This Week's Houston Deal Sheet

The Shops at Katy Reserve, the first grocery-anchored retail center in West Katy, is opening soon. (Just in time to buy pumpkin-flavored cookies, coffee, bread, soap, pencils…) It’s proven demand in the area for service retail; it’s fully leased and working on Phase 2.

NewQuest’s property is anchored by Kroger Marketplace and will open Oct. 16. The 157k SF center is fully leased, and NewQuest is pre-leasing Phase 2 with restaurant and retail tenants. NewQuest’s Rachael Keener (who leases the center with Bob Conwell) says there was a definite void for quick-serve restaurants and service retail in the area; there are no other major grocery-anchored centers within three miles of this site. It all sits on 40 acres surrounding FM 1463 at Spring Creek Boulevard. It includes in-line retail with Kroger plus a 13k SF freestanding building, all of which is opening Oct. 16. Shops at Katy Reserve was designed by Osborn & Vane Architects and built by Otwell Construction. Terra Associates and Texas Engineering & Mapping round out the team.

EXECS

Parkway Place named Sunny Chatagnier executive director. She started at the senior living community as an intern and has built her way up. Sunny, a Port Arthur native who’s lived in Houston for 35 years, was selected earlier this year to be a Fellow of the LeadingAge Leadership Academy. The year-long program is designed to enhance leadership skills of nonprofit leaders. She was the only Texas rep selected.

SALES

An undisclosed California investor purchased The Learning Experience – Atascocita, a 10k SF net-leased property. Marcus & Millichap’s Nate Newman listed the asset at $3.4M. It sold full price, all cash, and early.

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Marcus & Millichap’s Justin Miller and Derek Hargrove closed two investment sales.
• An undisclosed company purchased 15k SF of land at 5440 Memorial Dr. They had seven offers in less than a week and sold to an all-cash buyer in less than 30 days.
• An undisclosed buyer purchased Dollar General Business Park, a 103k SF industrial property at 4000 Telephone Rd. The seller is Braun Enterprises.

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Jash LLC purchased 1.2 acres at 22601 Hwy 59 N in Kingwood. TNRG’s Patrick Wolford repped seller Jenkins Real Estate Holdings. Universal Properties’ Amit Mehta repped the buyer.

LEASES

InfusionDev Corp leased 10k SF at Town Centre I. Moody Rambin’s Bob Cromwell and Kevin Nolan repped building owner Town Centre Partners, and CBRE’s Kristen Rabel and Weldon Martin repped the tenant.

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Halloween City opened two locations in the Houston metro totaling 27k SF. Both stores are in centers owned by JBL Asset Management and leased by NewQuest's Brad Elmore. They include a 21k SF location in Market at Hunting Bayou and 6,300 SF in Tomball Parkway Plaza. The short-term leases expire in early November. Brad said the leases backfilled vacancies in the centers and paid for renovations that would help JBL be more aggressive in future marketing. Baker Katz’s Traci Holman repped Halloween City. Market at Hunting Bayou (217k SF) is 91% leased, and Tomball Parkway Plaza (180k SF) is 95% leased.

DEVELOPMENT

Construction is beginning this fall on the Memorial Park master plan, starting with the Eastern Glades. The 113-acre area is north of Memorial Drive between the golf course and Crestwood subdivision. Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects is leading design of the master plan; owner Thomas Woltz says the Eastern Glades is inspired by an unrealized portion of the original Hare & Hare master plan, the park’s first plan drafted in the ‘20s. It’ll re-establish a pedestrian entry at one of the original entrances to Camp Logan (the WWI training facility that occupied the site before the park was created). A large pond will be created, and there will be two large green spaces for picnicking, etc. It’ll all start with shifting East Memorial Loop Drive to the east so it’s no longer bisecting the Eastern Glades. Other infrastructure improvements include new stormwater management systems (such as the new pond and wetland, which will improve irrigation and create a new wildlife habitat). The Eastern Glades project will cost $25M with a $5M commitment from the Uptown TIRZ. Construction will take three years. 

FINANCING

HFF’s Colby Mueck arranged $34M in senior financing in conjunction with the recapitalization of Westland Bunker, a 2N data center and office complex in Montgomery. He placed the loan with Sovereign Bank and Hillcrest Bank. The bunker is on a 50-acre campus and includes a 19k SF underground data center and a 61k SF office building. It was built in ’82 but has received nearly $30M of capital improvements since ’07. It’s 90% leased.

THIS AND THAT

Transwestern was selected by Equus Capital Partners to lease and manage Comerica Bank Building in Sugar Land. Doug Little and Louann Pereira will lease the 194k SF Class-A property, which is 89% occupied. Louann says Sugar Land’s office market is strong; it had 85k SF of positive absorption in Q2 and Comerica Bank Building is one of the few properties with a full floor available. Equus plans to upgrade the building and add amenities like a tenant lounge, conference center, building and concierge service.

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Asset Plus was awarded management of Park Trails Apartments, a 210-unit multifamily complex near The Woodlands.

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Ellen Lighting and Hardware’s 100k SF facility in Stafford won a Tilt Up Concrete Association Achievement Award. The building includes showroom, retail, office and distribution space. The team (developer Dmac, Three Square Design, Pinnacle and ATR) expects to build a second phase at some point, which would bring it to 250k SF on the 14-acre site.