FORT WORTH, TEXAS — KRS Realty Advisors has begun a 12,000-square-foot retail and office renovation project within Fort Worth’s historic stockyards district. The first building features 7,000 square feet of divisible space and can accommodate a drive-thru or patio seating for a restaurant user. The second building will offer 4,970 square feet in an open concept complete with mezzanine space and ample parking. Stream Realty Partners will handle leasing of the project.
CHICAGO — Net absorption in office markets across the United States exceeded new construction in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to Cushman & Wakefield. This enabled the national office vacancy rate to drop to 13.2 percent. Nationwide absorption during the fourth quarter totaled 20 million square feet and marked the 33rd consecutive quarter of positive absorption since 2010. The total volume of space under construction increased slightly to 114.2 million square feet in the fourth quarter, up from 113.2 million in the third quarter. A total of 13.7 million square feet of new office projects delivered in the fourth quarter, bringing the total for 2018 deliveries to 52.7 million square feet, the second-highest amount of new space completed since 2010. Relative to inventory, the markets with the highest construction figures are San Mateo, Calif.; Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; Seattle; and Midtown Manhattan. On the west side Office markets in the Western United States performed the strongest in 2018 and accounted for 22.6 million square feet of net absorption, the highest volume since 2015. The lowest vacancy rates were seen in tech-driven markets like Seattle (6.2 percent vacancy) and San Francisco (6.4 percent). According to Cushman & Wakefield, the western …
ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Albany Road Real Estate Partners, a Boston-based investment firm, has acquired Centerpoint I, II and III, a portfolio of three office properties totaling 285,000 square feet in Arlington. The property was 94 percent leased at the time of sale, with the North Central Texas Council of Governments accounting for more than half the occupancy. Creighton Stark and Chris Boyd of Colliers International represented the seller, a German investment firm, in the transaction. Other terms of sale were not disclosed.
DALLAS — The Trammell and Margaret Crow family has donated the entire collection of the Trammell and Margaret Crow Museum of Asian Art to The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). The museum, which recently underwent a 5,000-square-foot expansion, is located at 2010 Flora St. within the Trammell Crow Center in the city’s Arts District. Following decades of collecting art from Asian countries, the Crow family established the Asian arts museum in 1998. The museum has a long-term lease at the building with landlord JP Morgan Chase, and UTD plans to continue operating the museum at its current location. In addition to the downtown location, the Crow family also donated $23 million of support funding for the university to establish a second museum on UTD’s Richardson campus. Together, the two museums will be known as the Trammell and Margaret Crow Museum of Asian Art of The University of Texas at Dallas. The museum features more than 1,000 ancient and contemporary works from Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Tibet and Vietnam. The collection also includes a library of over 12,000 books, catalogs and journals. The museum is free of admission.
IRVING, TEXAS — Coworking firm WeWork has signed a lease to occupy a 77,000-square-foot collaborative office space at The Towers at Williams Square within the 12,000-acre Las Colinas business district in Irving. The space will span three floors and represents WeWork’s first site in a suburban market in North Texas. WeWork expects to being occupying the space during the third quarter. Bill Brokaw of Hillwood Urban represented the landlord, a partnership between Apollo Global Real Estate, Vanderbilt Partners and Hillwood Urban, in the lease negotiations.
KATY, TEXAS — NorthMarq Capital has arranged refinancing for Trinity Hunter Mobile Home Community, a 28-acre property located at 2800 Katy Hockley Cutoff in the western Houston suburb of Houston. Built in 2002, the community features 199 individual sites and gated access, a clubhouse and a management office. Dale Stewart and Chris Bailey of NorthMarq Capital arranged the 10-year, non-recourse financing through Fannie Mae on behalf of the undisclosed borrower.
OKLAHOMA CITY — CBRE has negotiated the sale of a 21,000-square-foot industrial property located at 2740 Global Parkway in Oklahoma City. The property is situated just off Interstate 40 on the southeast side of the city. Randy Lacey and Austin Lacey of CBRE represented the buyer, BGI Investments LLC, in the transaction. The representative of the seller was, Genprop Operators LLC, was not disclosed.
Matt Rocco, president of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, realizes this year may not maintain the exact same lending velocity as last year. However, he sees plenty of opportunities in workforce and affordable housing, as well as in industrial real estate. This, combined with plenty of capital, may keep competition fierce for strong commercial assets in the foreseeable future. Many believe lending velocity may slow this year compared to 2018. What is your take on this? Rocco: We expect transactional velocity will be flat or down slightly as compared to 2018. This year and 2020 only have modest maturity activity. As a result, many new refinancing assignments will come from floating-rate loans that are converting into fixed-rate loan terms. Given the very flat yield curve, we anticipate many clients will move from these floating-rate loans to match their ownership objectives. They will likely seek fixed-rate loan terms at the same coupon rate as their floating-rate alternatives. We also expect lending volume from CMBS, agency and life insurance companies to be flat or slightly down in 2019 compared to the record year in 2018. Are there any specific product types that seem particularly attractive in 2019? Rocco: We expect to see robust …
Mark Gould, national production manager of M&T Realty Capital Corporation, believes the seniors housing continuum of care may hold vast opportunities for those with the know-how and discipline to weather any short-term storms. Where do lending opportunities – and challenges – lie in 2019? Gould: We have been active in the seniors housing sector for a very long time. We see this asset class continuing to grow in 2019 as the U.S. aging population will drive growth. Challenges will lie with inexperienced parties trying to capitalize on the favorable demographic trends who do not fully understand the complexity of operating in the healthcare space. Wage pressures and nurse staffing shortages will further heighten the operating challenges in this space. I also think dollar volumes will stay steady. Rising rates have placed some DSC [debt service coverage] limitations and have required more equity into deals. There didn’t seem to be as many large portfolio deals in fiscal year 2018, which we believe resulted in a heightened number of transactions. This is an indication of a healthy market. Does the seniors housing market have room to grow beyond its 2018 activity? Gould: We are seeing some very innovative solutions from our customers that …
Hilary Provinse, executive vice president and head of mortgage banking at Berkadia, highlights the trends, strategies and activity attendees should have on their radar ahead of MBA CREF 2019 in February. Coming off a strong and surprisingly consistent year in 2018, we’re feeling good about 2019. The year is off to an interesting start to say the least, and we’re keeping our eye on several factors. These include Treasury rates, the regulatory environment, tariffs and development costs that will impact our business. Even keeping these in mind, however, there are positive factors that point to the potential for continued economic strength and activity in the multifamily market. Fundamentals of the Economy Remain Very Strong Unemployment continues to fall, and jobless claims remain extraordinarily low. Despite the recent decrease in consumer confidence — volatile in its own right — it remains near the highest levels since 9/11. GDP growth also remains strong with consumption, investment and government outlays all supportive. Multifamily Demand-Supply Dynamics Remain Solid The percent of population living in multifamily units has experienced a slow, but consistent, increase since the 2008 financial crisis. Loan maturities are expected to increase in 2019 versus 2018 across several sources. Maturities are inevitable events that …