HOUSTON — NAI Partners’ Investment Fund has acquired Point West Business Park, a 146,000-square-foot industrial development located in Houston’s Westchase area. Andrew Pappas and Adam Hawkins of NAI Partners negotiated and closed the off-market deal alongside Todd Carlson and Brad Porter. The seller was Interra Capital Group.
DALLAS — Prescott Group has begun the demolition and early construction phase for 2727 Turtle Creek, a five-acre mixed-use campus in the Turtle Creek submarket of Dallas. The development will include an office tower, high-rise apartment tower and a hotel tower. Prescott Group imploded an existing, vacant nine-story office building and parking garage on the site early on Sunday, Sept. 15. The building was the former home of Republic Insurance, according to local media reports. Construction crews are clearing the site and beginning utility upgrades for the multi-tower development along Turtle Creek Boulevard. Prescott Group expects to finish the demolition and removal phase of construction by the end of the year and wrap up the utility and infrastructure upgrades in the first quarter of 2020. The office tower at 2727 Turtle Creek will rise 19 stories and span 285,000 square feet. Prescott Group plans for the building to feature a rooftop terrace, fitness center, conference and training center, bike storage and a full-service café. Prescott Group has tapped Jeff Eckert and Ahnie Sheehy of JLL to lease the office space. The hotel will rise 24 stories and offer 200 hotel rooms and an undetermined number of luxury condominiums. Amenities at …
There are now dozens of commercial real estate platforms and apps on the market today that are designed to assist brokers in their day-to-day activities, and many are quite good. However, any technology should primarily serve to enhance how brokers serve their clients and not direct how that service is provided. Too often, the process a technology lays down may actually become a stumbling block in the way of creating the most economical and beneficial transaction for a client. Overreliance on Tech By way of explanation, let’s start with a simple example. You’re at any checkout counter. The cashier rings up your order and the register shows that you owe $13.42. You hand over $20. Suddenly, for some unknown reason, the cash register screen goes blank. And then the cashier’s face goes blank, too. Making change the old-fashioned way is simply no longer taught, because technology has taken the place of thinking through the problem. A comparable scenario could happen if brokers rely solely on what a commercial real estate platform tells them to do. Wrapped up in completing the formula and following a detailed path, there may seem to be no room for creative thinking. But in fact, that …
HOUSTON — Conn’s HomePlus, a Houston-based home furnishing and electronics store, has opened its 656,658-square-foot distribution center in Houston. The center will serve 45 of the company’s 130 stores nationwide, and Conn’s will consolidate its existing warehouse and distribution operations in Houston into the new building. In 2019, Conn’s HomePlus has opened six showrooms in Texas, with plans to open an additional three in the state through the end of the year.
HUMBLE, TEXAS — General contractor Cadence McShane has broken ground on Parc Air 59, a 279,632-square-foot industrial project in Humble, a northern suburb of Houston. Jackson-Shaw is developing the two-building project, which will consist of an 83,436-square-foot building with 28-foot clear heights and a 196,196-square-foot building with 32-foot clear heights. The buildings will also feature 150 and 245 parking spaces, respectively. Completion is slated for April 2020.
DALLAS — Greysteel has brokered the sale of Royal Lane, a 172-unit multifamily community in Dallas. Built in 1966, the property offers one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging 807 square feet and amenities such as a playground and onsite laundry facilities. Doug Banerjee and Scott Simon of Greysteel represented the undisclosed seller, which previously upgraded the property’s flooring, lighting and cabinets, in the transaction. The duo also procured the buyer.
BEDFORD, TEXAS — Dougherty Mortgage has originated an undisclosed amount of Fannie Mae acquisition financing for Waters Park Luxury Apartments, a 168-unit multifamily community in Bedford, located northeast of Fort Worth. The pet-friendly property offers one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans and amenities such as a pool, fitness center and pet park. Dougherty originated the loan, which carried a 12-year term and a 30-year amortization schedule, through a partnership with Old Capital Lending. The borrower was not disclosed.
HOUSTON — NAI Partners has negotiated a 49,911-square-foot industrial leased at 3401 Navigation Blvd. in Houston for CRI Inc., a locally based furniture installation company. Michael Keegan and John Ferruzzo of NAI Partners represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Bob Berry and Grant Hortenstine of Avison Young represented the landlord, Stonelake Capital Partners LLC.
FRISCO, TEXAS AND ROCKVILLE, MD. — InvenTrust Properties Corp., an Illinois-based shopping center REIT, has acquired two grocery-anchored properties in Texas and Maryland for $123 million. Eldorado Marketplace is a 186,068-square-foot property in Frisco, a northern suburb of Dallas, and Travilah Square is a 56,220-square-foot center in Rockville, a suburb of Washington D.C. The properties fetched sales prices of $71 million and $52 million, respectively. Market Street serves as the anchor tenant for Eldorado Marketplace, which also houses tenants such as AT&T, Jersey Mike’s, PetSmart and UPS. Trader Joe’s anchors Travilah Square, which houses tenants such as TITLE Boxing and Tropical Smoothie. InvenTrust officials cited Frisco’s emergence as a hub for corporate relocations, specifically the PGA and Keurig Dr. Pepper, as a key factor in the acquisition of Eldorado Marketplace. InvenTrust pointed to growing household income and steady population growth as the drivers behind the purchase of Travilah Square. The basic need to deploy capital before year’s end also played into the equation, says Christy David, executive vice president of InvenTrust. “InvenTrust has now acquired over $400 million of high-quality, grocery-anchored centers in key growth markets year-to-date. We remain on track to hit the company’s acquisition goals for 2019, and …
DALLAS — Multifamily projects are becoming more costly and time-consuming to complete, and the need to cultivate a unique amenity package that differentiates a property from the competition is contributing to inflated budgets and lengthier timelines. As noted by a panel of multifamily architects and construction managers at the InterFace Multifamily Texas on Sept. 5, the definition of what constitutes an ideal amenity package is in a constant state of flux. The event, held at the Westin Galleria hotel in Dallas, drew more than 225 attendees. The complications of designing and building multifamily communities are challenging and costly enough. That the amenities are subject to ever-changing consumer tastes adds another layer of complexity to maintaining project costs and schedules. Yet curating the right mix is a critical part of product differentiation in saturated markets. Many amenities found in new properties reflect broader changes in consumer behavior, which is fickle by definition. Features such as Amazon package lockers, rideshare lounges, electric car charging stations and coworking office space exemplify how changes in the ways people shop, travel and work are trickling down to the design and construction of apartment communities. “In our world, projects are increasingly complex,” said moderator Spencer Stuart, …
