New York group buys uptown office tower for $160 million

A New York-based real estate investment group has purchased the Charlotte Plaza building in uptown Charlotte for $160 million. An affiliate of JFR Global Investments, headed by Joe Friedland, recently closed on its acquisition of the building, which was listed for sale last year by real estate firm Hines. The 27-story tower at 201 S. College St. totals 645,000 square feet and is 91% leased. The building is anchored by the Charlotte School of Law, which signed a lease for 10 floors totaling about…

Rezoning approved for Golf Links project in south Charlotte

Charlotte City Council approved a rezoning Monday night that clears the way for a major mixed-use project at the Charlotte Golf Links site in south Charlotte. The rezoning proposed by developer Lincoln Harris for the 194-acre site, a former golf course at Providence and Ardrey Kell roads, faced no neighborhood resistance at a City Council rezoning hearing last month. The rezoning will allow the development of up to 700,000 square feet of office space, 250,000 square feet of retail space, 500 multifamily…

Edens buys Myers Park shopping center for $22.5 million

Retail real estate firm Edens has purchased the Myers Park Center, a Harris Teeter-anchored retail development at the corner of Providence and Queens roads, for $22.5 million. The 75,000-square-foot center is anchored by the two-story, 42,000-square-foot grocery store, which opened in 2013. Other retail tenants include Lumiere, Charlotte Rug House, Charlotte Ultra Running, Splurge, Myers Park Nails & Spa and Fancy Pants & Tootsies Too. The sellers of Myers Park Center were two companies managed…

ACBJ unit to relocate from Morehead Square to southwest Charlotte

American City Business Journals’ call-center and fulfillment divisions have leased 17,000 square feet in the Airport Overlook building in southwest Charlotte and plan to relocate from the Morehead Square building on East Morehead Street this summer. ACBJ will share the third-floor space with affiliated company Advance Digital Inc., which also has a call center at Morehead Square, on a separate floor. Charlotte-based ACBJ operates 40 business journals, including the Charlotte Business Journal,…

Spring’s hottest housing markets: Where does Charlotte rank?

Online real estate marketplace Auction.com is out with a ranking of "the hottest major single-family housing markets" in the U.S., and Charlotte placed high on the list. Looking at current conditions and future expectations on key housing indicators that include home prices, affordability, demand, and economic and demographic conditions, the report ranks the 49 largest U.S. markets. "As the U.S. housing market has continued to recover from the Great Recession, we've seen significant regional variances…

Investment firm to relocate from Metropolitan to 525 North Tryon building uptown

Private-equity firm Frontier Capital has leased the 19th floor of the 525 North Tryon building in uptown Charlotte and plans to relocate from the Metropolitan development in September. The long-term lease for 12,600 square feet is the first new deal this year in the building, which was acquired by Grubb Properties and New York Life Real Estate Investors in January for $60 million. “Grubb Properties and New York Life are very excited to have Frontier Capital as a tenant at 525 North Tryon,”…

Here’s how a real estate firm moved into new office space without the dreaded ‘ta-da’ moment

When CNL Commercial Real Estate Inc. recently relocated to its new office space in uptown Charlotte, Ken Loeber wanted to avoid what he calls a “ta-da” moment. CNL moved a couple weeks ago to the 25th floor of the 121 West Trade building from the Charlotte Plaza building, and Loeber, head of CNL’s real estate services business, sought to make the transition as smooth as possible. That meant involving CNL’s roughly 50 employees in the process, he told me in a recent interview, and avoiding…

Residential development planned for Eastover site

Developer Saratoga Asset Management and custom homebuilder Simonini Homes are planning an infill residential development in Eastover on about a half acre near the corner of Huntley Place and Providence Road, across from the Harris Teeter-anchored Myers Park Shopping Center. The site at 119 Huntley Place is currently occupied by the Thies Realty & Mortgage Co. building. The property is between a gas station at the corner of Huntley and Providence and an undeveloped lot, and it backs up to the Napa…

Charlotte-area home sales, prices still on the rise

Home sales in the Charlotte region jumped 20.3 percent in March from a year earlier, according to the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association. The association reported Wednesday that Carolina Multiple Listing Service figures show 3,195 homes were sold in the region last month, up from 2,655 sold in March 2014. The average sales price last month was $234,351, up 9.1 percent from a year earlier, while the median sales price was $189,040, an increase of 9.9 percent. Pending sales for the month totaled…

Nebraska firm buys three Fort Mill office buildings for $39.5 million

Waitt Co., a Nebraska-based investment company, has purchased three office buildings at Kingsley Park in Fort Mill for $39.5 million. A joint venture between Childress Klein and The Springs Co. listed the three buildings for sale with DTZ late last year. The Kingsley Park IV, V and VI buildings total 178,317 square feet and are about 88 percent leased to tenants that include Domtar, Mergent, McClean & Fogg Co. and Romarco Minerals. The acquisition is the first real estate investment in the Carolinas…