Charlotte office, apartment sales topped $1 billion in 2014

Sales of Charlotte office properties totaled more than $1 billion in 2014, the third time that mark has been topped this century. And sales of local apartment properties also topped $1 billion — for the second consecutive year. The sales volume for Charlotte office buildings hit $1.1 billion last year, up from $875 million in 2013, according to Real Capital Analytics, a research firm that tracks deals valued at $2.5 million or more. During the fourth quarter, sales totaled $493 million, up from…

Childress Klein lists office buildings for sale in Charlotte and Fort Mill

Childress Klein Properties is looking to sell several of its Charlotte-area office properties. The Charlotte real estate firm has listed five suburban office buildings for sale in the past month, including two at the LakePointe Corporate Center office park that hit the market on Friday. Those are in addition to three office buildings at Kingsley Park in Fort Mill that were listed for sale last month. Childress Klein also will be marketing the 350,000-square foot AT&T Plaza building in uptown Charlotte…

Ta Chen International expanding Charlotte operation, leases space in new Prologis building

Ta Chen International Inc., a Taiwan-based distributor of stainless steel products, is expanding its Charlotte operation and has leased just over 101,000 square feet at West Pointe Business Park in an industrial building that is being developed by Prologis Inc. TCI entered the Charlotte market last year when it acquired the inventory of Summit Stainless. The company currently leases Summit's former warehouse space, about 25,000 square feet, in a building on Granite Street. A TCI representative says…

Charlotte Center City Partners report: ‘We’re thriving again’

Charlotte Center City Partners has released its annual State of the Center City report, and with the uptick in commercial real estate development activity in uptown and surrounding submarkets, the report is pretty upbeat. The introduction to this year's report cites the rebound in development activity across various sectors in center city: 2.9 million square of office space under construction or proposed as well as 1,658 hotel rooms, nearly 6,900 housing units and 300,000 square feet of retail space,…

Two Piedmont Town Center building fully leased as two tenants expand

Two tenants at Two Piedmont Town Center in SouthPark have expanded their space by a total of 11,000 square feet, taking the last available space in the building. Assurance, tax and consulting services firm McGladrey took an additional 5,000 square feet at Two Piedmont, bringing its total space in the building to 32,000 square feet. And insurance firm AmWINS Group Inc. expanded by 6,000 square feet and extended its lease term by six years. AmWINS now leases 61,000 square feet at Two Piedmont, which…

Boutique law firm Alexander Ricks expanding, relocating

Alexander Ricks, a boutique business law firm currently in SouthPark, has signed a lease for approximately 7,700 square feet in the 4601 Park Road building and plans to relocate in April. The firm, founded in 2010 by Rodney Alexander and Tom Ricks, is currently based in about 2,500 square feet at the 2901 Coltsgate Road building in SouthPark. Having grown to 10 lawyers, the firm needed more space, Ricks says, and it looked at options from SouthPark to just outside of uptown Charlotte. Grubb Properties…

LRC and New York Life purchase Logistics Pointe industrial park for $52 million

LRC Opportunity Fund and New York Life Real Estate Investors have purchased Logistics Pointe, a 1.1 million-square-foot industrial park on 66 acres in southwest Charlotte, for $52.1 million. The five-building property on General Drive was sold by Westmount Realty Capital, a commercial real estate investment, development and management firm based in Dallas. Westmount purchased Logistics Pointe in 2006 for $24.5 million after the property had gone into foreclosure following Winn-Dixie's closure of…

TIAA-CREF leases Betsill building at Ballantyne for up to 17 years

Financial-services organization TIAA-CREF's lease of the six-story Betsill building at Ballantyne Corporate Park has a maximum term of 17 years and six months, including extensions and renewals, according to real estate records. TIAA-CREF's lease began on Nov. 20 and is for the entire 140,000-square-foot building, according to records. The Charlotte Business Journalr eported last year that TIAA-CREF was in talks to lease the building, which Bank of America Corp. previously occupied. It's one of…

Trinity adding amenities at Toringdon; Global Restaurant looking for new home

The owners of the Toringdon office park in south Charlotte plan to convert a private street into a open green space and are also working to bring a fitness facility to park, potentially using space that is now occupied by Global Restaurant. The new green space, called The Grove at Toringdon, will include seating areas for tenants and will be located at the center of the office park, replacing a street that runs from Toringdon Way to the Toringdon 6 building. Trinity Capital Advisors, in a joint…

Ziff Properties sells three Charlotte business parks for $10 million

Ziff Properties, a real estate firm based in Charleston, S.C., has sold three business parks in Charlotte totaling 217,000 square feet to Sky Management for $10 million. The parks are Arcade Square on Tyvola Road, Rubin Business Center on Clanton Road and Coffey Creek Business Park on Rose Lake Drive. The nine buildings in the three parks were 88% leased when the sale closed this month. In a release, Christian Chamblee, chief operating officer and director of acquisitions at Ziff, said the firm…