News
Heavy Hitting Hartman
August 24, 2010
| With plans to spend $60M to $100M annually on shopping centers, office, and industrial buildings, The Hartman Income REIT acquired the 266k SF, 15-story Gateway Tower this month and 616 FM 1960 in Houston last month, both from KBS. No word on the cost. | |
 | |
| The Houston-based REIT owns/manages 32 properties totaling 3.5M SF of office, industrial, and retail space valued at $300M. Most of the assets are in Houston, with eight in Dallas and one in San Antonio. Hartman EVP David Wheeler, here with senior property manager Cheryl Bruce and VP Matt Waldon, tells us that the REIT plans to continue growing in Houston and Dallas for three reasons: good buying opportunities, they know those markets best, and they have the proper staffing in place. We snapped the trio on Gateway Tower's top floor, of which all 17k SF is coming available—with signage—in December 2011. | |
 | |
| David says Hartman ID'd Gateway Tower long ago as a property they'd like to own. The price was right, he says, as the REIT was able to buy it at a 25-40% replacement cost with a good yield. Dave likes the location (the NWC of LBJ and 75), and KBS invested about $5M in 2004 to renovate the building, which is 77% occupied. David says he anticipates at least one or two more acquisitions this year with about $20M to $30M to spend by year's end. (Look for some eight-story stocking stuffers.) JLL's Jack Crews repped the seller and Dave and colleague Julian Kwok repped the buyer. | |
 | |
| The REIT purchased the 74% occupied, 142k SF eight-story 616 FM 1960 in Houston from KBS last month. Hartman plans to stabilize both new acquisitions at the current submarket rates and hold long term, David tells us. Newport Beach-based Lucescu Realty's Mark Lucescu repped KBS. David and Julian repped Hartman. In the past 14 months, Hartman has bought one office building in DFW and three in Houston. David says the REIT waded into the market last year when everyone else was on the sideline. David believes tenants are happy with Hartman-owned buildings because the REIT is well capitalized and not struggling to keep up. The REIT never leveraged above 50%. | |
