KATY, TEXAS — Mirae Asset Global Investments, a global investment firm based in Seoul, South Korea, has purchased the headquarters campus of sporting goods retail giant Academy Sports + Outdoors (Nasdaq: ASO) in the west Houston suburb of Katy. Phoenix-based Tratt Properties sold the 1.5 million-square-foot campus, which is triple-net leased to Academy Sports on a long-term lease, for $190 million.
The 93-acre campus includes a little over 1.2 million square feet of warehouse space, 250,000 square feet of flexible office space and mezzanine space totaling approximately 800,000 square feet. Located at 1800 N. Mason Road, the site has immediate access to Interstate 10 and Texas Highway 99, which circles Houston.
“From a logistics perspective, this property is exceptionally well-located, with access to highways in all directions,” says Ken Hedrick, executive managing director of Newmark. “The scarcity and increasing value of land in the west Houston area further enhance the property’s value.”
Hedrick, along with Newmark colleagues Jerry Hopkins, Andrew Ragsdale, Alex Foshay and Kristian Nielsen, represented Tratt Properties in the sale. Dustin Stolly, Jordan Roeschlaub and Nick Scribani, also with Newmark, arranged acquisition financing on behalf of Mirae Asset Global.
Tratt Properties is an active logistics real estate investor and developer and has several dealings with distribution centers for national retailers. Last week, the firm signed The Home Depot to a full-building lease at the newly built Elmwood Logistics Center in Goodyear, Ariz.
Mirae Asset Global Investments is active in 40 countries across 12 different industries, including commercial real estate. In addition to Academy Sports’ headquarters, the South Korean firm is the landlord for State Farm Insurance at its East Coast office hub in Atlanta, for the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., and for Amazon in Seattle.
“Overseas capital continues to seek out opportunity and attractive returns in non-coastal U.S. markets,” says Foshay. “With demographic and population shifts being a key indicator, Sun Belt markets — like Houston and Texas overall — continue to grow in market share of foreign direct investment.”
Founded in 1938 as a tire shop in San Antonio, Academy Sports + Outdoors has grown to approximately 260 sporting goods stores in its network across 16 contiguous states in the Sun Belt and Midwest. The company’s fiscal year 2021 sales (which ended Jan. 29, 2022) exceeded $6.7 billion, more than double its annual volume 10 years prior. The company employs roughly 22,000 people.
The company’s stock price closed on Wednesday, April 20 at $42.18 per share, up from $31.14 a year ago, a more than 35 percent increase.
— John Nelson