Milan Capital Management and Arc Capital Partners said dd’s DISCOUNTS, a value-focused retailer, will join the tenant roster at The Plant Shopping Center in San Jose. The new 18,045-square-foot store will be located at the prominent intersection of Curtner Avenue and Monterey Road, filling a long-vacant space. 

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome dd’s DISCOUNTS to The Plant,” said Chris Nichelson, president of Milan Capital Management, which acquired the shopping center with Arc Capital last summer. “This addition further strengthens our vision of transforming The Plant into a vibrant, high-traffic retail destination.”

Scheduled to open its doors in June 2025, dd’s DISCOUNTS will occupy a prime location between Vallarta Supermarkets (planned opening in 2026) and Target. This strategic positioning is expected to drive significant foot traffic, reinforcing The Plant’s position as a key retail destination for the San Jose community.

Will Bryson of Atlantic Retail represented ownership, while Carol Therien of Retail Pacific represented dd’s DISCOUNTS.

Not long ago Pallidus had plans to build a a $443 million semiconductor plant in Rock Hill. The company was eyeing two buildings at 1786 and 1800 Overview Drive for not only the new plant, but offices as well. They were also looking to hire over 400 workers.

The Charlotte Business Journal reports the company pulled the plug on the project in October of last year and laid off 44% of its workforce and now the complex is back on the market. Avison Young’s Chris Loyd, Tom Tropeano and Henry Lobb are leading marketing efforts for the buildings, which are owned by Calare Properties.

Called Overview Center, the larger building is a 212,263-square-foot former manufacturing facility. It includes over 50,000 square feet of office space. The smaller building is a 74,934-square-foot building — which was constructed in 2021 — and includes 1,500 square feet of office space. The buildings are in Waterford Business Park near Waterford Golf Club.

Hendrick Motorsports is proposing a $35 million investment to develop a 260,000-square-foot manufacturing facility adjacent to its Concord campus.

The Charlotte Business Journal reports that the town has proposed incentives for the project, which are valued at $124,950.

The facility is expected to be developed on a 27-acre site at 4295 Defender Way NW in Concord. The site is less than two miles from Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Assuming the project moves forward, it would join two other recent advanced manufacturing investments from Hendrick Motorsports in Concord.

The first project, announced in January 2023, called for a $15 million investment. Hendrick was also plotting a speculative advanced manufacturing facility of 269,500 square feet. The city also incentivized the project, which appears to be similar to the most recent proposal.

Canyon Partners Real Estate LLC, Ascendant Capital Partners and Bond Companies have formed a joint venture to support the development of Inspire Sonoran Desert, a 560-unit, Class A multifamily community in the North Valley submarket of Phoenix. Kennedy Wilson provided the JV with a senior construction loan of an undisclosed amount.

North Valley has experienced rapid growth in recent years, following TSMC’s announcement to build a multi-phase semiconductor plant in the submarket. Inspire Sonoran Desert will be one of the closest communities in the market to TSMC.

Inspire Sonoran Desert marks Canyon’s ninth investment in the Phoenix area over the past five years. Canyon has been an active provider of debt and equity in Arizona and continues to invest in real estate projects in primary and secondary markets across the U.S. For Kennedy Wilson, the construction loan is the latest in an active year for its debt investment platform.

CH Realty Partners secured a $50 million loan to refinance its 150,000-square-foot industrial facility in the Greenville-Spartanburg market. The facility, located at 260 Midway Dr. Union, South Carolina, was a build-to-suit designed for bio-tech company MycoWorks. The refinancing with 3650 Capital will enable MycoWorks to expand its production capacity. 

The facility is a hub for MycoWorks, known for using mycelium, a mushroom-based material used to create leather alternatives. The firm’s proprietary Fine Mycelium platform has enabled a new class of materials that are the next evolution in mycelium.

Built in 2023, the facility’s design and location on 25 acres are tailored to MycoWorks’ unique manufacturing needs. The plant utilizes robotics, digital analytics, and artificial intelligence to automate 80% of its production process, providing high-quality material at a scalable level.

The facility provides over 350 jobs in the City of Union. 

The Integral Group unveiled Veranda at Assembly, a residential phase of the master-planned development on the site of the former General Motors plant. Assembly is a 165-acre mixed-use development that has already introduced commercial, entertainment, and job opportunities to the region.

Once home to 4,500 jobs, the Assembly site sat idle after GM’s closure in 2008. The Assembly development commenced in 2014 when Integral, in partnership with Consolidated Asset Management Services and Macauley Schmit & Associates, acquired the site for $50 million. After it bought the property, Integral oversaw the demolition of four million square feet of buildings along with the remediation efforts.

Integral recently delivered 100 residential units specifically designed for seniors, with some homes addressing the need for affordable housing. The $45 million project, located at 5955 Peachtree Road, received financing through 9 percent low-income housing tax credits allocated by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. McShane Construction was the contractor on the project.

Veranda at Assembly marks the completion of The Integral Group’ involvement at the site. Integral’s early developments included Third Rail Studios, Serta Simmons Bedding’s Headquarters, and Asbury Automotive. 

A new battery manufacturing plant is set to open at the Kingsboro megasite in Edgecombe County. Natron Energy, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, plans to invest $1.4 billion in the operation, which is expected to create up to 1,000 new jobs nine miles east of downtown Rocky Mount.

The site will produce sodium-ion carbide batteries, an alternative to lithium-ion technology. They are designed for medium—and low-speed electric vehicles, such as bicycles, and are viable options for large-scale energy storage solutions. Sodium is a much more available element than lithium.

Natron is likely to receive more than $50 million in state and local grants.

Natron Energy opened the first U.S. sodium-ion battery plant at its Michigan headquarters earlier this year. Natron claims sodium-ion solutions outperform, are significantly safer, and are far more sustainable than lithium-ion options.

Solar panel maker Qcells has given its conditional commitment to a $1.45 billion federal loan guarantee to build a solar supply chain manufacturing facility in Cartersville, Georgia.

Qcells’ facility will manufacture ingots, wafers, cells, and finished panels at a multi-gigawatt scale. Qcells is investing more than $2.5 billion to boost domestic solar manufacturing.

Between Qcells’ factory in Dalton and progress in Cartersville, the company’s full annual solar production capacity in Georgia is anticipated to reach 8.4 GW by the end of this year, which is enough solar to power nearly 1.3 million homes a year. 

The loan was granted despite a two-year oversupply of solar panels accumulated in U.S. warehouses, which caused solar panel prices to nosedive, according to the US Energy Department.

While this conditional commitment indicates DOE’s intent to finance the project, the company must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions before the Department enters into definitive financing documents and funds the loan.