HOUSTON — Locally based limited liability company 215 Westheimer LLC has broken ground on a 13,200-square-foot mixed-use project in Houston’s Montrose area. The first floor will feature retail and restaurant space, and the second floor will offer both traditional and medical office space. Identity Architects is designing the project, and Davis Commercial Real Estate is handling leasing. Construction is expected to be complete by the end of 2020.
DALLAS — WorldPac Inc., a wholesale distributor of automotive parts, has signed an 11,092-square-foot industrial lease renewal at 2939-2391 Irving Blvd. in Dallas. Canon Shoults, Maddy Canty and Harrison Putt of Holt Lunsford Commercial represented the landlord, Entrada Partners, in the lease negotiations. Robin Dodson of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant.
PLANO, TEXAS — J.C. Penney Co. (NYSE: JCP) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a bid to strengthen its finances through an extensive debt restructuring. The company filed on the evening of Friday, May 15 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, located in Corpus Christi. The Plano-based retailer has secured $900 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its existing first-lien lenders that is expected to knock several billion dollars off its total debt load. J.C. Penney, a company with a 118-year operating history, said that it would disclose in the coming weeks the number and locations of which stores would be closing. Currently, due to the coronavirus pandemic, about 40 of J.C. Penney’s approximately 850 U.S. stores are open, with another dozen or so offering curbside pickup only. In mid-March, the retailer began furloughing workers at its supply chain and distribution centers in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. Furloughs of store associates and corporate staff followed two weeks later. “While we had been working in parallel on options to strengthen our balance sheet and extend our financial runway, the closure of our stores due to the pandemic necessitated a more fulsome review to …
SAN ANTONIO — Austin-based Sabot Development will build Elmira at Myrtle, a 325-unit multifamily project in San Antonio that will also contain 14,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. Plans currently call for an elevated pool in addition to other unspecified amenities. Gensler is the project architect, and Cadence McShane is the general contractor. Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2021.
CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS — Berkadia has arranged the sale of Regency Square, a 240-unit apartment community in Corpus Christi. The property features one-, two- and three-bedroom units and amenities such as a pool, playground and onsite laundry facilities. Kelly Witherspoon and Justin Cole of Berkadia represented the seller, Minnesota-based S&H Realty Management, in the transaction. The buyer was Texas-based 3CM Multifamily.
LAREDO, TEXAS — New York-based Arbor Realty Trust Inc. has provided a $4 million Fannie Mae loan for the refinancing of Monaco Boulevard Apartments, a multifamily property in the Rio Grande Valley city of Laredo. The community was built in 2013 and totals 44 units. Jared Stein of Arbor provided the loan, which carries a 10-year term, fixed interest rate and a 30-year amortization schedule. The borrower was not disclosed.
EL PASO, TEXAS — CBRE has brokered the sale of an 18,540-square-foot industrial building located at 1525 Magoffin Ave. in El Paso. According to LoopNet Inc., the single-tenant property was built in 1950. Chad McCleskey with CBRE’s El Paso represented the seller, Lanestone LLC, in the transaction. Ricardo Fernandez, also with CBRE, represented the buyer, Marivani LLC, which is expanding into a larger space for its commercial equipment sales business.
COPPELL, TEXAS — Business software developer Optym has signed a 17,327-square-foot office lease at Cypress Waters, a 1,000-acre mixed-use development by Billingsley Co. in Coppell, just outside DFW International Airport. Optym plans to relocate its headquarters from Gainesville, Fla., to the new space beginning in August. Marijke Lantz of Billingsley Co. represented the landlord internally in the lease negotiations. Christopher Fleeger of Morrow Hill represented Optym.
DALLAS — Over the next eight weeks, Amazon plans to hire approximately 1,500 people in preparation for opening its 2.3 million-square-foot fulfillment center at 1301 Chalk Hill Road, located approximately seven miles west of downtown Dallas. The facility is expected to be fully operational by May 31. Last fall, The Dallas Morning News reported that Amazon had signed a 20-year lease at the 101-acre facility, which had recently been acquired by Toronto-based Granite REIT. The property features 41-foot clear heights, 2,500 auto parking spaces and 300 trailer parking spaces. As the largest e-commerce firm in the world, Amazon is investing more than $800 million in the establishment of safety measures like temperature checks, enhanced cleanings, sanitation stations and onsite testing for COVID-19.
IRVING, TEXAS — JLL has arranged an undisclosed amount of construction financing for DFW Park 161, an industrial project near DFW International Airport in Irving that will eventually total more than 2.4 million square feet. The development team, a partnership between Invesco Real Estate and Perot Development Co., broke ground in late February on Phase I of the 196-acre project, which will feature about 1 million square feet of speculative space. DFW Park 161 will ultimately consist of four Class A buildings with cross-dock configurations, 32- to 40-foot clear heights and a total of 383 trailer parking spaces. Stephen Bailey, Dustin Volz and John Rose of JLL arranged the five-year construction loan on behalf of the development team.
