This Week’s Houston Deal Sheet

Weitzman and H-E-B have broken ground on the first phase of the 273-acre Manvel Town Center, which, upon completion, will incorporate more than 1M SF of retail, entertainment, hospitality, medical and office space.

The project is located at the major intersection of State Highway 288 and State Highway 6 in Manvel, located south of Houston. H-E-B will anchor the site, totaling more than 100K SF of retail space and including a fuel station and car wash.

In addition to H-E-B, Weitzman is targeting a balanced retail tenant mix, including destination retail, restaurants, fitness, home furnishings and other local, regional and national concepts. The first phase of Manvel Town Center is scheduled to come online in the late summer of 2022.

The groundbreaking ceremony represented the beginning of infrastructure improvements at the site. In the planning for the project, Weitzman has directed the development of a wastewater treatment plant, a water plant, detention facilities, feeder road modifications and the construction of Kirby Drive at one boundary of Manvel Town Center.

Weitzman is managing the development of Manvel Town Center under the direction of Weitzman’s Steve Chandler and JoBeth Prochaska. Weitzman’s James Namken, Kyle Knight and Cole Mueller are handling leasing.

SALES

Transwestern’s Nick Peterson and John Ferruzzo brokered three industrial transactions totaling 198.7K SF:

• An undisclosed buyer purchased a four-building complex totaling 89K SF on 9.69 acres at 15800 Export Plaza, located in World Houston Business Park. The deal was a sale-leaseback transaction. Peterson and Ferruzzo represented the undisclosed seller.
• An undisclosed buyer purchased a Class-A, 59.3K SF manufacturing facility with 9.4K SF of office space at 11940 Brittmoore Park Drive in Brittmoore-Tanner Business Park. Peterson and Ferruzzo represented the undisclosed seller.
• An undisclosed buyer purchased a 50.3K SF industrial facility on 7.25 acres at 7211 Gessner. Peterson and Ferruzzo represented the undisclosed seller.

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Nuveen Global Cities REIT purchased Hillcroft Medical Center, a 41K SF medical office building in Sugar Land, for $59M. The property was built in 2007 and is 100% leased with a 9.5-year weighted average lease term. 

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Lockwood Development Partners purchased nine hospitality properties across nine states for $225M, including a 243-room Crowne Plaza hotel in Houston. The company intends to repurpose the properties, featuring a rebranded, eco-friendly and sustainable hotel operation, affordable housing and ghost kitchens.

In conjunction with the Department of Veterans Affairs' Mission Act, the properties will also serve as a resource for veterans to receive permanent housing, physical and mental assistance, and other support programs through SarahCare, an organization dedicated to providing resources for seniors.

Marcus & Millichap’s Timothy Speck represented the buyer in the firm’s Texas transactions.

LEASES

Key Energy Services leased 20K SF of office space at 1500 Citywest Blvd. in west Houston. NAI Partners’ Dan Boyles represented the tenant, while JLL’s Scott Fikes and Jack Russo represented the landlord, BSD I TX 1500 Citywest LLC.

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ASD Lighting Corp. leased 96.1K SF of industrial warehouse space at 15655 Milner Road in north Houston. CBRE’s Nathan Wynne, Patrick Rollins and Faron Wiley represented the landlord, Prologis.

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TRC Environmental Corp. leased 18.5K SF of office space at 14701 St. Mary’s Lane in west Houston from CH2M Hill Inc. CBRE’s Kevin Saxe, Megan Mazzipica and Kristin Dragon Lowe represented the tenant.

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

Skanska hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for its upcoming Class-A, 28-story, 375K SF Downtown Houston office tower, 1550 on the Green, which will officially begin construction this summer. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Central Houston President Bob Eury joined leaders from Skanska USA Commercial Development, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and other community partners at The Grove, adjacent to the site at 1550 Lamar St.

1550 on the Green will occupy one of the three land parcels that is ultimately slated to be transformed into a master-planned district called Discovery West: 3.5 acres of mixed-use development with restaurants, retail and green space. Skanska purchased the land parcel in October 2019.

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I3 broke ground on 3° Red Bluff, a new cold storage facility at 1050 Red Bluff Road in Pasadena. The 12-acre, Class-A cold storage business park will feature two cold/frozen storage buildings totaling 148.9K SF. Houston Meat Distributors has pre-leased 62% of Building 1, which has a remaining availability of 42K SF. A second free-standing building totaling 52K SF is slated to break ground in Q3 2021. I3 is expected to deliver 3° Red Bluff in late Q3.

Colliers International’s Zachary Taylor, John Nicholson and Trey Horne are the leasing team handling the project. The property is situated in Houston's East-Southeast Far industrial submarket, Houston's second-largest submarket, containing 81.8M SF of industrial space.

FINANCING

CBRE Capital Markets has arranged $100.25M in acquisition financing for a portfolio of four multifamily properties in Houston. CBRE’s Derek Fasulo and Frances Rogers with CBRE’s Capital Markets Debt & Structured Finance team arranged the financing on behalf of a joint venture, Westchase Houston LLC.

The four multifamily communities total 1,330 units and are all within Houston’s Westchase submarket. CBRE secured a five-year, floating-rate loan with 60 months of interest-only through a nonrecourse bridge lender.

THIS AND THAT

CBRE has been retained by Castlelake LP, a global alternative investment firm, to market the sale of a master-planned community portfolio across Austin, Dallas, Houston and Nashville.

The portfolio consists of 2,300 single-family detached lots and excess land for potential development located within five fully entitled and well-established residential master-planned communities. Over $250M of total infrastructure investment has been completed across the communities to date, with nearly 3,700 closed lot/home sales to date.

Patrick Arangio, Jack Howard, Chris McClain and Kurt Altvater of the CBRE Capital Markets National Portfolio Sale Advisors team and Steve Lehr of CBRE’s Land Services team have been retained to act as the exclusive advisers for the sale.

Approximately 81% of the total remaining inventory is under contract with nonrefundable deposits securing the purchase options from an established roster of regional and national homebuilders, including Toll Brothers, Pulte, Beazer Homes, Highland Homes and Lennar.