OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. — Sam’s Club will officially open the doors of its newest location Thursday, March 3, in Oklahoma City. Doors open at the 4101 N. May Ave. location at 8 a.m. Prior to the public grand opening, the company will host a business appreciation event for customers. Walmart founder Sam Walton opened the first Sam’s Club in 1983 in Midwest City, Okla., with the idea that small business owners deserved the same access to warehouse prices as big businesses. More than 650 Sam’s Club locations are in operation today.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. — GBT Realty Corp. has acquired 30 acres in Oklahoma City to develop the first phase of a $50 million development known as The Market at Czech Hall. The project is a 450,000-square-foot regional neighborhood center. Phase one includes the construction of 180,000 square feet of retail, along with seven available outparcels, with the first tenant expected to open fall 2016. GBT purchased the property on Jan. 11 for $3 million. The development team includes engineering firm Crafton Tull and MJM Architects.
OKLAHOMA CITY AND EULESS, TEXAS — Steadfast Apartment REIT has acquired apartment communities in separate transactions in Oklahoma City and metro Dallas totaling 654 units for an aggregate purchase price of $88.5 million. Steadfast Apartment REIT entered the state of Oklahoma with the purchase of The Shores, a 300-unit, Class A apartment community that was constructed in 2013 on 22 acres. The complex includes a clubhouse/leasing center, 11 three-story apartment buildings and 12 two-story townhome buildings boasting one-, two- and three-bedroom configurations. Apartment homes range from 649 to 1,288 square feet with average in-place rents of $1,030. The Shores was 93.7 percent occupied at the time of sale. Monticello by the Vineyard is located in Euless, 25 miles from both Dallas and Fort Worth. Built in 2002, Monticello features 21 three-story apartment buildings, five garage buildings and a leasing office/clubhouse on approximately 20 acres. The property offers 354 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment homes in 21 different layouts averaging 993 square feet. Average in-place rents are $1,245 and the community was 96.9 occupied at the time of sale.
STILLWATER, OKLA. — Progress Builders has selected Greystar Student Living to manage Progress405, a new apartment development in Stillwater. The 544-bed student housing community will be located at 1520 N. Boomer Road at the cross streets of Boomer Road and Bennett Drive. The new development is within walking distance of the Oklahoma State University campus and Boone Pickens Stadium. Progress405 will include one-, two- and four-bedroom apartment homes ranging in size from 548 to 1,640 square feet. Units will be fully furnished and will feature private bedrooms and bathrooms. Interior finishes will include quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances and wood-style plank flooring. The project’s community amenities will include a clubhouse with a lobby fireplace, study areas with Wi-Fi, a fitness center with locker rooms and showers, tanning beds, an entertainment lounge with billiards tables, sand volleyball court, a zero-entry swimming pool and a sun deck with cabanas and grilling stations. The pet-friendly community is close to Stillwagon Dog Park and Boomer Lake. Construction is expected to be completed by fall 2016.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Mortgage banking firm Q10 | Professional Mortgage Co. has arranged a $7 million permanent loan for Chatenay Square, a shopping center in the southwest submarket of Oklahoma City. A life insurance company provided the capital. The borrower was not disclosed. Chatenay Square comprises 113,739 square feet and is anchored by a supermarket. Bryson G. Thomason, president, and Franklin “Trey” Warren III, vice president, led the transaction for Q10.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Embassy Suites Oklahoma City Downtown/Medical Center is now open in Oklahoma City. The new hotel is the third Embassy Suites property in Oklahoma. The full-service hotel includes 195 two-room guest suites and more than 10,000 square feet of meeting space. There is an on-site restaurant, E.S. Founders, led by chef Andrew Black. OU E. Suites LLC own Embassy Suites Oklahoma City Downtown/Medical Center and Prism Hotels & Resorts manages the property. The hotel’s amenities include free made-to-order breakfast, a 24-hour fitness center and a business center. The hotel is located at 741 N. Phillips Ave. near downtown Oklahoma City.
OKLAHOMA CITY — The new DoubleTree by Hilton Oklahoma City Airport hotel is now open. Renovations on the 134-room, full-service hotel included updates to the design and furnishings throughout the lobby, guest rooms and public areas. Suenos LLC owns the hotel. HP Hotels, the same team that owns and operates Hilton Garden Inn North Quail Springs in Oklahoma City, manages the property. The hotel’s guest rooms feature HDTVs, a refrigerator and microwave and complimentary WiFi. Community amenities include an indoor heated pool and hot tub, 24-hour fitness center, business center, on-site parking and shuttle service to and from the airport. Three meeting rooms span more than 1,600 feet of event space. The hotel is located off I-40 and is four miles from Will Rogers World Airport (OKC).DoubleTree by Hilton Oklahoma City Airport is located at 4410 SW. 19th Street.
TULSA, OKLAHOMA — TGC Development Group of Wichita, Kan., has broken ground on a four-story, 124-unit Value Place extended stay hotel at 11000 E. 45th St. in Tulsa near Broken Arrow Expressway and U.S. Highway 169. This will be the second extended stay hotel for TGC in the Tulsa area. The hotel will feature three room layouts with modified kitchens. Amenities include on-site laundry, vending and Wi-Fi. Wichita-based Ink Construction will begin construction immediately on the 45,000-square-foot hotel, which is slated to be completed in the fall.
In the third quarter of 2014, the Oklahoma City multifamily market recorded 11 transactions totaling 1,537 units for a sales volume of $82.4 million. This is an average price per unit of $53,625. The third quarter experienced a significantly higher sales volume than the first quarter of 2014, increasing 305 percent. The total sales volume for 2014 overall has reached $182.7 million, which is 33 percent lower than the same time period in 2013, when the total sales volume was just over $272 million. However, the total units sold was down only 11 percent compared to last year, which indicates the quality of assets trading is lower than those properties trading in 2013. For example, in the first three quarters of 2013, just over $215 million in Class A properties were sold, compared to just over $37 million in 2014. This is an 83 percent decrease in total volume of Class A properties and caused the total multifamily average price per unit to drop by 24 percent. This is not an indication of values declining. In fact, the opposite is true. Properties that are being fully marketed and that are providing access to as many buyers as possible are fetching …
As the national market recession began in 2008, and started to settle in throughout the city of Houston around mid-year 2009, businesses focused on the implementation of efficiency, accomplishing more with fewer resources applied to the daily routine. In most business models, the most expensive resources are the current staff, followed closely by office space. In that most office leases are illiquid, downsizing of non-essential personnel is logically the most expedient way to an immediate impact on the bottom line during an economic downturn. However, this also results in an immediate surplus of office space per person or phantom vacancy; a pattern logically should trend downward during a recessionary cycle in the economy. According to CoStar data from the 3rd quarter 2011 webinar, the average square footage per worker has increased by almost 10% since 2008, and leveling off after 2009 without significant decrease. Certainly, the trend is quite the opposite of what we would expect today, arguably even in a stable economy as the trend is increasingly toward efficiency. However, such excess may not only be to the lack of the ability to dispose of such vacancy, but the intentional positioning where employers are seeking to recruit quality personnel …