TEMPLE — The new 148,000-square-foot Children's Hospital at Scott & White, a pediatric hospital serving 32 counties, has opened for business in Temple. The Children's Hospital offers 64 beds — 48 private and 16 Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Dallas-based HKS designed the facility, which is the only stand-alone pediatric facility between Dallas and Austin. The facilities include playrooms and an emergency department.
AUSTIN — Austin-based HTH Capital has demolished two office buildings to make way for the 62,000-square-foot Midtown Medical Tower, a mixed-use facility consisting of medical office and retail space, located at the intersection of 38th Street and Lamar Boulevard in Austin. The facility will include energy efficient operating systems, flexible floor plates and a covered patient drop-off area.
DALLAS — Dallas-based Velocis Fund L.P., a private equity fund targeting commercial real estate assets, has accepted $36.5 million in capital commitments and another $4.7 million of co-investment equity, totaling $41.2 million of equity. This first closing will give Velocis Fund approximately $100 million in purchasing power. The real estate private equity fund seeks to raise $150 million in equity from investors in the U.S., Mexico and Europe.
DALLAS — Alliance Residential Co. has broken ground on the 301-unit Avant, a Broadstone multifamily property located on a 5.14-acre lot in Dallas' Design District. Completion is slated for the second quarter of 2013. The building will feature upgraded lighting and plumbing packages, granite countertops, accent walls, wood floors, garden tubs, a fitness center, a clubhouse, a cyber lounge, a pool with a sundeck and a courtyard parking garage.
HOUSTON — The Houston office of Atlanta-based ARA has brokered the sale of the 338-unit Creekstone Apartments, a 15-building garden-style apartment community in the West Memorial/Briar Forest submarket in Houston. Matthew Rotan, David Oelfke, David Wylie and David Mitchell of ARA represented Greystar, the seller, in the transaction. Matt Rotan of ARA represented the buyer, Boca Raton, Fla.-based Southstar Capital Group, which purchased the community through financing it received from Freddie Mac. Creekstone was 97 percent occupied at the time of the sale.
DALLAS — NorthMarq Capital has secured permanent financing for the 48,901-square-foot Frankford Pavilion Shopping Center, located at 4520 Frankford Rd. in Dallas. Ronald Reese of NorthMarq's Dallas office and David Garfinkel of NorthMarq's St. Louis, Mo., office arranged the financing with a 10-year term and a 25-year amortization schedule through Minnesota Life Insurance Co. on behalf of the borrower, Bianco Properties.
HOUSTON, AUSTIN AND DALLAS — Buffalo, N.Y.-based Sovran Self Storage, Inc. has acquired 22 properties in Texas for $101.5 million. The 1.23 million-square-foot portfolio includes 18 properties in Houston, three in Austin and one in Dallas. Sovran will operate the properties under the name Uncle Bob's Self Storage.
TERRELL — Dallas-based The MGHerring Group and the City of Terrell have finalized plans for a $30 million economic development agreement for Eighty Twenty, a new 225-acre, open-air shopping center located at the intersection of Interstate 20 and U.S. Highway 80 in Terrell. The first phase of the project will include 600,000 square feet of retail space and is slated for an early 2012 groundbreaking, with a spring 2013 opening. The agreement is for Terrell, the city's Tax Increment Financing District No. 1 and the Terrell Economic Development Corp. to reimburse MGHerring the cost over a 25-year period, based on sales and property taxes generated by the center. The agreement also allocates funds to the improvements to Highway 80 and FM 148.
NEW ULM — Memorial Development has begun renovation construction for The Falls Resort and Golf Club, a golf resort development located at 1750 N. Falls Dr. in New Ulm. Renovations include a new main entrance, fitness center, pro shop, club house, villas and hotel rooms. Breakaway Development and the Swalm Foundation, both based in Houston, own the development and Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Troon Golf manages the golf course. WilsonMiller Stantec is serving as the landscape architect for the project.
AUSTIN, COLLEGE STATION AND HOUSTON — Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc. has completed the disposition of a portfolio of TownePlace Suites hotels , totaling 571 rooms, for more than $30 million. The portfolio includes the 127-room TownePlace Suites Austin Northwest, the 94-room TownePlace Suites Bryan College Station, the 128-room TownePlace Suites Houston Northwest and the 94-room TownePlace Suites Houston Clear Lake. The portfolio also included a 128-room property in Birmingham, Ala.