WAXAHACHIE, TEXAS — STRIVE has arranged the sale of Northgate Plaza, a 196,006-square-foot retail center situated on 18.6 acres at 507 U.S. Highway 77 in the southern Dallas metro of Waxahachie. Anchored by Big Lots, the property was 88 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as Aaron’s, Verizon Wireless and Schlotzsky’s. Jennifer Pierson of STRIVE represented the seller and procured the buyer, both of whom were private investors based in California.
DALLAS — Colliers International has brokered the sale of Empire Central, a two-building, 161,000-square-foot office complex located at 1430 and 1440 Empire Central Drive in Dallas. John Bowles, Bruce Butler and Susan Gwin Burks of Colliers represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. Peewit Partners LP purchased the asset for an undisclosed price. The Class B property was built in 1981.
SAN ANTONIO — DIJ Properties, a Miami-based asset management firm, has acquired two multifamily properties totaling 678 units in San Antonio. The company acquired the 546-unit Wood Hollow Apartments and the 132-unit Sunny Glen Apartments, both of which are located on the 10000 block of Sahara Street on the city’s north side. The company plans to make capital improvements to both properties and create new picnic areas, laundry rooms, pools, playgrounds and fitness centers.
HOUSTON — The number of American manufacturing jobs has been decreasing for more than a decade, radically enough that the pledge to return them became a cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s campaign. Between 2004 and 2014, the country lost about 2.1 million manufacturing jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which also projects that another 814,000 manufacturing jobs will be cut by 2024. The decline in manufacturing jobs has coincided with job growth in other industrial subfields, particularly transportation and warehousing. The total number of jobs in this sector increased by about 391,000 between 2004 and 2014, with an additional 137,000 new positions expected to be created by 2024, per the BLS. Analyzed in the context of e-commerce, these trends suggest that industrial activity is still robust throughout the country, but that distribution is outstripping manufacturing as the primary form of industrial-using employment. Yet the growth of e-commerce alone does not account for the radical dip in the number of manufacturing jobs available. The substitution of human labor for automated robot workers has also been a driving force behind sluggish job growth in the manufacturing sector, according to a panel of industrial real estate professionals who gathered …
MESQUITE, TEXAS — Illinois-based design/build firm FCL Builders Inc. has broken ground on an 877,230-square-foot distribution center for Ashley Furniture in Mesquite. The facility will be located at 4000 E. Scyene Road near several major thoroughfares, including Interstates 635 and 20, as well as U.S. Highway 80. Completion of the facility, which is expected to create about 170 new jobs, is slated for September 2018.
HOUSTON — Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co. will open a three-story, 28,000-square-foot brewery and restaurant at 2101 Summer St. in Houston’s First Ward. Houston-based Method Architecture will be designing the property, which will offer a rooftop beer garden with views of downtown Houston and a full-service kitchen. Construction is currently slated to begin this winter, with a target completion date of late 2018. A general contractor for the project has not yet been selected.
HOUSTON — HFF has arranged the sale of Eldridge Lakes Town Center, a 35,530-square-foot retail strip center in northwest Houston. Built in 2003 and shadow-anchored by Kroger, the property was 93 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as State Farm, Subway, Metro PCS, Spectrum Eye Care and Little Caesar’s Pizza. Ryan West and John Indelli of HFF represented the seller, Edifis Group, in the transaction. Houston-based Wu Investments purchased the asset for an undisclosed price.
HOUSTON — Hartman Income REIT has secured three office leases totaling 31,679 square feet at properties it owns in Houston. Property management firm Chaparral Management Co. Inc. signed a 12-month, 7,948 square feet at 14550 Torrey Chase Blvd.; Amegy Bank of Texas renewed a 13,912-square-foot lease at 400 N. Sam Houston Parkway E. for five years; and Greensheet Media leased 9,819 square feet at 2020 N. Loop West for five years. Hartman was represented internally by Rod Hale, Richard Maloof and Kacie Skeen, respectively, in each transaction.
THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS — Newcor Commercial Real Estate has negotiated a 26,819-square-foot office sublease at 8401 New Trails Drive in The Woodlands on behalf of Louisiana-based oil and gas firm Hunt Guillot & Associates LLC. Rob Banzhaf and Ryan Dierket of Newcor represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Scott Covington of S.E. Covington represented the subtenant, Axiom Medical Consulting LLC.
ROUND ROCK, TEXAS — California-based Mark IV Capital will develop The District, a $200 million mixed-use project that will be located at the intersection of Interstate 35 and State Highway 45 in the Austin metro of Round Rock. The property will be situated on 65 acres and will feature more than 1 million square feet of commercial and residential space. Construction is expected to begin within the next 12 months.
