Editors’ Weekly News Roundup May 19 – May 23
It may seem that Amazon fulfillment centers are a dime a dozen these days, but the e-commerce retail giant can still make headlines with new construction. As a case in point, an Amazon development in Virginia’s Goochland County was the basis for the most read story this past week on Connect CRE.
The project detailed in Amazon to Build Massive Fulfillment Center in Virginia stands out for its size—3.1 million square feet across 107 acres—and the fact that it’s a robotics facility. Robotics doesn’t mean fully automated, though, and the center is expected to create 1,000 more jobs in a state where Amazon has already invested $135 billion.
At the other end of the construction cycle, the past week’s second most-read story reported the completion of a development that is also larger than the norm. JV Completes Nation’s Largest Hotel Project in 34 Months informed readers that the nearly two-million square-foot Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista was a finished piece of work less than three years after construction began.
The 22-story Marriott resort at the Chula Vista Bayfront will have 1,600 keys, along with an 800,000 square-foot convention center, a nine-story parking structure and a 4.25-acre waterpark. Andrew Corson, project executive for Mortenson | McCarthy, the joint venture that built it, predicted that it would stand as “a beacon for tourism in Chula Vista for decades to come.”
Continuing with the theme of development, the past week’s third most-read story focused on the multifamily sector. Cedar Street, which has executed several projects in its native Chicago, now appears poised to launch another in the near future.
Readers learned in Chicago Apartment Developer Buys Fulton Market Building that Cedar Street acquired the potential redevelopment site from an entity led by veteran auctioneer Leslie Hindman, who previously used the property as her namesake firm’s headquarters and put it up for sale in mid-2020. The developer may put up a 300-unit apartment project on the site but has no firm timetable as yet.
Our fourth most-read story of the week focused on another acquisition. In this case, though, it isn’t likely to lead to a redevelopment, since the property in question is an income-producing, mission-critical manufacturing facility.
Charlotte-Area Fiber Optic Cable Plant Sells for $60.6M reported that Washington, DC-based PRP acquired the facility from Stonemont. It is leased to Corning, which produces its Ribbon and Rocket Ribbon fiber optic cable there. The acquisition included land for potential future expansion.
Completing the past week’s top five was a story about residential construction starts. As readers learned in Multifamily Construction Gains in April While Single-Family Declines, the latest figures from the federal government showed a 1.6% monthly increase in housing starts.
The overall increase, though, was due solely to a 10.7% month-over-month increase in construction starts for apartments, since single-family home starts declined 2.1%. “The decline in single-family housing starts in April mirrors builder sentiment, as elevated interest rates, uncertainty on the tariff front and rising construction costs are exacerbating housing affordability challenges,” said Buddy Hughes, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders. Both single-family and multifamily saw fewer construction permits issued last month.