CONNTACT.COM

Even in a down market, area commercial Realtors find something to celebrate about 2009

The year 2009 was put to bed by area Realtors at the annual awards dinner of the Commercial Investment Division (CID) of the Greater New Haven Association of Realtors. The commercial real-estate group recognized the top sales and leases December 8 at the New Haven Lawn Club.

Largest Office Lease
Largest office lease of the year was for 18,111 square feet at One Long Wharf Drive, closed in June. The value of $3,900,000 was brokered by Frank Hird of OR&L Commercial.

Largest Office Sale
The 257,000-square-foot property known as the Exchange is at 270 Farmington Avenue in Farmington. The transaction, which closed in September, was for $14,250,000. The seller was New Boston Fund and the buyer was the Acre Group. The CID agent in the sale was Steven Inglese of the New Haven Group.

Industrial Lease
A 17,300-square-foot industrial building at 355 Washington Avenue, North Haven was renovated to the CBS Outdoor Advertising specifications. The base term value of the lease, which closed in August, was $1,082,980. Albert Scafati of Press Cuozzo was the listing agent and Mark Glassman of Arnold Peck was the cooperating agent.

Industrial Sale
The sale of a 52,000-square-foot building at 34 Barnes Industrial Road South in Wallingford closed in January 2009 for $3,800,000. Frank Hird of OR&L Commercial was the listing agent. Rich Lee of OR&L was the cooperating agent.

Retail Lease
Lou Proto of the Proto Group put together this retail lease (build-to-suit) for Walgreens at Bank Street and Old Drive in Seymour. The transaction closed in April 2009 with a value of $11,875,000.

Retail Sale
Lou Proto also tipped the scales for a retail sale of a 14,550-square-foot Walgreens site at 157 East Main Street, East Haven. The sale, for $5,600,000, closed in October.

Land Lease
Alan Fischer of Fischer Real Estate negotiated a 40-year lease for 22 acres of commercial land at Exit 41 off I-95 on Marsh Hill Road in Orange. Owned by the Foyer family, the land was leased to the Untied Illuminating Co., which plans to build a 140,000-square-foot structure for its corporate headquarters on the site. The land is contiguous to 34 acres of the former Showcase Cinema site also recently purchased by UI. The deal, for in excess of $24 million, closed at the tail end of 2008. The Philadelphia office of Studley Real Estate acted as an advisor to UI.

Most Sales or Leases
The perennial winner of this award is Bill Clark of the Geenty Group, Realtors in Branford. In 2009 the redoubtable Clark closed 23 deals — nearly one every two weeks on average.

Land Sale
James Fazzone of Cheshire Real Estate put together the deal for 16 acres at McCausland Court, Cheshire for a cool $1 million. The seller was River Valley Farm and the buyer was CK Greenhouses.

Apartment Sale
The 261-unit residential complex Newbury Commons at 145 Washington Boulevard in Stamford was sold by Richard Gold and Rich Lee of OR&L early last February for $40 million. The property also houses 9,000 square feet of commercial space, a health club, indoor swimming pool, business center and private parking garage. Lee represented the owner, the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority. The sale was executed via negotiated sealed bid.

Mixed Use Sale
This 2.5-story building has 7,693 square feet which includes two retail spaces and nine residential studio units. Located at 52-56 Whitney Avenue, New Haven it sold for $1,000,000 in September. Elizabeth Brochin was listing agent and John Tischio cooperating agent. Both work for Prudential Commercial Real Estate.

Business Sale without Real Estate
The fast-food restaurant franchise Frankies, which occupies 2,800 square feet at 1551 Boston Post Road in West Haven, was sold in April for $250,000. Lease for the property, brokered by Joan M. Miller of Arnold Peck’s Commercial World, was for a termof 15 years, with an option to purchase the property.  

Business Sale with Real Estate
A 10,000-square-foot restaurant building and business (Sage American Grill) in Chester was sold in June for $825,000. The listing agents were Kristin and Kevin Geenty of the Geenty Group, Realtors. Walt Coady of Coady Realty was the cooperating agent.