An Atlanta-based real estate investment firm is adding $1B in warehouses and distribution centers to its portfolio from Blackstone’s Link Logistics.

Stonemont, in a joint venture with Los Angeles-based PCCP, bought a 38-building portfolio totaling 5.9M SF in markets including Austin, central Florida, Charlotte, Dallas and Phoenix, the company announced in a Wednesday press release. The projects add to Stonemont’s 15M SF industrial portfolio.

JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo financed the transaction, and Eastdil Secured brokered the debt execution.

“We carefully curated this portfolio by emphasizing properties that sit at the intersection of population growth, cross-border trade activity and tenant demand,” Stonemont President Bryan Blasingame said in the release. “These assets, which consist of bulk and light industrial properties, come with a stable, long-term tenant base.”

Stonemont declined a request to identify the properties it acquired.

The purchase comes as the national industrial market is showing a turnaround from its slower period. For the first time after two years of steady increases, the U.S. vacancy rate fell by 7 basis points to 7.3% in the second quarter, Colliers reported, with Indianapolis, Phoenix, Charleston, South Carolina, and Columbus, Ohio, demonstrating the biggest drops in empty space.

At the same time, companies absorbed 59M SF in the second quarter, more than double the 27M SF tallied in the same period last year and up 17% from the first quarter, according to Colliers. Absorption leaders included Houston at 7.6M SF, Dallas-Fort Worth at 4.7M SF, and Atlanta at 4.5M SF.

Investors have been focused on the Sun Belt and Midwest industrial markets, where demand has been stronger than supply, according to a Marcus & Millichap report.

Link said the artificial intelligence revolution has benefited its industrial portfolio, with 15% of new leases linked to data center-related tenants, Bloomberg reported.

Link has sold other properties in recent months, including a 17K SF warehouse used by FedEx in Boston to Stockbridge Capital Group for $45M and two flex industrial buildings totaling 142K SF in suburban Atlanta to Faropoint in May for $20.1M.

Tratt Properties paid $140 million for a 1.6 million square foot industrial distributuion facility located at 4500 Academy Road in Cookeville, Tennessee. Fully leased to Academy Sports + Outdoors, Tratt Properties acquired the Class A, build-to-suit site from Middleton Partners. Ken Hedrick, Andrew Ragsdale, Phillip Butts, Jonathan Ameen, Will Smith and Spencer Smith at Colliers represented both the buyer and seller during the transaction.

  
Constructed in 2015, the property features approximately 1.6 square feet of warehouse space and approximately 18,901 square feet of office space. The facility is the newest of the tenant’s three U.S. distribution centers, supporting fulfillment for 84 stores across 14 states and the company’s e-commerce operations.

Tratt Properties, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, is engaged in the acquisition and development of institutional-grade logistics and E-commerce properties in key markets throughout the United States.

St. John’s University closed the sale of its Staten Island Campus to Wagner College, ensuring the property’s continued use for higher education and community benefit. The transaction was facilitated by Savills, which represented St. John’s throughout the process.

The project was led by the Savills team of Arthur Mirante and David Carlos, along with Savills corporate managing directors Michael Bertini and Mark Todrys.

“This was a uniquely mission-driven transaction that required a careful balance of financial, institutional, and community considerations,” said Mirante. “We were honored to represent St. John’s and help identify a buyer that shares its educational values and long-term vision for the campus. This is a distinct property, and this has been a special transaction to navigate.”

The sale allows St. John’s to further invest in its core academic programs and facilities across its main campus in Queens and remaining global sites. Wagner College plans to integrate the campus into its institutional footprint.

Ashford Hospitality Trust offloaded a 252-room hotel in the heart of Old Town Alexandria at a sharp discount from the price it paid eight years ago.

The Hilton Alexandria Old Town at 1767 King St.

The Dallas-based REIT sold the Hilton Alexandria Old Town to Charlotte-based Lodging Capital Partners, Ashford revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It said the property sold for $58M in an all-cash deal. 

This is the second time Lodging Capital Partners has owned the property. After owning it for five years, the company sold it to Ashford Hospitality Trust in 2018 for $111M.

Ashford Hospitality Trust and Lodging Capital Partners didn’t respond to Bisnow‘s requests for comment.

The 26-year-old hotel at 1767 King St. sits next to the King Street-Old Town Metro station.

With its 2018 purchase, Ashford had received a $73.5M, five-year interest-only, nonrecourse mortgage, the company revealed at the time. It was the first acquisition under a new agreement expected to benefit from Ashford’s Enhanced Return Funding Program, under which Ashford Inc. would provide equity for the REIT’s acquisitions. 

Ashford’s filing says it paid back $32.5M of the loan along with this sale. It also released financial statements that mention a preliminary “non-recurring loss associated with the disposition of the hotel property.”

The REIT reported a $28.4M operating income loss on the Hilton property in 2025. 

HREC Investment Advisors’ Scott Stephens and Mark Morris brokered the deal on behalf of the seller. 

Ashford, which owns more than 15,000 hotel rooms across the country, was trading on the New York Stock Exchange at $2.60 per share as of 2 p.m. ET Monday, down nearly 60% year-over-year.  

Ashford’s properties range between what it calls luxury and upper midscale. Locally, the REIT owns The Melrose in Georgetown, The Churchill north of Dupont Circle, Embassy Suites hotels in Crystal City and Herndon, the Marriott Gateway in Arlington, Courtyards in Gaithersburg and Crystal City, and the Residence Inn Fairfax. 

Lodging Capital Partners, which also has a national hotel portfolio, provided debt for the 470-room Marriott Georgetown in 2025, according to its website. 

Like the D.C. region, Alexandria’s hotel sector has been struggling over the past year, ALXnow reported in October, citing city data.

While revenue per available room, or RevPAR, in Alexandria increased by 4.5% between July 2024 and January 2025, the metric declined 12.4% between February and April of last year, and it fell 6.5% between May and August. 

By comparison, between May and August, Arlington’s RevPAR was down 7.8%, Fairfax County’s was down 0.5%, D.C.’s was down 9.7%, and Prince George’s County’s was down 4.1%.

Charlotte Motor Speedway has sold land near its famous track in Concord, North Carolina, to the Hendrick Motorsports racing team, the Charlotte Business Journal reported.

An entity connected to Hendrick purchased the 20-acre site at 7001 Bruton Smith Blvd. in Concord’s racing hub for $14M late last month.

This is the second sale between the speedway and Hendrick in the last couple of years. In 2023, Hendrick bought more than 82 acres from the speedway for some $23M.

Earlier this year, Hendrick subsidiary Hendrick Motorsports Technical Solutions opened its two-building, 160K SF headquarters near the Concord campus.

The news comes a day after NASCAR announced a settlement agreement with 23XI Racing and co-owner Michael Jordan on Dec. 11 at the federal courthouse in Charlotte. 

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports Inc. had sued NASCAR in October 2024, accusing it of running a monopoly that curtailed the economic freedom of racing teams. 

As part of the settlement, NASCAR agreed to change its charter, or licensing, system for racing teams, among other concessions. Hendrick Motorsports is one of the only teams to possess four charters.

“This moment presents an important opportunity to strengthen our relationships and recommit ourselves to building a collaborative and prosperous future for all stakeholders,” Hendrick team owner Rick Hendrick said in a statement following the settlement.

In late November, the Charlotte City Council approved a $25M deal to renovate the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Improvements planned for the 16-year-old tourist attraction reportedly include relocating the gift shop and café, adding more event space, obtaining new security screening equipment and creating a dedicated educational space for school groups. 

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.

Sagard Real Estate acquired Grande Oaks, a 270-unit garden-style apartment community located in Roswell, Georgia. Starwood Capital Group was the seller. Commercial Edge reports Starwood initially purchased the community in 2021 for $77.7 million. Sagard plans to execute a value-add renovation program, including upgrading 121 classic units, installing in-unit laundry, enhancing common areas, and refreshing amenities.

Built in 1996, Grande Oaks spans over 311,000 rentable square feet across 11 residential buildings on a 19-acre site. The community features a well-rounded amenity package, including a clubhouse, fitness center, swimming pool, outdoor fireplace, grill and picnic area, children’s playground, car wash, and pet-friendly facilities such as a dog park and pet wash station.

The investment was made in partnership with McCann Realty Partners and Pegasus Residential. This is the second property managed by Pegasus Residential on behalf of Sagard Real Estate.

Lone Star Funds has abandoned 55 Allen Plaza to avoid foreclosure.

Phoenicia Real Estate Holdings took title to the 14-story, 350,000-square-foot building through a deed in lieu of foreclosure. The deal was valued at $57.8 million. Phoenicia is a subsidiary of Aflac Inc. Aflac Global Investments. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported that Lone Star acquired the Property in 2020 for $79 million, using $67.5 million in acquisition financing provided by NXT Capital. 

The office building is part of the Allen Plaza mixed-use project, which is 66% occupied. Its major tenants include EY and design firm ASD|SKY. Selig Enterprises maintains air rights for 55 Allen Plaza, and a new owner will have to make lease payments.

SRS Real Estate Partners recently closed the $2.7-million ground lease acquisition of a Dutch Bros property located at 4085 Cameron Park Dr. in Cameron Park, a suburb of Sacramento. Built in 2024, the 950-square-foot property is situated on 0.87 acres and has a new, 15-year, absolute triple-net corporate-guaranteed lease in place.

VP Alexander Moore represented the buyer, a Sacramento-based private investor who was in a 1031 exchange. The seller was an Oregon-based investment group.

“This investment was ideal for my client as it provided them with a cash-flowing opportunity to have a ground lease with Dutch Bros, a fast-growing drive-thru coffee chain in the affluent Cameron Park area,” said Moore. “It is also proximate to Cameron Park Place Shopping Center and one block away from US Highway 50, providing an excellent location for consumer activity.”

Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors arranged the sale of two standalone buildings occupied by a Chipotle Mexican Grill and an adjacent Starbucks Drive-Thru in Rancho Cucamonga. The sales price was $6.22 million.

EVPs Bill Asher and Jeff Lefko of Hanley represented the seller, Chase Partners Ltd., based in Glendale. The buyer, a private investor based in Los Angeles, was represented by Shirley Kim at Epique Realty, also of Los Angeles.

The property involved a complete rehabilitation of the facility and the expansion of Starbucks by the developer, Chase Partners Ltd., a leading retail and industrial developer in Southern California since 1993. Michael Carter served as the project manager for Chase.

“We generated multiple qualified offers primarily from Southern California-based buyers and leveraged our extensive broker relationships to procure a repeat all-cash buyer, ensuring a smooth and timely closing by year-end,” said Asher.