This Week's Dallas-Fort Worth Deal Sheet

Streetcars are back on the nearly two-mile route between Oak Cliff and Downtown Dallas. DART kicked off the free service Monday going from Union Station to Methodist Dallas Medical Center.

It’s the first phase of the City’s modern streetcar system, which will go along the Trinity River corridor, and target commuters in mixed-use districts adjacent to Downtown. The second phase, which extends the route to the shopping and dining of Oak Cliff’s Bishop Arts District, is expected to be completed by early 2016. The third segment, currently in planning, will expand the streetcar line to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and Omni Dallas Hotel. Project development was kick-started by $26M in federal grants. In addition to the City of Dallas and DART, other project partners include the North Central Texas Council of Governments, Texas Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Administration.

FINANCING

HFF’s De’On Collins and Michael George arranged $28M in acquisition financing for an 11-property theater portfolio of 109 Cinemark and Regal screens in eight states (including several in the Metroplex) for a JV between United Development Co and Iron Point Real Estate Partners III. The two-year, floating-rate loan is through CapitalSource, a division of Pacific Western Bank. It will be used to acquire the portfolio and for real estate improvements to four locations with restructured leases. They were able to restructure new, long-term leases for four of the 11 locations. Three theaters will operate as luxury United Artist Theatre Circuit theaters, and one will operate as Cinemark’s new upscale theater brand. 

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BMC Capital’s Brian Gramlich arranged a $2.55M refinance loan for a 72-unit multifamily property in Denton. The loan featured a seven-year term with 4.03% interest rate and a 30-year amortization. 

THIS & THAT

Harwood International renovated the ground level space of 2727 N Harwood (also known as the Jones Day building) adding a café, Magnolias: Sous Le Pont. Harwood showcased the new café and the almost 21k SF available on the second floor at a recent broker event. Here’s JLL’s Marc Feldman and Jon McNeil, Harwood’s Jihane Boury, ALT + CO’s Oliver Day, CBRE’s Harlan Davis and ALT + CO’s Sam Meginnis.

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JLL’s Conor McCarthy (right, with Billingsley's Marijke Lantz) won the Billingsley Broker Bracket with his pick of Duke to take it all. He won $1k and gets this snazzy belt for the next year. Rumor has it that when he walks his new bride down the aisle, he plans to sport this trophy belt. (We want pictures!)

LEASES

Glidepath leased 48k SF at 2241 S Watson Rd in Arlington. NAI Robert Lynn’s Michael A. Stanzel repped the tenant. Stream’s Cannon Green and Matt Dornak repped the landlord. 

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Willbros T&D Services added 4,065 SF to total 14k SF at 115 W 7th in Fort Worth. Casey Tounget and Theron Bryant of Coldwell Banker Commercial Alliance DFW repped the landlord, Benbrooke Electric Partners. Cushman & Wakefield’s Joe Peddie and David Guion repped the tenant. 

SALES

Moviehouse & Eatery purchased 6.78 acres at Craig Ranch at the northeast quadrant of Custer Road and Hwy 121 in McKinney to build a 40k SF 10-screen movie theater to open in May 2016. CBRE | UCR’s Tey Tiner and W. Thurston Witt Jr. repped Craig Ranch. Trulan Property Advisors’ Jason Middlebrook repped Moviehouse & Eatery.

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California-based MIG Real Estate acquired the 301-unit Regency at Stonebridge Ranch luxury townhome apartment community at 2305 S Custer Rd in McKinney. The complex is MIG’s ninth investment in Texas multifamily properties. Moran & Co’s Thad Wetterau repped the seller. Alliance Residential will manage the property for MIG Real Estate.

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2UP Investments purchased a 21k SF building at 10265 Miller Rd in Dallas. NAI Robert Lynn’s Stephen Cooper repped the seller. Mercer Co’s Matt Spellman repped the buyer. 

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Bright Realty’s Blake Davis and Britton Lankford repped Meridian Bank Texas in the sale of 3.34 acres at 1909 W Pleasant Ridge Rd in Arlington to a private investor. 

INFRASTRUCTURE

Work is underway on the long-awaited Hemphill-Lamar Connector. It’s a new underpass designed to improve connectivity between the near Southside and Downtown Fort Worth by providing a more viable pedestrian and bicycle connection than the historic underpasses at Jennings, South Main and Henderson streets. The City of Fort Worth and McCarthy Building Cos, along with Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, District 9 councilmember Ann Zadeh, Fort Worth South president Paul Paine and Downtown Fort Worth executive committee member Johnny Campbell held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of the project. Here’s some of the McCarthy folks: John Frazier, Angel Vasquez, Jerry Mayer, Nick Wells, Maria Escobedo, Carlos Gutierrez and Jose Gutierrez. The Hemphill Street Connector project includes building a roadway and pedestrian pathway tunnel underneath I-30 and a new rail bridge to support four existing Union Pacific Railroad lines. The project will extend from Hemphill Street beyond Vickery Boulevard, via tunnel. Plans call for a four-lane major arterial street comprised of 12-foot lanes, retaining walls, streetlights and traffic signals. Construction is expected be completed in 2017.

GRAND OPENING

The Weitzman Group exec chairman Herb Weitzman and Cencor EVP David Palmer bookend Kroger Southwest division president Bill Breetz at the grand opening of the 123k SF Kroger Marketplace in Cencor’s Castle Hills Marketplace, which is underway at SH 121 and Josey Lane in Lewisville. 

EXECUTIVES

Paul Yazbeck joined Sperry Van Ness, coming to the firm from Citi, where he was a management associate for the past two years. 

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Craig Jones joined JLL as managing director and leader of its DFW industrial group. He will fill the shoes of longtime industrial leader, managing director Terry Darrow, who is transitioning to full-time brokerage. Prior to joining JLL, Craig was president of the industrial division at NAI Robert Lynn.