Northern Essex CC to open culinary school after Lupoli foundation gift

The family foundation of local real estate and pizza mogul Sal Lupoli recently pledged $500,000 to Northern Essex Community College, a gift that will help NECC open a new school of hospitality and culinary arts next year. The school announced the Lupoli Family Foundation’s pledge last week. Sal Lupoli is CEO of Lawrence-based real estate … Read more

Boston-based Plymouth Industrial REIT completes $97M portfolio acquisition in Jacksonville

Boston-based Plymouth Industrial REIT Inc. (NYSE: PLYM) announced Monday is completed a $97 million portfolio acquisition for 20 light-industrial and flex buildings in Jacksonville’s Southside. The 1.1 million-square-foot portfolio, located near the intersection of I-95 and J. Turner Butler Boulevard, includes tenants Comcast, Veritiv, Cintas, Alstom, Staples, Cardinal Health, The Home Depot, Johnson Controls, Safelite … Read more

406-acre Texas ranch for sale with $7.3M price tag

A Houston-area ranch owned by the estate of Dr. Denton Cooley, a renowned heart surgeon who died in 2016, is for sale with an asking price of $7.3 million. Cool Acres spans 406 acres and is about 10 minutes south of Simonton in Fort Bend County, according to the listing page on Republic Ranches’ website. … Read more

Booming bars, big stars and a tangled past: How twin brothers from Ohio became Nashville power players

Twin brothers from Ohio are key voices inside T.C. Restaurant Group, a company transforming Nashville’s honky-tonk row. An NBJ investigation reveals a pattern in the way the brothers have done business, resulting in felony convictions, prison sentences and scores of lawsuits, judgments and liens on their records. Today, they’re aiming to grow in Nashville.

Costco buys 150 acres formerly slated for Hines business park

Issaquah, Washington-based Costco Wholesale Corp. (Nasdaq: COST) has purchased land in Katy from Katy Partners Ltd., according to Waller County records. The land previously was slated for Pintail Crossing Business Park, which Houston-based Hines was planning to develop in partnership with Katy Partners. Hines announced in a Dec. 17 press release that the companies sold … Read more

Tennessee company's emails add evidence of Dallas move

Some Fred’s employees are now sporting email signatures that feature a new office address — in Dallas. The Memphis Business Journal, a sister paper of the Dallas Business Journal, recently obtained the emails of “category leader” employees for the general merchandise and pharmacy chain; those emails listed 2001 Bryan St. in Dallas as part of … Read more

Selling real property in Los Cabos: Key contract provisions

Los Cabos, Mexico has become a world-renowned tourism and second home destination. According to Knight Global House Index, home prices rose 8.7% for the first quarter of 2018 from the same period in 2017, making it the eighth fastest growing market in the world. Every day new developers and investors look at Los Cabos and Baja … Read more

How she's creating 'the pharmacy of the future'

Shizu Okusa started D.C. juice company Jrink five years ago. Now she’s briging “the pharmacy of the future” under her wellness company’s umbrella. Apothekary, the second brand under parent Wellthy & Co., is a one-stop shop for herbal supplements, spices and teas to replace quick-fix pharmaceuticals (i.e. sleep aids as opposed to prescribed medication). Now … Read more

Where'd Arby's go? Another fast-food exit from downtown Minneapolis

It’s getting harder to find a $4 lunch in downtown Minneapolis. The Star Tribune reports on the shift of fast-food chains like McDonald’s and Arby’s away from the downtown core, noting that Arby’s shut down its lone downtown location just before Thanksgiving. The downtown Arby’s had been at Northstar Center for decades, but the restaurant … Read more

Husch Blackwell will anchor new downtown building in Milwaukee

A $50 million, nine-story office building could break ground in April in downtown Milwaukee as law firm Husch Blackwell LLP has committed to lease its top three floors. The 153,000-square-foot building is planned for a parking lot at North Broadway and East Clybourn Street, where a historic section of downtown meets the 3rd Ward. The … Read more

Texas' Fort Knox? Dirt turns for state's first bullion depository

Construction started last week on the first precious metals depository in the country that will be administered by a state. Austin-based general contractor MHT Constructors LLC broke ground Dec. 12 on the 40,000-square-foot Texas Bullion Depository on Heritage Grove Road near U.S. Highway 183 in Leander. The depository will be operated by Lone Star Tangible … Read more

Exclusive: Emery's firm targets new project on Music Row, in a deal with this Grammy winner

“These run-down houses, these shacks, were perfect for fledgling music businesses. But those little houses just don’t cut it today,” says Ray Stevens, who turns 80 next month. The building Hall Emery plans to develop, Stevens said, “would bring music back that had to leave, because there was not a business building to house them.”

A primer on Robinson Ranch, 7,000 acres of Central Texas that will be home to new $1B Apple campus

Apple Inc. is buying into one of the worst-kept secrets in Austin real estate, Robinson Ranch. As Austin Business Journal reported in April, the Robinson family earlier this year issued a request for interest and qualifications to feel out what developers might want to do with the roughly 7,000 acres north and east of Parmer … Read more

Life comes full circle for First Potomac co-founders

Government Properties Income Trust (NASDAQ: GOV) has completed the $167 million sale of a southern Virginia portfolio it picked up through its acquisition of First Potomac Realty Trust to a buyer that’s more than familiar with the commercial real estate. DSC Partners LLC co-founders Doug Donatelli and Nick Smith, after all, previously acquired the very … Read more

Key Biscayne condo gains 48% in value in $11M deal

A condo in Oceana Key Biscayne sold for $11 million. Oceana Key Biscayne Corp., managed by Morella Rincon, sold units LPH4N and LPH6N in the condo at 350 Ocean Drive to Hoceana LLC, managed by POA Management, which is based in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. The condo totals 3,969 square feet with two bedrooms and … Read more