ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Sperry Van Ness has brokered the sale of Arlington Towers, an 82,000-square-foot, Class B office property located at 1600 E. Pioneer Pkwy. in Arlington. Originally built in 1979, the five-story tower is currently 77 percent occupied by a tenant roster that includes JPMorgan Chase Bank, Iverson Business School, Jordan Health Services, Road Manager Financial Services and Southside Financial Group. Bruce Marshall of Dallas-based Sperry Van Ness | DataVest and Bob Johnson of Atlanta-based Sperry Van Ness | AREP represented the seller, Atlanta-based Mithani Properties. Johnny Lawrence of Charlotte, N.C.-based Carolina Capital represented the Florida-based buyer. The acquisition price was not disclosed.
Texas
HOUSTON — The New York City office of iCap Realty Advisors has arranged $30 million in acquisition financing for a 17-story, Class A office building located in Houston. The tower is located just west of Interstate 610 in the city’s Galleria/West Loop submarket, within a 30-acre master planned development that also features several other Class A office towers, a luxury high-rise residential building, and a luxury hotel. The tower secured by the financing comprises 370,000 rentable square feet and includes an approximately 1,000-space parking garage. Terms of the non-recourse, first-mortgage financing include a 5-year term with interest-only payments for the first 2 years. The lender was a major insurance company.
WACO, TEXAS — White Plains, N.Y.-based Seavest has broken ground for the construction of two medical office buildings on the campus of Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco. The first building, Hillcrest Community Medical Office Building, is a three-story, 107,000-square-foot facility that will serve the adjacent Hillcrest Community Hospital. The medical office building will connect to the hospital by way of a skybridge on the second floor. The second building, Hillcrest Women’s & Children’s Medical Office building, is a two-story, 59,000-square-foot medical office building that will serve the adjacent Hillcrest Women’s & Children’s Hospital. Seavest is partnering with Lillibridge Health Care Services for the project, and will develop and own both properties. Completion is scheduled for summer 2009.
MCKINNEY, TEXAS — Dallas-based Henry S. Miller Commercial (HSMC) has arranged the purchase of a 12-acre development parcel located at the corner of Community Avenue and White Street in McKinney. It was acquired by Dallas-based King Private Equity Fund, which plans to partner with another company to develop a multifamily project on the property, or sell the parcel. The site is surrounded by retail, single-family homes and a Raytheon campus. Tom Grunnah and Anderson Ngo of HSMC represented the buyer. The seller was Sherman, Texas-based Ruby Boom Ltd. the purchase price was not disclosed.
HOUSTON — Grubb & Ellis has brokered the sale of a 34,286-square-foot industrial building, located at 10010 Gulf Freeway in Houston. Rob Stillwell and Jay Jenckes of Grubb & Ellis’ Houston office represented the buyer, PEJ Real Estate Interests LP. The property was sold by Ruhrpumpen for $2.2 million.
TEMPLE, SAN ANTONIO AND ABILENE, TEXAS — Mission Viejo, Calif.-based The Ensign Group, the parent company of the Ensign brand of senior care facilities, has acquired four Ensign skilled nursing facilities for $10.4 million. Three of the properties are located in Texas; they include the 140-bed Wellington Place Living & Rehabilitation Center in Temple, the 120-bed Salado Creek Living & Rehabilitation Center in San Antonio and the 96-bed Northern Oaks Living & Rehabilitation Center in Abilene. The fourth property is a 70-bed, skilled nursing facility located in Willits, Calif. The properties were acquired from the seller, a long-time Ensign landlord, by four separate Ensign holding subsidiaries. Ensign operating subsidiaries previously have been operating the facilities, and will continue to operate them under new long-term leases with the acquisition entities. Proceeds from Ensign’s recent initial public offering were used to complete the purchase.
HOUSTON — CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) has arranged the purchase of a 26.49-acre industrial development parcel located at the corner of Pinemont Drive and U.S. Highway 290 in Houston. The buyer, locally based oilfield services company TAM International, plans to construct a 150,000-square-foot manufacturing plant on the site. The parcel acquired in the transaction is situated near the company’s existing facilities on Southerland Road. Michael Palmer, John Simons and Susana Rosas of CBRE’s Houston office provided representation for TAM, which acquired the site in an off-market transaction from Sueba Investments. The acquisition price was not disclosed.
HOUSTON — A partnership led by Houston-based Wile Interests has acquired two land parcels totaling more than 16 acres at the intersection of Katy Freeway and Greenhouse Road in the Energy Corridor submarket of Houston. The parcels comprise a more than 13-acre tract located at the southeast corner of the intersection and a 3-acre tract located at the southwest corner. Combined, the parcels feature more than 1,600 feet of frontage along Katy Freeway. They sit across the freeway from two new hospitals under construction, which are scheduled to open in 2010. To the immediate west of the property is the 93-acre west campus of Second Baptist church, and to the immediate south is the approximately 1,600-home Green Trails subdivision. Stan Creech of Stan Creech Properties represented the buyer. The seller, Barker Venture, was represented by Mavis Kelsey of Kelsey Commercial Real Estate Services. Future plans for the property were not released.
HOUSTON — The Houston office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler (HFF) has arranged a loan for the refinancing of Dairy Ashford Plaza, a two-building office property located in the Westchase submarket of Houston. Located at 2000 and 2020 S. Dairy Ashford Rd., the two buildings comprise 105,419 square feet and 107,890 square feet, respectively. Tucker Knight and Steven Gautier of HFF originated the fixed-rate, non-recourse financing on behalf of the borrower, DAP Plaza Ltd. The lender is Cincinnati-based Ohio National Financial Services. The amount and terms of the loan were not disclosed.
HOUSTON AND DALLAS — Glendale, Calif.-based DineEquity Inc., a franchisor and operator of Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill restaurants, has sold 66 company-owned restaurants located in Houston, Dallas and Albuquerque, N.M. The 22 Houston-area restaurants were purchased by Wellington Yu, president of Peterson Group Inc. The 37 Dallas-area restaurants were sold to Sunil Dharod, president and CEO of Synned Inc. The seven Albuquerque-area restaurants were sold to Andy Patel, president of Anand Enterprises and Mina Inc. The Texas transactions are expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2008, and the New Mexico transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2009. The 66 Applebee’s sold in Texas and New Mexico are part of 110 company-owned locations that DineEquity has sold this year. Other restaurants are located in Nevada, Southern California and Delaware. DineEquity expects to generate approximately $63 million in after-tax proceeds from the sales, as well as approximately $50 million in sale-leaseback agreements related to the franchising agreements. Proceeds will be used to reduce DineEquity’s consolidated funded debt obligations.