We’re headed in the right direction: this year’s Top 5 blows the big deals of 2010 out of the water!
Ah, 2011, we hardly knew ye. You came and went in a flash, failing to deliver the economic recovery and real estate rebound that we all hoped for.
Instead, you brought an economic meltdown of the European Union, a nuclear meltdown in Japan and a mental meltdown for Charlie Sheen. And then you took Steve Jobs from us. (But at least you sent Tebow.)
Like everyone else, we are anxiously waiting at MacRo for the final diagnosis of the 2011 economy. In the meantime, we thought a review of the top 2011 Frederick County commercial real estate deals would provide a snapshot of the trends we can expect to see regionally and nationwide.
We combed through the biggest local commercial real estate deals for 2011 in CoStar and compared notes with several highly regarded local real estate appraisers. We have “Top 5” lists compiled for land, industrial, multi-family, office, and everything in between that relates to commercial real estate deals in 2011.
We’ll be sharing them all this month.
This week’s post will highlight the top five largest commercial real estate deals overall in Frederick County. The good news? The top five largest deals of 2011 were significantly larger than the top deals of 2010–hopefully an indicator that the commercial real estate market in Frederick County is finally showing sustained improvement.
We compared notes with Michael Pugh to pull this list together. As co-owner of Pugh Real Estate Group, Michael specializes in appraisals of improved and unimproved commercial and industrial real estate in Maryland and Northern Virginia.
Land, warehouse, office buildings, multi-family—it’s all covered in the top five of 2011!
Frederick’s Top 5 Commercial Real Estate Deals of 2011
Number 5: $8,500,000
Morgan-Keller sold 270 Interstate Court, a 103,250 SF industrial warehouse building, to Leo Rocca of 260 Interstate LLC in March. Colonial Sash and Door was the key tenant at time of sale, but Stulz Air Technology now leases a large portion of the building.
Number 4: $14,731,019
Washington Real Estate Investment Trust, a Rockville-based REIT, sold five Spectrum Drive flex industrial properties to AREA Property Partners of New York. The five Spectrum Drive buildings were part of a 40-property portfolio purchase totaling $235.8 million and including properties throughout Maryland and Northern Virginia. Total combined square footage of the buildings in the Frederick portion of the portfolio is 160,445.
Number 3: $21,265,000
Natelli Communities sold 63 acres of land on Bennett Creek Avenue in Urbana to the Social Security Administration in August. Currently the site is zoned for mixed-use development. The Social Security Administration purchased the site for a new national data facility, construction is planned to begin in early 2012 with an estimated completion date of 2015.
Number 2: $38,000,000
The clearly recession-proof Natelli Communities sold the Banner Life Building in Urbana to Cole Real Estate Investments, a Phoenix-based REIT, in June. Banner Life fully occupies the 115,000 square foot building.
Number 1: $50,000,000
Equity Residential, a Chicago-based REIT, sold Overlook Manor Apartments (290 units located on Alban Court) and the Brookside Apartments (432 units located on Willowdale Drive) to Federal Capital Partners, a privately-held REIT located in Washington, D.C. The sale closed in March. Multi-family properties have been the shining star in commercial real estate nationally and Frederick was no exception during 2011. There were a lot of apartment building sales in Frederick last year. More on that later.
Stayed tuned next week when we compare notes with Wayne Six for Frederick’s top 5 land deals of 2011!
The author: Rocky Mackintosh, President, MacRo, Ltd., a Land and Commercial Real Estate firm based in Frederick, Maryland. He also writes for TheTentacle.com.