This Week's Houston Deal Sheet
YKC Bellfort, a local investment firm specializing in retail, purchased Bellfort Retail Center at 11422 Southwest Freeway.
Colliers' Chris Winters and John Parsley repped the seller, Bellfort Venture, and say they received multiple offers. Chris wasn't surprised; he says the retail investment market is active. Bellfort Retail Center was 86% leased at time of sale with only one end cap available for lease.
EXECS
Jon Fayard joined CBRE as sales director for the Houston region. He will oversee sales management strategy and implementation for the occupier advisory and transaction services business. He was previously with Toshiba.
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Jennifer Campbell joined Institutional Property Advisors as associate director. She was previously with KET Enterprises.
SALES
Cactus Commercial purchased two acres at the intersection of Beechnut and Peek roads to build its new HQ. Cactus will occupy half the building starting in late summer 2016, and will lease the remainder. Brennan’s Kyle Harris has the listing.
LEASES
Gulf Winds International renewed 345k SF at 411 Brisbane Rd. JLL’s Jeff Venghaus and Ryan Fuselier repped the tenant. Auburndale Properties’ Didier Ruiz repped the landlord, Shadrall Houston.
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Stream’s industrial team leased 85k SF in October. The biggest deals:
• Apollo Distributors leased 40k SF at Griggs I. Stream’s Jeremy Lumbreras and Blake Warren repped landlord Stockbridge Capital Group. Moody Rambin’s Zach Taylor repped the tenant.
• CompuData Products leased 19k SF at West by Northwest Business Park. Stream’s Michael Flowers and Blake Warren repped landlord Agellan Capital Partners, and CBRE’s Patrick Rollins repped the tenant.
• Signius Communications renewed 11k SF at Astro Business Park. Stream’s Jeremy Lumbreras and Blake Warren repped landlord Stockbridge Capital Group.
• Test America leased 10k SF at Northgreen Business Park (pictured). Stream’s Michael Flowers and Blake Warren repped landlord Agellan Capital Partners, and Cresa Orange County’s Abel Wenning repped the tenant.
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The first phase of The Junction at Deer Park is open. The retail center is being developed by Cencor at the northeast quadrant of Spencer Highway and East Boulevard. It’s anchored by an 83k SF HEB and 15k SF of inline space is being planned on Spencer Highway. Cencor is also master planning the remainder of the center, which will include several big-box tenants. Weitzman’s James Namken, Randy Hopper and Kyle Knight are handling leasing. Cencor also developed Deer Park Station, a retail center shadow-anchored by Walmart that’s also at the intersection of Spencer Highway and East Boulevard.
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Younan Properties completed a multimillion-dollar lobby and exterior renovation at 2350 North Belt Tower. The 10-story, 165k SF Class-A office tower is in Greenspoint. Still to come: a new 3k SF fitness center and 2,500 SF conference center designed by Page. PMRG’s Marci Phillips is leasing the property and believes the refreshed look and updated amenities will draw tenants to the 120k SF contiguous available block.
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The first hotel is now open in Springwoods Village. Residence Inn by Marriott Springwoods Village welcomed its first guests this month. Woodbine developed the 128-room hotel, and InterMountain Management is managing it. Four hotels are slated for the master planned development; the second (Courtyard by Marriott) broke ground this June and will deliver next year.
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Edifis Group completed two shopping centers in Grand Crossing, the new development on I-10 and the Grand Parkway in Katy. The centers total 20k SF next to the new Costco; they’re 100% and 85% occupied, respectively. The properties are the only multi-tenant retail assets in the development.
FINANCING
BMC Capital’s Tony Talamas arranged $4.5M for the cash-out refi of an unanchored multi-tenant strip center in Katy. The loan was particularly challenging given that the property, which was built in ’08, was only 57% occupied and approximately 70% leased at time of application. However, recent capital improvements and the sponsor’s new leasing strategy got a credit union comfortable with the deal. The permanent loan featured a five-year, fixed-rate term with a 4.75% interest rate.
THIS AND THAT
Houston’s retail leasing dropped 42% in Q3 due to limited available space, according to Colliers research. 571k SF was absorbed in Q3, about half what we absorbed in the previous quarter and almost 60% below Q3 ’14. Colliers says it’s a matter of too much of a good thing, though—the drop in volume is mostly because Houston’s retail market is 94% occupied. There’s 2.6M SF of retail space under construction, but it’s 75% pre-leased.
