Lancaster PA Commercial Real Estate

• 12Oct

  Lancaster, PA positioned to attract businesses

  Investment, Universal No Comments

  CPBJ Reports:  Lancaster is well-equipped to bring businesses and professionals to the area, city business leaders said today.

  The city’s proximity to other urban centers and ease of getting to places like Philadelphia and New York via train or major highways is a big reason why many businesses and professional move to Lancaster, said Hunter Johnson, a principle at Lancaster-based Tono Architects. Johnson was a panelist at this morning’s Lancaster City/Township consortium meeting hosted by the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Brickyard Sports Inc.
  
  Lancaster’s metropolitan atmosphere also is a draw, Johnson said, citing restaurants, banks, businesses and the post office all within walking distance of each other.
  
  “It’s urban, but small enough that you know a lot of people, know the community and feel like you’re all working toward something,” said Sarah Lanphier, owner of Nuts About Granola LLC, who recently moved to Lancaster from York County to expand her business.
  
  The physical infrastructure of Lancaster is different than in surrounding cities, Johnson said. The many historic buildings still intact and recent improvements to sidewalks, paved streets and utilities make the city stand out in comparison, he said.
  
  Homeowners who take pride in and care for their properties also lend to the city’s attractive nature, Lanphier said.
  
  “There’s an intangible vibe in the city, a chemistry and culture happening downtown and people want to be a part of it,” Johnson said.
  
  It was good to hear that the city’s efforts — such as infrastructure improvements to attract people and businesses — are working, Mayor Rick Gray said.
  
  Suggestions for further city improvements included encouraging projects within the city to use local service companies and installing more bicycle racks.
  
  “It’s an easy sell — people drive around the city and want to stay,” said Matthew Addy, CEO of Lancaster-based Edward J. & Co., the parent company of LaPorte Jewelers.

  via Leaders: Lancaster positioned to attract businesses Central Penn Business Journal.

  
• 03Oct

  Loft trends in urban housing

  Investment, Multifamily No Comments

  
  

  The soaring ceilings, exposed brick and open beams in Lancaster’s new Liberty North building are trademarks of loft-style apartments appearing throughout the midstate.

  

  Lancaster-based Drogaris Cos. developed the Swisher building, a $7.9 million renovation at 425 N. Prince St., Lancaster, with 24 upscale apartments completed in 2009. The facility formerly was the Bloch Bros. tobacco warehouse. Photo/Submitted

  Liberty North, being developed by Lancaster-based Drogaris Cos., is the latest rejuvenation of an old warehouse or factory into loft apartments. The $9 million project renovated 66,000 square feet at 1060 N. Charlotte St. in Lancaster. The building has 21 apartments with 14 more slated to be built, President Ed Drogaris said. Average rent is between $900 and $1,800, he said.
  
  The apartments already are filling with tenants, he said.
  
  The market for loft apartments is huge, said Bill Swartz III, president of York-based Sherman Property Management Inc., developer of loft apartment building Codo 241 in downtown York. “We haven’t even begun to fill that demand,” he said.
  
  The company undertook the $12 million Codo 241 project after conducting a market study and focus groups that confirmed the demand, he said. Codo 241 opened in 2009 with 69,500 square feet of loft apartments and commercial space in the former York Auto Parts building at 241 N. George St. The living units filled faster than expected, Swartz said.

  Full article:  Trendy loft dwellings lift downtown economies

  
• 30Sep

  New senior housing planned for Palmyra, PA – PHFA to fund

  Investment, Multifamily 2 Comments

  CPBJ Reports:  The Lebanon County Housing Authority plans to turn a former shoe factory in Palmyra into 40 subsidized senior housing units contingent on the state giving it $8 million in tax credits.

  The $10 million adaptive reuse project would turn the 65,000-square-foot building at 101 N. Harrison St. into 36 one-bedroom apartments and four two-bedroom units, said Bryan Hoffman, the housing authority‘s executive director.
  
  The building is occupied by printing equipment manufacturer Aradiant, which wants to sell it and move to a smaller space, Hoffman said. The structure was built in 1973 as a shoe factory, he said.
  
  The senior housing plan is a way to be proactive with the building and avoid the property becoming blighted, Hoffman said. There is no market for manufacturing sites such as this one in towns anymore, he said.
  
  The authority has agreed to purchase the property for about $900,000 if the tax credits come through from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, Hoffman said. If developers get the green light, the apartment complex could be ready for tenants by fall 2013, he said.
  
  The application process is competitive and there is no guarantee the project will receive the needed $8 million in credits this spring, Hoffman said. As a nonprofit, the authority cannot directly benefit from the tax credits and would sell them to investors to raise the money needed to subsidize the project, he said.
  
  The authority has retained South Anneville Township-based Kaylor Architects Inc. for the design work and South Lebanon Township-based Arthur Funk & Sons Inc. as builder, Hoffman said.

  Competitive dimension – Central Penn Business Journal.

  
• 29Sep

  Philly trophy bldg trades for $143.5M

  Investment, Office No Comments

   

  CoStar reports: David Werner Real Estate has purchased 1700 Market Street in Philadelphia, PA for $143.5 million, or about $171 per square foot, from Pearlmark Real Estate Partners.

  The 32-story, 841,172-square-foot, class A office building is located in Center City’s Market Street West submarket, on the corner of Market and 17th Streets. It was built in 1968 and renovated in 1989. The property is 83 percent occupied by tenants including AECOM, Deloitte, and Independence Blue Cross. Attached to the building is a five-story parking garage with 761 parking spaces.

  The seller sold the property with the closing of a fund, this being the final property remaining in that fund. The existing mortgage had also come due.

  David Werner RE Completes $143.5M Acquisition of 1700 Market St – CoStar Group.

  
• 11Jul

  Lancaster’s Red Rose Commons shopping center refinanced

  Investment, Retail No Comments

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  CPBJ reports:

  The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust has refinanced its mortgage on the Red Rose Commons shopping center in Manheim Township near Lancaster.

  PREIT owns a 50 percent interest in Red Rose Commons and The Court at Oxford Valley in Langhorne. PREIT and its partner refinanced the mortgages on both properties with 10-year nonrecourse loans with an average fixed interest rate of 5.42 percent, PREIT said in a statement Monday.
  
  The loans totaled $90 million. PREIT and its partners used a portion to pay off previous mortgages totaling $56 million, with an average interest rate of 7.16 percent.
  
  PREIT also modified the credit facility it obtained in 2010, extending it by one year and reducing the interest rate by 0.9 percent. PREIT increased the revolving portion of the facility by $100 million to $250 million and reduced the term loan portion by $100 million to $240 million.
  
  Red Rose Commons is the third largest shopping center in Lancaster County. Shares of Philadelphia-based PREIT trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PEI.

  from Central Penn Business Journal.

  
• 22Jun

  Move over DCR, meet your bank’s new ratio: DYR

  Investment, Multifamily, Net Lease No Comments

  Executive Summary:  Banks have added a new ratio when deciding how to size your investment property loan – the Debt Yield Ratio.

  I’ll make this super  easy – think of it as the loan cap rate and you can’t go wrong.

  For review, the traditional cap rate derived market value is calculated by dividing the Net Operating Income by the Cap Rate:

  • Market Value  = NOI / Cap Rate

  The DYR is calculated by dividing the NOI by the Debt Principle:

  • DYR = NOI / Debt

  In practice, your bank loan officer will apply a pre defined DYR obtained by underwriting policy for the type of property and market.  They then will divide the NOI by the DYR to obtain the maximum loan size for your project

  • Debt = NOI / DYR

  For additional reading and some numerical examples, visit:

  Making Sense of Debt Yield Ratios.

  
• 06Jun

  General Growth Forming New REIT

  Investment, Net Lease, Retail No Comments

  NREI reports:  Chicago-based General Growth Properties (GGP), once considered one of the dominant owners of regional malls in the country, is now aiming to form a new real estate investment trust (REIT) with 35 properties it owns, according to a new report from Reuters. Such a move would trim GGP’s holdings exclusively to regional malls.

  The report, citing two unnamed sources, notes that the new REIT would include neighborhood strip shopping centers, office properties and weaker regional malls that the company had planned to sell or return to lenders, the sources said.

  Report: General Growth Forming New REIT.

  
• 25May

  Partial Morgan Stanley Buy Puts $1.25B Value King of Prussia Mall

  Investment, Retail No Comments
  CoStar reports: Lend Lease Group agreed to sell its interest in the King of Prussia Shopping Mall to the Morgan Stanley Prime Property Fund at a gross valuation of $1.25 billion.

  Lend Lease has a 50% interest in the asset and will receive net proceeds of about $545 million after taking into account the asset level debt. The value of Lend Lease’s 50% interest in King of Prussia just a year ago was $348.5 million, according to company valuations.

  Lend Lease expects to book a profit of about $100 million on the sale, net of tax and other costs.

  Lend Lease will use the proceeds to fund its investment pipeline in the U.S. and to repay debt, the company said.

  The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, which is expected to occur in August 2011.

  At 2.39 million square feet, King of Prussia Mall is the largest enclosed retail shopping mall on the East Coast with eight department stores, 350 specialty shops and 35 restaurants. It is in northwest of Philadelphia.

  Lend Lease acquired its interest in 1996. The joint owner is Kingmak Associates, a group of former and present Kravco Co. executives.

  Partial Morgan Stanley Buy Puts $1.25B Value on Largest Mall on the East Coast – CoStar Group.

  
• 11Apr

  REITs predict even more growth for health care real estate

  Investment, Office No Comments

  Cafaro predicts even more growth for health care real estate.  The nation’s demographics and coming changes to its health care delivery system bode well for health care real estate, Ventas CEO Debra A. Cafaro said in comments at the 16th Annual REIT Symposium sponsored by NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate.  She cited medical offices and outpatient facilities in illustrating her point. “Because they are need-based, healthcare and senior housing assets performed the best of any real estate asset class during the recession,” she added.

  via Cafaro predicts even more growth for health care real estate – Related Stories – Real Estate Investment SmartBrief.

  
• 03Mar

  Mortgage REITs attract an influx of capital – Related Stories

  Investment No Comments

  Mortgage REIT investment flows are at five-year highs, with Annaly Capital Management and American Capital Agency among the leaders. The two have raised almost $6 billion in the past three months. Will it continue? “The Fed is the key,” said Walt Schmidt, a mortgage strategist at FTN Financial. “The game is only really up regarding REIT and bank purchases if the Fed has to tighten” liquidity, he said.

  via Mortgage REITs attract an influx of capital – Related Stories – Real Estate Investment SmartBrief.

  

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