Archive for Columbia
Landmark Acquires Columbia and Charlotte Apartments
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Richmond, VA-based Landmark Apartment Trust of America, Inc. has acquired 100 percent of the membership interests in Riverview Partners SC, LLC, which owns Reserve at River Walk, a multifamily residential apartment project in Columbia, South Carolina.
The purchase price for the acquisition is approximately $15,254,800. The new first mortgage on the property is $10,789,678.
The River Walk Property is comprised of 201,724 rentable square feet and contains 220 units. As of April 30, 2013, the River Walk Property was 96.82% occupied.
Colliers: Columbia Industrial Vacancy at 8.1%
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The Columbia-area industrial real estate market tightened in the first quarter as total vacancy rate fell to 8.08%, Colliers International reported.
And it appears there’ll be further tightening during the remainder of the year, the commercial real estate firm said in its first-quarter market study.
“Both lease and purchase transactions are on the rise and are expected to continue through 2013 with decreased vacancy rates, positive absorption and stabilizing rents,” the report said.
Colliers expects more investment in industrial buildings in the upcoming months as buyers take advantage of low interest rates.
Quote of the Day – Palmetto Compress Building
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“This is an accountability issue, and we’ll elect you out.”
- John Adams, son of former Columbia Mayor Patton Adams, to those City Council members who voted for the purchase of the Palmetto Compress Building
Columbia Retail Center Sold
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A 38,000-square-foot retail building at the Outlet Pointe Shopping Center in Lexington County has been sold for $1.92 million, according to real estate firm Grubb & Ellis Wilson Kibler.
Tenants for the property at 125 Outlet Pointe Blvd. include a restaurant, retail outlets and a personnel office. Approximately 6,010 square feet of the building is available at a rental rate of $8.00 per square foot. The building was constructed in 1985 and sits on 2.84 acres.
Sherri Burriss, of Grubb & Ellis Wilson Kibler. Burriss represented the buyer, Outlet Pointe Partners LLC. Bobby Reece of Charleston-based Coldwell Banker Commercial Atlantic International Inc. represented the seller, who was not identified.
Banks Moving to Columbia’s Main Street
Posted by: | CommentsIn the past three months, three banks have announced plans to move into Main Street buildings in Columbia. Here are the banks and the buildings.
Columbia Publix Anchored Center Sold
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Phillips Edison-ARC Shopping Center REIT has acquired a portfolio of three grocery-anchored shopping centers in Florida, South Carolina and Texas. The company acquired the 64,359-square-foot Murray Landing shopping center in Irmo, S.C., approximately 12 miles northeast of Columbia, S.C. The fully occupied center is anchored by a Publix grocery store, which is leasing the property through 2023. In addition to Publix, tenants include Anytime Fitness, Beef O’Bradys, Alodia’s Italian, State Farm and a dry cleaners. When combined with the Publix grocery store lease, 82 percent of the rents come from national tenants.
SC Wells Fargo Occupied Properties Sold
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A Los Angeles-based real estate partnership has acquired three properties in South Carolina as part of a larger purchase of 40 office buildings nationwide, buildings that are under long-term lease to Wells Fargo Bank.
The South Carolina properties are:
- 101 Greystone Blvd., Columbia, 240,976 square feet
- 16 Broad St., Charleston, 39,558 square feet
- 145 Broad St., Bennettsville, 6,527 square feet
Wells Fargo employs more than 5,600 people across South Carolina, including about 1,320 in Calhoun, Fairfield, Kershaw, Lexington, Orangeburg, Richland, Saluda and Sumter counties.
The purchaser is an affiliate of Oaktree Capital Management L.P. in partnership with National Financial Realty Inc., a privately held investment company based in Los Angeles.
Columbia Airport to Bid on Three FTZ Buildings
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The Richland-Lexington Airport District Commission voted Monday to bid on three buildings in Foreign Trade Zone 127 adjacent to the airport.
The buildings, which total about 90,000 square feet, are used for offices and warehousing, said Dan Mann, executive director of the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. The airport already owns the land where the buildings are located and rents it to the landlords, Mann said. Rent on the land generates about $59,000 a year, he added. “The rationale is that it’s a good return on investment,” Mann said. “We think that if we bought the buildings that we could generate revenue greater what we generate now.” The rent revenue, Mann added, would be a source of income for the airport that’s not tied to airlines.
“Airlines come and go — it’s a tough business — but this is more a stable line of revenue,” Mann said, adding that the buildings’ occupancy rate is about 82%.
Columbia Medical Office Space Vacancy at 6.4%
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The medical office vacancy rate for the Columbia market was cut almost in half to 6.4% at the end of 2012 as the industry expanded to serve patients’ needs and respond to changes in the health care delivery systems, Colliers International reported today.
The Columbia commercial real estate firm added that year-end vacancy rate for 2011 was 11.9%.
New medical development has been taking place in suburban submarkets rather than in the downtown Central Business District where the vacancy rate dropped to 1.7% at year’s end, Colliers said.
The vacancy rate for suburban medical office space was 7.2% at the end of 2012, nearly five percentage points below 2011’s closing figure.
City of Columbia Seeks ULI Input
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A national panel of experts in planning and executing development efforts is in Columbia to try to break through longstanding, competing interests in the city center that hold back well-intentioned studies that have gathered dust.
Nine volunteers from as far away as California, Colorado and Washington, D.C., are joining two South Carolinians as part of an Urban Land Institute panel, said Fred Delk, director of one of Columbia’s development groups.
The goal is to devise a plan that makes Columbia’s city center more accessible and vibrant, including making it more pedestrian friendly.
This panel is sponsored by business organizations that often compete for the dollars that accompany growth, Delk, of the Columbia Development Corp., said Monday. None of the $60,000 to defray the panel’s travel expenses comes from city funds, he said.
New Retailers Highlight Columbia’s Retail Market
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The Columbia area ended 2012 with the lowest vacancy rate in its retail space in more than three years, a new report shows.
So what does that mean to you? More stores and more shopping.
People have more money in their wallets to spend as the economy improves from the worst recession in a lifetime and the unemployment rate declines. And that means retailers are snapping up spaces to get a piece of the action.
“Growing cities and populations are sought after by retailers looking to expand and branch out into new cities making Columbia a target,” reads the research report from Colliers International.
Columbia Retail Vacancy at Lowest Point in Three Years
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The Columbia-area retail market slipped to its lowest vacancy rate in three years as national merchants expanded their operations, according to Colliers International’s latest quarterly report.
The market’s vacancy rate dropped 26 basis points since mid-year and finished 2012 at 8.14%, the commercial real estate firm said. In a year-to-year comparison, the fourth-quarter vacancy rate dropped more than a half-point from 8.68%, which was recorded at the end of 2011.
Several factors influenced the falling vacancy rate, Colliers said. “While other markets were adversely affected by the recent recession, Columbia’s retail market stayed afloat due to lack of overdevelopment in pre-recession years,” Colliers said.
Although closings of national retailers left big-box retail space vacant, the facilities have been filled by other retailers moving to or expanding in the market.
Olympia Apartments Receives Approval
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A nearly 200-unit apartment complex in Olympia received a thumbs-up from the Columbia Planning Commission on Monday, paving the way for yet another residential development in what is shaping up to be a downtown rental housing boom.
PMC Property Group – a Philadelphia developer that renovated the Olympia and Granby Mills about a decade ago – received site plan approval for the complex. The project will be built on about six acres of property in front of Granby Mill and include 6,500 square feet of retail space.
The approval was made despite concerns that the project doesn’t meet the city’s parking requirements and exceeds height limitations. The developers will have to go before the city Board of Zoning Appeals to receive variances on those matters.
Columbia is 2nd Highest Metro for High-Tech Job Growth
Posted by: | CommentsA Bay Area Council Economic Institute Report, released in December 2012, recognizes Columbia and the state of South Carolina for its high-tech employment growth over the last five years.
The report analyzes patterns of high-technology employment and wages in the United States. It finds not only that high-tech jobs are a critical source of employment and income in the U.S. economy, but that growth in the high-tech sector has increasingly been occurring in regions that are economically and geographically diverse. The report also finds that the high-tech sector–defined as the group of industries with very high shares of workers in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math–is an important source of secondary job creation and local economic development.
The state of South Carolina ranks second in the top 10 states for high-tech employment growth from 2010-2011, and Columbia finishes second, behind Greensboro-High Point, NC, in the top 25 metros for high-tech employment growth over the same period. Columbia saw 28.2% growth in the high-tech sector.
Main Street Student Housing Project Advances
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A Chicago firm has purchased the 21-story Palmetto Center on Main Street in Columbia, propelling forward its plans to convert the 400,000-square-foot former office building into housing for 800 college students.
Construction is expected to start soon on the $50 million to $80 million renovation project, which should be completed by August 2014, Benjamin Modleski, chief operating officer of Core Campus LLC, told The State on Thursday. The building has been empty since September 2009, when SCE&G moved its 900 employees to a campus in Cayce.
The renovation project faces a final hearing before the city’s Design, Development Review Commission Thursday. If approved, it will be the project’s final regulatory hurdle.
