Scott Caswell and Erica Balin of Lee & Associates represented the tenant and announced the lease.

“The Simi Valley and surrounding areas remain an excellent location for companies in the warehousing and fulfillment center market,” Caswell said in a statement.

Rexford REIT is fresh off a $1 billion deal for 3 million square feet in Southern California from Blackstone, the biggest real estate owner in the country. For perspective, Rexford closed on $1.5 billion in acquisitions in the region through all of 2023.

Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.

The investment firm did not disclose the terms of the financing.

The development will also feature a 45,000-square-foot retail center anchored by Sprouts Farmers Market grocery store, a resort-style pool and spa, parks and walking trails. The multifamily portion will include a fitness center, a club room and courtyard, a game lounge, coworking space, and a fourth-floor sky deck. The development will be part of the 87-acre master-planned Sand Canyon Plaza community on the northeast corner of Sand Canyon and Soledad Canyon Roads, just off State Route 14.

“This is a compelling deal for our group based on the strength of the Santa Clarita rental market, the high barriers to entry, and the joint venture’s well-deserved reputation for delivering high-quality projects,” Thomas Whitesell, head of the debt investment group at Kennedy Wilson, said in a statement.

Kennedy Wilson said its debt platform has hit $7 billion in originations and more than doubled in size in the past year. In Southern California, the firm’s Beverly Hills office acquired PacWest Bancorp’s $2.6 billion construction loan portfolio last spring. Earlier this month, KW also provided a $166 million construction loan for a 600-unit multifamily project in Downtown Long Beach.

Charleston, S.C.-based Greystar claims to be the largest operator of apartments in the United States with $76 billion of assets under management, including over $34 billion of development assets.

Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.

“From breaking ground last October, to now closing this loan, our vision for a skyline-defining property is quickly becoming a reality,” Jon Paul Pérez, President of Related Group, said in a statement. “We’d like to thank our lender, Bank OZK, and our various partners for sharing our optimism on the long-term potential of the South Florida market.”

Jorge Pérez, Related’s chairman and CEO, touted the Arquitectonica-designed Baccarat building as his firm’s “most luxurious product” in Related’s 45-year history. Construction is currently expected to be completed in early 2028.

“The tower’s strong pre-sale commitments underscoring Miami’s market fundamentals, coupled with the sponsors’ proven track record of success in the immediate submarket, created a compelling lending opportunity to capitalize Brickell’s most distinguished new address,” Scott Wadler of Berkadia, who brokered the debt, said in a statement.

The Berkadia team also included Michael Basinski, Mitch Sinberg, Matthew Robbins and Brad Williamson.

The floating-rate debt is the latest financing to come from Bank OZK, which has emerged as the most prolific construction lender in South Florida in recent months. Just this week, the Little Rock-based bank closed on a $172 million construction loan for Jackie Soffer’s Turnberry to build a high-rise condominium within the SoLé Mia master development in North Miami.

Since December, Bank OZK has originated more than $1 billion in loans for high-profile developers such as Hines, CMC Group, Fortune International Group, and Oak Row Equities.

Back in 2013, Related purchased the 4-acre Brickell site for $104 million. Last year, the Miami-based developer secured a $164 million loan from Truist Bank to build a separate 44-story rental tower on the same site. 

In the ensuing year, the Baccarat Residences sparked controversy after archeologists found human remains and artifacts from the indigenous Tequesta tribe, some of which are thought to date as far back as 7,000 years. 

The discoveries prompted calls to halt the development to preserve the parcel. As a compromise, the Miami Historic & Environmental Preservation Board designated a portion of the site as a protected archaeological landmark, but granted permission for the developers to proceed.

In return, the partners promised to preserve and display artifacts within the property and perhaps build a tunnel connecting the landmarked Miami Circle park, located just across Brickell Avenue, where 24 post holes were discovered, indicative of a wooden 2,000-year-old structure. But the plans are not final.

We “agree that the site should be celebrated and honored. We will work with the city hand in hand on the designation,” Related President Jon Paul Pérez said in a statement in November after the historic designation. 

Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com. 

The 30-acre property, at 140 South Van Dorn Street, is comprised of 14 low-rise buildings, with studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments averaging 761 square feet. It’s also adjacent to the WestEnd Alexandria, a 4 million-square-foot redevelopment on the former site of Landmark Mall, and a few miles southwest of Amazon’s HQ2 in nearby Crystal City, Va. 

“We were really excited by the opportunity to buy an asset of this scale, especially because of the opportunity to improve and unlock more of its potential, which we believe will also have an impact on the community,” Shoreham Managing Partner Doug Faron told Commercial Observer.

West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Shoreham was founded in 2022 by Faron, Steven Figari and Nick Zoumas. The firm specializes in value-add multifamily spaces, as well as rental developments and adaptive reuse projects. Shoreham has also worked with Bridge Investment Group before. The two firms, along with Wynkoop Financial, purchased a 26-acre development property in Cape Coral, Fla., in August 2022, with the aim of building a $120 million rental community there.

The firms’ purchase of Mason at Van Dorn comes at a strange time for Alexandria. On Wednesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Wizards and Capitals, confirmed that the franchises would stay in D.C. through 2050, effectively killing a sprawling 9 million-square-foot development district planned in Alexandria to support the teams. 

“There was disappointment there for us, but there’s still a ton of other great developments happening in Northern Virginia — Amazon’s HQ2 and Virginia Tech’s new campus is evidence of that,” Faron said. “I have a feeling it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.”

Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.

Asking rent was $80 per square foot, according to New York Business Journal, which first reported the deal.

Trends plans to open at the base of the residential building later this spring, according to the Business Journal.

Cannabis entrepreneurs and brothers Rodney and Brandon Carter decided to get in on the state’s budding weed market after realizing their past convictions for cannabis offenses would make them eligible to apply for New York’s early-bird round of dispensary licenses, according to an interview with the brothers. New York State’s license system prioritizes people impacted by cannabis prohibition and their families.

As they waited for the green light from state officials, the duo launched a podcast, “Trends and Friends,” in which they expound upon their joint love of cannabis and discuss their efforts to end the stigma surrounding the plant. 

For their dispensary, the brothers partnered with Housing Works, which provided Trends with startup funding and will receive a percentage of its profits, according to its website. 

The nonprofit thrift store chain founded by AIDS activists in the 1980s was the first licensee to get a legal cannabis dispensary up and running in 2022. 

It’s unclear how much funding Housing Works provided the Long Island City dispensary. A spokesperson for the nonprofit did not respond to a request for comment. Trends also did not respond to requests for comment.

Trends will be the 93rd licensed dispensary to open in New York and the third to open in Long Island City, according to the state cannabis office. That includes  NYCBUD at 44-45 Vernon Boulevard and Freshly Baked NYC, a delivery-only dispensary based in the neighborhood.

Ripco Real Estate’s Eric Fisher arranged the deal for Trends but declined to comment. It’s unclear who brokered the deal for landlord Greystar.

Abigail Nehring can be reached at anehring@commercialobserver.com. 

Founded in 2015 in Lexington, Ky., by CEO Matt Sharp and his wife Megin, KidStrong is a child development program that provides social and emotional training for infants and kids ranging in age from 1 through 11. The Gossett’s said they plan to open three additional locations in Maryland in the near future. 

The couple has personal experience with KidStrong. “Samantha and I struggled to find appropriate places that could provide the skills we believed our daughter needed to advance physically and emotionally during the pandemic,” Jeffrey Gossett said in a statement. “After taking her to a KidStrong location in Columbia, we knew we’d found the solution and realized we also wanted to personally invest in the franchise and grow it locally.”

Padonia Shopping Village is anchored by supermarket chain Lidl, Lighbright Academy and a Greater Baltimore Medical Center location. Other tenants there include Bank of America, Cake by Jason and Once Upon a Child. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.

As payback for Disney’s criticism of the contentious law, DeSantis took aim at the unusual municipal structure of the Central Florida theme park. In 1967, Disney struck a deal to have such municipal services as firefighting, planning and mosquito control provided by a Disney-controlled body known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

The structure had long been viewed as a sweetheart deal for Disney, one that allowed the theme park to essentially govern itself.

Amid the 2022 spat, DeSantis dissolved Reedy Creek, created the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and appointed a new board of supervisors. In a countermove, Disney sued DeSantis and his appointees, claiming the state had trampled on the company’s free speech rights. A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit in January, but Disney appealed.

“This agreement opens a new chapter of constructive engagement with the new leadership of the district and serves the interests of all parties by enabling significant continued investment and the creation of thousands of direct and indirect jobs and economic opportunity in the state,” Jeff Vahle, president of Walt Disney World Resort, said in a statement.

DeSantis said at a news conference that “we have been vindicated on all those actions.”

“A year ago people were trying to act like all these legal maneuvers were all going to succeed, and the reality is here we are a year later, not one of them has succeeded,” DeSantis told reporters Wednesday. “Every action that we’ve taken has been upheld in full, and the state is better off for it.”

Next up is a renegotiation of Disney’s growth plans in Central Florida. Before the fight with DeSantis, Disney envisioned an ambitious growth plan, one that called for up to 14,000 new hotel rooms, another major theme park and several smaller parks.

Disney expects those projects to generate $17 billion in spending and 13,000 new jobs.

DeSantis won re-election as governor in a landslide in 2022, then challenged former President Donald Trump in the Republican primary. On the campaign trail, he used Disney as a foil, calling the company a poster child for misguided “woke” policies.

After a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses, netting a grand total of nine delegates over the course of his run, DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race.

Jeff Ostrowski can be reached at jostrowski@commercialobserver.com.