The Deal Sheet

Weil, Gotshal, and Manges wrapped up renovation of its offices. The goal: Make the space look bigger without actually adding SF. (It's the alchemy of the 21st century.)

Iauckgroup (which just expanded into Houston itself with a brand spankin’ new office in the Galleria) designed the 20k SF space—pictured—in Bank of America Tower. Prez Anne Kniffen tells us there are three standard ways to make an office look bigger—better access to daylight/more external views, a lighter design palette with warm accents, and a smart space plan that maximizes efficiency. For Weil, Gotshal, and Manges, that meant using glass in all the offices and conference rooms and framing views to the exterior by strategically locating corridors. The international law firm is planning to hire more, so the more efficient office has prepared them for growth.

EXECS

Transwestern’s Eric Johnson was promoted to the newly created position of executive managing director of the firm’s national healthcare platform. His division includes healthcare, life sciences, and biotech clients. Eric has 21 years of experience in healthcare real estate and has been with Transwestern 17 years (he sits on the board of directors). His team includes 12 producers, one of the largest healthcare specialty practices in the country. Over the past three years, Transwestern’s Houston healthcare investment sales group has closed 23 medical assets totaling 1.3M SF and has preleased 800k SF of medical office.

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Allison Knight joined Hicks Ventures as SVP of leasing. She will lead marketing/leasing efforts for the entire portfolio, including Two Westlake, Park Ten Place I & II, 16900 Park Row, and Block 10 West Office Park. She was previously director of leasing at Colvill, where she oversaw a 6.1M SF of Class-A office space.

SALES

Prosperity Hospitality Group purchased a 24k SF former PetSmart for $5M ($207/SF). The freestanding building is at 10500 Katy Fwy and was built in ’92. Prosperity will build a new hotel on the site. Progressive Real Estate Partners’ Frank Vora and UCR’s Ed James repped the seller. CBRE’s Matt Parsons repped the buyer.

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Maple Multi Family Land TX purchased 25k SF of land at 10615 Katy Fwy. Coldwell Banker’s David Hummel and Vince Elder repped the seller.

LEASES

CCI leased a 42k SF office/warehouse at 11973 FM 529. Mike Farris repped landlord Texas Development, and Southwest Realty Advisors’ Patrick McKiernan, Emilee Shepherd, and Jonathan McDaniel repped the tenant.

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CyraCom International leased 63k SF for a new contact center at 5959 Corporate Dr. Cresa’s Sue Rogers and Steven Heal repped the tenant with Keyser’s Clint Hardison. CBRE’s Elliott Hirschfield and Weldon Martin repped landlord WiredZone Associates.

DEVELOPMENT

Research Forest Lakeside Building 4 has delivered. The 12-story tower is 298k SF and is the second of eight buildings to be built in the 77-acre mixed-use development on Lake Woodlands. ZC+O (Ziegler Cooper and Odell) handled design; other team members include Harvey Builders, Cardno Haynes Whaley, DBR, Jones & Carter, and Clark Condon. 193k SF Building 5 is under construction now and will be fully occupied by Repsol; 136k SF Building 9 and a 33k SF retail phase are in design.

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HomeGoods opened a 24k SF store at Brazos Town Center in Rosenberg. EDGE Realty’s Culver Stedman repped the tenant and NewQuest’s Bob Conwell repped the landlord.

FINANCING

HFF’s Steve Heldenfels and Jim Curtin arranged $50M of debt financing for a four-property office, retail, and industrial portfolio totaling 846k SF in Houston and Dallas. The team repped Hartman Income REIT and placed the 10-year, 4.6% fixed-rate loan with Voya Investment Management (formerly ING). Loan proceeds were used to pay off an existing short-term line of credit on three properties in the Dallas metro and provide acquisition funding for a Houston asset (Mitchelldale Business Park). HFF’s industrial investment sales team also facilitated the 378k SF Mitchelldale transaction. 

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BMC Capital’s Patrick Short arranged a $1.2M refinance loan for an undisclosed multifamily property. He provided the client with cash out while lowering the rate by 1.4%. He locked in a five-year fixed-rate at 4.75% and 25-year amortization with a correspondent bank.

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NorthMarq’s James Murphy secured $9.7M in acquisition financing for Eastport Industrial Park Buildings I and II, which total 367k SF on Market Street. The commercial mortgage transaction was structured with a five-year term and one-year I/O and 30-year amo. The borrower was High Street Realty and it was financed by Great-West Life & Annuity.

THIS AND THAT

Transwestern’s freshly renovated HQ at 1900 W Loop S received LEED Silver. The firm renovated 58k SF across three floors; construction began last June and wrapped up in March. The new design reduced lighting usage by 0.15 watts/SF (or 23k kWh a year). That will save it $2,250 annually, before accounting for new occupancy sensors that reduce daytime load (79% of the lighting is controlled by them).

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NAI Houston was selected as exclusive leasing agent and property manager for 9301 Southwest Fwy. The Class-B building is 113k SF and focuses on the growing medical office tenancy near Memorial Hospital Southwest. Doug Pack negotiated the agreement for NAI, and Sam Hansen will lead marketing.