The Austin-San Antonio Deal Sheet
TIER REIT acquired interest in 669k SF of office and 24 acres for future development in The Domain. It's another example of increased institutional interest in Austin.
TIER REIT CIO Bill Reister says its Austin strategy has been buying and developing best-in-class office properties in only three submarkets: the Southwest, CBD and The Domain. Through this deal it fully owns two Class-A creative office buildings totaling 332k SF in The Domain and has a partnership interest in two additional Class-A buildings totaling 337k SF. It also bought a fee simple ownership of various land parcels totaling over 24 acres for future office development. Those sites could have a huge impact; Bill says developing those out over the next several years could almost double TIER REIT’s Austin portfolio to more than 2M SF.
SALES
Karlin Real Estate sold a 303k SF industrial building at 13201 McCallen Pass in North Central Austin to General Motors. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. GM acquired the building to complement its existing Austin IT Innovation Center at 717 E Parmer Ln. The facility is within Sector 6, the first phase of the 400-acre master planned technology and office park being developed by LA-based Karlin and Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. Sector 6 is comprised of three existing institutional-quality industrial buildings totaling approximately 1M SF, which were previously occupied by Dell. All three buildings have been leased or sold, including 400k SF to Fortune 500 companies, according to Karlin VP Vicky Canto-Ponce, who's overseeing the development. Other tenants within Parmer’s Sector 6 include Allergan, Brown Traffic and Marco Fine Arts. Trammell Crow, acting as master developer, is currently completing the first phase of new construction at PARMER, a three-story, 192k SF office building, and has plans to break ground on an identical building later this year. Each is designed for single or multi-tenant occupancy, and will feature 64k SF floor plates. PARMER is zoned for several million square feet of office, industrial, hotel and retail uses. CBRE’s Mark Emerick and John Barksdale lead the PARMER leasing team. The duo also repped Karlin in the sale to GM. JLL’s AJ Weiner, Liz Ticker and Jake Ragusa repped GM.
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Wedge Group acquired two Class-A Austin office buildings from Velocis, Arboretum Atrium and Las Cimas I (pictured). The properties total more than 170k SF. Velocis bought them two years ago from Moore & Associates; Velocis principal Mike Lewis says the firm was able to achieve its investment goals faster than originally forecast. Both buildings are fully leased and in hot office submarkets. Transwestern’s Hale Umstattd and Leah Gallagher repped the seller.
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An undisclosed buyer purchased 21 acres at 5601 Springdale Rd in Austin. Retail Solutions’ Janice Landers repped the seller, and Capella Capital Partners’ Neil Francois and Matt Kenyon repped the buyer.
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HEB purchased 4702 Goldfield Dr in Northeast San Antonio, an 80k SF manufacturing facility. It was registered with the FDA and has a number of unique attributes, including a chemistry and microbiology lab, an explosion-proof alcohol room and a USP purified water system. SACA’s Ed Cross and Zach Dobin repped the seller.
DEVELOPMENT
McCann Realty Partners broke ground on 2401 Grove Apartments, a 156-unit luxury multifamily community. The 18-acre site is in southeast Austin and marks McCann’s first development in the metro. (It owns another asset in the area.) The community will be a lower-density garden property in an urban location, a big change from other nearby recent developments, which have been high-density mixed-use. The project will begin leasing in Q1 ’16 and will be managed by Pegasus Residential. McCann is its own GC.
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Venture Commercial Real Estate’s John Zikos, Jonathan Cooper and Cheryl Hill repped Fitness International in inking two new LA Fitness locations in Texas. The two gyms are in Sachse and San Antonio. The latter deal was the acquisition of 5 acres in Potranco Village. LA Fitness has begun construction on a prototype facility there, which will open late this year. Diversified Partners’ Walt Brown Jr. and Tim Dollander were also involved as master brokers for LA Fitness in the Southern US. Barshop & Oles Co’s Wade McGinnis repped the land seller in San Antonio.
FINANCING
HFF’s De’On Collins and John Brownlee arranged $26M in refinancing for five multifamily communities in Dallas and Austin. It repped borrower AmeriSouth Realty in securing loans from Rialto Mortgage Finance for three of the properties and Edgewood Capital Advisors for the remaining two. The Austin asset is Huntington Meadows, a 200-unit community on Decker Lane that’s 98% leased.
THIS & THAT
Austin’s new six-story Central Library—at 710 W Cesar Chavez—is under construction in one of the most robust areas of new construction within the City along West Second Street, including the Seaholm project, North Shore mixed-use development, 500 West Second St and the proposed Austin Proper Hotel. The new library will feature event spaces that include a 300-seat auditorium overlooking Lady Bird Lake, rooftop garden, plaza amphitheater and other various meeting spaces. Designed by San Antonio-based Lake|Flato and Shepley Bulfinch, the project is expected to open in November 2016. Within the library will be a cafe fronting West Second Street in the Second Street Retail District and overlooking Shoal Creek. It will feature an independent storefront entrance, a 3,786-square-foot café, an adjoining 2,065-square-foot covered patio and a 786-square-foot demo/catering kitchen to serve the numerous special events anticipated at the facility. Additionally, a quick-serve coffee/snack bar will open into the interior atrium space. CBRE’s Eric DeJernett and Peter Jansen will be leasing the café and catering space. The City expects to make its selection this fall.
