Zapolski and partner pay $26M for Chapel Hill deck and office building

by Amanda Jones Hoyle from Triangle Business Journal A joint venture partnership between Durham real estate developer Todd Zapolski and Manhattan-based Atco Properties and Management have finalized the purchase of the CVS Plaza building in Chapel Hill and its nearby parking garage. The partnership paid $26.2 million for the property, Zapolski confirms, marking the first time in 37 years that the building has changed ownership. “Since my years in college and those of my early career in real estate I have known the property now called CVS Plaza as being a 100% location on East Franklin Street,” Zapolski says. The seller was Franklin Street Plaza LLC, an entity owned and managed by Charlotte real estate investor and UNC-Chapel Hill alum and Brent Milgrom Sr. At the time of the sale, the 100,000-square-foot building at 137 East Franklin St. was 96 percent occupied. A CVS pharmacy store anchors the 17,000-square-foot ground floor and basement space, and about 65,000 square feet is occupied by administrative and research offices for UNC-Chapel Hill. It is also ATCO Properties & Management’s first real estate investment in the Triangle. The purchase was made through ATCO’s City Center Retail Estate joint venture program that has also invested in downtown office buildings and shopping centers in select secondary markets like Austin, Charlotte and...

Zapolski enters $25M joint venture on downtown Napa shopping center rehab

Provides ‘critical mass of upscale shopping and dining’ From North Bay Business Journal Napa Center is set to have 40 stores and restaurants when it reopens in fall 2015. NAPA — Zapolski Real Estate, LLC, on Thursday said it entered into another joint venture with Trademark Property Co. for significant rework of downtown Napa commercial space, this time to help fund the $25 million renovation and redevelopment project underway at the former Napa Town Center and surrounding buildings. Set to fully open in fall 2015, the project, now called Napa Center, is set to create a shopping and lodging district with 153,000 square feet of space for 40 stores and restaurants plus a planned Archer Napa four-star luxury hotel. Zapolski, which has offices in Durham, N.C., and Napa, in November announced a joint venture with Fort Worth, Texas-based Trademark to buy and rehabilitate the 20,000-square-foot Gordon Building on First Street. Earlier this year, Zapolski inked a deal with LodgeWorks Partners, LP, to develop and run the hotel. The estimated project cost is $140 million — $70 million for the retail and as much for the hotel. “We are very pleased to partner with Trademark, one of the country’s most recognized retail and mixed-use developers with an award-winning track record of creating and operating dynamic shopping and hospitality experiences,” said Todd Zapolski, founder and managing member of Zapolski Real Estate. “Like LodgeWorks, our hotel development partner, Trademark is a leasing and development partner that understands our project’s significance as a key driver in the evolving resurgence of downtown Napa. We now have in place a powerful team to achieve our...

Gordon Building sold to Shops at Napa Center developer

From Napa Valley Register Developer Todd Zapolski has purchased the historic Gordon Building in downtown Napa from owners George and Jacqueline Altamura. The deal was expected to close this week. The two-story, 20,000-square-foot building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. “It just makes sense,” Zapolski said of buying the building, which is located immediately east of his current redevelopment project, the Shops at Napa Center and a proposed hotel. Zapolski said he didn’t have immediate plans for the building. “The main project benefits from us being able to say we control it,” he said. The Gordon Building offers approximately 10,000 square feet of space on the first floor and 10,000 square feet on the second. That amount of square footage may be attractive to national or regional tenants who need larger spaces than are available at the Shops at Napa Center, Zapolski said. The center’s largest spaces are closer to 5,000 square feet, he said. “There are tenants we hope that will come along” that want closer to 10,000 square feet, “and the Gordon Building gives us that ability to try to market to them.” Zapolski is currently redeveloping the former Napa Town Center. In addition to that project, in August he also announced plans for a seven-story boutique hotel, called Archer Napa, for the Merrill’s building site. Unlike the Merrill’s building, which is not on the National Register of Historic Places, “we want to preserve the Gordon Building,” Zapolski said. “We’re not going to tear it down.” “We want to look at what makes sense,” but “be patient about it,” he said. While no specific...

LodgeWorks & Zapolski Real Estate Partner to Develop the 180-room ARCHER Napa in Northern California

From HotelOnline Napa, CA – August 20, 2013 – Northern California’s Napa County and The Shops at Napa Center will welcome ARCHER Napa, a new-build luxury hotel at the First Street site of the former Merrill’s building. LodgeWorks Partners, L.P., a privately-held hotel development and management company with a rich history in noteworthy openings, has agreed to terms with Zapolski Real Estate (ZRE), a fully-integrated real estate investment, development and management firm, which purchased what is now known as the Napa Center Development in May 2012. ZRE founder Todd C. Zapolski is spearheading the revitalization of over 150,000 square feet of retail space in the heart of downtown Napa through a redevelopment program aimed at attracting a mix of national retailers as well as regional and local restaurants and shops, and adding a lodging component to enhance the highly anticipated redevelopment. LodgeWorks is a natural fit given its history and earlier involvement in the renaissance of downtown Napa. The hospitality company was behind the July 2009 opening of the 141-room AVIA Hotel at 1400 First Street, which is now the Andaz Napa, following the sale of the AVIA brand and related assets to Hyatt Hotels Corporation in August 2011. LodgeWorks and ZRE in consultation with local stakeholders such as the Napa Historical Society and Napa County Landmarks are creating a plan that will preserve the most noteworthy aspect of the site, Merrill’s First Street façade. The newly developed hotel and retail structure, which will reach seven stories high, will be thoughtful to its place and prominence, reflecting a casual elegance, organic to the Napa aesthetic. ARCHER Napa will be...