KATY, TEXAS — Lupe Tortilla has leased 8,100 square feet for its corporate office at 20302 Park Row in Katy. Chris Klein and Jason Dillee of Colliers International represented the landlord, Southwind Properties. Lupe Tortilla represented itself in the transaction.
Texas
FRIENDSWOOD, TEXAS — The Woodlands, Texas-based LMI Capital has arranged $1.95 million in debt for the acquisition of the 76-unit Bridgestone Apartments project in Friendswood. Brandon Brown of LMI Capital worked on behalf of Shadowbrooke at Friendswood LLC to secure the 10-year, fixed-rate Fannie Mae loan with one of the firm’s DUS lending sources.
BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS — Alliant Capital LLC has finalized the refinance of a 120-unit apartment community in Brownsville. The transaction, which was made on behalf of Waterside Apartments, Ltd., was completed with a 10-year term and 1-year interest only at 5.69 percent. Waterside, which was built in 1983, includes apartments in nine, two-story buildings located approximately 3.5 miles from the city’s commercial business district.
HOUSTON — Graham Packaging has leased 40,230 square feet of warehouse space at West Loop Business Park, located at 4015 W. 11th St. in Houston. Glynn Mireless of CB Richard Ellis represented the tenant in the transaction. Mary Jo Giamailvia represented the landlord, AN/WRI Partnership, Ltd.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Lowe Enterprises and McShane Development Co. have arranged the lease of 23,200 square feet of industrial space to Rasa Floors & Carpet Cleaning, located at Tuscany Center in Austin. The 72,000-square-foot warehouse building, known as Tuscany Center 7, features 24-foot ceilings, 40-by-40 foot bays, six exterior truck docks, one drive-in door, gas heating and ESFR sprinkler system. Rasa plans to relocate to the building in November. TAG International will be the architect for the tenant build-out. Scott Womack of Jackson & Cooksey represented Rasa Floors, and Brett Arabie and Mike Tipps of Oxford Commercial represented Lowe and McShane in the lease transaction.
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS — NAI Cravey Real Estate Services has arranged a 25,000-square-foot retail lease of the former Graham Central Station building to E.C. Barton Co. E.C. Barton will be expanding and relocating its Surplus Warehouse store to the 35,000-square-foot building. The company plans to move in November. Lynann Pinkham of NAI Cravey represented the E.C. Barton Co., and Ross Partlow represented the building owner in the lease transaction.
While the national economy and commercial real estate in general look to have a tough year ahead of them, Houston and multifamily real estate have a little more room for comfort, although not enough for complacency. Houston is projected by some to have the strongest job growth in the United States for 2009, and multifamily is the only commercial property class to maintain some semblance of normalcy. Houston benefits from the diversity of its economy. Houston has also greatly benefited by one sector in particular, oil and gas, which saw its greatest rally in history just as the financial sector saw its darkest days. Houston continues to maintain an unemployment rate almost 3 percent below the national average and is ranked 18 of 392 U.S. MSAs by Moody’s Economy.com for employment growth between now and 2013. Unlike other commercial real estate (CRE) asset classes, multifamily has been more successful fighting off the financial crisis that shut down the CMBS market and essentially froze CRE transactions across the country. Steve Duplantis, senior managing director of CBRE in Houston, is only aware of one investment grade retail transaction and one investment grade office transaction in the past year. So far this year …
SAN ANTONIO — Tesoro Corp. has relocated its San Antonio headquarters, which is now located at 19100 Ridgewood Parkway. The 610.000-square-foot complex is expected to earn the U.S Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification. This project is the third and largest in San Antonio to be LEED certified. Tesoro Corp. outgrew its 140,000-square-foot, four-building facility, also located in San Antonio at U.S. Highway 251 and Jones Maltsberger Rd. Whataburger has now leased that property. Tesoro is consolidating four of its area offices in the new location.
DALLAS — Centennial Real Estate Co., in partnership with Westmount Realty Capital, has signed a new anchor tenant as part of its renovation of the 145,000-square-foot Spring Creek Crossing in Dallas/Fort Worth. The Asian-concept grocery chain 99 Ranch Market has signed a 60,000-square-foot lease and will be the anchor store for the project. John Zikos and Bryan Cornelius of Venture Commercial Real Estate represented the landlord in lease negotiations.
KATY, TEXAS — Stan Johnson Co. has completed the sale of a ground lease for a freestanding AutoZone location to an individual investor for an undisclosed price. The property is located on 0.77 acres at the corner of Katy Ft. Bend and Franz roads in Katy. Hunter Jaggard and Daniel Herrold of Stan Johnson Co.’s Houston office represented the seller, Gulf Coast Commercial Group. Geoff Hannan of Capital Real Estate Investments represented the buyer, which was participating in a 1031 exchange.