HOUSTON — Ready Capital Structured Finance has provided an undisclosed amount of acquisition financing for a 248-unit apartment community in Houston. A portion of the nonrecourse loan, which carries a floating interest rate and a 36-month term with two extension options, will be used to fund capital expenditures and stabilize the Class C property. The borrower and property name were not disclosed.
The Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and Houston metro areas have vastly different opportunities and challenges in terms of commercial real estate. Yet this year both have both landed in the top five in the nation for industrial development. Driven by strong population and job growth, DFW and Houston don’t expect their industrial expansions to slow down any time soon. At the end of the second quarter, DFW was No. 2 in the country in industrial development behind California’s Inland Empire, with 30.3 million square feet of space under construction, according to Cushman & Wakefield research. Houston ranked fourth with 18.1 million square feet. Record Construction in Dallas Dallas’ industrial market has enjoyed strong positive momentum throughout 2019, thanks in large part to a steady stream of new residents and job opportunities. DFW’s population grew by 128,500 people year-over-year, an average of 350 new residents every day. The metroplex also gained 97,000 jobs over the previous year. Moody’s Analytics reported that 25 percent of those new positions were in the industrial market. The leading indicators of industrial demand are trade, transportation and utilities jobs, which account for nearly 75 percent of all industrial jobs in DFW. Unemployment has edged downward to 3.4 …
MCKINNEY, TEXAS — Multifamily developer SWBC has begun construction on Phase II of The Royalton at Craig Ranch, a 271-unit project that will be located within the Craig Ranch master-planned community in McKinney. Floor plans will consist of one-, two- and three-bedroom units that feature granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and individual washer and dryer connections. Amenities will include a pool, clubhouse, 24-hour fitness center and outdoor grilling areas. Cross Architects is handling design of the project, and Stantec is the civil engineer. Construction is expected to last about 22 months. SWBC previously developed a sister community, Central Park at Craig Ranch, which also spans 271 units and is now 92 percent occupied. The proposed construction time is 22 months, with the first units expected to be available in March 2021.
HOUSTON — Greystone has provided a $27 million bridge loan for the acquisition of Villa Nueva Apartments, a 542-unit multifamily asset in Houston. Built in 1980, the property features of one- and two-bedroom units and amenities such as three pools and onsite laundry facilities. Daniel Wolins of Greystone originated the interest-only loan, which carries a two-year term and two six-month extension options, on behalf of the borrower, Iliad Realty Group. Sal Torre of Estreich & Co. arranged the debt, a portion of which will be used to fund capital improvements.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of A Plus Boat Club, a 209-unit self-storage facility in Fort Worth. Built in 1990, the property spans 60,856 net rentable square feet and features non-climate-controlled units ranging in size from 200 to 352 square feet. Brandon Karr and Danny Cunningham of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, a locally based partnership, in the transaction. The duo also procured the buyer, Spartan Investment Group, a self-storage owner-operator based in Denver.
NEW CANEY, TEXAS — The East Montgomery County Improvement District (EMCID) will develop a 30,000-square-foot office building in New Caney, a northeastern suburb of Houston. The property will be located within a 500-acre industrial park that EMCID owns. The development team, which received a $1.5 million grant for the project from the U.S. Department of Commerce, hopes to break ground by October and finish construction within six months. A general contractor has not yet been appointed.
DALLAS — Common Desk, a locally based coworking concept, has moved its headquarters to Factory Six03, a 215,000-square-foot office building located in the West End area of Dallas. Common Desk opened an 18,000-square-foot coworking space at the property earlier this year. Granite Properties, a privately owned development and investment firm with five offices across the country, owns the building, which was formerly used as a warehouse. Common Desk now operates six coworking spaces in Dallas-Fort Worth, with a seventh coming soon to Trammell Crow Center.
DALLAS — Over the last decade, the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) industrial market has transitioned from the middle of the pack of major U.S. industrial markets to Tier-1 status in terms of leasing and development, and the drivers extend beyond job and population growth. So went the opening conversation of the development panel of the InterFace DFW Industrial conference, held Sept. 4 at the Westin Galleria hotel and attended by more than 200 industry professionals in its first year of existence. Moderated by Keith Holley, partner at Method Architecture, the panel wasted no time in providing quantitative evidence of DFW’s emergence as a leading industrial market. Panelist Tony Creme, senior vice president at Hillwood, backed this assertion by pointing out that since the recession, the market has averaged about 25 million square feet of new deliveries per year. That rate of development puts DFW on pace to exceed 1 billion square feet by 2021, joining Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles as the only U.S. markets with that much inventory. “We’ve got about 36 million square feet of product under construction, which is about 40 percent preleased,” said Creme, citing numbers from CoStar Group. “That’s helping to temper development a little bit. …
HOUSTON — The Houston Waterworks Team is underway on the expansion of the Northeast Water Purification Plant, a project valued at approximately $1.7 billion. The project aims to shift a growing population’s reliance on groundwater to surface water and represents the largest design-build project for a water treatment plant that is underway in the country. The team has tapped McCarthy Building Cos. for several aspects of the larger project, which is expected to be fully operational by early 2025. McCarthy will construct a 30,000-square-foot raw water intake pump station building as well as a central plant as part of its involvement.
DALLAS — A partnership between The Kroger Co. and online grocery retailer Ocado Solutions will open a 350,000-square-foot fulfillment center off Interstate 20 in Dallas, a project that is expected to create about 400 new jobs. Construction is slated to begin in early 2020, and the facility is expected to be operational within 24 months of the groundbreaking. JLL’s Terry Darrow, Elizabeth Jones, Forshey Hoobler and Brian Leonard represented Kroger in the land acquisition. CBRE’s Nathan Lawrence and Krista Raymond represented the seller, Ridgeline. Kroger and Ocado have two similar facilities in development in Monroe, Ohio, and Groveland, Fla. Additional facilities are planned for metro Atlanta and the Mid-Atlantic region.