Texas

EL CAMPO, TEXAS — Atlanta-based Stonemont Financial Group has launched Phase I of Southwest International Gateway Business Park, a 540-acre industrial development in El Campo, located about 70 miles southwest of Houston. The rail-served development has the capacity to house up to 8 million square feet of industrial space. Phase I, construction of which is scheduled to begin this quarter, will include a 125,000-square-foot distribution center that is preleased to Vitro Chemicals and a 200,000-square-foot speculative warehouse. Atlanta-based developer Ridgeline Property Group is partnering with Stonemont on the project, and NAI Partners will handle leasing of the property.

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DALLAS — Locally based investment firm Encore Enterprises has sold Two Forest Plaza, a 196,215-square-foot office building located at 12201 Merit Drive in North Dallas. The 11-story, Class A building was built in 1981 and renovated in 2014. Amenities include a six-story parking garage, conference room, fitness center and a café. Tenants include New York Life Insurance Co. and French bakery La Madeleine, which operates its headquarters from the building. Creighton Stark and Chris Boyd of Colliers International represented Encore Enterprises in the transaction. The buyer was a partnership between OrbVest U.S. Inc. and Richmond Honan Lifehope.

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SAN ANTONIO — Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, has negotiated the sale of The Boulevard at Sonterra, a 326-unit apartment community located within the Stone Oak master-planned community in San Antonio. Built on 16.8 acres in 2000, the property features one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging 973 square feet and amenities such as a pool, fitness center, theater room, dog park, picnic area, business center and a resident clubhouse. Will Balthrope, Drew Kile, Drew Garza and Jordan Featherston of IPA represented the seller, Short Real Estate, and procured the buyer, a parternship between PCCP and Kairoi Residential.

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DALLAS — Lee & Associates has brokered the sale of a 101,492-square-foot industrial building located at 10355 Sanden Drive in Dallas. According to LoopNet Inc., the single-tenant property was built in 1994 and features 24-foot clear heights and 16 dock-high loading doors. Taylor Stell and Brett Lewis of Lee & Associates represented the buyer, Rotary Corp., in the transaction. The seller was not disclosed.

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AUSTIN, TEXAS — Furniture Mall of Texas will open a 95,000-square-foot store at Shops at Tech Ridge, a 519,354-square-foot retail power center in Austin. The opening is scheduled for this summer. Lance Morris and P.J. Kaminer of The Retail Connection represented the landlord, RD Management, in the lease negotiations. The store will be the company’s third. Other tenants at Shops at Tech Ridge include Floor & Décor, Fitness Connection, Conn’s HomePlus, Ross Dress for Less, Burke’s Outlet and PetSmart. The company will occupy a space formerly leased to Target.

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Mark Fogel, ACRES Capital

Mark Fogel, president and CEO of ACRES Capital, believes alternative lenders can maintain their flexibility and creativity where perhaps more traditional lenders cannot. He believes this will be important as the country continues its unprecedented upcycle, with a potential downturn threatening in the next 18 months or so. Finance Insight (FI): As an alternative lender focused on the middle market, can you tell me a little bit more about alternative lenders and your specific areas of expertise in comparison with traditional funding sources? Fogel: Traditional lenders offer an important role in most communities as a source of funding. However, they are restricted by regulations that impede their ability to take on riskier transactions and go higher on the capital stack. In this regard, alternative lenders can step in and provide capital and opportunity for those projects that are going through a redevelopment or are repurposed from their original business plan. FI: Do you lend against all property types and pursue projects in all geographical regions of the U.S.? Fogel: ACRES seeks out opportunities on an asset-by-asset basis. We do not necessarily follow market trends, but rather identify alternative situations where, from a debt perspective, our basis is low and the …

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HUD Section 232 Summary Statistics - Fiscal Year 2019

Despite enduring a federal government shutdown for 35 days that temporarily put a crimp in loan processing, the HUD/FHA Section 232 mortgage insurance program used to finance seniors housing properties rallied to post a solid performance in fiscal year 2019. The volume of loans closed during the 12-month period that started Oct. 1, 2018 and ended Sept. 30, 2019 totaled $3.7 billion. That’s up from $3.6 billion the prior fiscal year. The HUD/FHA Section 232 program — more commonly referred to as the HUD Lean program — helps finance nursing homes and assisted living facilities, as well as board and care facilities. The Lean process developed by HUD in 2008 is a methodology based on the Toyota model to increase efficiency by reducing waste. In short, the goal is to eliminate historical inefficiencies in the processing and approval of HUD loan applications. Dissecting the data Although the government shutdown that occurred in late December 2018 and January 2019 resulted in the program’s loan count dropping from 317 to 288 on a year-over-year basis, the average loan amount increased 14 percent during the same period to reach a record high of nearly $13 million.  “This was driven not only by some …

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HARKER HEIGHTS, TEXAS — JLL has negotiated the sale of Market Heights Shopping Center, a 417,167-square-foot regional lifestyle center in the Central Texas city of Harker Heights. Built in 2008, the property sits on 62.2 acres and was 89.4 percent leased at the time of sale. Tenants include Cinemark, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Barnes & Noble, Ross Dress for Less, Old Navy, Petco, Ulta Beauty and Bed Bath & Beyond. Adam Howells of JLL represented the undisclosed institutional seller in the off-market transaction, and procured the buyer, Direct Retail Partners. Mark Brandenburg and Tim Jordan of JLL arranged a four-year, floating-rate acquisition loan for the buyer through Bayview Asset Management.

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RICHMOND, TEXAS — Locally based builder CJ Development has purchased 42.6 acres at Grand Parkway and West Bellfort Street in the northern Houston suburb of Richmond for a commercial project that will be named Grand Center at Long Meadow Farms. The company previously purchased an adjacent 15-acre tract, creating a total of 58 acres for the new development. The project will feature a 46,000-square-foot retail center, and other tracts will be sold to individual buyers for various uses. Retail tenants that have committed to the center include Members Choice Credit Union, Spring Creek BBQ, Pet Suites, Service First and 7-Eleven. Chris Bergmann Jr. of JLL represented the undisclosed seller in the disposition of the land. Alan Chodrow of Chodrow Realty Advisors represented CJ Development. NewQuest Properties is handling leasing of the project.

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PASADENA, TEXAS — United Equities will develop Phase II of Beltway-225 Business Park, an industrial project that fronts Beltway 8 in the eastern Houston suburb of Pasadena. Phase I of the project delivered 85,500 square feet, and the first two completed buildings of that phase have been leased to Cooper Valves (21,000 square feet) and PTR Holland Maritime (18,500 square feet). Travis Land and Michael Keegan of NAI Partners represented United Equities in both lease negotiations. Phase II of the project, a construction timeline for which was not released, will include two tilt-wall buildings totaling 46,000 square feet.

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