This Week's Houston Deal Sheet: Texas Tower Adds Almost 100K SF In Leases

Clifford Chance and Morgan Stanley have signed leases totaling nearly 100K SF at Texas Tower, according to co-developers Hines and Ivanhoé Cambridge.

Law firm Clifford Chance is set to expand in the building and will occupy 60K SF across two entire floors. The firm grew its U.S. presence with the opening of its Houston office earlier this year within The Square at Texas Tower, Hines’ flexible workspace platform. The firm transitioned to two fully equipped spec suites to accommodate its growing team.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has leased 38K SF. 

Texas Tower now stands at 80% leased.

Hines and Ivanhoé Cambridge also announced the 47-story, 1M SF, trophy Downtown Houston office tower had achieved Platinum status across LEED, WELL, SmartScore and WiredScore certifications. 

Clifford Chance was represented by Chad Beck with Cushman & Wakefield in lease negotiations and Morgan Stanley was represented by John Burke with JLL. Michael Anderson with Cushman & Wakefield represented Hines and Ivanhoé Cambridge.

PEOPLE

Heather Edukugho joined the Houston office of Texas-based, retail-focused firm Weitzman as a property manager for a portfolio of Houston-area retail centers.

Edukugho, who entered the property management field in 2016, previously worked with Hartman Income REIT, where she managed mixed-use and other commercial real estate assets.

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Triten Real Estate Partners, a Texas-based commercial real estate investment, development and operating firm, hired Larry Sloan as chief development officer, effective Nov. 27.

Sloan will oversee all development efforts nationally, including traditional industrial and industrial outdoor storage development, as well as multifamily and mixed-use platform expansions. With more than 25 years of industry experience, Sloan has completed over $3B in real estate ground-up development, acquisitions and joint venture transactions.

LEASES

KidsTale Playgrounds leased 163K SF at Fairbanks Northwest Distribution Center, 7810 Fairbanks North Houston Road, from developer Triten Real Estate Partners. 

Cushman & Wakefield’s Allison Bergmann and Jim Foreman represented Triten, while Brett Lewis of Lee & Associates represented KidsTale.

Triten completed Fairbanks Northwest Distribution Center, a two-building warehouse distribution center, in August, and KidsTale will occupy the entire north building. Building 1 next door totals 195K SF and remains available. Both buildings feature 32-foot clear heights, speculative office components, four drive-in ramps each and 180-foot truck courts with heavy trailer parking. 

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Transwestern Real Estate Services negotiated a 25K SF lease at Old Town Spring Business Park on behalf of H2O Innovation, a large water solutions company based in Quebec City. Transwestern’s Nathan Donahue represented H2O Innovation in negotiations at 27335 West Hardy Road in Spring. 

The water technology company is relocating and consolidating from its current locations at 2200 Sciaaca Road and 12337 Jones Road. Additionally, H2O Innovation will utilize an adjacent 1.5-acre laydown yard to support its service vehicle operations. The company will relocate this month.

The landlord was represented by Todd Jurek of Keen Realty Group. Old Town Spring Business Park is a newly developed flex industrial park consisting of four 49K SF office/warehouse units in the North Hardy Toll Road submarket.

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CBRE announced a 344K SF lease at Pederson Logistics Center in Katy to Johnson Health Tech, a multinational fitness and wellness company that manufactures and sells exercise equipment. 

Jacob Westfall with CBRE in Atlanta and Boomer White with CBRE in Houston represented Johnson Health Tech in the transaction. The landlord, Triten Real Estate Partners, was represented by CBRE’s Jason Dillee and Nathan Wynne.

Johnson Health Tech, headquartered in Taiwan and Wisconsin, plans to bring new jobs to the area with the new distribution facility located at 574 Pederson Road. This will be the first distribution facility in the Houston area for the company. 

SALES

Cushman & Wakefield represented Liberty Development Partners in selling 55 acres at Gulf Inland Logistics Park to OmniSource for a new metals recycling facility. Cushman & Wakefield’s John Littman, Kelley Parker and Coe Parker represented Liberty Development Partners. Michael Keegan and Andrew Laycock of Partners Real Estate represented OmniSource. 

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Marcus & Millichap announced the sale of Bellfort Plaza, a 16K SF retail property at 10310 West Bellfort St. in Houston.

James H. Bell, Watt Harrison and Luke Stavinoha of Marcus & Millichap’s Houston office had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, an undisclosed limited liability company. 

CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

Robert A.M. Stern Architects was selected by Howard Hughes to design The Ritz-Carlton Residences, The Woodlands. Robert A.M. Stern Architects will oversee the project’s exterior architecture and the interior architecture of the 111 private residences at the project, the first freestanding Ritz-Carlton branded residences in Texas.

FINANCING

Eastern Union arranged a $17.5M loan for the acquisition of The Lakes at Madera apartments, a 392-unit multifamily complex at 305 West Baker Road in Baytown.

Built in 1983, the property has 22 two-story buildings on a 20-acre parcel. It has 242 one-bedroom units, 120 two-bedroom units and 30 three-bedroom units, with an average unit size of 734 SF. The Lakes at Madera is 92% occupied.

The financing, provided through Arbor Realty Trust, was a loan assumption with a $30.6M acquisition of the complex. The loan has a three-year term and an interest rate of 4.26%. In addition to securing financing, Eastern Union helped the borrower find property insurance and negotiate terms between buyer and seller.

The name of the borrower was not disclosed.

The mortgage was secured by Eastern Union’s Yoel Goldberg, Michael Muller, Alex Jaffa and Mikael Rechdiener.

THIS & THAT

Common Desk, a flex office and coworking provider based in Dallas, expanded its footprint at The Ion by 28K SF. 

Opened in August 2021, Common Desk - The Ion was the coworking company’s third location in the Houston market, occupying the entire second floor of the Ion building at 58K SF. The expansion agreement brings Common Desk’s total footprint at the property to 86K SF and commits it to 10 years of additional space on the fourth floor.