This Week's Houston Deal Sheet

Essentia Advisors leased 5K SF in Three Allen Center. The deal highlights a strange feature of the Downtown sublease market.

Essentia had been in temporary office space and was seeking sublease space in the central business district, said Savills Studley’s Bryant Lach, who represented the tenant.

“While there is approximately two million square feet of sublease space actively being marketed, the majority are full floors ranging from 20,000–28,000 square feet and dividing to accommodate smaller tenants is not necessarily practical or cost effective for the sublessor,” Lach said in a statement.

Essentia landed in a white-boxed space designed by Inventure Design. It has an open plan and is focused on how and where employees work on a daily basis and what would support recruiting.

JLL’s Jessica Ochoa, John Pruitt and Bubba Harkins represented the landlord, Brookfield.

EXECS

Brian Ellestad joined Dally + Associates as project executive. He has 21 years of experience in structural engineering.

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Trustmark’s Amy Walp was promoted to senior vice president. She has 14 years of banking experience.

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Mark Witcher joined CBRE as senior vice president in its national retail investment group. He will represent institutional investors, owners and developers in Texas retail investment sales. Witcher, joining CBRE from Weingarten, has 25 years of experience and has overseen hundreds of sale transactions totaling $2.75B.

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Thomas Wanko joined TEXdot Property Management as partner and field operations manager. He will assist in construction build-out for commercial properties and full rehabilitations for single-family homes and is a private lender.

SALES

Rising Sale Westlake, an entity of VKC Group, purchased Westlake Shopping Center in an off-market deal. The 71K SF property is on 6.5 acres at the intersection of Fry and Saums roads in West Houston and is 95% leased, including anchor 24 Hour Fitness. NewQuest’s Brad Elmore represented the seller, a partnership led by NewQuest Properties called A-S 80 Westlake-Retail Shops.

It is the first disposition of an anchored retail project by NewQuest in seven years and the unexpected offer came at a good time, Elmore said, as NewQuest was looking to prune its portfolio. NewQuest has been leasing part of the parking lot to food trucks to capitalize on that dining craze.

CBRE’s Matt Berry and Robbie Kilcrease represented the buyer in what is the first major acquisition for VKC Group’s Sam and Ricky Agrawal. NewQuest’s Ryan Kelsall will continue to lease the center, and NewQuest will maintain property management.

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An undisclosed buyer purchased Peacock Plaza Apartments, a 32-unit apartment property at 1414 Austin St. in Houston. Marcus & Millichap’s Juan Cuevas represented the seller and listed the asset at $2.25M.

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An affiliate of United Equities purchased a 90K SF manufacturing facility at 6100 Cunningham Road in Houston in a sale-leaseback with KMEC. NAI Partners’ Travis Land and Michael Keegan handled the deal.

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Quasar GP purchased a 113K SF industrial building at 13827 West Hardy Road in Houston. Lee & Associates’ Mike Spears and Robert McGee represented the seller and NAI Partners’ Clay Pritchett represented the buyer.

LEASES

Tune Up Manly Salon leased 1,883 SF at the Shops at Woodcreek in Katy. Rubicon Realty Group’s Inna Gallagher represented the landlord in-house.

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Decadent Coffee & Dessert Bar leased 1,300 SF at the Crossing at Telfair in Sugar Land. The property is a mixed-use development with hotels, office and retail. Rubicon Realty Group currently has over 45K SF of retail under construction and scheduled for fall 2019 delivery.

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Atlas Bolt and Screw leased 22,500 SF at Bammel Business Park, 4822 North Sam Houston Parkway. Stream’s Blake Warren and Jeremy Lumbreras represented the landlord, Exeter Property Group, and JLL’s Kevin Erck and John Talhelm represented the tenant.

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Gateway Printing and Office Supply leased 16K SF in Northwest Industrial Center. Stream’s Matteson Hamilton and Jeremy Lumbreras represented landlord Black Creek Group, and Colliers’ Corbin Janssen represented the tenant.

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BCFS Health and Human Services leased 23K SF at 16001 Park Ten Place. Stream’s Josh Morrow represented the tenant, and Stream’s Julie Kleberg and Brad Fricks represented the landlord, Gearing Capital Partners.

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Stream’s Brad Fricks and Ryan Bishop represented landlord Sun Life Assurance of Canada in two leases to bring an office building at 10713 West Sam Houston Parkway N to 91% leased.

• Acclara Solutions Intermediate leased 83K SF at Remington III. Cushman & Wakefield’s Tim Relyea and David Guion represented the tenant.

• Aerotek leased 11K SF. Cushman & Wakefield’s Jamie Smith and Lee & Associates’ Ryan Young represented the tenant.

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Cameron International Corp. leased 11K SF at the Ashford 7 building at 900 Threadneedle in Houston. Moody Rambin’s Bob Cromwell and Kevin Nolan represented landlord BRI 1851 Ashford LLC. Newmark Knight Frank’s Derek Myers represented the tenant.

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Walters, Balido & Crain renewed and expanded its lease to 9,439 SF at the Woodlake Park Office building at 2500 Tanglewilde St. in Houston. Moody Rambin’s Terri Torregrossa represented the building owner, Woodlake (Texas) Properties.

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CrossCountry Mortgage leased 3,623 SF at 1939 West Gray in River Oaks. Weingarten’s Patrick Manchi and Avison Young’s Scott Fikes represented landlord Weingarten. Berkshire Hathaway Homes Services Anderson Properties-Commercial Division’s Thai Klam represented the tenant.

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F45 Fitness is opening a 2,593 SF location at 2230 Lone Star Drive in Sugar Land Town Square. Planned Community Developers’ Jennifer Fogle represented the landlord in-house, and Streetwise Retail Advisors’ Sage Klement represented the tenant.

DEVELOPMENT

A Courtyard by Marriott broke ground in Generation Park’s Redemption Square. Hotel Development Services is developing the five-story, 144-room hotel with 2K SF of meeting space, a 24-hour market and 24 rooms with balconies overlooking the plaza. It is Hotel Development Services’ first hotel in Texas and the largest in its portfolio; it purchased the 1-acre site and is partnering with American Hospitality Management to oversee the project. The property is being integrated into the pedestrian promenade of Redemption Square. Generation Park is being developed by McCord Development.

FINANCING

JLL’s Jimmy Board and Connor Harrell secured $7.15M in refinancing for The Shops at Spring Village. The fully leased center is owned by Capital Retail Properties. Goldman Sachs provided the fixed-rate nonrecourse loan. It was built in 2017 at the southeast corner of Spring Stuebner and Holzwarth roads, just south of the Grand Parkway and Springwoods Village in Spring.

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Younan Properties refinanced three Houston properties totaling 440K SF — the North Belt portfolio composed of Greenbriar Place, Bridgewood I and Bridgewood II. The new loan is with Money360 and de-leveraged the portfolio by 15% while giving Younan several million dollars in reserves for future tenant improvements and commissions. Churchill Commercial Capital’s Richard Perry placed the three-year, fixed-rate loan.

THIS AND THAT

Eleven high school students received a total of $15K in college tuition scholarships and $9,900 in UH Summer Discovery Program Scholarships for winning the 2018 Michael G. Meyers Student Design Competition, led by the American Institute of Architects Houston chapter and Architecture Center Houston. This year’s competition, which asked students to design a theater on the site of Jones Plaza, received submissions from over 150 students from 11 high schools.