BWE secured a $23.5 million loan to finance the acquisition and substantial improvement of The Edge, a 173-unit, 553-bed student housing community near Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. 

BWE’s Chris Carroll and Max Miller originated the financing on behalf of Campus Realty Advisors. Texas State has seen a surge in enrollment, which has increased by 5% over the last year to bring the entire student body above 40,000. 

The Edge features a mix of 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-bedroom apartments and offers students a wide range of amenities, including a fitness center, clubhouse, and basketball court. The community is located less than a mile from the Texas State campus. 

As part of the acquisition, The Edge will receive numerous upgrades to improve the residents’ experiences. All units will receive new flooring, cabinets, and doors, upgraded bathroom fixtures, and improved lighting. The clubhouse, study areas, fitness center and other amenities will also receive major improvements to enhance the students’ sense of community. 

Wireless Realty Advisors, LLC (WRA), a Norfolk, MA-based owner, operator and manager of wireless infrastructure assets, has closed the $120-million WRA Fund III LLC. The fund represents WRA’s fifth equity investment with Peppertree Capital Management and is focused on investing the acquisition of wireless real estate assets throughout the U.S.

“Since our introduction to the market 30 years ago, we have always been passionate about how data can be leveraged to create better operating efficiencies and scale,” said Tom Remillard, founder and CEO of WRA. “For WRA, data is more than just one of several hundred thousand dots on a map – it’s a relationship builder and a strategic tool that we will continue to grow and inject into our business model.” 

Additionally, WRA has promoted James Huth to president. Huth has been with WRA for seven years and has been instrumental in the growth of the company. 

Continuum Advisors, a national senior housing investment sales and advisory firm, announced the sale of The Oaks at Bartlett, a 283-unit senior housing community about 35 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.

Built in 2007, the 37-acre interconnected campus offers 10 cottages, 154 independent living apartments, 49 assisted living units, 16 memory care units and 54 skilled nursing units. Continuum Advisors co-founders David Kliewer and Jay Jordan led the transaction, after running an extensive marketing campaign to identify a stalking horse bidder, followed by a court-supervised overbid process.

The community was sold through a court-supervised process with Michael F. Flanagan of Flanagan & Associates, LLC serving as the Receiver. This led to the $42 million sale of The Oaks at Bartlett to a national institutional investor.

“Under new ownership, this sale paves the way for long-term financial stability and new capital to be invested into the campus across common spaces as well as unit upgrades,” said David Kliewer.

Brea-based Healthcare Property Advisors has launched HPA Exchange LLC, a real estate investment sponsor that will provide accredited investors with private placement opportunities anchored by medical properties. The platform will initially focus on Section 1031 exchange offerings.

HPA Exchange will target healthcare real estate within secondary growth markets that exhibit strong operating fundamentals, stable health system environments and a growing aging population. Its management team averages 25 years’ experience in healthcare real estate, including co-presidents Thùy Turner and Robert Lee.

“The healthcare industry has historically been recession resilient with predictable occupancy rates, paving the way for the potential of long-term reliable cash flows and strategic value-add opportunities,” said Turner. “Non-high-acuity healthcare is also transitioning from large acute care environments like hospitals to well-located and well-designed strategic ambulatory care, typically closer to neighborhoods.”

Net lease advisory firms NNN Pro and STNL Advisors have completed strategic partnerships with newly branded investment holding company SURMOUNT. Headquartered in New York, SURMOUNT is an institutional platform focused on investing and partnering with growth-oriented real estate companies, and consumer-facing brands across the country. The company provides strategic growth capital across multiple sectors to create enhanced enterprise value for real estate and related investment opportunities.

The partnership brings together the strengths and expertise of NNN Pro and STNL Advisors for a more streamlined and full-service net lease advisory services platform, company executives said. NNN Pro and STNL Advisors will continue to operate under their existing branding.

“Our vision is to build the most comprehensive and full-service commercial real estate platform in the market,” said Glen Kunofsky, CEO of both NNN Pro and STNL Advisors, respectively. “Further aligning the expertise and resources of these two companies allows us to holistically serve the evolving needs of our clients, while also further institutionalizing and streamlining our services and offerings.”

Real estate services giant Savills is acquiring T3 Advisors, a specialist in life sciences tenant representation, in an effort to expand Savills’ expertise in that fast-growing sector. 

Founded in 2001 with offices in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Palo Alto, California, T3 will rebrand as T3 Advisors, A Savills Company. T3 founder and CEO Roy Hirshland will become a vice chairman at Savills and continue to lead T3 Advisors. The buyer didn’t disclose a price.

“The acquisition of T3 will further amplify the life science and technology industry advisory services that Savills can provide to clients on a global basis,” Savills Group CEO Mark Ridley said in a statement. “These are key growth sectors for us and are integral to our continued strategic expansion across North America.”

Though already in a growth mode, life sciences got a boost from the coronavirus pandemic, and the demand for space in life sciences hubs is still expanding, pushed by investment in the sector from private venture capital as well as federal sources like the National Institutes of Health.

Development in the sector is also brisk nationwide. San Diego State University is developing the 80-acre Mission Valley complex, which will include life sciences facilities. In Houston, the 37-acre TMC3 project will seek to gestate ideas from the Texas Medical Center into full-fledged companies. In Pittsburgh, a 1915-vintage Ford Motor plant is being reborn as The Assembly, a $330M biomedical research hub anchored by the University of Pittsburgh. 

Boston, San Francisco and San Diego remain the top U.S. clusters for life sciences, according to JLL, but other markets are emerging quickly, such as Charlotte, Seattle, Denver and Austin.

In New York, which is also a rising life sciences hub, CBRE reports that life sciences leasing has totaled 257.4K SF so far this year, up from 155.9K SF in all of 2020 and 72.4K SF in 2019.