American Lions, a joint venture between Fetner Properties and Lions Group, has launched leasing at The Italic, a 50-story residential tower located at 26-32 Jackson Ave. in Long Island City. The Italic is the sister building of The Bold, located across the street.

“This evolving neighborhood has shown tremendous growth, and we’re excited to contribute to that by adding more high-quality housing,” said Hal Fetner, president and CEO of Fetner Properties.

The Italic’s 363 rental apartments range from studios to three-bedrooms. Of these, 109 units are designated as affordable. The building also includes 20,000 square feet of commercial space and offers direct access to Court Square subway station.

Amenities at the property include a communal lounge, a fitness center, two bay golf simulators, a basketball court, coworking spaces and a rooftop terrace with panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline. A standalone feature is the building’s full demonstration cooking kitchen.

Hilco Consumer-Retail said Wednesday it will manage store closings for American Freight, which is shuttering all 328 of its locations nationwide. The closings occur as part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of Franchise Group, Inc. (FRG), the parent of American Freight, which said the decision to wind down the furniture and appliance retailer was due to “sustained inflation and macroeconomic challenges facing the large durable goods sector.” 

FRG undertook the Chapter 11 filing at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware in part to position its strongest brands—Pet Supplies Plus, The Vitamin Shoppe and Buddy’s Home Furnishings—for continued growth. Franchise operations of the three brands are not part of the filing.  

“Each of these businesses has a demonstrated value proposition and provides great products and services to customers, which they will continue to do seamlessly during this process,” said Andrew Laurence, FRG’s president and CEO. “Strengthening FRG’s balance sheet will allow us to enhance our support for these businesses as they advance their growth trajectories.” 

Uprite Construction recently held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Advantech North American Headquarters in Tustin. The project marks the first development in the South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD) Technology Park, located on the grounds of the former Marine Corps Air Station Tustin.

This past January, Advantech, a Taiwan-based computer maker, signed a 75-year ground lease for a 9.5-acre site in the SOCCCD Technology Park in a deal arranged by Kidder Mathews’ Eric Tse and Oliver Ternate, SIOR. The site will contain a six-story, 108,942-square-foot build-to-suit office building and a two-story, 78,837-square-foot warehouse facility, which will be used for storage, light manufacturing, repairing, and packaging of non-hazardous industrial computer-related products.

The Uprite Construction Southwest Office attended the groundbreaking, alongside design partners Herdman Architecture + Design, Inc., Zatu Design Build Architects, HSA & Associates, Inc. and Grimm & Chen Structural Engineering, Inc. The project is expected to take 24 months to complete.

Jamestown will acquire the Atlanta subsidiary of Cincinnati-based North American Properties (NAP). The Atlanta subsidiary, which has $2 billion in assets under management as of June 2024, is an owner/operator and real estate services provider of mixed-use properties in suburban, high-growth markets across the Eastern U.S.

As part of the transaction, a Jamestown affiliate will invest in several Atlanta area retail centers. These centers include Colony Square (Atlanta, Georgia), The Forum Peachtree Corners (Peachtree Corners, Georgia) and Avenue East Cobb (Marietta, Georgia). The deal also included a handful of out-of-state lifestyle centers.

Upon closing, the Atlanta-based operating platform and its assets will move forward under the Jamestown name—as will its more than 200 employees.

Established in 1996, the NAP subsidiary positioned itself as a boutique, full-service developer pursuing opportunistic returns. This allowed the subsidiary to assemble a portfolio of underutilized lifestyle destinations and maximize their potential through value-add, experiential redevelopment projects.

Progressive Real Estate Partners’ Roxanne “Roxy” Klein represented an American Family Care (AFC) franchisee in a lease for a 4,452 square-foot space at 2795 Cabot Dr. #157 in Corona.  Lease terms were not disclosed. The space is in the popular Dos Lagos open-air shopping center which is directly adjacent to the heavily traveled I-15 freeway and features Trader Joes, Starlight Cinemas, Wood Ranch BBQ & Grill, TGI Fridays, Loft, Express and more than 50 other tenants.

Klein previously represented the same franchisee in a lease for an AFC clinic in Chino Hills, which opened last summer. The Corona clinic will showcase AFC’s new prototype.

Founded in 1982, AFC is one of the nation’s leading providers of urgent care, primary care and occupational medicine. Currently there are more than 300 AFC clinics throughout the U.S., with 1,500 in-network physicians caring for patients. 

Last year, Tampa-based American Landmark Apartments went on a buying spree, picking up 30 assets with about 6,000 units worth $1.7B. This year, it wants to buy up to $2B more.

Courtesy of Joe Lubeck

American Landmark CEO Joe Lubeck

American Landmark now owns about 33,000 units in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. The National Multifamily Housing Council ranked it the 44th-largest apartment owner in the country in 2019. By next year, it hopes to own more than 40,000 apartments, it announced this week.

The company is encouraged by growth in the Sun Belt and the ongoing appetite from foreign and domestic investors, it said in a statement. It will seek Class-A-minus and B product in secondary markets in the Southeast.

“Strong population and job growth continues to fuel demand for apartments in metros across the Southeast, and retirees/seniors are also entering the rental market in droves,” CEO Joe Lubeck said in a statement. “While the market has become very competitive and overheated in some areas, our disciplined focus on workforce housing, and unprecedented access to off-market or special situation transactions, gives us a distinct competitive advantage, and will allow us to continue to be highly selective and produce exceptional returns for our investors.”

Lubeck told GlobeSt that he was attracted to cities like Charlotte, Raleigh, Atlanta and Nashville for future acquisitions.

“Jobs, jobs, jobs is our mantra — we go where there’s job growth, which follows population growth,” he said. 

American Landmark said its 2018 Multifamily Fund II raised $462M from institutional and private investors. Its 2019 Multifamily Fund III has a target raise of $500M. So far, that capital was been used to buy a nine-property, 2,578-unit apartment portfolio in December for approximately $400M.