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AFA Real Estate Partners Successfully Navigates Global Pandemic With Great Valley Commerce Center Renovation
Website Editor • June 12, 2020
By Natalie Kostelni – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
Jun 9, 2020, 2:40pm EDT
Nearly a year after negotiating an exit for Unisys Corp. from its decades long home at the Great Valley Commerce Center in Malvern, the landlord is steadily backfilling the 123,000 square feet the technology company vacated and putting the office complex back on stable footing.
The 33.5-acre Great Valley Commerce consists of two office buildings. One property totals 280,000 square feet at 2476 Swedesford Road and another structure, which totals 80,000 square feet, at 1000 Cedar Hollow Road.
Unisys (NYSE: UIS) built the complex in 1968 and until about 2009, it had been called the Unisys Technology Center as a result of the company occupying all of its space.
When Apex Financial Advisors Inc. bought the complex just off Route 202 for $78 million in 2017, Unisys occupied 123,000 square feet at 2476 Swedesford Road and 19,000 square feet at the Cedar Hollow building. It was then that Apex began negotiations with Unisys about its eventual departure. The lease was expected to expire this December.
“As their business changed, they needed less and less space,” said Joe Weidenburner of Apex. “These big tech companies needed a much bigger footprint than they do now.”
Last August, Unisys vacated space and relocated those operation to its headquarters in Blue Bell. Apex then moved forward with gutting the interior space, installed a new roof and mechanical systems and launched an effort to lease up the vacant 123,000 square feet of space. So far, the Yardley real estate company has spent $15 million on those combined efforts and it has paid off.
It landed Zoetis Inc., (NYSE: ZTS) an animal health spinoff from Pfizer Inc. based in Parsippany, New Jersey. The company signed a 10-year lease on 65,179 square feet that started in April.
BioTelemetry Inc., which was in 1000 Cedar Hollow and had a lease expiring in March 2021, needed more space. Apex negotiated an 11-year lease on 25,000 square feet lease for the company to relocate to 2476 Swedesford. BioTelemetry’s (NASDAQ: BEAT) began to occupy the space this month. The company also extended its lease on 60,529 square feet at Cedar Hollow in a deal that will commence April 2021.
There’s about 30,000 square feet left to be leased at 2476 Swedesford.
Though it relocated the bulk of its Malvern operations to Blue Bell, Unisys still occupied 19,000 square feet at the Cedar Hollow building. On March 13, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Science Applications International Corp. (NYSE: SAIC) of Reston, Virginia, closed on a $1.2 billion cash deal to acquire Unisys Federal, a cloud operating business unit that occupied that space. SAIC last month renewed that lease until 2023.
Exeter Property Group bought the Great Valley Commerce Center in 2009 for $19.5 million from Unisys and launched a multimillion-dollar renovation to the buildings and renamed it the Great Valley Commerce Center. A couple of years after that DaVita Inc., which operates DaVita Dialysis, leased 120,000 square feet of office space at 2476 Swedesford and later expanded by another 16,000 square feet in the building.
Yardley, PA – November 21, 2023 – AFA Real Estate Partners (AFA) purchased two Class A Office buildings in Saucon Valley’s Stabler Pathways corporate park on November 7, 2023. Located at 3701 and 3773 Corporate Parkway in Center Valley, PA the two-building portfolio comprises 146,000 rentable square feet of Class A Office space. The purchase price was $21,000,000. The combined portfolio is 76% leased with the primary tenants being Aesculap, Inc., a surgical devices company, and Fisher Clinical, a pharmaceutical and drug development company. AFA adds to its Lehigh Valley portfolio with the acquisition accompanying the 2020 purchase of 3477 Corporate Parkway in Center Valley. “Given the macroeconomic backdrop, we felt as though any opportunity to add to our portfolio had to present such potential that we could not say no. Our familiarity with and bullishness on the Lehigh Valley geographic subregion was a critical reason for this purchase,” said Robert Connell, Managing Member of AFA. “This project offered the right mix of in-place stability and asymmetric upside. We are never afraid to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work that needs doing, and we are confident that our efforts on this project will offer long-term rewards.” On the heels of its 2022 purchase of Arlington Center in Arlington, TX, and its 2023 second purchase in Blue Bell, PA, this acquisition now brings AFA's total commercial real estate portfolio to around 1.4 million square feet. The seller was PennCap Properties out of Bethlehem, PA. Financing for the purchase came from AFA investors and Community Bank out of Canton, NY.
Yardley, PA – May 13, 2021, AFA Real Estate Partners (AFA) purchased Montecito Towers in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 7, 2021, for $48,600,000. The 177,341 square foot, six-story property in the northwest suburbs of Las Vegas is a trophy Class A office building boasting fine finishes, high ceilings, and a 7-to-1000 parking ratio. The property's anchor tenant is Asurion, one of the leading cell phone insurers in the United States. The recent sale of AFA's BJ's location enabled a 1031 exchange opportunity for AFA's investors, and the remaining financing secured was a $33,300,000 CMBS loan at an attractive 10-year fixed rate of 3.64%. AFA utilizes cost-segregation studies to optimize tax efficiency for our investors. "In a world of little to no yield, we are striving to find excellent quality diversification opportunities for our investors. Robert Connell, Managing Member of AFA, says "We view real estate as a cornerstone part of our clients' portfolios because they have the ability to provide excellent cash flows and tax benefits in today's times. The unprecedented low-interest-rate environment allows us to finance our properties at rates which enhance our investor's returns." This transaction was the second in a series of large commercial real estate transactions planned this year by the Yardley-based firm. AFA's commercial real estate portfolio consists of six properties located throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Las Vegas. AFA's total commercial real estate portfolio surpasses one million square feet. Important Disclosure Information Please Note: This is not a solicitation to invest in any future investment product. Private investment funds generally involve various risk factors, including, but not limited to, the potential for complete loss of principal, liquidity constraints, and lack of transparency. Investment in private funds is generally limited to qualifying investors. Unlike liquid investments, private investment funds do not provide daily liquidity or pricing. Please remember that past performance, success, or experience may not be indicative of future results. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that the future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy or product (including those recommended or undertaken by Apex Financial Advisors, Inc.), will be profitable, be suitable for an individual's portfolio, or prove successful. Losses can and do occur. A copy of Apex's current written disclosure Brochure discussing its advisory services and fees remains available upon request or at www.apexfinancialadvisors.com .
Yardley, PA – May 13, 2021, AFA Real Estate Partners (AFA), on April 30, 2021, sold the BJ's located at 131 East Kings Highway in Maple Shade, NJ. This building housed a top-performing BJ’s store that included a liquor license and a retail tire shop. AFA purchased the building in August of 2016 for $15,600,000 and sold it to Realty Income, a publicly-traded real estate investment trust (NYSE: O), for $21,639,125. AFA Investors received cumulative annual cash flows of 8% and, utilizing the 1031 rolled over $2.09 for each $1.00 invested. The sale of the Maple Shade location enabled a 1031 exchange opportunity for AFA's investors. AFA utilizes cost-segregation studies to optimize tax efficiency for our investors. "In a world of little to no yield, we are striving to find excellent quality diversification opportunities for our investors. Robert Connell, Managing Member of AFA, says "We view real estate as a cornerstone part of our clients' portfolios because they have the ability to provide excellent cash flows and tax benefits in today's times. The unprecedented low-interest-rate environment allows us to finance our properties at rates which enhance our investor's returns." This transaction was the first in a series of large commercial real estate transactions planned this year by the Yardley-based firm. AFA's commercial real estate portfolio consists of six properties located throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Las Vegas. AFA's total commercial real estate portfolio surpasses one million square feet. Important Disclosure Information Please Note: This is not a solicitation to invest in any future investment product. Private investment funds generally involve various risk factors, including, but not limited to, the potential for complete loss of principal, liquidity constraints, and lack of transparency. Investment in private funds is generally limited to qualifying investors. Unlike liquid investments, private investment funds do not provide daily liquidity or pricing. Please remember that past performance, success, or experience may not be indicative of future results. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that the future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy or product (including those recommended or undertaken by Apex Financial Advisors, Inc.), will be profitable, be suitable for an individual's portfolio, or prove successful. Losses can and do occur. A copy of Apex's current written disclosure Brochure discussing its advisory services and fees remains available upon request or at www.apexfinancialadvisors.com .
