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 Denver.