CBRE-New England released a fuller, more detailed version of its 2015 forecast last week that was chock full of noteworthy bits.
Take, for instance, its outlook this year for investment in Central Connecticut’s commercial office, industrial and retail real estate:
“Between investors looking to repatriate capital and lenders selling foreclosed property, the investment sale market in Central Connecticut is expected to remain strong for the next two-three years,” the firm wrote.
“While assets like Goodwin Square will be auctioned, Aegon will sell the five-building portfolio in Windsor that it foreclosed on in late 2013, representing distressed value-add opportunities. Stabilized buildings currently on the market like United Health Care Center (CityPlace I), 45 Glastonbury Boulevard and 100 Corporate Drive in Windsor will continue to attract outside investors that are more yield driven.”
Also in the report, CBRE-NE partner Patrick Mulready notes that 2014 was the third straight year of strong realty investment in the Greater Hartford region, with downtown being the most active.
From 2012 to 2014, at least 15 buildings, each averaging 2.2 million square feet, a year sold in the region. That compares to a total of 18 buildings sold from 2009 to 2011 — a period covering the Great Recession. In the five years before the trough, Greater Hartford averaged 17 building sales a year, Mulready said.
Mulready also tallied 2.4 million square feet of area office space that sold in 2014, fetching more than $186 million.
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CT Lotto home sold
A Long Island investor has acquired the Rocky Hill industrial building housing the CT Lottery, its second Hartford area industrial purchase in the past year, the landlord says.
GTJ, a public non-traded real estate investment trust in West Hempstead, N.Y., says it bought the 92,500-square-foot single-story building on 12 acres at 777 Brook St. from New Boston Fund’s Brook USA LLC.
GTJ didn’t divulge the price, but Rocky Hill town clerk records show a $12.4 million sale.
The building was retrofitted and renovated in 2008, making it an attractive investment, GTJ CEO Paul Cooper said. CT Lottery’s lease there runs through 2023.
This is GTJ’s first acquisition of 2015 and its latest in this region, officials said.
Last year, the REIT bought a Windsor Locks parts-distribution warehouse in the shadow of Bradley International Airport and leased to Ford Motor Co. In Shelton, it acquired an industrial building leased to Sikorsky Aircraft.
GTJ says it now owns 39 properties consisting of more than 4 million square feet on approximately 440 acres.
In Farmington, GTJ is Hartford conglomerate United Technologies Corp.’s landlord at 8 Farm Springs Road.
GTJ’s other Connecticut holdings include a dozen office buildings and warehouses in Norwalk, Milford, Orange and Shelton, according to its homepage.
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ExamOne’s new space
Lab-test services provider ExamOne has signed for 2,134 square feet of medical-office and examination space at 2080 Silas Deane Highway in Wethersfield.
Twenty Eighty Professional Center LLC owns the 43,465-square-foot building sitting on about 2.5 acres that also houses a satellite clinic and medical offices for St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center.
O,R&L Commercial represented the landlord. Wolfe Commercial Real Estate was broker to tenant ExamOne World Wide Inc.
Previously known as LabOne, ExamOne provides risk-assessment tests to life-insurance applicants and was acquired by Quest Diagnostics in 2005.
Greg Seay is the Hartford Business Journal News Editor.
