TEXANS TO HIT THE SLOPES
DALLAS–FORT WORTH (Business Wire) – Midway between the Dallas–Fort Worth and Meacham international airports, Bearfire Resorts LLC plans to bring winter skiing year-round.
Bearfire Resort will use 'Snowflex,' a virtual ski surface technology created by Briton Engineering in the U.K. When complete, Bearfire Resort will be six times larger than existing Snowflex facilities.
Along with a 600-room hotel and a convention center, features will include an outdoor ski and snowboard mountain with ski runs, ski lifts, competition half-pipes, toboggans, snow tubing and ski caves. This man-made mountain range is expected to rank among the world’s largest buildings.
Greg Damron Design developed the resort’s master plan. McGillivray Consulting Group (MCG) will be the project manager. The Jacobson Group of Management Solutions Inc. (MSI) will oversee financing. Baker Leisure Group, the company behind Al Shallal, the largest theme park in the Middle East, will provide the project’s operational consulting and management.
The Dallas-based Bearfire Resorts LLC project team includes Utah’s Park City Olympic Parks Director Rex Dabling and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey.
FAMILY TRUST BUYS LODGE
SAN ANTONIO (San Antonio Business Journal) – The Lodge at Shavano Park, a 322-unit apartment complex near the South Texas Medical Center and USAA, has been sold to Frankel Family Trust of California.
Built in 2001, the complex is currently 93 percent occupied.
Apartment Realty Advisors, a multifamily brokerage and investment advisory firm, represented the seller, KC Ventures of Kansas City.
PLOWING THE NORTH 40
FRISCO (globest.com) – White Rock Capital Inc., the real estate arm of T&M Management Services, has purchased just over 44 acres at the far northern edge of the Dallas North Tollway and US 380.
The Dallas-based developer paid $9.65 million to a local farmer. Tentative development plans are for residential, retail and office space.
Chicago-based ORIX Real Estate Capital Inc. has financed $7.6 million, which will be used for purchasing the land, as well as for the predevelopment and holding costs. The 65 percent loan-to-cost financing is for a two-year term with a one-year extension option at a floating-rate interest exceeding 300 basis points above Libor.
ORIX's Dallas office arranged the financing. Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP's Dallas office was the mortgage broker.
LAND TURNS TO GOLD
FRISCO (globest.com) – A 23-acre listing with all utilities in place, including waterlines, has been sold for $5.50 per square foot ($239,580 per acre), a record for the city.
The multifamily-zoned land, which is entitled for up to 368 units, features 450 feet of frontage along El Dorado Parkway and lies a half-block from the Dallas North Tollway extension.
Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. represented the seller, a local private investor, in the off-market transaction. The contract is set to close within 90 days.
INLAND LANDING ALEXAN
WEBSTER (globest.com) – Alexan Landing Apartments in the city's Bay Area has been purchased by Inland American Webster Clear Lake LP of Illinois.
The one-year-old, 92 percent leased, 364-unit complex is in the Trammell Crow Residential development at 501 N. Sarah Deel Dr. The average unit is 932 square feet with rents ranging from $796 to $1,274 before concessions.
This is Inland’s second area purchase. Earlier this year the firm spent $64 million for the 296-unit Waterford Place at Shadow Creek Apartments at 200 Business Center Dr.
CB Richard Ellis Inc. represented Clear Lake Apartments LP. Inland American Webster was self-represented.
VILLAGE GETS A TASTE OF EUROPE
PLANO (The Weitzman Group) – Cencor Realty Services, in a venture with the Haggard family, will break ground toward the end of the year on West Plano Village, a 175,000-square-foot mixed-use development anchored by eatZi’s Market & Bakery.
West Plano Village, which will be built on 15 acres at the northeast corner of Parker Road and the Dallas North Tollway, will be designed to complement the nearby Cinemark Tinseltown, a 20-screen flagship theater.
The 12,000-square-foot eatZi’s, a European market–style eatery, will open in 2009, around the same time construction wraps on the Village.
The Weitzman Group represented West Plano Village Ltd, while eatZis’ was represented by ReMax Premier Properties Commercial. The architect for West Plano Village is Hodges & Associates. Leasing will be handled by Cencor’s sister company, The Weitzman Group.
FIRST SELLS TWO
HOUSTON (globest.com) – In two unrelated transactions, First Industrial Realty Trust has sold almost 456,000 square feet of 100 percent leased industrial space in the northwest area.
Beeson-Sirota JV, a local buyer, has purchased a 1980s-era, more than 176,000-square-foot, rail-served warehouse at 1415 W. Loop North, which is leased to Dimare Fresh Inc.
Mir Azizi, also locally based, purchased the 32-year-old, more than 279,000-square-foot warehouse at 3480-84 W. 11th St. According to a marketing brochure, the multitenant facility is leased to the Premier Co., Drake Container, Lindsey's Office Furniture and Morrison Supply Co.
Grubb & Ellis Co.'s Houston office represented the Chicago-based seller.
RESIDENTIAL HOME MARKET UP
AUSTIN (Austin Board of Realtors) – A total of 2,343 existing single-family homes were sold last month. The almost $570 million in sales represented a 6 percent increase in total monthly revenue from March 2006.
The median price for single-family homes was just over $177,000, a 6 percent increase over last year's price. March homes spent an average of 65 days on the market, a 4 percent decrease from a year ago.
Townhouse and condominium sales collected close to $60 million for the local economy, a 19 percent increase from last year. The median price also rose 14 percent from a year ago to $170,000.
AUSTIN APARTMENT OCCUPANCY RISES
AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal) – Apartment occupancy was at 93.7 percent at the end of 2006, and it is expected to reach 95 percent by the end of 2007. Occupancy in both Dallas and San Antonio held at 89.4 percent, while Houston was at 88.1 percent.
Rents in Austin rose to 91 cents per square foot in 2006, up 7 percent from 85 cents in 2005. Rents were driven by increasing demand and a tightening of supply, according to Apartment Realty Advisors' (ARA) Texas Multifamily Report.
Rents in San Antonio and Houston stand at about 77 cents, and Dallas is holding at 82 cents.
The north and northwest Austin areas absorbed the most units at 873, followed by south Austin with 474. The most proposed units are also in the north with 2,879, followed by central Austin with 1,590. According to ARA, the Austin market currently has 140,400 apartments.
HUNTER GOBBLING UP LAND
PROSPER (globest.com) – Hunter Equities LLC, a Dallas-based investment group, has purchased almost 81 acres of mixed-use, entitled land at the northeast corner of La Cima Boulevard and US 380.
Also bordered by Prosper Commons Boulevard, the land has a six-tenths mile of US 380 frontage. All utilities and zoning are in place. Buildout could be as much as 800,000 square feet for retail, office or mixed-use space.
Davidson Real Estate Co. in Prosper represented the seller, which owned the land through an investment partnership between Prosper Hillcrest 60 Ltd. and Frisco Tollway Partners Ltd. Dallas-based Staubach Co. represented Hunter Equities.
In the past 27 months, Hunter Equities has purchased $36 million of land for resale or development.
DROP IN REMODELING SPENDING PREDICTED
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Joint Center for Housing Studies) – According to the new Leading Indicator for Remodeling Activity (LIRA) developed by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, home improvement spending by homeowners in 2007 is projected to increase by 3.6 percent, which is down from 11.1 percent last year.
However, Dr. Mark Dotzour, chief economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, does not anticipate a significant drop in how much Texans will spend on remodeling this year.
“So far, the biggest blow to the Texas residential sales market has been isolated to the new home market, particularly houses valued at less than $200,000,” Dotzour said. “I don't think this segment of homebuyers spends a lot of money on remodeling. To the extent that the housing sales weakness stays focused in the new home market, I would expect Texas remodeling to continue to have strength.”
TRI-COUNTY II NEARING COMPLETION
SCHERTZ (costar.com) – Cross & Co. is set to complete the almost 140,000-square-foot Tri-County II distribution center this summer.
The center is at 976 Associate Drive, on I-35. The industrial park has Foreign Trade Zone status and also qualifies for the Freeport exemption.
Cross & Co. is handling leasing. PSRBB is the architect.
SOCCER COMPLEX COMING TO THE VALLEY
HARLINGEN (Valley Morning Star) – The city is preparing to pay $7.5 million for a soccer complex that will include 14 fields, a concession building, restrooms, ponds, a maintenance building and parking lots.
The first phase of the complex, which includes ten of the 14 fields, will cost about $5 million. Phase two will include the four remaining fields and cost about $2.5 million. Certificates of obligation will pay for $4.5 million of the project.
The complex is being designed by engineering and architectural firm Halff Associates.
CAPITAL CITY INDUSTRIAL OCCUPANCY UP
AUSTIN (Austin Business Journal) – Industrial warehouse and flex markets improved slightly in the first quarter, according to a report from TIG Real Estate Services.
Vacancy in the warehouse sector fell 1.2 percent from last year to 11.7 percent. In the flex market, vacancies fell 2.1 percent to 19.2 percent.
The warehouse vacancy drop occurred despite overall negative absorption of 211,134 square feet, which is largely due to a recently vacated 230,000-square-foot manufacturing building in the southeast.
Warehouse average net rent rose 14 cents per square foot (psf) during the quarter to $6.15 psf. Total marketwide inventory stands at 28.6 million square feet with about 1.1 million square feet under construction.
The flex market absorbed 176,463 square feet, led by gains in the southeast. Rents rose 20 cents to $8.40 psf. Roughly 14.3 million square feet of flex inventory stands available marketwide, with 576,559 square feet under construction.
"There are quite a bit of initial inquiries for large blocks of space from 25,000 to 75,000 square feet," says David Alsmeyer, principal with TIG Real Estate.
D-FW OFFICE LEASING DROPS
DALLAS–FORT WORTH (Grubbs & Ellis) – The Dallas–Fort Worth office leasing market registered almost 571,000 square feet of positive net absorption in first quarter 2007, down from 1.3 million square feet recorded during the same time in 2006.
Unlike March 2006, which saw 87 percent of the growth in the Class-A sector, the majority of the absorption this quarter occurred in Class-B space. Leasing demand for Class-B space dramatically increased to 535,400 square feet, up more than 325,000 square feet from March 2006.
Overall office vacancy remained level at 19.8 percent at the end of March, an improvement of 1.9 percentage points from the same time last year.
Growing demand for Class-B space in recent months led to over 500,000 square feet of gains in first quarter 2007, and a drop of 2.2 percentage points in vacancy over the last twelve months to end the quarter at 22.7 percent. Meanwhile, vacancy for Class-A space stood at 17.1 percent at the end of March, down 1.9 percentage points from early 2006.
Overall average asking rents for the first quarter were at $20.82 full-service gross per square foot per year (FSG/PSF/YR), up 70 cents from year-end 2006 and $1.58 higher than last year at the same time. Average asking rents for Class-A space jumped by 67 cents to $23.89 FSG/PSF/YR. Class-B rents were at $17.70 FSG/PSF/YR, an increase of 71 cents.
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