Strata Group merging with Pennsylvania real estate firm

Yerman Witman Gaines and Conklin, a.k.a. the Strata Group, has recently downsized by shuttering several satellite offices in Bel Air, Fort Meade, Locust Point at McHenry Row and Severn Square.

This week, the realty firm announced another change: a merger with the Pennsylvania-based Prudential Homesale Family of Companies.

The name of the new company is Prudential Homesale YWGC Realty, the nearly 200 local Realtors were told via Tweet and text sent from headquarters at Bare Hills in North Baltimore Wednesday afternoon.

The newly merged company will have a sales force of about 1,150 Realtors, sources say.

The Prudential Homesale group is based in the southeastern portion of Pennsylvania, focusing on Lancaster, York, Reading and Harrisburg.

YWGC had opened many of its satellite offices in the region to great fanfare this past year, and perhaps grew too big too fast as the recession’s grip still holds tight to the state’s housing market.

In Bel Air, William Yerman, the Strata Group’s CEO, said he had hoped to hire up to 60 Realtors to handle expected sales from relocating BRAC employees to live near Aberdeen Proving Ground. The same theory held for the Fort Meade office, which is in an area being expanded by BRAC at Fort George G. Meade.

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NAI KLNB Retail Investment Sales this week sold two Food Lion-anchored retail shopping centers in North Carolina for $2.8 million to New York investors GA-FCU Management LLC.

The shopping centers are 36,000-square-foot Roseboro Centre, which is 75 percent leased, and 43,550-square-foot Mountain View Shopping in Hickory, which is totally leased.

Gil Neuman of NAI KLNB Retail Investment Sales, in cooperation with Robbie Perkins of NAI Piedmont Triad, represented the seller, Dreamy Hollow Apartments Co.

Within the past year, KLNB Retail Investment Sales has also sold the 1711 York Road Shopping Center in Baltimore County, the Shoppes at Gateway Plaza in Columbia, and the Monument Street portfolio of retail stores in East Baltimore near Johns Hopkins Hospital.

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Mark your calendar: A housing fair will be held in Howard County on April 14 beginning at 10 a.m. that will feature more than 45 real estate, mortgage and homebuilder experts.

There is no admission charge for the fair, which will be held at Long Reach High School, 6101 Old Dobbin Lane in Columbia.

Recent data from the Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. show Howard County recorded 154 home sales in January, an increase of 8 percent over January 2010. Home prices decreased by 1 percent, the data showed, for an average sales price of $384,627.

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Cushman & Wakefield this week inked two new leases totaling 8,260 square feet at 1600 Bush St. in Baltimore. The move has resulted in full occupancy for the location, better known as the former headquarters of Under Armour, the sportswear giant that has expanded to new digs in Locust Point, the city’s newest waterfront Riviera.

Texas-based energy consultants Telga Corp. leased 3,880 square feet in a two-story building in the Carroll Industrial Park, and MLN Advertising leased other space totaling 4,380 square feet. Rich Thomas, senior associate with C&W, represented the landlord and the tenant on both transactions.

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TIDBITS: The tap-tap-tap of hammers and saws is ongoing in Harford County as workers in Joppatown continue to build a massive set for the filming of “House of Cards,” a drama to be produced by Netflix starring Kevin Spacey and Corey Stoll, directed by David Fincher. Production is to begin later this year … This week, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake journeyed to Lexington Market to unveil “Get Fresh Lexington” a drive to increase availability of fresh, healthy food options at Baltimore’s historic public market. Under the plan, the city is aiming to increase the number of carry-out food establishments that offer  healthier choices. New signs promoting the effort will be posted for the more than 2.6 million visitors who frequent “the Lex” each year … Simple Cell Inc. recently signed a lease with Merritt Properties LLC for 2,250 square feet of office and warehouse space at 1393 Progress Way in Eldersburg. There, they will recycle cell phones.