WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE
BROWNSVILLE (Associated Press) – More than $2 million worth of pipes, sheds and machinery along the city’s ship channel marks the pilot project for a $150 million, full-scale seawater desalination plant slated for construction in 2010.
The Brownsville plant got fast-tracked during a period of alarming drought and rapid population growth. From 1990 to 2000, the area grew 43 percent to 372,000 people, and the population is expected to approach 500,000 by 2020.
Desalting seawater is expensive, with current cost estimates at about $650 per acre foot (326,000 gallons), as opposed to $200 for purifying the same amount of fresh water.
Less than 0.1 percent of the world’s supply of drinking water is produced through desalination, but Global Water Intelligence reports that the worldwide desalination industry is expected to grow 140 percent over the next decade.
For more information about Texas water issues, read “Big Gulp: Quenching Texans’ Thirst for Water” in the April 2007 issue of Tierra Grande.
NORTHBELT CENTER SOLD
HOUSTON (amies.com) – Younan Properties Inc. (YPI) has purchased the 100 percent occupied Northbelt Corporate Center at 2350 North Sam Houston Pkwy. East.
Originally built in 1982, the Class-A, ten-story, almost 156,600-square-foot office building was renovated in 2003. Southwestern Energy Company and U.S. Customs Service occupy 93 percent. Other tenants include the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the State of Tennessee and CMA-CGM America.
YPI represented itself in the transaction. Grubb & Ellis represented the seller, Triple Net Properties LLC.
Now Texas’ third-largest owner of Class-A office space, YPI also recently closed on 6464 Savoy in the Regency Square Office Park.
WAL-MART ANCHORS MARKETPLACE WEST
GARLAND (costar.com) – Wal-Mart Supercenter is the first anchor for the new 603,000-square-foot Centerville Marketplace West Shopping Center.
Developed by Provident Realty Advisors Inc. and E.J. Plesko & Associates Inc. of Wisconsin, Wal-Mart will occupy 203,000 square feet and employ an estimated 375 people.
The center’s grand opening is planned for late this year or early next year.
TRIPLE BUYS DOUBLE
HOUSTON (svn.com) – Triple Net Properties LLC has purchased two medical buildings totaling more than 155,700 square feet. Both are occupied by Triumph Healthcare.
Triumph Healthcare Northwest totals 88,213 square feet and was built in 1986 on 12 acres at 205 Hollow Tree Ln., near I-45 and FM 1960.
Triumph Healthcare Southwest was built in 1989 on eight acres at 1550 First Colony Blvd. in Sugar Land.
Sperry Van Ness in Houston represented both sellers, Houston-based Hollow Tree LLP and First Colony Investments LLP. Triple Net, based in California, represented itself.
WHIRLPOOL STAYS PUT
FORT WORTH (globest.com) – Whirlpool Corp. has renewed its lease on its 852,000-square-foot distribution center in the 950-acre Carter Industrial Park.
Michigan-based Whirlpool uses the just over 41-acre, rail-served center at 1101 Everman Pkwy. as a distribution point for refrigerators and accessories made in Mexico. The building’s features include 38-foot clear heights, loading on three of four sides, 118,000 square feet of mezzanine space and a 150-space trailer storage area.
The long-term renewal was negotiated while the company conducts a site search for Project Zenith, which is Whirlpool's plan to build 8.5 million square feet of industrial space in seven U.S. cities.
Lee & Associates Dallas represented the building’s owner, Hollingsworth Capital Partners of Tennessee, which bought the building in October 2006. Jones Lang LaSalle in Houston represented Whirlpool.
NEW OWNER FOR TIMBERLAKES
HUMBLE (globest.com) – Boston-based SMC Management has purchased the 312-unit Timberlakes at Atascocita from Flatiron Development Group of Los Angeles.
Built in 2000 on just over ten acres, the 12-building complex at 18551 Timber Forest Dr. has one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 780 to 1,220 square feet. Monthly rents are $719 to $1,195.
Apartment Realty Advisor’s Houston office brokered the transaction. Alliance Residential Management's Houston team will manage the 90 percent leased complex.
AIRPORT FREEWAY HOTEL PLANNED
BEDFORD (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) – Shahi Group Investments has purchased an acre at the northwest corner of Airport Freeway and Park Place Boulevard. According to company President Nash Patel, who has helped develop 17 hotels, the firm will build a nationally branded hotel.
Park Place Meadow Joint Venture, with William Pasteur as trustee, was the seller and was represented by Bill Pasteur Real Estate.
CONTAINER STORE CLOSES LID ON SALE
COPPELL (The Dallas Morning News) – The Container Store, one of Dallas' biggest entrepreneurial success stories, has been sold to Los Angeles–based private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners LP.
The privately held chain, which specializes in organizational products, consists of 39 stores, nine of which are in Texas. The chain employs 3,148 people, including 782 in Dallas–Fort Worth.
The Container Store began exploring a sale last February, hiring J.P. Morgan as its financial adviser and Cravath, Swaine and Moore LLP as its legal adviser.
Twenty-nine new stores are planned over the next five years. Two will open this year, and six will open in 2008.
MOODY NATIONAL PLANS HILTON
HOUSTON (Houston Chronicle) – Moody National Cos. has purchased 1.5 acres at 7807 Kirby. The company will develop a 200-room Hilton Garden Inn on the site.
Moody National Cos. was self-represented, while Ellis Antone represented the seller.
WESLEY SQUARE SOLD
HOUSTON (Houston Chronicle) – DM Real Estate has purchased Wesley Square Apartments, a 252-unit complex at 7402 Calhoun.
Texas Select Realty represented the seller.
TECHNOLOGY CAMPUS ENTERS THIRD PHASE
RICHARDSON (Dallas Business Journal) – Dallas-based Vantage Cos. is moving forward with the almost $9 million third and final phase of its Technology Business Campus.
The project will add six buildings totaling 93,000 square feet, bringing the $60 million campus off SH 190 and Renner Road to 20 buildings containing a total of 380,000 square feet. Completion is scheduled for the end of this year.
Building sizes will range from 11,387 to 19,637 square feet. They will lease for $11.25 per square foot and sell for $95 per square foot of shell space.
Dallas-based McFadden & Miller Inc. is the general contractor.
DOTZOUR TO DELIVER ECONOMIC FORECAST
COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Dr. Mark Dotzour, the Center's chief economist, will deliver the 2007 economic forecast at the 2007 Commercial Real Estate Capital MarketPlace Conference in New York City this September.
Dotzour will discuss how global and national trends are likely to impact residential and commercial real estate markets.
OAK CLIFF APARTMENTS SOLD
DALLAS (The Dallas Morning News, globest.com) – Lagovent Real Estate Group Inc., a Los Angeles investor, has bought the 332-unit Highland Road Village apartments at 2704 S. Cockrell Rd.
The 11-building complex on more than 22 acres in the Oak Cliff area is 97 percent leased and sold for $8.9 million. Developed in 1968, the complex consists of one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging 905 square feet. The average monthly rent is $640.
Lagovent assumed a more than $7 million loan at a 6.8 percent fixed interest rate and 30-year amortization through Miami Beach–based LNR Corp.
The seller is Highland Village Apartments LLC. The transaction was negotiated by the Dallas office of Hendricks & Partners.
NEW URBANISM'S HISTORIC DOWNTOWN CONNECTION
MIDLOTHIAN (globest.com) – Options Real Estate Investments Inc. will break ground by summer’s end on MidTowne, a $135 million, LEED-qualified, mixed-use community.
The new urbanism project, slated for 131 acres within walking distance of the city’s 1890s-era downtown, will take about seven years to complete.
Developer Monte Anderson, president of the Desoto-based Options Real Estate, is also the founding president of the Dallas chapter of Chicago-based Congress for New Urbanism.
At build-out, there will be 449 single-family units, brownstones and row houses as well as live-work-play spaces and ten commercial buildings. The plan calls for 75,000 square feet of neighborhood retail, 15,000 square feet of office space, 85 to 90 units of assisted living, a daycare and an elementary school.
Options Development Group is the construction manager and developer. Dallas-based 5Gstudio Collaborative LLC will design 49 merchant homes and condos. TPG Partners Inc. of Dallas was the land planner and architect along with Options Real Estate's in-house designer. Jones & Boyd Inc., also from Dallas, is the civil engineer.
MidTowne's 33-acre first phase, consisting of residential and commercial spaces, will be completed next year.
RESIDENTIAL FLAIR NEWEST OFFICE SPACE TREND
HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – With the residential real estate market showing signs of slowing, local custom builders are now constructing commercial buildings with a residential touch.
Rockwell Homes is building ten home offices — or "office homes" — in the Lakewood Forest Business Enclave at Grant Road and Cedar Point, and another four at Jones Road and Sarthoff.
These single-user buildings range from 3,000 to 6,000 square feet and start at $230,000. Interior amenities include tiled entries and mahogany doors to foyers with 15-foot ceilings and kitchenettes with granite countertops. The tenant buys the land and building.
Heavenly Homes is planning a 20-unit home-office park at Hwy. 2920 and Gosling. The 750-square-foot units will be priced from $125,000 to $150,000.
BURGEONING TOWN GETS MEDICAL PLAZA
FORNEY (globest.com) – PM Realty Group will break ground this month on Forney Medical Plaza near US 80 and FM 548.
The $45 million medical complex on almost 14 acres will be built in three phases. The more than seven-acre first phase will include a nearly 54,300-square-foot, two-story medical office building. Phase two will include a 12,000-square-foot ambulatory surgery center. The last phase will be a 60-bed hospital.
The Plaza’s office component is 88 percent preleased.
The developer is a joint venture consisting of the tenants and a PM Realty affiliate. PM Realty Group will retain leasing and property management rights. GSR-Andrade Architects of Dallas and McCalla Rios Architects of Houston designed the complex. Century Bank provided financing.
EAGLE LANDS NEAR AIRPORT
DALLAS–FORT WORTH (Dallas Business Journal) – Global freight company Eagle Global Logistics Inc. (EGL) will construct a $20 million building near the Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport and will consolidate some area operations.
That 400,000-square-foot facility, which includes 35,000 square feet of office space, will have 32-foot clear height and will be built on 21 vacant acres at the northwest corner of Airfield Drive and 17th Street next to the airport's fuel farm.
EGL has four distribution centers at D–FW International Airport and one at Fort Worth Alliance Airport. After consolidation, it will have two D–FW International Airport facilities and one at Alliance, said Shawn Stewart, the EGL managing director in charge of operations and sales for Dallas–Fort Worth.
In addition to the new building, Houston-based EGL will continue to operate a 92,000-square-foot facility on Peterson Court at Alliance and a 122,000-square-foot building on Westport Parkway in Grapevine.
NAI Huff Partners of Fort Worth assisted in the transaction. Seefried Properties Inc. and AMB Property Corp. will develop the project.
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