The Challenge

Our Lee & Associates New York City and Lee & Associates Dallas/Fort Worth offices navigated a range of complex real estate challenges, including short-term distribution needs, specialized facility requirements, and lease negotiations across multiple markets:

• Dallas/Fort Worth Distribution Center: The client required short-term space to accommodate excess capacity, with specific cooler and freezer storage needs.
• New York City Office Space: The client needed to terminate their current lease, sublease the existing space, and secure a new headquarters with a fully equipped test kitchen—while overcoming strict NYC venting regulations.
• Swedesboro, NJ Expansion: To support growth, the client needed to expand into the adjacent space within their existing facility.

Our Approach

Through strategic market analysis, diligent negotiations, and expert problem-solving, our teams successfully delivered tailored real estate solutions across multiple locations:

• Dallas, Texas: Secured a 375,000-square-foot distribution center to accommodate at least 700 vehicles, ensuring optimal operational efficiency.
• New York City: Conducted a comprehensive analysis of NYC venting requirements to identify a space suitable for a full test kitchen. Additionally, facilitated the sublease of HelloFresh’s 22,000-square-foot space by securing two credit tenants following their headquarters relocation.
• Brooklyn, New York: Identified and leveraged a one-time termination provision to successfully exit the existing lease.
• Swedesboro, New Jersey: Closely monitored an adjacent site for over a year, ultimately securing the lease for the adjoining property to support expansion.

The Challenge

The 6th & 3rd project is the second North Loop/Warehouse District (Minneapolis, MN) transaction in nine months for our client, CEDARst Companies ("CEDAR"), a prominent multi-family developer based in Chicago, Illinois. The 6th & 3rd properties are located one block from CEDAR's first project, "The Duffey Lofts" site which land acquisition closed in July 2019, providing an excellent opportunity for CEDAR to scale its operation in the Twin Cities by more than 3.0x. The acquisition of the 6th & 3rd properties did not occur without headwinds. Primarily, the spread of COVID-19 into the US in February/March of 2020 and the economic shutdown and recession that ensued, posed a major challenge to the transaction. As a result of COVID-19, lenders across the nation turned off the spigot for making new loan commercial real estate loans. Additionally, private and institutional equity sources were rattled creating a "cash-is-king" mindset, not knowing if, and how long, an economic decline would last.

Our Approach

Lee & Associates provided ongoing brokerage and transactional support to CEDAR in a variety of ways. The Team was successful in raising equity capital and relational support to multiple local/regional lenders who, through the Team's local market knowledge and expertise, were still actively pursuing new loan financings despite the economic disruption caused by COVID-19. Due to state-to-state travel bans leading up to closing the 6th & 3rd, it proved critical to have local boots on the ground to allow for social-distanced contact with the seller, City and neighborhood leaders, investors, third parties conducting due diligence, and other points of contact necessary as part of the transaction.