This Week's Houston Deal Sheet

Howard Hughes Holdings announced that the Ritz-Carlton Residences are coming to The Woodlands, Howard Hughes’ master-planned community.

“Howard Hughes shares our steadfast commitment to top-tier quality, incomparable design and unparalleled service,” Sarah Khalifa, vice president of mixed-use development at Marriott International, said in a news release. “We look forward to working with them to bring this groundbreaking residential development in The Woodlands to life.”

The Ritz-Carlton will be Howard Hughes’ branding partner for the private residences at the last available large-scale residential site on Lake Woodlands, the release states.

The homes will be the first Ritz-Carlton-branded standalone residences in Texas. They will be spread across 8 private acres and feature a limited number of homes for sale. The project includes an on-site restaurant.

The homes will not be owned, developed or sold by The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. or its affiliates, according to the news release. 

SALES

HVS Brokerage & Advisory announced the sale of the 73-key Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton Houston - Cypress Station. 

Austin-based Door Capital Partners bought the property at 150 Wagon Point in Houston from Level X Group. The property, built in 2000, is along the Interstate 45 Frontage Road and FM 1960. 

HVS Brokerage & Advisory team members Eric Guerrero, James Rebullida, Fadi Rawashdeh and Kyle Peterek participated in the transaction.

LEASES

Quick Quack Car Wash signed a ground lease for a nearly 1-acre (41.8K SF) retail pad site in Fort Bend Town Center Phase 2, at the intersection of Highway 6 and Fort Bend Tollway in Missouri City, from NewQuest Properties. Bob Conwell and Andrew Alvis of NewQuest Properties represented the landlord. Rebecca Le and Holly Nguyen of NewQuest Properties represented the tenant.

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The Business Center at Five Corners, a Class-A five-building project by Levey Group, is now 100% leased with the addition of four new tenants taking up a combined 215K SF.

Completed in 2022, the 550K SF project is situated on 44 acres in southwest Houston and features more than one-half mile of Beltway 8 frontage between Post Oak Road and Hiram Clarke Road.

• Lecangs, a third-party logistics subsidiary of Loctek, leased 133K SF to provide e-commerce, warehousing and logistics services. 
• Johnson Controls leased 43K SF for distribution of its heating, ventilation and air conditioning technologies.
• UnitedHealthcare Services leased 13K SF for office and warehouse purposes. 
• PV Hardware, a subsidiary of Gransolar Group of Spain, leased 26K SF to provide solar trackers, structures and control solutions for solar plants.

The Business Center at Five Corners is owned by a joint-venture partnership formed by Levey Group and Anico Eagle, a member of American National Group Inc. 

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Oxford Partners represented Best Industrial Services in the lease and relocation of 24.5K SF at 330 West 38th St. in Houston. Oxford Partners’ Garth Plyler represented the tenant, Best Industrial Services. The landlord, Agellan Commercial REIT, was represented by Ben Condara of Colliers. 

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Avison Young negotiated two full-building leases totaling more than 82K SF at NorthStar Industrial Park, a five-building Class-A industrial project on more than 79 acres at 100 FM 3083 in Conroe.

Avison Young’s Drew Coupe and Dawson Smith represented the landlord, Bauer Group.

The leases are a 64K SF lease with Unimacts and a 18K SF lease with Hertha Metals. 

Unimacts, a supplier of utility-scale solar tracker components, is adding a new location to Houston and was represented by Doc Perrier of Outpost Partners, previously with Finial Group. The company is using the new space for manufacturing and distribution of steel tubes for the solar industry.

Hertha Metals, a startup focused on revolutionizing the iron and steelmaking industry by introducing technologies that reduce carbon dioxide emissions, was represented by John Hornbuckle of Cypressbrook Co. The space will be used for research and development. 

CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Hope Media Group will build a new headquarters building in The Signorelli Co.’s Valley Ranch development in east Montgomery County. The building will include facilities to create and produce its mix of ministry radio, events, online content and mobile apps.

At the intersection of Grand Parkway and Interstate 69, Hope Media Group’s headquarters will provide space for the organization’s broadcast, podcast and video production studios. The building will be near Valley Ranch Town Center’s mixed-use district, which includes the 200K SF conference and event center recently announced by the East Montgomery County Improvement District.

Hope Media Group expects construction to start before year-end. Architecture firm Gensler is designing the facility, and Houston-based Tellepsen is the general contractor.

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NewQuest Properties is developing a $90M regional retail center on a 65-acre site in Tomball. The Grand at 249 will total 404K SF at build-out, creating the largest concentration of retail in the submarket. 

The project will front Tomball Tollway and Grand Parkway, an intersection that was still on the drawing boards when NewQuest acquired the site in the early 1990s.

NewQuest’s Andrew Alvis and David Meyers have negotiated or signed leases for 389K SF, or 96% of the project, since the beginning of the year. AT&T, BoomerJack's Grill, Gringo's Mexican Kitchen, Jersey Mike's, Milano Nails and Two Pho Nine Asian Fusion have signed leases, and negotiations are underway with more brands, including anchor tenants.

The Grand at 249 will feature 12 pad sites, ranging from 1 to 2 acres. Gringo's and BoomerJack's were the first to sign ground leases.

With commitments in hand for all but two retail pads, NewQuest will deliver the development sites in early October. In tandem, the developer is planning to build two multitenant buildings, totaling 25K SF.

Tomball is home to 3,828 annual home starts per year, with 21,631 more coming in the future. 

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Trammell Crow Co. and joint venture partner Clarion Partners completed construction on the second phase of Weiser Business Park in Cypress. The JV delivered a 521K SF Class-A industrial facility, known as Building 4, at 14402 Fallbrook Drive. Western Post agreed to lease 317K SF at the building, leaving 204.6K SF available for lease. 

The facility is the fourth to be delivered in the park, where construction began in August 2022.

The building features 36-foot clear height, 54-foot wide column spacing, trailer parking and an early suppression, fast response sprinkler system. Seeberger Architecture acted as the architect of record and A&F General Contractors was the project’s general contractor. 

Robert McGee and Taylor Schmidt of Lee & Associates are handling the marketing of the project, which is available for lease to a single or multiple users. Western Post was represented in the transaction by David Wang of PropNex Realty USA.

THIS & THAT

RDLR Architects, a firm with 40 years of experience in Houston, acquired W Squared Architects. 

RDLR is known for its community-driven approach in the public sector, while W Squared has been in the private market for nearly a decade. The acquisition will help RDLR diversify and expand its services into the private commercial market.

W Squared has a track record of delivering projects across industries including multifamily, office, retail and hospitality.