Turnbridge Equities Pays $35M for Raleigh Mixed-Use Asset

The Creamery. Image courtesy of Turnbridge Equities

Turnbridge Equities has acquired The Creamery, an 82,000-square-foot mixed-use property in downtown Raleigh that includes office, retail and residential space. Northpond Partners sold the asset for $34.7 million.

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Located at 400-410 Glenwood Ave., The Creamery was originally built in the 1920s as a dairy plant for the Pine State Creamery. The property was later renovated into commercial use and now includes 48,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, 24,000 square feet of Class A office space, 10 loft apartments and a 10,000-square-foot parking lot at 501 NW St. that contains 34 spaces on top of the property’s 151 parking spaces. The Creamery is fully leased to tenants that include Sullivan’s Steakhouse, Milk Bar, RE/MAX and Precision Hawk.

Turnbridge told Commercial Property Executive that the company is planning an approximately $1 million renovation of mostly deferred maintenance tasks including roof replacement, facade restoration, storefront improvements, HVAC upgrades and signing and branding enhancements. Turnbridge also told CPE that it will be looking at future upgrades including streetscape and outdoor dining improvements. Turnbridge will also be looking for a better use of the 2 acres of surface parking lots, the company told CPE.

Jason Davis, Turnbridge’s managing director, said in prepared remarks that The Creamery would benefit from the region’s new developments in the pipeline that would bring more residents and visitors. He added in his prepared statement that downtown Raleigh’s attention is shifting northwest toward the area where The Creamery is located.

JLL’s Christopher Peck, Roger Edwards and the New York and Raleigh teams arranged a $19.5 million mortgage loan that was provided by ACORE Capital. Mikels and Jones Properties’ Reid Jones and Bert Nowell brokered the transaction for Turnbridge Equities, while Friedlander Misler’s Deborah Astrove represented Turnbridge in the acquisition and Baker Hostetler’s Gina Mavica represented Turnbridge in the financing. Mikels and Jones have also been The Creamery’s managers for 21 years and will continue to manage the property.

Acquiring adaptive reuse

No stranger to adaptive reuse properties, Turnbridge and its institutional investment partners have acquired a former brewery that was turned into a 1.1 million-square-foot industrial complex. The Newark, N.J., property was sold by RAR Development Associates for $61 million in February.

In Raleigh, The Creamery acquisition marks Turnbridge’s second investment in the city’s Research Triangle area. The company also purchased an 87-acre shopping mall known as the Cary Towne Center Mall in Cary, N.C. In December 2019, Turnbridge rezoned the asset into a mixed-use property , while also completing a follow-on acquisition of the mall’s Dillard’s department store.