By Caleb Harshberger via Triangle Business Journal | June 19, 2020 | Click here to view the original article.
In a rare CRE deal amid the pandemic, a Florida real estate investor has expanded its footprint in Durham with the purchase of a retail property.
On Thursday, Ram Realty Advisors, of Palm Beach Gardens, closed on the Bull City Market for $13 million. The retail center is near the edge of the Duke East Campus and includes Whole Foods as and anchor tenant.
The property is situated on 2.5 acres at 621 Broad Street off West Main Street and is by a collection of other retail properties near the campus.
The seller, Houston-based Weingarten Realty, bought the property for $7.6 million in 2005.
Bull City Market was built in 1996, according to county records, and features over 40,000 square feet of retail space.
Ram Realty is a Florida-based real estate investment and development team with a history of activity in the Triangle.
In November of last year, the company sold the Exchange on Erwin to Starwood Capital Group for $111 million. The Exchange features 265 multifamily units and 96,949 square feet of commercial space. Ram Realty had owned the property since 2015.
The company is also behind plans to transform Chapel Hill's University Place from a traditional shopping mall into a dense mixed-use development featuring residential and commercial space up to seven stories. The plan includes up to 840,000 square feet of commercial space, 590 residential units and 250 hotel rooms.
The sale is positive sign for the region's CRE market after sales plummeted in the spring at the height of the pandemic.
"We've had some pretty good rent collections numbers over the last few months and thats been giving people some optimism," Blake Thomas with Avison Young in
Raleigh recently told TBJ. "As we enter third and fourth quarters, I think transaction volume will pick up, but it wont be at the clip (it was in) 2017, 2018, 2019."
About Ram
Ram Realty Advisors LLC acquires and develops retail, multifamily, and mixed-use properties in select high-growth markets throughout the Southeast. The investments are capitalized by Ram-sponsored discretionary private equity funds and institutional co-investment vehicles. Since 1996, Ram has deployed in excess of $3.2 billion of capital. Ram and its predecessor entities were founded in 1978. The Company is headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and has offices in Charlotte and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Media Contact
Kelly Owens Alchemy Communications Group ko@alchemycommgroup.com office: 561.935.9953 x. 101 mobile: 561.222.4958
Jennifer Stull Ram Realty Advisors jstull@ramrealestate.com office: 561-630-6110