HOUSTON — The volume of nonresidential construction starts in the Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land metropolitan area has declined by 5 percent year-over-year, according to a recent report from Dodge Data & Analytics. The report also noted that residential construction starts in the metro have increased by 30 percent year-over-year. For the month of September, the value of Houston’s new nonresidential construction starts was approximately $479 million, down from $569 million in September 2017, a decrease of 16 percent.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Austin-based Lincoln Ventures has broken ground on The Ruckus 2.0, a 239-bed student housing community serving the University of Texas at Austin. The 67-unit property is located at 2401 Rio Grande St. and features amenities such as a gym, sky lounge, study lounge, conference rooms and package service. Completion is slated for fall 2019.
IRVING, TEXAS — Chase Industries, a Cincinnati-based manufacturer of custom traffic doors, has signed a 172,120-square-foot industrial lease within Liberty Park GSW in Irving. The company will occupy all of Building 1, the shell construction of which is expected to be complete this week. Kurt Griffin, Nathan Orbin and David Eseke of Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlord, Liberty Property Trust, in the lease negotiations. Colliers International represented Chase Industries.
HOUSTON — SVN | Investment Sales Group has negotiated the sale of The Alara, a 155-unit apartment community in north Houston. The Class B property offers one- and two-bedroom units and amenities such as a pool, playground and a business center. Mark Allen and Todd Franks of SVN represented the seller and procured the buyer, both of which were out-of-state investors, in the transaction.
FORNEY, TEXAS — Goodyear Tire Co. will open a 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution center in Forney, a city located about 20 miles east of Dallas, according to a recent announcement from the Forney City Council. The property will be situated on 102 acres at the corner of South Gateway Boulevard and U.S. Highway 80. According to local media sources, a developer for the project, which is expected to create up to 160 new jobs, has not yet been named.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS — HFF has arranged debt financing for 101 Center, a mixed-use property located adjacent to the University of Texas at Arlington. The property, which was completed earlier this year, features 244 conventional apartments and student housing units totaling 493 beds, as well as 18,400 square feet of retail space. Jeremy Sain of HFF arranged the non-recourse, floating-rate loan through Credit Suisse on behalf of the borrower and developer, Catalyst Urban Development.
TEXAS CITY, TEXAS — Houston-based Land Tejas Development will build a 70-acre entertainment destination within Lago Mar, a 2,033-acre master-planned community in the Galveston suburb of Texas City. The project will deliver a resort complex, as well as condos, townhomes and 250,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. Completion of Phase I of the project is slated for early 2020. Trez Capital is providing project financing.
DENISON, TEXAS — Swagit Productions LLC, a Dallas-based video streaming company, will open a 10,000-square-foot office in Denison, a city in north Texas near the Oklahoma border. The company’s new facility will be located along State Highway 84 and will be remodeled in advance of the opening. The move is expected to create up to 40 new jobs, with hiring slated to begin this winter and operations commencing in spring 2019. Kent Smith of NAI Robert Lynn represented Swagit in the lease negotiations.
SAN ANTONIO — SRS Real Estate Partners has negotiated the sale of two restaurant properties in San Antonio for $4.4 million. Both assets were built in 2012, feature drive-thru lanes and are triple net leased for 15 years to Bush’s Chicken, a Waco-based restaurant chain. Matthew Mousavi and Patrick Luther of SRS, along with Chris Mueller of San Antonio-based Mueller Ventures, represented the single seller of both assets. The buyers were undisclosed, individual private investors.
Development of data centers is surging across the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex, and the party is really just getting started. According to research from JLL, DFW is the fourth-largest data center market in the country in terms of supply with approximately 3.7 million square feet of inventory providing 505 critical megawatts of power. DFW’s development pipeline spans more than 1.1 million square feet of new projects totaling about 215 critical megawatts that are either planned or already under construction. Data centers typically produce about 150 watts of power per square foot. A facility’s total power intake minus the portion needed to cool the equipment represents its critical megawattage — its true capacity for storing and processing data. A number of state-level factors have contributed to DFW’s rapid ascension up the national data center ladder. Texas possesses a great deal of fiber optic connectivity, which gives users fast, reliable transmission of data and helps reduce costs. In addition, the state has its own power grid, as well as an abundant, cheap supply of natural gas to fuel power costs, which are typically the most expensive operating item for data centers. An arid climate, ample available land and friendly development policies have …