Chiquita lease will give big boost to Charlotte’s office market

December 2, 2011

Charlotte Business Journal
December 2, 2011

Trinity Capital Advisors and Rubenstein Partners are the big winners in the Chiquita Brands International relocation. But the banana company’s decision to move its corporate headquarters here is a positive sign even for those landlords who didn’t land the new tenant.

At a press conference this week announcing its relocation from Cincinnati, Chiquita confirmed it is negotiating to relocate its headquarters to NASCAR Plaza, the 19-story, 390,000-square-foot office tower at the corner of South Caldwell and East Stonewall streets. Trinity and Rubenstein purchased the building early in 2011, after it had fallen into foreclosure in late 2010. Chiquita is expected to lease 150,000 square feet at NASCAR Plaza, which lists 255,800 square feet as available.

Andrew Jenkins, managing director at Karnes Research Co., says Chiquita’s move will likely lower the uptown office vacancy rate by almost a full percentage point to 12%.

And Chiquita is a nice fit for NASCAR Plaza, he says. “You don’t really see a law firm opening up at NASCAR Plaza, whereas Chiquita is used to that type of marketing. And there’s no telling if there’s some kind of supplier-vendor network that they might bring down with them that also serves their business.”

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Charlotte’s SouthPark on Target

February 18, 2011

Charlotte Business Journal
February 18th, 2011

A 10.5-acre tract in SouthPark is being targeted for an ambitious development with a Target-anchored collection of shops and apartments.

Renderings outline plans for what’s billed as The Market at South Park. Lincoln Harris, a consultant to property owner Atlanta-based Reynolds Capital Group, has made inquiries with area brokers about tenants for the proposed project. The site lies behind the SouthPark Towers on Fairview Road on vacant land bounded by Piedmont Row Drive South and Barclay Downs Drive.

The biggest retail name linked to the project: Target Corp., one of the main anchors at high-profile developments such as Blakeney and the Metropolitan on the edge of uptown. Target could make a decision on the Charlotte development within a few weeks, an industry source says…

Andrew Jenkins, Managing Partner

Andrew Jenkins, Managing Partner, KARNES

Although retail demand remains weak, the submarket that includes SouthPark had some of the best leasing activity in Charlotte during 2010, according to Karnes Research Co. Last year, the area absorbed 72,170 square feet of retail space, up from a net loss of 257,023 square feet in 2009. The retail vacancy rate in the submarket dropped to 8.6% in December from 9.8% year end 2009. Overall, the retail vacancy rate for the greater Charlotte market increased to 9.9% from 8.4% in 2009…

Still, Andrew Jenkins, managing partner at Karnes, says that a new retail project opening in 2012 or 2013 could benefit from continued improving consumer confidence and spending. In the current economic climate, new development is “going to go to the places with the best demographics in terms of existing households and incomes,” he says. Using that criteria, SouthPark is a safe bet, Jenkins says…

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Atlanta firm buys into Poyner Place

February 8, 2011

February 8th, 2011
News and Observer

An Atlanta real estate firm has bought most of the Poyner Place shopping center in North Raleigh for $18.15 million, which is less than half what a pension fund paid for the same property five years ago. The investment is the first in the Triangle by RCG Ventures, a private firm that owns more than 50 retail properties across the country…

The smaller retail spaces in the center struggled initially, said Brian Reece, a partner with Karnes. “I just think it’s really a visibility issue,” he said. “The road network is below it and so it’s kind of up top, and if you’re not there within the Target area you’re not going to see it.” But the entire area is rapidly being redeveloped, including the opening of the Walmart and a Courtyard by Marriott. There’s also considerable land behind Wal-Mart where additional houses or apartments could be built. “With the connection of Capital Boulevard and Interstate 540 right there, that corridor is definitely on the radar screen for a lot of people,” Reece said….

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Commercial appraisals tricky in a down market

February 4, 2011

February 4th, 2011
Charlotte Observer

Mecklenburg County tax appraisers will start revaluating local commercial real estate next week – a task that could produce unwelcome surprises for both property owners and local government. Property owners have been paying taxes based on values set in 2003. State law requires revaluation every eight years – leaving officials wrestling with setting values in one of the worst markets in decades….

Calculating rental income could also prove tricky, said Andrew Jenkins, analyst and managing partner with Karnes, a real estate research firm. Actual lease rates are often lower than advertised asking rates because landlords are granting concessions to lure tenants during the downturn…

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Trinity Capital group taking over at NASCAR Plaza tower

January 7, 2011

January 7th, 2011
Charlotte Business Journal

Charlotte-based Trinity Capital has teamed with a Philadelphia real estate investment firm to buy the NASCAR Plaza office tower, which had fallen into foreclosure after a loan default by its previous owner. Trinity and partner Rubenstein Partners have purchased the 19-story, 390,000-square-foot building at South Caldwell and East Stonewall streets…

The office vacancy rate uptown stood at 12.6% at the end of the third quarter, according to Karnes Research Co. That’s up from 2.3% two years earlier. The average rental rate was $25.79 per square foot, down from $27.78 two years earlier. NASCAR Plaza’s quoted rental rate has been around $27. Karnes Managing Director Andrew Jenkins says the NASCAR brand could still be off-putting to some potential tenants. But an aggressive rate can go a long way, he adds. “I think you can get beyond that if the rate’s good enough,” Jenkins says. “If you can bring to the table parking and suburban rates, why can’t you lease that building?”…

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North Raleigh apartment complex sells for $35 million

November 16, 2010

November 16, 2010
.biz – News and Observer

Triangle apartment sales may top $500 million this year as investors’ appetite for the properties is showing no signs of waning. Robinson Development Group of Norfolk bought the 452-unit complex from Stonehenge Associates LLC. The price works out to about $77,000 per unit for a complex….The apartment vacancy rate in the Triangle was 6.7 percent in September, compared to 9.5 percent a year ago, according to the Triangle Apartment Association and Karnes Research. Average rents were $821 a month, up $23 from the average reported a year ago.

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PhoneTree doubles space via downtown W-S move

October 28, 2010

October 18, 2010
The Business Journal of the Triad

Phone-Tree, a 21-year-old firm that provides messaging and communication services to churches, hospitals and others, has relocated 50 employees from Reynolda Road to downtown as part of an expansion.
The firm doubled its space, occupying all 16,000 square feet of Winston Tower’s 18th floor….

Asking rates in the building are around $12 per square foot, Kelley said, which is slightly below the $13 average for “Class B” properties that research firm The Karnes Report has been finding in the Triad for the past two years or more.

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High-rise once known as Wachovia Center for sale

October 18, 2010

October 18, 2010
Charlotte Business Journal

A major uptown office tower is for sale, and the interest it generates could be a barometer for the health of Charlotte’s commercial real estate market. The 400 South Tryon building, owned by an affiliate of UBS Realty Investors, has been listed for sale with CB Richard Ellis Group Inc….

Uptown’s vacancy rate has ballooned to 12% from 2.5% in 2008, according to Karnes Research Co. Andrew Jenkins, managing partner at Karnes, expects 400 South Tryon will fetch between $150 and $200 per square foot, or $88 million to $117 million…Says Jenkins: “If they move out, you’ve got a lot of available space at an affordable rate, relatively speaking, so it might be a good long-term play.”

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Vacancy rate may grow as Blue Cross looks to save

July 15, 2010

July 15th, 2010
News & Observer

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina’s decision to review its real estate portfolio as it looks to slash expenses is part of a worrisome trend for the local real estate market.

Like GlaxoSmithKline, Blue Cross is one of the larger and more stable employers in the Triangle, and one that wasn’t expected to be a major contributor to the region’s rising vacancy rate.

Blue Cross owns roughly 825,000 square feet of office space in Durham and Chapel Hill. The majority of that space is at the company’s 40-acre campus along U.S. 15-501 in Chapel Hill and its customer service center and campus buildings on University Drive.

The Triangle office vacancy rate was 18.3 percent in the first quarter, according to Karnes Research, a Raleigh firm that tracks commercial real estate trends. That’s the highest it’s been in more than a decade and nearly three percentage points higher than it was in the first quarter of 2009.

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Crown Realty adds to Imperial Center portfolio

July 12, 2010

July 12th, 2010
News & Observer .biz

After selling a distribution facility last fall, Crown Realty and Development has added to its portfolio in the Imperial Center business park near Research Triangle Park.

The Irvine, Calif. company paid $7.475 million for a 182,000-square-foot warehouse at 4400 Emperor Boulevard. The property is fully leased to Phoenix Telecom Solutions, which moved in in March.

The warehouse vacancy rate in the Interstate 40/RTP submarket was 11.4 percent at the end of the first quarter, according to Karnes Research of Raleigh, up from 9.9 percent during the first quarter of 2009.

The warehouse vacancy rate for the entire Triangle was 15.3 percent in the first quarter.  The I-40/RTP submarket contains about 50 percent of all in the industrial space in the Triangle.

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