HOME CONSTRUCTION RECORDS DROP
WASHINGTON (U.S. Census Bureau, foxnews.com) – The Commerce Department’s New Residential Construction Index for July reported that construction of new homes and apartments dropped 6.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of nearly 1.4 million units.
This number is down 20.9 percent from the pace of activity a year ago and represented the slowest pace since January 1997.
The July drop in housing construction followed a 2.1 percent rise in June, driven primarily by apartment construction.
Applications for building permits, considered a good barometer of future activity, fell by 2.8 percent in July to an annual rate of almost 1.4 million units.
Housing construction fell in all parts of the country except the Midwest, which posted a 2.6 percent increase in July. Construction starts were down 11 percent in the South, 3.7 percent in the West and 1.3 percent in the Northeast.
TRAINING, SEMINAR REGISTRATION OPEN
COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Fall means the start of classes, even for real estate professionals. Registration is open for an array of upcoming training sessions and seminars from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.
- The 21st Annual Legal Seminar on Ad Valorem Taxation will be held Aug. 29–31 at the Hyatt Regency in San Antonio. The seminar, which will provide a wealth of information on a variety of legal topics influencing ad valorem taxation, is being presented in cooperation with the State Bar of Texas Property Tax Committee. The cost is $385.
- The Commercial Real Estate Summit will be held in Fort Worth Sept. 26–27. This 15-hour MCE program will cover current commercial real estate issues including an economic forecast, public policy, impact fees, demographics, water issues, urban/public land oil and gas activity, and Fort Worth development. Also included are the required MCE legal update and ethics courses. The early registration fee is $175 for SCR members or $200 for non-SCR members.
- Instructor training for Legal Update and Ethics MCE courses will be conducted in Grapevine on Nov. 1, El Paso on Nov. 9, Austin on Nov. 19, Houston on Dec. 3, San Antonio on Dec. 17 and College Station on Jan. 8. These sessions will certify instructors to teach the new courses, which go into effect Jan. 1, 2008. The early registration fee is $75 per course.
- An Educators Conference will be held in College Station on Jan. 7, the day before the instructor training for the Legal Update and Ethics MCE courses. Center researchers will be on hand to update core and MCE instructors. The early registration fee is $20.
Information on each of these courses is available on the Center’s website.
RENAMING, RENOVATING BEAL CENTER
DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) – Granite Properties will spend $6 million renovating the former Beal Bank Center on the Dallas North Tollway.
The 1980s-era complex includes 12- and 13-story brick and glass office towers and a two-story building. The buildings total more than 342,000 square feet.
Locally based architecture firm Omniplan designed the renovations, which include new metal roofs for the towers and a redesign of the ground floor porte cocheres.
The currently 65 percent leased center will be renamed Tollway Towers.
COLE CREEK'S NEW TRIO
HOUSTON (Trammell Crow Company) – Work has begun on three new distribution facilities in the Cole Creek Business Park, bringing almost 427,000 square feet to Trammel Crow Company’s park.
The 252,000-, 80,000- and 94,930-square-foot buildings make up phase three of the Cole Creek development at the northwest corner of West Little York and Fairbanks North Houston. Completion is scheduled for March 2008.
The new buildings are owned by Trammell Crow Company and ING Clarion. The development team includes Powers Brown Architects; Cobb Fendley Associates; Haynes Whaley Associates; Redding, Linden, Burr; Rosenberger Construction; and Wong & Associates.
CB Richard Ellis will handle leasing.
ADAM'S MARK REBRANDED
DALLAS (Dallas Business Journal) – Two months after Oxford Lodging Advisory & Investment Group announced it was buying downtown’s Adam’s Mark Hotel, the hotel is being rebranded as a Sheraton Hotel.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, which owns Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, will oversee the hotel's management and branding.
The Adam's Mark Dallas, located on Olive Street near Pearl Street, boasts 1,840 rooms and 240,000 square feet of convention space.
NORTH TEXAS HOSPITAL BOOM
DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) – To serve fast-growing southern Denton County, North Texas’ largest hospital system plans to build a $160 million, 130-bed hospital in Flower Mound, Lewisville or Coppell.
Texas Health Resources’ (THR) new hospital is just part of more than $2.5 billion worth of hospital construction and expansion that has been announced in North Texas by various companies, said Nancy Williams, president of the Health Industry Council of the Dallas–Fort Worth Region.
THR's hospital, a joint venture with 100 local physicians, will be called Presbyterian Hospital of (the chosen city). According to Will Behrmann, THR's director of planning and business development, the physicians' preferences will determine the location.
The full-service hospital will complement the 255-bed Presbyterian Hospital of Denton, in which THR currently holds a 20 percent interest.
COPPERFIELD'S COPPER LAKES
HOUSTON (globest.com) – Construction has begun on the 374-unit Falls at Copper Lakes Apartments in the city’s far northwest.
Austin-based Duval Copperfield Partners Ltd. is developing the $35 million, Class-A complex on almost 22 acres at Hwy. 6 and Huffmeister Road.
The complex will have 48 three-bedroom units ranging from 1,282 to 1,426 square feet. The remaining will be two-bedroom (1,082 square feet) and one-bedroom (856 square feet) units. All units will have attached garages.
Live Oak Capital Ltd. arranged the 94 percent loan-to-cost financing of $33.4 million. Amegy Bank of Texas provided $28.5 million of the total funding in a three-year senior loan at a variable rate of 200 basis points above LIBOR. KeyBank Real Estate Capital supplied the three-year mezzanine of $4.95 million.
Blazer Residential Inc. is the general contractor. The project’s architect is Mucasey & Associates. Both are from Houston.
AUSTRALIAN TRUST'S INDUSTRIAL PICKUP
SAN ANTONIO (San Antonio Express-News) – Locally based Santa Barbara Development Services has sold 11 industrial buildings totaling just over one million square feet to DB RREEF, an Australian real estate trust. The two companies will partner to develop new buildings throughout the city.
DB RREEF Trust bought the buildings, which are located in various industrial parks, including Cornerstone Industrial Park (near I-10 and Loop 410), Alamo Downs Business Park (near Loop 410 and Culebra Road), Interchange Park (near Loop 410 and I-35) and Tri-County Business Park in Schertz.
Also included was a 360,000-square-foot rail-served warehouse that is under construction at the East Kelly Rail Port at Port San Antonio. Santa Barbara Development has additional ground leases at this location, where, on Oct. 1, the partnership will break ground on the first of two 270,000-square-foot warehouses.
The partnership also has 14 buildings planned on the industrial park land and plans to break ground on the first three next month.
All buildings will be built on a speculative basis.
Santa Barbara Development partnered with New Mexico–based Titan Industrial Development to develop the properties bought by DB RREEF.
VERDE BUILDING BEGINS
PFLUGERVILLE (Austin American-Statesman) – Verde Corporate Realty Services, based in El Paso, is developing a one-story, 144,000-square-foot, Class-A industrial building in the $50 million Verde Springbrook Corporate Center industrial park.
The Austin office of Verde is handling the marketing and leasing. The building is projected to be completed by year’s end.
The 63-acre park is in the new Texas 45 North corridor. It will total one million square feet at buildout.
METRO HOME PRICES IMPROVE
WASHINGTON (National Association of Realtors) – Home price trends are improving in metropolitan areas, but existing-home sales during the second quarter were below a year ago in most states, according to the latest quarterly survey by the National Association of Realtors.
In the second quarter, 97 out of 149 metropolitan statistical areas show year-over-year increases in median existing single-family home prices, including nine areas with double-digit annual gains. Fifty had price declines, and two were unchanged.
Total state existing-home sales, including single-family and condo, were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.9 million units in the second quarter, down 10.8 percent from a 6.6 million-unit pace in second quarter 2006.
The national median existing single-family home price was $223,800 in the second quarter, down 1.5 percent from second quarter 2006, when the median price was $227,100.
Total existing-home sales in the South were at an annual rate of 2.3 million units in the second quarter, down 10.7 percent from the second quarter of 2006. The median existing single-family home price in the South was $185,000 in the second quarter, 1.6 percent below a year earlier.
The strongest price increase in the South was in the Beaumont–Port Arthur area, at $127,700, up 11.8 percent from a year ago.
MORTGAGE RATES INCREASE
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com, Real Estate Center) – Mortgage rates rose for the first time in four weeks, Freddie Mac reported yesterday.
The government-sponsored loan buyer said the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan increased from 6.59 percent to 6.62 percent for the week ending August 16. Last year at this time, 30-year mortgage rates averaged 6.52 percent.
Five-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 6.35 percent this week, up from 6.33 percent last week and 6.18 percent a year ago.
One-year ARMs averaged 5.67 percent this week, up from 5.65 percent last week, the same level they were at this time last year.
Because mortgage rates have fluctuated slightly in recent months, Dr. Jim Gaines, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, does not think the increase establishes a definite trend. However, he says the Federal Reserve's decision to cut discount rates on loans to banks by half a percentage point could portend a future decline if it lowers its federal funds rate at its September meeting.
IT TAKES A BAYLOR VILLAGE
WACO (Waco Tribune-Herald) – Nearly 700 Baylor students are moving into the new Brooks Village, which replaced the old, demolished Brooks Hall.
The $43 million complex is just over 252,000 square feet, with 370 students in the dormitory-style Brooks College and 312 sophomores, juniors and seniors in the apartment-style Brooks Flats.
Brooks College houses the new Robbins Chapel. Both have state-of-the art classrooms. Also included in the village are faculty offices and a faculty apartment, giving students more daily interaction with their professors.
The furnished Brooks Flats have complete kitchens and are single- or double-occupancy bedrooms in apartments housing between two and four people.
Brooks College will cost between $535 and $624 per month. It costs between $395 and $522 per month to live in one of Baylor’s other dormitories. Brook Flats will cost between $677 and $763 monthly.
Currently, 39 percent of Baylor students live on campus, compared to 29 percent in 2001.
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