AUSTIN, TEXAS — Harmony Public Schools has signed a 7,211-square-foot office lease extension in northwest Austin. The academic administrator will continue to occupy space at Building G at Amber Oaks, a 10-building park located along I-45. Patrick Ley and Jason Steinberg of Equitable Commercial Realty represented the undisclosed landlord in the lease negotiations. Nick Boyd of Nick Boyd Real Estate represented the tenant.
By Taylor Williams For the last several years, as COVID-19, inflation and interest rate hikes have chronologically rocked the commercial real estate industry, the term “dry powder” has increasingly factored into investment discussions. While the term generally refers to cash or capital that is parked on the sidelines, 2024 could well be the year for its deployment. There are several basic reasons for endorsing this notion. First, at its December meeting, the Federal Reserve signaled that it would cut rates three times this year, which should theoretically make debt financing more accessible and less expensive — though the extent of that depends on the magnitude of the reductions. Second, as evidenced by the stock market tear following that announcement, investors are itching to deploy capital and will rally around just about any reason to do so, proven or not. Third, there is roughly $537 billion in commercial real estate loans that will mature next year, according to New York City-based Trepp. This staggering volume of impending maturities in a high-interest-rate environment all but assures that some assets will be forced into sales, whether by owners pre-default or lenders post-default. And finally, the 10-year Treasury yield — the benchmark rate against …
MESQUITE, TEXAS — Dallas-based CapStar Real Estate Advisors will develop a 765,668-square-foot industrial project on a 40.4-acre site at 2800 Skyline Drive in the eastern Dallas suburb of Mesquite. The facility is already fully preleased to Canadian Solar, which will use the facility for distribution support for its manufacturing operation next door at 3000 Skyline Drive. Building features will include 40-foot clear heights, 190 dock-high doors and parking for 351 cars and 134 trailers. Jody Thornton, Trent Agnew, Tom Weber and Greer Shetler of JLL arranged joint venture equity for the project with an undisclosed partner on behalf of CapStar. Construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter and to last about 12 months.
OKLAHOMA CITY — BancFirst has completed the renovation of its namesake tower in downtown Oklahoma City. Located at 1000 N. Broadway, BancFirst Tower is a 36-story, 507,038-square-foot building that was originally constructed in 1971. Renovations included modernizing the exterior public plaza and amenity spaces, including the lobby and underground concourse. Bockus Payne served as the architect of the project, which began in 2020. Other project partners included Wallace Engineering, Alvine Engineering and Smith Roberts Baldischwiler.
DALLAS — A joint venture between Cohen & Steers Income Opportunities REIT and Sterling Organization has acquired a 206,926-square-foot shopping center in Dallas. The property is part of Marketplace at Highland Village, a 451,000-square-foot development that also houses a corporately owned Walmart Supercenter. The acquired portion of the property was built in 2006 was 93 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, LA Fitness, DSW and Petco. Chris Gerard, Barry Brown and Erin Lazarus of JLL represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction.
WESLACO, TEXAS — Partners Real Estate has brokered the sale of a 107,560-square-foot industrial facility that sits on a 21-acre site in the Rio Grande Valley city of Weslaco. According to LoopNet Inc., the single-tenant property at 2300 Vo Tech Drive was built in 1985 and features 16-foot clear heights and 15 dock-high doors. Gustavo Torres of Partners represented the seller, the estate of Daniel E. Arnold, in the transaction. The buyer and sales price were not disclosed.
HOUSTON — Coworking and flexible workspace provider The Cannon will open a 21,960-square-foot space in Houston’s 265-acre Memorial City District. The space will span a full floor within Two Memorial City Plaza, which is part MetroNational’s three-building complex that recently received $30 million in capital improvements. Slated to open this spring, the space will feature 38 private offices and will be able to support more than 60 members.
ROWLETT, TEXAS — Jackson-Shaw, a national real estate development firm based in North Texas, plans to develop Lakeview Business District, an industrial park in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex city of Rowlett. The development will feature seven buildings spanning more than 1.8 million square feet at full build-out. Jackson-Shaw plans to develop Lakeview Business District in two phases. Situated near I-30 in Rowlett’s North Shore area, the park will span 165 acres along President George Bush Turnpike, with one phase situated at the Merritt Road intersection and the other at Liberty Grove Road. “Lakeview is a prime location in the middle of the nation’s fastest-growing counties and adjacent to the Garland labor pool,” says Miles Terry, vice president of development at Jackson-Shaw. “Combined with strong market fundamentals and a need for product in this area, Lakeview is poised to become a major economic hub.” Phase I will consist of five buildings totaling more than 1 million square feet of Class A industrial space, with a mix of front- and rear-load facilities, as well as cross-docks. The facilities will feature oversized glass entries and ample car and truck parking. Building sizes will range from 88,000 to 417,000 square feet, and construction is set …
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Property Owners Recalibrate Expectations Following Financing Challenge, Shifting Vacancy Rates
High costs, modulating occupancies and a lack of financing options reshaped the industrial, office, retail and multifamily sectors in the fourth quarter of 2023, signaling the determining factors for 2024, according to Lee & Associates’ 2023 Q4 North America Market Report. The industrial sector saw stabilizing tenant demand — the number of new buildings delivered increased in the fourth quarter, while new construction starts slowed. Meanwhile, the office sector’s struggles deepened as more than half of the office leases signed pre-2020 approach their expiration by 2026. With low-rate loans maturing into a high-rate environment, the factors troubling the office sector seem insurmountable in this decade. In the retail market, low vacancies did not lead to booming construction in that sector in the last quarter of 2023 — financing costs plus land and labor costs have hampered new development in spite of high demand. Finally, the health of multifamily markets is tied closely to geography. Sun Belt multifamily properties and their Midwest and Northeastern market counterparts are seeing reversals from the multifamily trends of 2021: formerly fast-growing Sun Belt markets are experiencing slowed rent growth or rent decline, while rent growth for slower-growing, major North and Midwestern metros has grown steadily. Lee & Associates …
HOUSTON — Locally based developer Fein will build Echo Lake, a 326-unit multifamily project that will be located at 2002 Spring Stuebner Road in North Houston. The site spans 21.4 acres within the CityPlace mixed-use development. Designed by Steinberg Dickey Collaborative, Echo Lake will offer one-, two- and three-bedroom units that will range in size from 556 to 1,824 square feet. Amenities will include a pool, fitness center, clubroom, outdoor grilling and dining stations and access to a 1.3-acre lake and surrounding walking trails. Fein purchased the land from CDC Houston, a subsidiary of Coventry Development Corp. and the master developer of CityPlace. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year.