of construction proposed downtown.

 The JLL Capital Markets team representing the seller was led by Andrea Howard, John Currin, Jeff Glenn, Allan Lynch and Caylor Mark.

 Howard said, “Having sold both assets to the Hudson Capital team in 2015, it was exciting to see their stewardship of Steeplechase and Park Forest culminate in a tremendously successful sales process. Hudson perfectly positioned the value-add properties to capitalize on an increasingly competitive Greensboro sales environment.”

Allan Lynch 

Currin added, “With muted future supply and continued population and job growth in the Triad, both Advenir and Eminent Capital will enjoy outsized returns for years to come.”

 JLL Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers.

The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment sales advisory, debt placement, equity placement or a recapitalization.

The firm has more than 3,700 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

 For more news, videos and research resources on JLL, please visit our newsroom.

 About JLL

JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. 

Caylor Mark

JLL shapes the future of real estate for a better world by using the most advanced technology to create rewarding opportunities, amazing spaces and sustainable real estate solutions for our clients, our people and our communities. 

JLL is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of $18.0 billion, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of over 92,000 as of September 30, 2020. 

JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated.

 About Hudson Capital Properties

Founded in 2009, Hudson Capital Properties (HCP) is a multifamily real estate investment and development company. 

James S. Cohen
Through its affiliated companies, HCP develops, acquires, owns, and operates a portfolio of multifamily properties in the Southeastern United States that currently comprises over 6,500 units, and has close to 400 units under development in the Carolinas. 

Led by James S. Cohen and Robert B. Cohen II, the HCP team has developed a track record of value creation through diligent processes and a hands-on asset management approach. 

With in-house expertise in development, construction, asset management and finance, HCP has proven its ability to source opportunities, close transactions quickly and efficiently manage and perform large scale improvements on its properties.


 
 CONTACT:

Robert B. Cohen
 Natalie Passarelli

Public Relations

Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc.

200 E. Randolph St.
Chicago, IL 60601

M +1 224 477 7307

natalie.passarelli@am.jll.com

 us.jll.com/investorservices

 


Ware Malcomb announces completion of One Paseo in San Diego, CA

 


Tiffany English

SAN DIEGO, CA, Jan. 5, 2021 – Ware Malcomb, an award-winning international design firm, today announced that construction is complete on One Paseo located on the southwest corner of Del Mar Heights Road and El Camino Real in San Diego.

 Ware Malcomb provided master planning and architectural design services for the retail project component. 

 Located in the Del Mar Heights community of San Diego, One Paseo is a mixed-use master-planned project incorporating office, residential and retail space.

  In addition to providing master planning services for the project, Ware Malcomb designed the 12 single-story restaurant and high-end retail buildings totaling approximately 96,000 square feet located within the new development.


 Ware Malcomb also designed a three-level parking structure accommodating 548 parking stalls with a top level shade structure.

One Paseo in Del Mar Heights previously won Best Real Estate Deal in the New Retail category for the San Diego Business Journal’s 2018 Best Real Estate Deals. 

“We are proud to be part of this dynamic, mixed-use project in Del Mar Heights. One Paseo is already a sought-after destination within the vibrant San Diego market,” said Tiffany English, Principal of Ware Malcomb’s San Diego offices.

  “Every aspect of this project was thoughtfully designed to create a walkable community that incorporates the best aspects of living, working and playing at One Paseo.” 

 The developer for the project was Kilroy Realty and the general contractor was Bycor Construction.

 CONTACTS:

 Rachel Devany

VP Public Relations, KCOMM for Ware Malcomb

Rachel@kcomm.com 

 Maria Rodgers, Public Relations Manager, 949.660.9128, mrodgers@waremalcomb.com 

 Maureen Bissonnette, Associate Principal, Marketing, 949.660.9128, mbissonnette@waremalcomb.com 

 waremalcomb.com

onepaseo.com)

http://www.waremalcomb.com/news and view Ware Malcomb’s Brand Video at youtube.com/waremalcomb

Ware Malcomb San Diego

3911 Sorrento Valley Blvd, Suite 120
San Diego, CA 92121
858.638.7277

Ware Malcomb Downtown San Diego
402 West Broadway, Suite 1560
San Diego, CA 92101
619.564.5138