After this year’s reasonably lackluster first quarter of CRE closings (37 transactions totaling $40 million), someone opened the spigot and got out the way. There were 60 new transfers recorded during the months of April, May and June.

Within those figures there were few “You Knew That Was Coming” kind of deals that cannot go without mention in this post!

Consider the one transaction that consumed nearly 50% of the sales volume and the two other top transactions of the quarter:

Bio-Tech: Over on Solarex Court, AstraZeneca purchased the Medimmune Campus on June 30th for $86.2 million. Now keep in mind that AstraZeneca made an all-cash purchase of the Medimmune business back in 2007 for $15.6 billion; so, the circle appears to have been closed with sale of the 551,000 square foot structure on 59 acres at a figure of $156/SF … so it’s about time!

Multifamily: Built in 1980, the 290-unit Grove at Alban Apartments in the Hillcrest area just off of Frederick’s Golden Mile sold at a price of $94,800 per unit (total price of $27.5 million).

Newspaper: Along with the announcement last quarter that the Randall family sold the Frederick News Post to Ogden Newspapers, its only logical to see that the real estate conveyed as well. The 121,500 square foot structure on 22.8 acres located at 351 Ballenger Center Drive transferred at a price of $12.5 million in May.

There are plenty of other very interesting transactions found within the other 57 deals that were made, but before we go there, here’s a chart that provides a breakdown by property type:

Special Purpose:  The former Frederick Visitation Academy at 200 E Second Street in downtown Frederick changed hands in June for $2,750,000. The courtyard type building has 58,700 square feet. A most interesting structure with a lot of history within those walled 3 acres!

Ausherman Again: Yes, well-known developer and philanthropist Marvin Ausherman struck again with his $1.53 million purchase of the 16,000-square foot 48-52 N Market Street (aka the home of the famous Candy Kitchen) in downtown. Stay tuned for his fascinating plans!

A Pithy Deal: After several years of spending a few dollars to gut the property for a residential conversion and testing the downtown real estate market for takers, the Horman family finally sold the 4 level, 13,000 square foot mystical Pythian Castle Building at 20 N Court Street for $1.1 million. I’m sure that those dreams may come closer to reality now.

Office Building: The Wormald family have been in a “Shed Themselves of Office Product” mode of late, and they did quite well with the sale of their 48,000 square foot leased-up building located at 5283 Corporate Drive in the Westview Office Park for $9.45 million. Other office building owners should be so lucky to get $195/SF!

Industrial Land: Well-known local land baron and developer Donnie Pleasants has been taking advantage of the extremely limited supply of vacant general industrial zoned land in Frederick County. There were two significant transactions last quarter in the Intercoastal Industrial park near New Market – 15.4 acres sold for $4.62 million ($299,800/ac), and 12.33 acres sold for $4.02 million ($326,350/ac).

Finally:  The owners of the well-known Café Nola located at 4 E Patrick Street have long wanted to own the building that houses their very popular restaurant and bar. That dream came true in April when they purchased the 6,900-square foot downtown mix-use structure for $800,000.

Want to know more? Feel free to give us a call at 301-748-5655.