Portman acquired the Westin Peachtree Plaza, a 1,073-key full-service hotel in downtown Atlanta, from Marriott International. The hotel will remain in Marriott’s portfolio under a long-term management agreement. Portman purchased the property through its Portman Hospitality Fund I. John Portman, the founder of Portman Holdings, designed and developed the tower in the 1970s.

When it opened in 1976, the 73-story cylindrical tower was the tallest hotel in the world. One of Atlanta’s most recognizable landmarks, the mirror-glass building rises 723 feet above downtown and is located near the Georgia World Congress Center, State Farm Arena, Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the Centennial Yards development.

Portman will launch a comprehensive renovation that will reposition the Westin Peachtree Plaza’s guestrooms, public spaces and meeting facilities prior to Super Bowl LXII in 2028.

Before the sale, the Westin Peachtree Plaza was the only Westin hotel that Marriott International owned outright. It mostly manages or franchises hundreds of other Westins across the country.

Newmark Retail secured a new 8,810-square-foot lease with Boggi Milano at the base of 527 Madison Ave., a class A boutique office tower located in Manhattan’s Plaza District. Vice chairman Jeffrey D. Roseman, senior managing director Caleb Petersen and director Drew Weiss represented landlord Mitsui Fudosan America.

“The amount of interest in the space and the speed of which this lease got done is indictive of the overall vibrancy of the retail market in New York City,” said Roseman. “Boggi Milano will be a fresh and exciting addition to the neighborhood.”

Boggi Milano is a luxury Italian menswear brand known for its high-end contemporary clothing, with over 225 locations in more than 58 countries. The tenant secured a long-term lease to occupy the dual-level, corner retail space, encompassing 4,506 square feet on the ground floor and 3,905 square feet on the lower level. The space was formerly occupied by Harman Kardon.

Flacks Group acquired the 180-room Crowne Plaza North Augusta, an IHG Hotel. It’s located on the banks of the Savannah River, a short distance from the iconic Augusta National Golf Club, home of The Masters Tournament.

Built in 2019, the Crowne Plaza North Augusta caters to both business and leisure travelers, especially during key events such as the Masters Tournament and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA). The hotel features meeting spaces and dining options, including the steakhouse Salt + Marrow and the rooftop bar Jackson’s Bluff.

Adjacent to the Augusta GreenJackets’ minor league baseball park and situated within the expanding Riverside Village community, the hotel provides easy access to high-end retail, luxury housing, cultural attractions, and diverse cuisine. Its unique location allows guests to experience the best of Augusta.

Flacks Group was represented by Hodges Ward Elliott and advised by Blue Lotus Ventures in this acquisition. J.P. Morgan provided financing.

Franklin Street Properties Corp. REIT sold Pershing Park Plaza for $34 million, a loss of more than $11 million. In 2016, Franklin Street bought the 160,000-square-foot building for $45.5 million. 28th Street Ventures was the buyer. Will Yowell, Ryan Reethof, Jay O’Meara and Justin Parsonnet with CBRE’s Institutional Office Properties team in Atlanta represented the seller. The nine-story building at 1420 Peachtree Street is where Peachtree and West Peachtree streets meet.

Franklin Street announced the sale in its third-quarter earnings report, saying since December 2020 the company said it has sold select office properties to pay down debt. It allocated $27.4 million from the Pershing Park sale to repay debt.

In it’s quarterly report, Franklin’s George Carter said, “Our directly-owned real estate portfolio of 15 owned properties, totaling approximately 5.0 million square feet, was approximately 70.4% leased as of September 30, 2024, compared to approximately 74.0% leased as of December 31, 2023.”

Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza, an iconic Spanish-styled shopping district, is slated to undergo a long overdue transformation by the property’s new Dallas-based owners.

An affiliate of HP Village Partners, a luxury retail company whose principal owners are descendants of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, father of Kansas City Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, purchased the retail site for $175.6 million in June. The company plans an additional $100 million infrastructure overhaul of the century-old Midwest shopping and dining district.

HP Village Partners includes Heather and Ray Washburne, and Elisa and Stephen Summers, and the group also owns the luxury retail center Highland Park Village in Dallas. The improvements will include cleanup, repaving streets, storefront upgrades, lighting, landscaping and re-tenanting the center, reported the Dallas Business Journal.

Built in 1922, The Country Club Plaza is 1.3 million square feet and spans 15 blocks. The Plaza’s retail space is 804,000 square feet, and it also has 219,000 square feet of office space.

Continental Realty Corporation, on behalf of Continental Realty Fund IV, L.P., has completed the sale of Ridge Plaza, a nearly 140,000 square-foot retail center located at 9000-9200 W State Rd 84 in Davie, Florida, for $22.25 million. JLL represented CRC in the sales transaction.

After acquiring the asset in 2017, the Baltimore-based real estate investment company individually sold all six of the free-standing pad sites at the center for a total price of about $13.1 million. One of those pad sites was a vacant land parcel that was ultimately sold to a local medical office group to develop their own building. With the sale of the shopping center, CRC generated a total exit value of approximately $35.35 million, compared to the company’s purchase price of $21.3 million.

Located in Broward County, Ridge Plaza was approximately 99 percent leased at the time of sale. Anchored by Paragon Theaters, Goodwill Industries and Off The Wall, the center consists of about 15 retailers, restaurants, and other specialty service providers.

Multiple groups bid Thursday for the unfinished Oceanwide Plaza mixed-use development in Downtown Los Angeles, which was forced into bankruptcy in February of this year, Connect CRE has learned. An auction is scheduled for mid-September. 

Industry sources familiar with the sale process told Connect that AEG Worldwide was rumored to be the front runner and had gone as far as retaining the project’s original architect. The development site is proximate to AEG’s LA Live and Crypto.com Arena, which have faced strong competition from the Hollywood Park mega-development in nearby Inglewood. However, AEG was not among the bidders who submitted offers on Thursday. 

A key hurdle that any buyer would need to surmount is the question of financing: not so much to acquire the project, but rather to finish construction on it. The project has been appraised as-is at $434 million by Colliers as part of the Oceanwide Plaza bankruptcy proceedings. Completing the three-tower residential, retail and hotel complex could mean spending twice that amount. 

In July, a mystery bidder surfaced who offered to serve as a stalking horse for the upcoming auction. The bidder offered to take control of the property for $500 million if no more compelling bids emerged, according to published reports. It’s not clear whether the stalking-horse bidder is still participating.

Work on the project at 1100-1198 S. Flower St. was halted in 2020 after the project’s developer, China Oceanwide, ran out of funding. The bankruptcy was initiated by creditors who hadn’t been paid for their work, including construction manager Lendlease. 

In May, a Colliers team led by EVP Mark Tarczynski and a Hilco Real Estate team led by EVP Jeffrey Azuse were hired to spearhead the sale and potential completion of Oceanwide Plaza. The project, one of the largest stalled developments in the U.S., made headlines earlier this year when taggers covered much of it with graffiti. 

Progressive Real Estate Partners arranged the $3.5-million all-cash sale of a 7-Eleven anchored triple-net retail strip center at 728 W. Vernon Ave. in Los Angeles. The 6,300-square foot, three-tenant center is fully leased. 

President Brad Umansky, CCIM and investment sales advisor Lance Mordachini represented both parties in the transaction.  The seller was a Los Angeles County-based private investor and repeat client of Progressive Real Estate.  The buyer was a private Los Angeles County-based investor and business operator who also owns other retail properties in the trade area. 

 Mordachini said, “The 7-Eleven corporate lease and high-density Los Angeles trade area sparked a lot of interest resulting in multiple offers for the property. We were able to identify a highly qualified and motivated cash buyer with a proven track record in the trade area and went from listing to close in just 74 days.”