This Week's Houston Deal Sheet

1305 Prairie, a historic Downtown building, is in new hands. HighStreet Net Lease Group’s Matt Moake repped the buyer, an undisclosed local investor. The deal was the up-leg in a 1031 exchange, so timing was critical to meet IRS deadlines.

1305 Prairie is a 14k SF mixed-use building (one story of retail and two of office) that was built in 1920. The new owner will extensively renovate the property. The seller had owned it for 30 years; it was repped by Bejjani & Associates’ Fred Ghabriel.

SALES

Depado Partners purchased 3.4 acres of retail-zoned land along FM 1774 near Lakes of Magnolia in Magnolia. NewQuest's Rob Whitaker repped the buyer and seller DCI of Magnolia.

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Shady Bayou MHP, a partnership led by Cole Realty Partners, purchased the 81-unit Shady Bayou Mobile Home Park in Channelview. Cole raised equity from 12 investors and got a loan from Union Capital Investments. Cole’s Bill Cole and Morgan Cole repped the buyer, and Western Equities’ Randy Smith repped the seller.

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Westmount Realty Capital purchased Summer Cove Apartments, a Class-B, 376-unit complex at 725 FM 1959. It’s rebranding the '80s era community to Westmount at Summer Cove. Summer Cove has maintained stable occupancy over 90% for the last seven years; for the last 12 months, occupancy averaged 96% and rents have risen 6.7% with no concessions. It’s in Clear Lake, so it’s been benefiting from petrochem strength, and the seller had done $1M in capital improvements. However, rents are still slightly lower than its direct competitors, so Westmount views it as value-add and plans to do more upgrades. HFF arranged acquisition financing.

DEVELOPMENT

Star Cinema Grill will build a 45k SF theater in Miramesa Town Center, a property at West and Fry roads in Cypress. It’ll serve Towne Lake and Bridgelands. Star Cinema Grill is a Houston-based company and is also under construction on a theater adjacent to Baybrook Mall. It plans to open a fourth location in Richmond near the intersection of the Grand Parkway and Westpark Tollroad in fall 2016. Wulfe & Co’s Kristen Barker reps Star Cinema Grill. Read King will develop the Cypress location; it was repped by Christie Amezquita and Jeanie Gibbs.

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Investment & Development Ventures and Summit Realty Ventures are partnering to build a 121k SF spec industrial building in Park 225. The development is at the intersection of Beltway 8 and Highway 225 in Pasadena. 2.8 acres remain for future development.

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NewQuest Crosswell broke ground on Northwest Park Crossing, a 4.2-acre mixed-use project. Hotel Bella, a 43-room hotel, starts construction there this month and will deliver in June. It’s being developed by Fourth Dimension Builders. Raising Canes, a medical facility and another national fast food chain have also signed on for the development. Raising Canes is already under construction and will open in December. All the pad sites are spoken for; NewQuest Crosswell principal Tod Greenwood says the team knew there was pent-up demand, but the sites went even faster than they’d anticipated.

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Allied Orion Group broke ground on Block 384, a 242-unit multifamily community Downtown. It’ll open in Q3 ’17 at 1825 San Jacinto. Allied Orion partnered with Houston EB5 and ATMA for equity, and BancorpSouth Bank provided debt. The community is designed by Meeks + Partners and will meet the National Green Building Standards Bronze Certification. Pictured are Mayor Pro-Tem Ed Gonzalez, Houston EB5’s Emilio Guzman and Roberto Contreras, BancorpSouth’s Dick Sadka and Steve Smith, Allied Orion’s Ricardo Rivas and Tim Myers, ATMA’s Rene Bremauntz and Allied Orion’s Kirk Tate.

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Gilbane will build a new library for the City of Houston in the Young neighborhood. The 16k SF facility will feature raised flooring, metal panel ceilings and an open concept with a focus on public safety. It’s got a unique curvilinear shape to reflect the curving Metro rail line passing nearby.

FINANCING

CBRE Capital Markets’ Charles Foschini, Christopher Apone and Christian Lee secured financing for Waterstone Apartments, a luxury 276-unit community in Spring. The loan is fixed-rate through JP Morgan. The borrower is Momentum Real Estate Partners.

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CBRE Capital Markets’ wholesale lending team closed three loans totaling $11.3M to refi three multifamily communities in North Carolina and Texas. They were closed through the Freddie Mac Small Balance Lending program. The deal includes Greenfield Apartments, a 104-unit property in Baytown. CB secured a 10-year, $3.5M fixed-rate loan.

THIS AND THAT

Hines was retained by Wedge Commercial Properties to manage 1415 Louisiana (previously known as Wedge International Tower). Colvill’s Richard Barbles and Connor Saxe were selected to lease the 520k SF, Class-A Downtown property. A capital improvement campaign is underway.

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Allied Orion was selected to manage The Hampstead, a new 36-unit boutique multifamily community in the Museum District. It’s developed by Deccan Development and is welcoming its first residents this month.

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Howard Hughes and The Woodlands Development Co celebrated the official grand opening of Hughes Landing’s Restaurant Row. California Pizza Kitchen, Del Frisco’s Grille, Escalante’s and Local Pour are open, and Truluck’s and Fogo de Chão are under development. Retailers now open include Cadence Bank, CUPS Frozen Yogurt, KB Kasuals, Kriser’s Natural Pet, Pier 1 Imports, Starbucks, Venetian Nail Spa and Whole Foods; 18|8 Fine Men’s Salons, Macaron by Patisse and Willa Boutique will open soon. Pictured are Woodlands Development’s Alex Sutton; Howard Hughes’ Zak Hudnall, Rip Reynolds and Paul Layne; and MPC Commercial Development's Jim Carman.

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Moody Rambin sponsored a hole at the annual Association of Chief Operating Engineers (ACOE) Golf Tournament at Wildcat Golf Course. Moody Rambin presented a Texans Football tailgate theme with a Bloody Mary buffet, equipped with iced shrimp, beef jerky sticks and every flavor of olives you can could think of to garnish the beverages.