GRAPEVINE, TEXAS — Colliers has negotiated the sale of a 21,258-square-foot office building located at 4550 State Highway 360 in Grapevine, located on the northern central side of the metroplex. The property was built on 2.2 acres in 2008. Cody Payne, Austin Edelmon and Nick Miller of Colliers represented the seller and procured the buyer, both of which were private investors that requested anonymity, in the all-cash transaction.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — BentallGreenOak (BGO), an institutional investment and property management firm with offices in Toronto, New York City, London and Tokyo, has opened a new office in Austin. Industry professionals in the new office will focus on deepening BGO’s investor relations activities in the region and developing new operating and development partnerships. The company has hired Mike Leifeste, formerly of the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Co., to lead the new office as managing director and head of Texas coverage.
With each year that passes in the current cycle, industrial real estate, along with multifamily, becomes more deeply ingrained as a darling asset class among commercial developers, lenders and investors. For all the talk about Americans being social creatures, there remains a massive contingent of the population that, when it comes to shopping, overwhelmingly prefers the convenience and relative anonymity of e-commerce. What started out as pandemic-related justifications for buying goods online as opposed to in-person has given way to a full-fledged, tacit acknowledgement of a trend that was already in place prior to February 2020. As such, demand for facilities — not just traditional, pure-play industrial spaces — that can function as e-commerce fulfillment and distribution centers continues to skyrocket. This trend is even more pronounced in markets with surging populations like those of major Texas cities. Industrial brokers are the ones who see it all. These professionals talk to tenants about acute real estate needs that are critical to serving customers without accruing exorbitant transit costs. Brokers work with developers who must build and price their spaces in accordance with their own escalating cost structures for land and construction. The deals that industrial brokers execute form the backbone …
HALTOM CITY, TEXAS — Indianapolis-based developer Scannell Properties has broken ground on 820 Crossing, a 335,000-square-foot industrial project in Haltom City, a northern suburb of Fort Worth. The rear-load building will feature 36-foot clear heights, 62 dock doors, 185-foot truck court depths, 201 car parking spaces and 95 trailer stalls with the capacity to add 40 more. Stream Realty Partners has been tapped to lease the development. Completion is slated for the first quarter of 2023.
CYPRESS, TEXAS — Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. (MMCC) has arranged a $56 million bridge loan for the acquisition of Legacy at Cypress, a 422-unit multifamily property located just outside Houston on the northwest side. Built in 1999, the property offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units and amenities such as a pool, fitness center, business center, clubhouse, volleyball court and onsite laundry facilities. Jamie Mullin and Brandon Brown of MMCC arranged the loan. The borrower was not disclosed.
PLANO, TEXAS — Philadelphia-based investment firm Rubenstein Partners has acquired a 250,000-square-foot office building located at 5600 Headquarters Drive in the northern Dallas suburb of Plano. Rubenstein plans to upgrade the lobby and the amenity spaces, including the new fitness center, tenant lounge, conference center and dining areas. Vicki Keenan, Adam Subber, Dan Sullivan, David Stringfield and Brant Bryan of Cresa represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. Lincoln Property Co. will lease the building following completion of the renovation.
JACINTO CITY, TEXAS — NAI Partners has negotiated a 91,000-square-foot industrial lease renewal at 4800 Fidelity St. in Jacinto City, located on the eastern outskirts of Houston. Chris Caudill of NAI Partners represented the tenant, PK Industrial LLC, which provides coating and fireproofing services for various manufacturers, in the lease negotiations. Eric Hughes of Centermark Commercial Real Estate represented the undisclosed landlord.
HOUSTON — Eleox, a joint venture between six energy trading companies, has signed a 4,300-square-foot office lease at Heights Clock Tower in Houston. The building was originally constructed in 1894 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Bryant Lach of JLL represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Russell Hodges and Jenny Mueller of CBRE represented the landlord, Radom Capital.
By Steve Firestone, Crown Bay Group Why would anyone choose investing in an aging workforce housing property over razing it to make room for Class A apartments? Are these challenging properties worth the risk? Making this choice may not be right for everyone, but the returns can be unbelievably rewarding. The secret recipe for transforming Class B and C properties to benefit the community, local residents and your bottom line isn’t complicated. The key is entering into each deal with a genuine interest and desire to do what is right and what matters to the residents who call this property home. The age-old saying — by doing good, you will do well — still holds true today. There is an overwhelming demand for Class B and C assets. While a large portion of new development over the past decade has been Class A luxury, the Class A market makes up only 20 percent of the total rental market. New construction of affordable, market-rate units is just not financially feasible today. Consequently, meaningful workforce supply has rarely been added this past decade. Despite the pervasive need for workforce housing, the supply has decreased with older units being demolished to make room …
HOUSTON — Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) has sold its 2 million-square-foot former office and industrial campus in Houston. Built between 1984 and 1988, the campus comprises five office buildings, two manufacturing/distribution buildings and four structures that house maintenance and/or amenity space. Amenities include a cafeteria, fitness center, employee lounges, conference rooms, coffee/snack bars and an outdoor covered pavilion with a kitchen area for events. The property also features five parking garages, which along with surface lots total 5,229 spaces. Kevin McConn, Rick Goings, Ronnie Deyo, Beau Bellow and Ethan Goldberg of JLL represented HPE, which recently relocated to CityPlace at Springwoods Village. Boyd Commercial represented the buyer, an affiliate of Florida-based alcoholic beverage wholesaler Mexcor International that owns an adjacent building and will occupy a portion of the campus.