AUSTIN, TEXAS — North Carolina-based investment firm Bell Partners has acquired Lenox Springs and Lenox Meadows, two adjacent multifamily assets in Austin totaling 619 units. Bell Partners will merge these properties with its 330-unit Bell Southpark property, which neighbors Lenox Springs and Lenox Meadows, to create a 949-unit community that will be located roughly 10 miles from downtown Austin. Lenox Springs and Lenox Meadows were built in 2018 and 2021, respectively, and Bell Southpark was built in 2018. The new community will feature multiple resort-style pools, grills and fireplace features, as well as fitness and wellness studios and green spaces.
CEDAR PARK, TEXAS — Arizona-based investment firm Sterling Real Estate Partners has sold Muir Lake, a 332-unit luxury multifamily property in Cedar Park, a northwestern suburb of Austin. Built in 2014 by developer Larry Peel, the waterfront community is located within the 189-acre Lakeline Park master-planned community, which includes walking trails, sport fields, water activities and festival/event areas. Units feature studio, one- and two-bedroom floor plans and are furnished with granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, full-sized washers and dryers and private balconies/patios. Amenities include a pool, outdoor lounge, business center, billiards room, fitness center, dog park and a boat and canoe dock. Matt Pohl, Forrest Bass and Spencer Roy of Walker & Dunlop brokered the deal. An affiliate of Chicago-based Walton Street Capital provided a $61.4 million acquisition loan to the buyer, a partnership between Old Three Hundred Capital and ArrowMark Partners. Marko Kazanjian, Chris McColpin and Andrew Cohen of JLL placed the debt. Muir Lake was 96 percent occupied at the time of sale.
PLANO, TEXAS — Newmark has brokered the sale of the Legacy R&D Portfolio, a collection of seven office and research and development buildings totaling 374,085 square feet in Plano. The single-story buildings were constructed on a combined 40 acres between 2006 and 2012 and were 85 percent leased at the time of sale. Gary Carr, Chris Murphy, John Alvarado, Robert Hill and Chase Tagen of Newmark represented the seller, Accesso, which will continue to manage the portfolio, in the transaction. The buyer was a fund controlled by New York-based DRA Advisors LLC.
DALLAS — Wellington Realty, a brokerage and management firm serving the major markets of Texas, has arranged the sale of Woodside Bridle Path Apartments, a 311-unit community in southeast Dallas that was built in phases between 1974 and 1982. According to Apartments.com, the property offers studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units and amenities such as a pool, playground and onsite laundry facilities. David Shaffer, Caleb Jones, Will Miller and Troy Sanders of Wellington Realty brokered the deal. The buyer and seller were not disclosed. The property was 87 percent occupied at the time of sale.
HOUSTON — The Webstaurant Store, a Pennsylvania-based e-commerce firm specializing in restaurant supplies and equipment, has signed a 643,940-square-foot industrial lease within Cedar Port Industrial Park near Port Houston. The tenant will occupy Cedar Port Logistics Building I, a cross-dock facility developed by Avera Cos. and AEW Capital Management, on a long-term basis. Building features include 36-foot clear heights, 185-foot truck court depths, 211 trailer parking spaces and an ESFR sprinkler system. Jim Belcher and Rob Stillwell of Newmark represented The Webstaurant Store in the lease negotiations. Gray Gilbert, Holden Rushing and Chris Haro of NAI Partners represented building ownership.
SAN ANTONIO — California-based Investors Management Group has purchased Azul Apartments, a 246-unit multifamily community in northwest San Antonio. Built in 2007, the property offers a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging 868 square feet. Amenities include a pool with a lounge and game areas, fitness center, outdoor grilling stations and picnic areas, a basketball court and a business center. David Bleiweiss of Berkadia originated an undisclosed amount of Freddie Mac acquisition financing for the deal on behalf of the new ownership, which plans to invest more than $1 million in capital improvements. The seller was not disclosed.
CARROLLTON, TEXAS — Locally based firm Darwin German Real Estate Investments has acquired Frankford Station, a 204-unit apartment community located in the northern Dallas suburb of Carrollton. The property offers one- and two-bedroom units with keyless entry mechanisms, quartz countertops and wood-style plank flooring. Communal amenities include a pool, fitness center, dog park, onsite storage space and a resident clubhouse with a coffee bar, business center and private conference room. The community, which was 89 percent occupied at the time of sale, was acquired in an off-market transaction from an undisclosed Dallas-based investor. The sales price was also not disclosed.
HOUSTON — General contractor Harvey Builders will construct a 115,000-square-foot manufacturing and office facility in Houston. Designed by Powers Brown Architecture, the facility will be situated on an 8.3-acre site within the Houston Spaceport campus on the city’s southwest side. The project will be a build-to-suit for Hamilton Sundstrand, a subsidiary of Collins Aerospace, and is expected to be complete in summer 2022. Houston-based Griffin Partners has been tapped as the development manager for the project, which is expected to add about 250 new jobs to the local economy.
TULSA, OKLA. — National Health Advisors (NHI) has purchased Brookhaven Hospital, a 64-bed facility in Tulsa, Okla., for $40.3 million. Behavioral health services provider Vizion Health, which treats patients who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, occupies the property on a 15-year lease. The seller was not disclosed.
By Lupita Gutierrez-Garza, principal, and Christian Gutierrez, senior associate, Southern Commercial Real Estate Group The impacts of COVID-19 on the retail sector in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) have mirrored those of the rest of the country. However, the way the region responded was different from the way it addressed past crises, such as natural disasters, and even very different from past responses to local problems like peso devaluations and drug cartel activity along the border. The response was multifaceted and included many trial-and-error situations. But through sheer determination and quick thinking by local leadership, regional landlords and tenants managed to mitigate all the uncertainty to not only survive, but to thrive. What made a difference in the region was the behind-the-scenes build-up of its economic infrastructure that has slowly been chipping away at the inequities the region has endured for years. Infrastructure build-up has been ongoing for over a decade and has come in many forms, including education and medical, industrial and logistics, aerospace technology and wind energy. All of these sectors managed well during the peak of the pandemic and continued to expand at phenomenal paces. Their growth has piqued a lot of outside interest and investment …