AUSTIN, TEXAS — Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said on Tuesday that she is working to extend the Central Texas county’s stay-at-home order that expires on May 8, according to The Austin American-Statesman. Austin Mayor Steve Adler also said earlier this week that he supports an extended stay-at-home order throughout the state capital and its metro area. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the statewide stay-at-home order on Friday, May 1.
HOUSTON — NAI Partners, which provides brokerage and consultant services to the office, retail and industrial markets of Houston, Austin and San Antonio, has announced its intention to hire at least 20 new investment sales professionals across its three core markets by the end of 2020. The company cites its use of key technological platforms such as Google Earth Tour Builder, Matterport, Microsoft Teams and Zoom as critical to its ability to share information and deliver real-time solutions to clients amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The firm has made several new hires of late and has not laid off or furloughed any employees in its three primary markets since the pandemic began.
AUSTIN AND SAN ANTONIO — 37th Parallel Properties has acquired a portfolio of three apartment communities totaling 344 units in Austin and San Antonio. The properties include the 128-unit Bridgehead Apartments in Austin, the 132-unit Melrose Place Apartments in Austin and the 84-unit Tradewinds Apartments in San Antonio. The properties were built in the 1980s and had a collective occupancy of 97.6 percent at the time of sale. Cutt Ableson and Colin Marusak of Berkadia arranged an undisclosed amount of agency financing for the acquisition. Charles Cirar, Michael Wardlaw and Colin Cannata of CBRE represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction.
DALLAS — Chicago-based NXT Capital has provided an undisclosed amount of acquisition financing for Toll Hill Office Park, a 248,000-square-foot office complex in Dallas. Building amenities include an onsite deli, common area, conference room, atrium seating areas with Wi-Fi and both surface and underground parking. Jason Piering of JLL placed the debt on behalf of the borrower, Balfour Pacific Capital. The seller was locally based developer Cawley Partners
CORSICANA, TEXAS — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of Kenwood Heights, a 211-unit apartment community in Corsicana, about 65 miles south of Houston. The property was primarily built in the 1980s and spans 51 buildings. Al Silva and Ford Braly of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, Canada-based Republic Funds, in the transaction. The duo also procured the buyer, a Texas-based limited liability company that plans to implement a value-add program.
ADDISON, TEXAS — Real estate veteran Andy Anderson, formerly of Henry S. Miller, has formed Restaurant Properties Group, a new firm providing brokerage and consulting services to investors, owners and occupants of restaurant real estate. The company’s new office is located at 15305 Dallas Parkway in Addison on the city’s north side.
SCHERTZ, TEXAS — CBRE has negotiated a 109,271-square-foot industrial lease at 6417 Tri-County Parkway in Schertz, a northeastern suburb of San Antonio. Josh Aguilar of CBRE represented the landlord, Prologis, in the lease negotiations. Omar Nasser of AQUILA Commercial represented the tenant, women’s apparel provider J.J.’s Mae Inc.
DALLAS — Keller Williams Realty — North Dallas has signed a 24,971-square-foot office lease at 18333 Preston Road for its new headquarters in the metroplex. Renee Efimoff of SCM Real Estate Services represented Keller Williams in the lease negotiations. Trevor Franke and Andrew Scudder of JLL represented the landlord, Preston North Partners LLC. The move-in is scheduled for late July.
HOUSTON — Archway Properties has broken ground on a 22,016-square-foot build-to-suit retail project in Houston for Northern Tool + Equipment. The building will be situated on a freeway-fronting pad site within the 111-acre Park Air 59 mixed-use development on the city’s northeastern side. The store will be the Minnesota-based retailer’s eighth in Houston and is expected to open in the first quarter of 2021.
HOUSTON — A report issued last week by The University of Houston and the Texas Restaurant Association found that among a survey of 340 Texas bar and restaurant owners, 19 percent had been forced to permanently close one or more of their venues in response to COVID-19. The survey, which was conducted between April 8 and April 22 prior to the state’s easing of social distancing guidelines, queried 189 owners of a single restaurant and 151 owners of multiple restaurants accounting for more than 1,300 establishments between them. In addition, 80 percent of respondents indicated that they had been forced to lay off employees between March 19 and April 6, with roughly half of those respondents laying off the majorities of their staffs. Texas restaurants are currently at liberty to resume dine-in services at fractions of their original capacities. The Texas Restaurant Association is an industry advocacy organization for the state’s $52 billion foodservice industry, which spans more than 43,000 restaurants and employs more than 1.2 million people.