NEW PLANS FOR OLD MALL
CORPUS CHRISTI (globest.com) – Trademark Property Co. has signed an agreement to purchase the more than 1.2 million-square-foot Padre Staples Mall. This marks the first step in the Fort Worth–based developer's $250 million plan to overhaul the 85 percent occupied mall.
Padre Staples Mall, on almost 60 acres at 5488 S. Padre Island Dr., is anchored by Dillard's, JCPenney and Macy's.
The Bevly Family and Roy Smith Family, the current owners, are investing $15 million into renovating the 38-year-old mall. The renovations, which include the addition of a food court, will be completed this year.
Trademark will complete the purchase this fall and begin making more upgrades next spring, including adding 50,000 square feet of retail space and a parking garage. The work will be completed in fall 2009.
MANSION WELCOMES JEANS
DALLAS (The Dallas Morning News) – The Lone Star State's only five-star, five-diamond hotel and five-diamond restaurant will undergo a $20 million renovation as it gears up to compete for the city’s affluent diners and travelers.
The historic Mansion on Turtle Creek, which opened in the 1925 former home of cotton-and-oil magnate Sheppard King, will completely refurbish the hotel's guest rooms, lobby and other public areas.
Updates for the restaurant and bar will create an all-occasion, contemporary dining experience. The major overhaul includes dropping the “jacket required” dress code.
"To many people, the Mansion became unapproachable and a little stuffy," said Robert Boulogne, chief operating officer of the Mansion's parent, Dallas-based Rosewood Hotels. "That's the element we have to address."
Rivalry has increased for the 27-year-old Mansion with the arrival of high-end, nationally acclaimed restaurants such as Abacus, Stephan Pyles, Nobu, Craft and N9NE.
IN PROPERTY TAXES PAID, NEW JERSEY TOPS
DALLAS (realtytimes.com) – Where are American homeowners hit with the heaviest property tax levies? According to a recent study by the National Association of Home Builders, the answer is New Jersey.
In terms of sheer dollars paid out, property owners in the Garden State pay the highest median taxes in the United States — $5,352 a year. Next in line are Connecticut ($3,865 median), New York ($3,076), Rhode Island ($3,071), Massachusetts ($2,974), Vermont ($2,835), Wisconsin ($2,777), Illinois ($2,504),California ($2,275), Washington ($2,250) and Alaska ($2,241).
The U.S. median property tax bill per year is $1,614.
With a median property tax of $175, Louisiana is the lightest. Then comes Alabama ($302), West Virginia ($389), Mississippi ($416), Arkansas ($459), Oklahoma ($635), South Carolina ($642), Kentucky ($693), New Mexico ($707), Wyoming ($737) and Tennessee ($794).
In terms of tax rate, Texas is the second heaviest in the country. Homeowners in the Lone Star State may pay a median of only $1,926 in property taxes per year, but the median rate is $18.17 per $1,000 of value. Only Wisconsin imposes a heavier rate — $18.20 per $1,000.
TEACHERS BUY PRESTON SHERRY
DALLAS (The Dallas Morning News) – TIAA-CREF, the New York–based teachers' pension fund, has purchased the Preston Sherry Plaza building.
The 20-year-old, 147,000-square-foot office-and-retail building at 8201 Preston Rd. sold for more than $300 per square foot.
TIAA-CREF, a major property investor in North Texas for more than two decades, also owns the Lincoln Center office complex on LBJ Freeway on the city’s northside.
CB Richard Ellis handled marketing.
COMMERCIAL COMMUNITY CONCEIVED
SAN ANTONIO (San Antonio Business Journal) – Locally based Hotchkiss Construction will build the Roy Hotchkiss Office Park, an almost nine-acre master-planned commercial community at Huebner Road and Northwest Military Highway.
Unlike commercial condominiums, where office users own a fraction of the entire development, users will own their lots and their offices, built to the owner's specifications.
Offices are currently under construction for local firms, including Dentistry for Children, Helen Thompson Media, Management Recruiters Inc. (MRI) and DHR Architects, which is also the project architect for the commercial park.
Hotchkiss Construction is both the general contractor and developer for the park. 3DR Commercial is marketing the office park.
METROPLEX HOTEL BOOM
DALLAS (Dallas Business Journal) – Jackson-Shaw Co. has three new hotels in the works for the Metroplex, with construction on two beginning this month.
Breaking ground this month in the master-planned Cascades at The Colony are the four-story Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites and the four-story Marriott Residence Inn. The Marriot Fairfield will have 104 guest rooms and a 7,500-square-foot event center, including a 3,300-square-foot ballroom. The Marriott Residence will have 102 guest rooms. Both hotels are scheduled to be completed next June.
In September, the locally based developer will begin work on a Renaissance hotel at the Shops at Legacy in Plano. The nine-story boutique hotel will have 276 guest rooms, 16,000 square feet of meeting space, 10,000 square feet of retail and an 11,000-square-foot luxury spa. The hotel is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.
TARGET STARTS CONSTRUCTION
BRYAN (The Eagle) – Construction of the new 127,000-square-foot Target store at the Bryan Towne Center begins this week.
Lauth Property Group of Indiana is developing the 60-acre retail complex at the corner of Briarcrest Drive and Earl Rudder Freeway. The center, which will be anchored by the Target store, also includes five junior anchor spaces, eight free-standing shops and 100,000 square feet of shop space.
City officials created a tax increment finance (TIF) district in the area where the center will be built, so a portion of property taxes on new development can pay for debt issued.
About $6 million is earmarked to pay for area infrastructure, including extending Wildflower Drive from FM 158 to University Drive and installing a traffic signal at Wildflower and Briarcrest. The city also will pay for landscaping, concrete, sewer lines and electrical work.
At buildout, the center could generate $1.2 million in annual sales tax, said city manager David Watkins.
Target's grand opening is scheduled for next summer.
GRANITE TWIN RISING
SUGAR LAND (globest.com) – By next month, Granite Properties Inc. will break ground on an eight-story twin building in its Granite Towers at Sugar Creek development.
The eight-story, 204,000-square-foot spec building on more than 20 acres at 13131 Dairy Ashford Rd. will cost almost $200 per square foot. According to Scott Martin, managing partner for Granite Properties, space will lease at $19 per square foot triple net. The Class-A building will be completed in 14 months.
Kirksey & Partners Architects Inc. in Houston is the architect, and locally based E.E. Reed Construction LP is the general contractor.
FLORIDA BUILDER HITS HOUSTON
HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – Mercedes Homes will build homes in communities in the city’s north, northwest and west regions. Homes will will range from 2,100 to 5,500 square feet and cost $180,000 to $600,000.
More than 100 homes are planned in Inverness, off FM 2920 and Boudreaux Road. Construction should take about a year and a half.
The Florida-based company will build 50 traditional and 31 estate homes in Aliana, a 2,000-acre, mixed-use development on the east side of Grand Parkway at FM 1464 in Fort Bend County. Construction will begin in about ten months and be completed in a year.
Construction will begin in November on 38 homes in Spring Trails, located off of the Hardy Toll Road and Riley Fuzzel in Spring. Buildout should take about a year.
SOFT DRINK CENTRAL
DALLAS (Dallas Business Journal) – A 2005 lease that began in Turnpike Distribution Center as a quick fix for Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages (CASB) operations has mushroomed into soft drink central.
The Plano-based beverage manufacturer recently signed an eight-year lease for 594,000 square feet of contiguous space within the five million-square-foot Turnpike, which was built in the early 1980s. The move will make the park on I-30 at 4040 Pipestone Rd. a five-state regional distribution hub.
CASB now ships from 64 locations within the United States, but it is consolidating to ten, including the south Dallas site, said Dan Flowers, Cadbury vice president of distribution and logistics. Operations from six warehouses in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma will be consolidated into the Turnpike operations.
Holt Lunsford Commercial handles leasing duties at Turnpike for owner Principal Real Estate Investors. Occupancy in Turnpike is now at about 89 percent.
London-based parent company Cadbury Schweppes PLC, whose brands include Dr Pepper, 7UP, RC Cola, Snapple and Mott's, is the No. 3 soft-drink maker in the world, after The Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo.
TWO CANDLEWOODS PLANNED
SAN ANTONIO (San Antonio Business Journal) – InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, under the Candlewood Suites flag, plans to open two new hotels in the Alamo City during fourth quarter 2008.
Construction will begin this fall on a 70-suite Candlewood at South Laredo and Camp streets, just south of downtown. Early next year, construction will begin on the 110-suite Candlewood Suites at US 281 and Evans Road.
TWIN TOWERS' GRAND OPENING
HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – Grand opening ceremonies were held today for the renovated Brays Oaks Towers, formerly known as the Chancellor Atrium 1 and 2.
Houston-based Rockwell Management, operating as Brays Oaks Towers LP, purchased the two 1980s-era, 100,000-square-foot each, five-story office buildings at 10101 and 10103 Fondren at Dumfries Drive last September. The company immediately began a multimillion-dollar interior and exterior renovation.
The Houston Police Department's Braeburn Storefront, formerly on S. Braeswood Blvd., has already moved into the lobby of one of Brays Oaks Towers buildings. The city library's Morris Frank Branch also will relocate there.
Rockwell purchased its first commercial property in March 2003. In addition to the Brays Oaks Towers, the company owns the buildings at 1770 and 1900 St. James in the Galleria area.
Rockwell also manages 16 multifamily properties totaling about 3,700 multifamily apartment and condominium units in Texas and New Jersey.
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