NEWS & NOTABLES

ATLANTA—AHV Communities hired Jay Byce as managing partner. A recognized veteran of the single-family rental home sector, Byce will help spearhead the company's expansion into key Southeast markets in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. Past roles include serving as senior vice president of Investments, handling national strategic planning and execution for the start-up and growth phases of three single-family REITs including Colony American Homes, American Homes 4 Rent, and Altisource Portfolio Solutions. These REITs now hold a combined value of over $7 billion in single-family rental properties across the country. Within these companies, Byce pioneered over 500 of the first institutional build-to-rent homes in the country and successfully launched investments including a $50 million fix and flip fund, a $50 million hard money lending fund and $1.5 billion in distressed commercial debt portfolios.

ATLANTA—Hotel Equities named Jim Holliday as regional director of sales for the firm. Holliday will focus on the hotels in the firm's Full Service and Resort Division as he works to assist, support and direct the sales efforts throughout the firm's growing portfolio. He will also help facilitate training for the directors of sales at their respective hotels. With more than 25 years of hospitality industry experience, Holliday came to Hotel Equities from the AAA Five Diamond Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. He served as director of markets, leading a team with an annual budget of $11.2 million or nearly a third of the resort's overall annual budget. He previously served as director of association, mid-Atlantic and Southeast for the AAA Four Diamond Waldorf Astoria, La Quinta Resort & Club and PGA West.

DEAL TRACKER

LOUISVILLE, KY—HFF closed the $32 million sale of Meidinger Tower, a 26-story, 331,172-square-foot, class A office tower in Downtown Louisville. HFF marketed the property, along with locally-based NAI Fortis Group, on behalf of the seller, Torchlight Investors, based in New York City. In-Rel Properties purchased the asset free and clear of existing financing. Meidinger Tower is located at 462 South 4th Street. Renovated in 2006, the property is currently 97% leased. The HFF investment sales team representing the seller was led by managing director Ralph Smalley and senior managing director John Merrill. Mark Wardlaw and Lenisa Alvey led the sales process for NAI.

STATESBORO, GA—KeyBank Real Estate Capital provided a $21.2 million CMBS first mortgage loan for the acquisition of Forum at Statesboro, a 300-unit (780-bed) class A student housing community located in Statesboro. That's west of Georgia Southern University. Key will provide an additional $750,000 during the loan term to support capital improvement efforts in areas such as the clubhouse. Erik Storz, John Hoffmann and Hugh Hall of Key's Commercial Mortgage Group arranged the nonrecourse, floating rate loan, which was structured with a three-year interest only initial term and two, one-year extension options.

ATLANTA—Coro Realty Advisors acquired The Shops at Spire in Midtown Atlanta. This property represents the final piece of a Midtown retail and parking portfolio previously owned by Loudermilk Companies. Kenny Holzer and Elliot Kyle of Skyline Seven brokered the sale. The Midtown portfolio contains 87,905 square feet of ground-floor retail and over 600 parking spaces in five residential condominium buildings, as well as a nearby parking lot. The properties include retail space at 800 Peachtree, 805 Peachtree, Shops at Seventh, Shops at Spire and Shops at Viewpoint. As a part of this transaction, Coro also acquired a 0.12-acre parcel on Juniper Street. The parcel is zoned SP-16, allowing for high density development as part of a larger future land assemblage.

ATLANTA—South State Corporation and Park Sterling Corporation are merging. Combining the two companies will create a $14.5 billion in assets franchise operating throughout the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia. When the ink dries on the merger deal, the combined company will have approximately $14.5 billion in assets, $11.5 billion in deposits and $10.4 billion in loans. The aggregate consideration is valued at approximately $690.8 million in the aggregate, based on 53,112,726 shares of Park Sterling common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2017 and on South State's April 26, 2017 closing stock price of $91.90.

HUNTSVILLE, AL—Hunt Mortgage Group arranged the financing needed to enable ROCO Real Estate to acquire three multifamily properties. The properties are located in Ohio, Illinois and Alabama. The total Hunt Mortgage Group investment was $36.7 million. The properties were financed through ROCO's structured credit facility with Freddie Mac and Hunt. Huntsville Place Apartments is an 84-unit multifamily apartment complex. Built in 2008, the multifamily property includes eight, three-story buildings, a leasing office/clubhouse and a swimming pool. Hunt provided a $6.2 million loan to enable to acquisition of Huntsville Place Apartments. The property is an off-campus student housing property with a total of 336-beds.

LOUISVILLE, KY—Preferred Apartment Communities acquired a 242-unit class A multifamily community in Louisville constructed in 2012 called Claiborne Crossing. PAC acquired this community through a wholly-owned subsidiary and financed the acquisition by assuming a first mortgage loan insured by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The remaining principal balance on the HUD loan is approximately $27.1 million, bears interest at a fixed rate of 3.34% per annum and has approximately 37 years of term remaining.

BUILDING BLOCKS

MONROE, LA—Graphic Packaging International and DHL Supply Chain, North America, to will make a combined $274 million capital investment in Northeast Louisiana and develop a 1.27 million-square-foot folding carton plant and logistics center in Monroe. The project will create 93 new direct jobs, and Louisiana Economic Development estimates the warehouse operations will result in an additional 74 new indirect jobs, for a total of more than 160 new jobs in Northeast Louisiana.

This week in the Southeast saw strategic hires and promotions at key companies. Atlanta was busy but Kentucky and Alabama made a strong showing on the commercial real estate front.

BY THE NUMBERS

A lack of multifamily portfolio and entity-level transactions in the first quarter of 2017 contributed to a slow start to the year. However, multifamily sales activity is anticipated to be stronger during the second half of the year. (Source: ARA Newmark)

Yields held steady at 5.4% nationally, yet cap rates on multifamily assets in tertiary markets have compressed over the past 24 months as more investors have moved into these markets in search of greater returns. Source: ARA Newmark)

NEWS & NOTABLES

ATLANTA—AHV Communities hired Jay Byce as managing partner. A recognized veteran of the single-family rental home sector, Byce will help spearhead the company's expansion into key Southeast markets in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. Past roles include serving as senior vice president of Investments, handling national strategic planning and execution for the start-up and growth phases of three single-family REITs including Colony American Homes, American Homes 4 Rent, and Altisource Portfolio Solutions. These REITs now hold a combined value of over $7 billion in single-family rental properties across the country. Within these companies, Byce pioneered over 500 of the first institutional build-to-rent homes in the country and successfully launched investments including a $50 million fix and flip fund, a $50 million hard money lending fund and $1.5 billion in distressed commercial debt portfolios.

ATLANTA—Hotel Equities named Jim Holliday as regional director of sales for the firm. Holliday will focus on the hotels in the firm's Full Service and Resort Division as he works to assist, support and direct the sales efforts throughout the firm's growing portfolio. He will also help facilitate training for the directors of sales at their respective hotels. With more than 25 years of hospitality industry experience, Holliday came to Hotel Equities from the AAA Five Diamond Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. He served as director of markets, leading a team with an annual budget of $11.2 million or nearly a third of the resort's overall annual budget. He previously served as director of association, mid-Atlantic and Southeast for the AAA Four Diamond Waldorf Astoria, La Quinta Resort & Club and PGA West.

DEAL TRACKER

LOUISVILLE, KY—HFF closed the $32 million sale of Meidinger Tower, a 26-story, 331,172-square-foot, class A office tower in Downtown Louisville. HFF marketed the property, along with locally-based NAI Fortis Group, on behalf of the seller, Torchlight Investors, based in New York City. In-Rel Properties purchased the asset free and clear of existing financing. Meidinger Tower is located at 462 South 4th Street. Renovated in 2006, the property is currently 97% leased. The HFF investment sales team representing the seller was led by managing director Ralph Smalley and senior managing director John Merrill. Mark Wardlaw and Lenisa Alvey led the sales process for NAI.

STATESBORO, GA—KeyBank Real Estate Capital provided a $21.2 million CMBS first mortgage loan for the acquisition of Forum at Statesboro, a 300-unit (780-bed) class A student housing community located in Statesboro. That's west of Georgia Southern University. Key will provide an additional $750,000 during the loan term to support capital improvement efforts in areas such as the clubhouse. Erik Storz, John Hoffmann and Hugh Hall of Key's Commercial Mortgage Group arranged the nonrecourse, floating rate loan, which was structured with a three-year interest only initial term and two, one-year extension options.

ATLANTA—Coro Realty Advisors acquired The Shops at Spire in Midtown Atlanta. This property represents the final piece of a Midtown retail and parking portfolio previously owned by Loudermilk Companies. Kenny Holzer and Elliot Kyle of Skyline Seven brokered the sale. The Midtown portfolio contains 87,905 square feet of ground-floor retail and over 600 parking spaces in five residential condominium buildings, as well as a nearby parking lot. The properties include retail space at 800 Peachtree, 805 Peachtree, Shops at Seventh, Shops at Spire and Shops at Viewpoint. As a part of this transaction, Coro also acquired a 0.12-acre parcel on Juniper Street. The parcel is zoned SP-16, allowing for high density development as part of a larger future land assemblage.

ATLANTA—South State Corporation and Park Sterling Corporation are merging. Combining the two companies will create a $14.5 billion in assets franchise operating throughout the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia. When the ink dries on the merger deal, the combined company will have approximately $14.5 billion in assets, $11.5 billion in deposits and $10.4 billion in loans. The aggregate consideration is valued at approximately $690.8 million in the aggregate, based on 53,112,726 shares of Park Sterling common stock outstanding as of March 31, 2017 and on South State's April 26, 2017 closing stock price of $91.90.

HUNTSVILLE, AL—Hunt Mortgage Group arranged the financing needed to enable ROCO Real Estate to acquire three multifamily properties. The properties are located in Ohio, Illinois and Alabama. The total Hunt Mortgage Group investment was $36.7 million. The properties were financed through ROCO's structured credit facility with Freddie Mac and Hunt. Huntsville Place Apartments is an 84-unit multifamily apartment complex. Built in 2008, the multifamily property includes eight, three-story buildings, a leasing office/clubhouse and a swimming pool. Hunt provided a $6.2 million loan to enable to acquisition of Huntsville Place Apartments. The property is an off-campus student housing property with a total of 336-beds.

LOUISVILLE, KY—Preferred Apartment Communities acquired a 242-unit class A multifamily community in Louisville constructed in 2012 called Claiborne Crossing. PAC acquired this community through a wholly-owned subsidiary and financed the acquisition by assuming a first mortgage loan insured by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The remaining principal balance on the HUD loan is approximately $27.1 million, bears interest at a fixed rate of 3.34% per annum and has approximately 37 years of term remaining.

BUILDING BLOCKS

MONROE, LA—Graphic Packaging International and DHL Supply Chain, North America, to will make a combined $274 million capital investment in Northeast Louisiana and develop a 1.27 million-square-foot folding carton plant and logistics center in Monroe. The project will create 93 new direct jobs, and Louisiana Economic Development estimates the warehouse operations will result in an additional 74 new indirect jobs, for a total of more than 160 new jobs in Northeast Louisiana.