SAN MARCOS, TEXAS — Two Austin-based firms, Kogut Commercial Real Estate and Mittman Real Estate have completed construction of Hunter Professional Plaza, a 25,240-square-foot medical office building located at 151 Stagecoach Trail in the Central Texas city of San Marcos. The property is currently 41 percent leased. Transwestern Commercial Services (TCS) is leasing the building.
ATLANTA AND DALLAS — Cousins Properties Inc. (NYSE: CUZ) and Dallas-based TIER REIT Inc. (NYSE: TIER), two of the larger office development and investment firms in the country, have entered into an all-stock merger agreement. The combined company, which will retain the Cousins name, will have an equity market capitalization of $5.9 billion and a total market cap of $7.8 billion. Following the merger, the company will continue to function as a Class A office REIT with a combined portfolio of approximately 21 million square feet spread across various markets in the Southeast and Southwest. Both firms are active in leading office markets like Atlanta, where Cousins is based, as well as Charlotte, Dallas and Austin. Cousins owns several trophy assets in Atlanta’s Buckhead area, including 3348 and 3350 Peachtree, which have about 670,000 square feet combined, as well as 816 Congress and 303 Colorado in downtown Austin. TIER REIT owns 3354 Peachtree, a 560,000-square-foot building in Atlanta, as well as the 40-story Burnett Plaza in Fort Worth and the 1.5 million-square-foot Domain office building in Austin. Under terms of the agreement, Cousins will issue 2.98 shares of common stock in exchange for each share of TIER stock. That rate …
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — HFF has brokered the sale of The Village at Camp Bowie, an 180,000-square-foot retail center in Fort Worth. Anchored by Sprouts Farmers Market, the property was 89 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as Verizon Wireless, Keller Williams Realty, Tuesday Morning and Orangetheory Fitness. Jim Batjer, Barry Brown, Ryan Shore and Aaron Johnson of HFF represented the seller, a joint venture between Lincoln Property Co. and Boston-based Long Wharf Capital. The buyer was brokerage and investment firm Dunhill Partners Inc.
PLANO, TEXAS — Metropolitan Capital Advisors (MCA) has arranged a $40 million business recapitalization loan for Heart to Heart Hospice, a Plano-based organization that operates 36 properties across Texas, Michigan and Indiana. Todd McNeill and Kevan McCormack of MCA arranged the loan, specific terms of which were not disclosed, through Cerberus Capital Management LP.
SAN ANTONIO — New York City-based Ready Capital (NYC: RS) has originated a $25.8 million loan for the acquisition, renovation and stabilization of a 392-unit apartment community located in the Far North Central submarket of San Antonio. The nonrecourse loan carries a floating interest rate, 36-month term and flexible prepayment options. The capital improvement program will upgrade both the unit interiors and common areas. The sponsor was not disclosed.
HOUSTON — BMC Capital has closed an $18 million loan for the cash-out refinancing of an undisclosed, Class B multifamily property in the Houston area. The nonrecourse loan featured a fixed 5.25 percent interest rate, 10-year term and a 30-year amortization schedule. The borrower was not disclosed.
HOUSTON — NAI Partners has negotiated a 46,150-square-foot industrial lease at 1400 Kowis St. in north Houston. According to LoopNet Inc., the property was built in 1974 and is zoned for manufacturing. Chris Caudill and Joel Michael of NAI Partners represented the landlord, NRE LLC, in the lease negotiations. Stephen Schneidau of Cushman & Wakefield and Bill Schneidau of Independent Real Estate Commercial represented the tenant, Flo Trend, a provider of specialty products for the industrial and energy sectors.
In 1987, Austin was a relatively quiet market where the major industries were higher education and state government, along with some large technology companies like IBM. Fast forward to 2019 where Austin continues to make national headlines, receiving high accolades as a top place to live and a leading city for millennial growth. This transformation — coupled with an increasing number of companies choosing to move or expand in Austin — begs the question: Why Austin? How did the Texas capital go from a fairly sleepy town to one of the hottest markets in the country? What really accounts for this seismic shift and what does the future hold? The Office Boom Begins In 2004, after the dot-com bust hit Austin, a group of private business leaders felt compelled to take the destiny of the city into their own hands with the creation of Opportunity Austin within the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. Opportunity Austin was launched with the goal of creating 72,000 regional jobs and increasing regional payrolls by $2.9 billion within five years. To do this, the regional business community invested $14.4 million in the program. These funds allowed the Austin Chamber to increase initiatives for corporate recruitment …
DALLAS — Wood Partners, a multifamily investment and development firm with offices around the country, has opened Alta Trinity Green, a 324-unit community in west Dallas. Alta Trinity Green features studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments ranging in size from 579 to 1,696 square feet. Amenities include a pool, fitness center, outdoor grilling area, game room, dog park and a rooftop lounge. Wood Partners co-developed the project with Stonelake Capital Partners, the master developer of the surrounding Trinity Green neighborhood.
SAN ANTONIO — Urbana SA Property LLC has acquired Urbana Apartments, a 204-unit multifamily community in San Antonio. The market-rate property consists of seven two-story residential buildings offering one- and two-bedroom units. Amenities include a pool, fitness center, a business center and onsite laundry facilities. Dougherty Mortgage arranged an undisclosed amount of Fannie Mae acquisition financing for the deal. The loan carried a 12-year term and a 30-year amortization schedule.