Amwins is building a 15-story, 250,000-square-foot office tower at the former Sharon Station site, located at 4415 Sharon Road. It plans to use the site as its headquarters.

The Charlotte Business Journal reports the tower will house nine office floors atop six parking levels as well as a lobby and about 7,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. The new offices will replace six structures currently on the site. They are expected to be demolished next week.

Delivery is expected in 2.5 years. Amwins plans to begin moving its more than 500 employees into the space during the fourth quarter of 2028.

The Keith Corp., is developing the site. Brasfield & Gorrie is lead contractor and LS3P Associates and Redline Design Group will be the architects. Thrift Commercial Real Estate Services is handling retail leasing for the project.

Amwins acquired the site from local developer Childress Klein in December 2024 for $16.8 million,.

Site work is wrapping up and construction workers are ready to start building on what will be a $3 billion development in Apex. The Triangle Business Journal reports RXR is developing the 1,200-acre Veridea site, which will start with two industrial buildings totaling 213,000 square feet. 1.3 million square feet of warehouse space is planned.

Summit House, the first apartment building, will go vertical in a few weeks with first delivery of units by the end of 2027 and completion in early 2028. Summit House will have 291 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments in a four-story complex.

Other components of the venture include Veridea Crossing, the 220,000 square foot retail and office space within East Village. It will start opening in early 2028. That includes an anchor grocer opening in 2029. Construction on the Wake Tech’s new campus will start by the end of this year with a targeted opening in fall 2029 with 3,000 students.

Construction on the NC Children’s Hospital is expected to start in summer 2027, with the first phases delivering in 2031. 

Despite the uncertainty in the U.S. economy, commercial real estate remains largely resilient. The multifamily, retail and industrial sectors are all strong, and there are several strong investment opportunities in these markets, as well as in workforce housing, office and more. 

Of course, these opportunities aren’t worth much if investors don’t know how to take advantage of them properly. From selecting the wrong site to making zoning errors, several things can go wrong when looking to buy, sell, lease, finance or develop commercial real estate. 

This is why it is important to work with a CRE professional who fully understands the ins and outs of the industry. According to Steve Rich, Colliers Charlotte director of retail services, there are no more knowledgeable CRE professionals than those who have earned a Certified Commercial Investment Member Designation, or CCIM.

Rich is the global president of The CCIM Institute, and he said that to earn a CCIM Designation, a professional needs to not only have a vast portfolio of CRE experience but also take four designation classes, a negotiations class and pass a final exam. 

“It’s like earning a master’s in CRE while also proving that you have expertise and experience,” Rich said. “There are no easy deals in CRE, but CCIM professionals are people with a proven record who know how to successfully complete a transaction.” 

Rich said that research shows that, on average, CCIMs close 42% more transactions each year than those without the designation. He spoke with Bisnow about why people who are interested in making the most out of the CRE market should work with a CCIM.  

Benefiting From Education And Experience

The coursework needed to complete the designation includes a rigorous financial analysis course, which covers time, value, money, net present value, debt coverage ratio, discounted cash flows and evaluating hold-sell decisions. The market analysis course focuses on supply and demand and competitive positioning.

The user decision analysis course teaches how to identify key market drivers, such as labor force, customer access, regulatory environment, supply chains and whether to lease or own. The fourth class, investment analysis, brings everything together with lessons on forecasting future cash flows, appreciation, tax implications and more.  

All this knowledge sets CCIMs up to help their clients make the most informed decisions and avoid common pitfalls that can come with CRE transitions, Rich said.

Avoiding Pitfalls 

Rich said there are several common mistakes that CRE investors and developers can make that a CCIM can help them avoid. For example, selecting a bad location or site.   

“There are several things to consider when analyzing a site, including labor force, growth patterns, absorption, gap analysis and financial feasibility, to name a few,” he said. “A CCIM designee has this expertise.”       

Uncovering Opportunities 

Rich said that thanks to the tools he has access to and the knowledge he has gained as a CCIM, he can help clients unlock new, more lucrative opportunities. He spoke about a client who is a franchisee for a national sub sandwich chain who was looking to open a new shop. 

Rich conducted a retail market potential analysis of the trade area his client was looking at and discovered that 92% of the people had visited a fast-food restaurant in the last six months. While that number is typical in the U.S., he also discovered that 18% of people in the area had ordered delivery from a fast-food restaurant, which was 48% more than the U.S. average. He also discovered that within a mile of the space his client was considering, 35% more people than the national average were going to sub or deli-style restaurants.  

“This additional information allowed my client to better understand the location and potential success of his restaurant,” Rich said. “I am confident the information I provide him is why he has been a client of mine for over 20 years.”

He said that when analyzing the CRE market overall, he has noticed many national retail chains are reducing the size of the brick-and-mortar spaces and blending them with e-commerce and curbside pickup. He is also seeing a rise in experiential retail, where stores are implementing everything from pickleball courts and adventure courses to wedding venues in their spaces to draw in customers.  

Utilizing Proven Expertise 

The bottom line is that when clients work with a CCIM, they can feel confident that they are working with someone with proven expertise in CRE, Rich said. 

“A CCIM has the education and the experience in CRE to get complex deals done,” he said. “CCIMs don’t just complete more deals — they help their clients minimize risk and maximize value.”  

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and The CCIM Institute. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.  

Highland Resources broke ground on the infrastructure for Magnolia Landing, a planned mixed-use community located along the Ashley River in Charleston. Spanning 192 acres, the community will offer a blend of parks, marinas, residential and hospitality offerings, office space, retail shops, restaurants, waterfront docks and a variety of entertainment options, all set against more than a mile of river frontage.

Magnolia Landing’s first phase includes a high-rise waterfront community and a mid-rise community, both developed by Woodfield Development, offering 600 rental residences. Additionally, the community will include 158 luxury townhomes delivered by a prominent national developer during this first phase.

The first phase will also feature a waterfront office building, offering 100,000 square feet of Class-A office space in addition to 75,000 square feet of street-level retail, gourmet restaurants and other commercial space. And finally, the first phase will include a 125-key hotel, a marina and four restaurants.

Magnolia Landing expects to welcome its first residents in 2027.

IPB, a subsidiary of Bosa Properties announced that on-site work is underway for the first of three towers of the Motley on its development at the site of Midtown’s former dairy factory.

The Nashville Post reports that the Motley will be built in three phases. The first phase will offer a 26-story residential tower with 326 units. It will have more than 14,000 square feet of ground-level retail, as well as an amenity level with a fitness center, dog run, golf simulator and pool.

The next two phases include two more residential towers, one standing 32 stories tall and the other height not yet determined. At completion, the project will include 1,197 units. 

In 2022, IPB Properties paid a collective $80.7 million for the Midtown project site in separate transactions.

The land at 1401 Church St. was last home to the operation of dairy supplier Country Delite Farms, which Dairy Farmers of America shuttered in February 2022. A late 2027 completion is expected for the project.

High Street Residential (HSR), the residential subsidiary of Trammell Crow Company, has broken ground on the Residences at Perimeter Summit. The seven-story, 350-unit mid-rise multifamily community is located in Brookhaven, Georgia. HSR paid $11.5 million for the property at 1251 Perimeter Summit Pkwy. The project is part of Perimeter Summit, a mixed-use community consisting of 1.7 million square feet of office and retail space across four buildings, a 182-room hotel, and a condo building.

The Residences at Perimeter Summit will include units from 900 square feet to mid-1,400 square feet. Unit amenities will include private balconies in select units. The project will also boast amenities such as an elevated pool, three spacious courtyards, a 1,200-square-foot speakeasy lounge, a fitness center, a clubroom, a coworking center, private conference and study rooms, a tasting room, a pet spa, and a golf simulator.
 
Cooper Carry is leading the design of the project, and New South Construction is providing construction services for the development

Skender has completed construction on a 38,000-square-foot facility expansion for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

The new prepared meals center, located at 4100 W. Ann Lurie Place, was completed seven weeks ahead of schedule and has enabled the food bank to increase its response to hunger with the capacity to distribute up to 10,000 scratch-made meals per day.

The project team included JLL as owner’s rep, Partners by Design as an architect, Skender as a general contractor, V3 Companies as a civil engineer, Buro Happold as a structural engineer, Salas O’Brien as a mechanical engineer, and PM&E Partners as food processing engineer.

The expansion added a commercial kitchen for meal preparation, cold storage spaces to support the food preparation areas, a new lobby and 11.5 acres of site work. Skender also coordinated and facilitated the installation of a singular Hydroponic Container Farming Unit.

“The Greater Chicago Food Depository is a pillar of our community, and it’s been an honor to help them expand and serve more people than ever before,” said Eric Fiket, Senior Project Manager and Team Leader at Skender.

Michael Brennan will receive 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!

Ray and VeLa are again combining on a multifamily community, this one in Nashville. The 32-story, 367-unit Ray Nashville project will be valued at $211 million.  Construction financing for Ray Nashville was provided by J.P. Morgan and Monroe Capital and arranged by Walker & Dunlop. Ray Nashville is designed by architectural firm Johnston Marklee & Associates in partnership with Lamar Johnson Collaborative. Layton is the contractor.

Located in the Pie Town neighborhood at 601 Lafayette Street, the 32-story tower will encompass 575,000 square feet of developed space. Units will range from studios to three bedrooms. Amenities will include an indoor-outdoor fitness center, yoga studio, spa, lounge, outdoor pool, dog wash stations, coworking spaces and public and private parking. The project will include 4,700 square feet of retail and a public gallery on the ground floor that will showcase pieces from Nashville-based artists. Estimated completion is 2027.  The two firms recently broke ground on Ray Phoenix in Arizona.

Gateway Jax received the go-ahead on the first of five blocks for its $419 million Pearl Street District development, which promises 1,000 residential units and thousands of square feet of retail . The city approved a permit for the first phase, called Block 11. Avant Construction is building the $45 million project, which will include 205 residential units and 24,086 square feet of retail in a seven-story building. The Gateway Jax developers are a joint venture between JWB Real Estate and DLP Capital.

The Downtown Development Review Board approved future plans which includes a 22-story, mixed-use building with about 530 units, 400 of them being multifamily and 140 as short-term stays. The ground and second floors will house about 62,000 square feet of retail space, while the rest of the second and third floor will be parking.

The Jacksonville City Council approved a $98.58 million incentive package for the district.

Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center broke ground on a $5 billion pediatric health campus to replace the existing Children’s Medical Center Dallas. The new campus will encompass more than 4.7 million square feet of construction, including a new pediatric hospital as its centerpiece. The new Dallas pediatric campus will be located on the corner of Harry Hines Boulevard and Paul Bass Way, across from UTSW’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital.

Children’s Health and UT Southwestern announced the new campus in February. Officials expect to complete construction on the campus in six or seven years. The new campus will include:

• 552 beds
• Two helicopter pads
• A Level 1 pediatric trauma center
• 90 emergency department exam rooms
• 24 observation rooms
• A fetal care center
• 96 outpatient exam rooms

Children’s Health is also planning to open a new 395,000-square-foot patient tower at its Plano Medical Center later in 2024.

Children’s Health operates several medical centers and specialty care centers throughout communities around Dallas-Fort Worth, including Frisco, Grapevine, Plano and Prosper.