Sandy Springs Multifamily Wins Investor Confidence, By Jennifer LeClaire, GlobeSt.com
“Atlanta continues to be a strong performer in commercial real estate and the local housing market is vastly undersupplied. As Atlanta’s multifamily market continues to gain traction, Hunt Mortgage Group provided a first mortgage bridge loan to finance the acquisition and renovation of a multifamily property in Sandy Springs, GA. The loan was in the amount of $10.5 million. ‘This loan is comprised of $8.3 million of initial funding that will be used to finance the acquisition of the property and $2.2 million in a future funding commitment that will be used for capital improvements to renovate the property,’ RJ Guttroff, managing director at Hunt Mortgage Group, tells GlobeSt.com.”
Amazon Considers Buying Toys R Us Stores To Establish Brick-And-Mortar Presence, By Lara O’Keefe, Bisnow National
“Amazon is eyeing soon-to-be vacant Toys R Us stores to potentially expand its physical footprint. The stores could be used for a number of purposes, Bloomberg reports, such as new bookstore and convenience store concepts. The Toys R Us sites could also act as a showcase for technology like Alexa and Amazon’s line of Echo products. The e-commerce giant could also use the locations as distribution hubs to deliver online products and fresh groceries to consumers faster.”
Offices buying more air rights than residential condos, By Lois Weiss, New York Post
With luxury condo developments on the skids, a new report found the most-traded air rights have been targeted for office projects. ‘For the first time in four years, people are buying more air rights for offices than for residential condominiums,’ said Caroline McLain, president of Tenantwise, which has released a new report based on New York City filings. Tenantwise calculated that the average pricing for office air rights in 2017 hit $315 per square foot, the highest in history. But that figure is reached only if you don’t count the recapitalization of the Grand Central Terminal air rights sold in 2016 but filed late in 2017 — and only for a portion of the deal.”
Multifamily Strength, Affordability Issues to Persist in 2018: Freddie Mac, By Sanyu Kyeyune, Multi-Housing News
“Last month, real estate dealmakers converged in San Diego for the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual CREF/Multifamily Housing Convention & Expo. At the conference, David Brickman, executive vice president & head of Freddie Mac Multifamily, sat down with Multi-Housing News to offer his perspective on where the industry’s headed in 2018.”
How Do Renters Rate Your On-Site Management?, By the Editors of Multi-Housing News, Multi-Housing News
“Do your residents feel like operations at the community run smoothly? MHN and Kingsley Associates partner to find out what property managers are doing right—or wrong.”