Advance Realty Investors has launched Continuum, a purpose-built life science and advanced manufacturing campus planned for up to 1.1 million square feet of new construction, set across 60-plus acres along U.S. Route 202/206 in Bridgewater, Somerset County, NJ. JLL has been exclusively engaged to lead leasing for the campus, which offers build-to-suit opportunities tailored to a range of users across the life sciences and advanced manufacturing spectrum. 

With an approved site plan and Phase I construction underway, Continuum is advancing toward delivery. The project is supported by a long-term PILOT agreement with the Township of Bridgewater. 

“Continuum reflects a fundamental shift in how research & development environments are conceived and delivered,” said Peter Cocoziello, president and CEO of Advance Realty Investors. “Rather than isolated facilities, today’s users require connected ecosystems that support the full lifecycle of innovation, from discovery through production and distribution. Continuum is designed to meet that need, bringing together R&D, advanced manufacturing, and logistics within a single, newly constructed campus environment that enhances efficiency, accelerates timelines, and supports collaboration at scale.” 

Sterling Realty Organization (SRO), a fifth-generation real estate corporation with commercial assets in the Puget Sound and Salt Lake City markets, has announced a major leadership team transition.

President Tom Gilchrist will now become executive chairman of the board, and Matthew Skager will take over as SRO president, as longtime chairman David Schooler retires. A well-known leader in downtown Bellevue, Schooler had a long career at SRO. Before being named executive chairman in 2015, he served as the company president for 21 years.

Gilchrist has served in numerous positions at SRO, including controller, treasurer, vice president and other positions throughout his 40-year career at the company. As a key contributor at SRO during his 12-year tenure at the organization, Skager has worked closely with Gilchrist, progressing from roles including chief financial officer, chief operating officer and vice president.

Sila Realty Trust, Inc. and Blue Owl Capital Inc. said Monday that certain affiliates of Blue Owl Real Estate Capital LLC will acquire all outstanding shares of Sila’s common stock for $30.38 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $2.4 billion. Based in Tampa, Sila owns 137 net-leased healthcare properties and three undeveloped land parcels, located in 65 markets nationwide.

“I am extremely proud of the company that we have built at Sila Realty Trust,” said Michael A. Seton, president and CEO of Tampa-based Sila. “Our success in curating a portfolio of high-quality net lease healthcare properties is a testament to the vision, skill, dedication, and culture to which all my colleagues have contributed.”

At New York City-based Blue Owl, Marc Zahr, co-president and global head of real assets, said, “This transaction provides us with a compelling opportunity to acquire a scaled portfolio with durable cash flows and attractive long‑term growth characteristics, while further expanding Blue Owl managed funds’ exposure to an asset class and sector we view as both resilient and essential given its critical role in both society and the economy.”

The transaction, which was unanimously approved by Sila’s board, is expected to close in the second or third quarter of 2026. Upon completion, Sila will no longer trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

BofA Securities is serving as Sila’s exclusive financial advisor. Hogan Lovells US LLP is serving as the Company’s legal counsel.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. is acting as lead financial advisor to Blue Owl with Truist Securities, Inc. also acting as financial advisor and Newmark Group, Inc. serving as real estate advisor. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal advisor to Blue Owl. Dechert LLP is serving as legal advisor to Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Truist Securities, Inc.

Digital Realty has closed its inaugural U.S. hyperscale development fund, an effort that represents a new approach to securing development capital for the world’s largest data center provider.

At the same time, the public REIT signaled a renewed commitment to pursuing private capital strategies to fund new data center build-out, announcing the hire of two executives to help lead its dedicated fund team. 

A Digital Realty data center in Ontario, Canada

The closure of Digital Realty’s first private development fund comes almost exactly a year after it was launched. The fund received $3.25B from a range of institutional investors — including public pensions, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations, corporate pensions, insurance and asset managers, and family offices — to support more than $10B of new hyperscale investment. 

The fund owns 80% of a portfolio of Digital Realty’s stabilized data centers and preleased development sites, including properties in Northern Virginia, Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte, New York and Northern California. Digital Realty maintains a 20% ownership stake and manages the fund. 

Creating a private development fund was a novel approach to leveraging existing data centers to raise the capital needed to build new ones — a major challenge for developers across the digital infrastructure space. The arrangement allows institutional investors to receive a steady stream of income from the fully leased data centers, while Digital Realty uses the invested capital to cover predevelopment and development costs without relying on project-specific debt. 

Digital Realty told investors the fund is part of a $15B liquidity pool from private capital it calls “dry powder” to bank land and power ahead of demand to be able to deliver capacity on short timelines when Big Tech tenants need it.

“We remain focused on sourcing and delivering hyperscale data center capacity to support our customers’ accelerating requirements, and private capital is playing an increasingly important role in how we prudently and efficiently scale PlatformDIGITAL,” Digital Realty Chief Investment Officer Greg Wright said Monday in a written statement.

“Strengthening our private capital capabilities enhances our customer focus, expands our ability to fund growth, and positions Digital Realty for durable long-term value creation.”

Digital Realty plans to continue using this new private capital strategy to augment the on-balance-sheet financing strategies it has traditionally used to fund new development, announcing Monday that it is adding a pair of experienced executives with private capital and fund management backgrounds to its leadership team. 

Former CBRE Senior Managing Director Michael Yang will join Digital Realty as the firm’s executive director for fund management. Yang previously held various investment management roles at Goldman Sachs, NEPC, GID and AEW Capital Management.

The company also brought on Bradley Petersen to serve as managing director for private capital fundraising. Prior to Digital Realty, Peterson held a similar position at Jamestown LP following stints at Garrison Investment Group and Aetos Capital Real Estate.

A California investment firm picked up a data center built in 1992 near Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The 760 Doug Davis Drive data center purchased by Menlo Equities.

An affiliate of Menlo Park, California-based Menlo Equities purchased 760 Doug Davis Drive in Hapeville for $65.5M from Digital Doug Davis LLC, an entity registered to the Dallas address of Digital Realty Trust, according to Fulton County records.

The 383K SF facility is off Virginia Avenue and just outside the airport. Digital Realty purchased the facility from Delta Air Lines in 2011 for $63M, according to the Reonomy real estate database.

Neither firm responded to a request for comment as of press time. 

Menlo bought the 33-year-old data center for $171 per SF, a relative bargain compared to the $300 per SF average for data center sales in Georgia over the past year, according to data from Avison Young. The average data center sold for  $465 per SF nationally. 

Buying older data centers and spending to upgrade their power capacity makes sense considering Georgia Power is fielding 8 gigawatts of pent-up demand from potential data center users in Georgia, Avison Young associate Nick Steen said. 

“For an existing data center, upsizing the power is a great opportunity,” Steen said.

Atlanta is the fastest-growing and second-largest data center market in the country after developers tripled capacity by more than 1,200 megawatts over the past year, according to CBRE. The metro area led all major data center markets in 2024 with 700 MW of absorption.

Menlo has been an active investor in the metro area market. In 2020, the firm purchased 30 Ivan Allen Blvd., the 15-story, 281K SF office building in Downtown Atlanta overlooking the Interstate 75-85 interchange. Menlo also purchased the empty office portion of Lincoln Properties’ Echo Street West development in December for around $60M.

Digital Realty owns three other data centers in Metro Atlanta, including the 10-story 56 Marietta St. colocation tower in Downtown Atlanta. Digital Realty also filed an application in May to develop a 1.9M SF data center campus on 97 acres within the former U.S. Army base Fort Gillem in Forest Park. 

The REIT plans to create a mix of hyperscale and colocation facilities at the Fort Gillem project, citing the site’s proximity to Downtown Atlanta, vacancy rates of less than 1% and competitive-costing power as lures for the project, Digital Realty Chief Investment Officer Greg Wright said during an April earnings call. 

The firm also announced a new data center campus in Charlotte earlier this year.

“We think those are both critical markets for us, as we’re really excited to have between those two projects over 600 MW of developable capacity,” Wright said.

Data center REIT Digital Realty is looking to build a pair of large-scale campuses in Charlotte and Atlanta that together could total as much as 600 megawatts of capacity.

A Digital Realty data center in Northern Virginia

In Charlotte, Digital Realty filed plans last week for what would be North Carolina’s largest data center campus, GovTech reports. The 156-acre campus would house more than 3M SF of data center space across two buildings, with the two-phase project ultimately yielding as much as 400 megawatts of capacity. 

The Dallas-based data center giant acquired the site, located 12 miles west of downtown Charlotte at 12899 Moore’s Chapel Road, in November for $160M, according to the Charlotte Business Journal. The parcel is undeveloped but sits next to a major logistics complex used by Amazon. Rezoning approval from the Charlotte City Council will be required for the project to move forward as planned. 

Further expansion in Charlotte is likely to follow for Digital Realty, with the company’s leadership saying on its quarterly earnings call Thursday that the firm has acquired three additional parcels in the Queen City. One of those parcels is adjacent to the Moore’s Chapel Road site — a 48-acre property that the company acquired for $20M. 

The other two properties are adjacent to the company’s existing data center in the city — a 2-megawatt facility that the firm says it will expand to a 12-megawatt campus. The two downtown parcels were acquired for a combined $16M.

 In Georgia, Digital Realty plans to build a 200-megawatt campus on 97 acres in the Atlanta suburb of Forest Park, company leaders said on the earnings call. The vacant property was acquired last quarter from TPA Group for $120M, according to CoStar. Digital Realty already has three data centers in the Atlanta market: two in downtown Atlanta and one in nearby Douglas County.  

In addition to its land acquisitions and development plans, Digital Realty also revealed Thursday that it launched a $10B hyperscale-focused data center fund focused on U.S. markets. The fund, which raised $1.7B in the first closing, includes five operating properties and four development sites, with assets located in Northern Virginia, Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte, New York and Northern California. 

Digital Realty’s development plans capped a strong first quarter for the REIT, which reported data center revenues up 7% year-over-year and a record leasing backlog of $919M. The firm’s development pipeline grew to 814 megawatts, 63% of which is already preleased. 

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. 

Cambridge Realty Capital has provided $43,360,100 in HUD-insured Section 223(f) financing for four senior housing properties located in Illinois, Washington, and Iowa.

According to Cambridge’s Managing Director Tony Marino, the Illinois transactions consisted of two affordable rental apartment properties for seniors totaling 196 units located in Chicago, Illinois.

The Washington transaction was provided to South Pointe, a 42-bed assisted living facility located in Everett. The Iowa financing was provided to Gardens of Cedar Rapids, a 112-bed facility in Cedar Rapids that offers skilled care, assisted living, and memory care services.

Cambridge’s early rate lock program was utilized, which allowed the owners to lock rates before all HUD approvals were obtained. This enabled each borrower to mitigate risk associated with rising interest rates and contributed to a more predictable and efficient HUD execution, including assurance that the financings included sufficient funds to complete long-term repairs and improvements.

Register Today to “Be in the Room” when Michael Brennan receives Connect CRE’s Lifetime Achievement Award and will participate in the Keynote Interview with Kevin Brennan, also of Brennan Investment Group. Join us at Connect Industrial Midwest 2025 on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 5, at Joe’s Live in Rosemont, IL, for this exclusive presentation! 

M&T Realty Capital Corporation provided $38.71 million in financing for 29-17 40th Ave., a 103-unit affordable property in a Long Island City Qualified Opportunity Zone. Loan originators Matt Newton and Todd Trehubenko of the M&T RCC office in Boston arranged the Freddie Mac Targeted Affordable Housing loan on behalf of The Davis Companies, SB Development and Hazelton Capital Group.

“By working closely with the sponsors and Freddie Mac’s Targeted Affordable Housing group in this challenging interest rate environment, we were able to execute on a timeline that fit the needs of the sponsors’ business plan for this Opportunity Zone project,” said Newton. “The dedication from all parties was crucial in getting this deal across the finish line.”

Twelve of the units at 29-17 40th Ave. will be restricted to tenants earning 130% of the Area Median Income and 19 will be restricted to those earning 80%.