| | With little government intervention in the offing, owners are mostly on their own to come up with solutions to spiraling costs, and later this week, Bisnow Houston Reporter Maddy McCarty and Los Angeles Reporter Bianca Barragán will delve into what that means. Owners are increasingly looking into self-insuring, creating “captives” — separate legal entities created within an insurance carrier that allow organizations to assume all or some portions of their own risks — or going with so-called insurers of last resort, a risky proposition that could be a “ticking time bomb” in states where other insurers are pulling out. In short, the insurance market is becoming a Wild West for owners desperate for solutions to what nearly everyone agrees is a mess. Look for our coverage on Friday. Also in this week's edition, the Lone Star State unveils ambitious plans to take on the New York Stock Exchange, the state's largest mass-timber project is ready for its closeup and a new study looks back at 2021's catastrophic grid failure and concludes it didn't have to happen that way. — Katharine Carlon, Bisnow Central U.S. Editor What's The Big Deal? | |
| | Mack McDonald has shown Houstonians his capability as a restaurateur through The Rouxpour, a New Orleans-inspired eatery with four locations throughout the metro. Now he’s embarking on a new, even more upscale concept. Mack Allen’s has one location under construction in The Woodlands, and McDonald just leased 16K SF to put the second one on the ground floor of an Uptown office tower. The lease at 5POP, formerly known as Five Post Oak Park, represents Houston’s biggest food and beverage lease of 2024. Once the restaurant opens in 2025, it is expected to attract professional office clientele and nearby high-income River Oaks residents alike. Read more here. The Best Of Bisnow - Fixer-Upper: Ownership behind Toyota Stadium in Frisco has filed a permit with the state to sink $130M into the aging facility, home to FC Dallas. The multimillion-dollar facelift would include new clubs and suites, space for the press and a new canopy system with sports lighting. The project is expected to kick off in January.
- Joining Forces: Cresa acquired a privately held, occupier-centric brokerage founded and led by two industry veterans, Anthony Fritsche and David Anderson. All 11 of Fritsche Anderson Realty Partners’ brokers will join Cresa, forming a team of 23 and creating Houston’s largest privately held commercial real estate firm focused solely on tenant representation.
- A Second Chance: A $145M senior living community headed for the Bonton neighborhood is expected to breathe new life into the formerly dilapidated site. The 268K SF project is part of Dallas Housing Authority’s larger Rhoads Terrace project, which seeks to reinvigorate a neglected area of South Dallas.
- Everything’s Bigger: The largest mass-timber office project in Texas is now ready for tenants with the debut of Phase 1 of The Offices at Southstone Yards, a 242K SF office building in Frisco. The milestone development is expected to pave the way for more large-scale mass timber projects in DFW and beyond.
- Till The Cows Come Home’: That’s how long Houston landowners are willing to wait for the price they want, even if it grinds sales to a halt. Land will only get more scarce, but the high cost of capital continues to overpower that, leading to plummeting land sales and difficulty making development deals pencil.
The Best Of The Rest - Welcome To Y’all Street: Texas is notorious for striking out on its own, and now the state wants its own Wall Street. A group backed by BlackRock and Citadel Securities plans to launch The Texas Stock Exchange, which has already raised around $120M from individuals and large investment firms, The Wall Street Journal reported. If all goes according to plan, trading will begin in 2025, with the first listing hosted in 2026.
- Power In Numbers: Texas' independent streak has also extended to its electrical grid, which is famously cut off from its neighbors to the north, east and west. Now, a new Massachusetts Institute of Technology study has found that being connected to the rest of the nation could have averted up to 80% of the blackouts due to grid failures, according to KVUE. Winter Storm Uri in 2021 was responsible for between $80B and $130B in losses due to power disruptions, physical infrastructure damage and lost economic opportunities, according to Texas’ comptroller.
- Lock Her Up: Former President Donald Trump’s plane, that is. As the Republican nominee liquidates assets to pay for his ongoing legal woes, a Dallas-based developer has stepped into the fray to scoop one of them up. Centurion American CEO Mehrdad Moayedi purchased the embattled former president’s 1997 Cessna Citation X private jet, valued at between $8.5M to $10M, The Dallas Morning News reported. Records show Moayedi is a loyal Republican donor, supporting Trump’s campaign as well as those of other prominent GOPers.
- Another Moment Of Zen: One of the nation’s best-known chains of wellness retreats has begun construction on another holistic health outpost in Texas Hill Country. Fort Worth-based Canyon Ranch, which has locations in Tucson, Arizona; Las Vegas; San Francisco and Lenox, Massachusetts, is bringing a 224K SF luxury resort to Spicewood, an hour north of Austin, The Real Deal reports. The $121M project is reportedly being led by New York-based VICI Properties and Crescent Real Estate, also of Fort Worth.
- Elite Reuse: A former Randall’s grocery store in Clear Lake is getting new life after Elite Pickleball signed a 40K SF lease for the space. This fills most of the 68.5K SF left behind when Randall’s closed about four years ago, the Houston Business Journal reports. Partners Real Estate acquired all of the almost 99K SF Bay Pointe Shopping Center in late 2021.
Quote Of The Week “Land guys are like ‘No, we want this, and we’ll wait until kingdom come’” Junction Commercial Real Estate co-founder and Managing Partner Reed Vestal on Houston-area landowners being willing to sit on property indefinitely to get their desired price. *** So how's the Tea? As we brew up next week's edition, send us your feedback, including what kind of content you'd find valuable in this newsletter. And don't forget, we love news tips. Katharine Carlon, Central U.S. Editor: katharine.carlon@bisnow.com Olivia Lueckemeyer, Dallas-Fort Worth Reporter: olivia.lueckemeyer@bisnow.com Maddy McCarty, Houston Reporter: maddy.mccarty@bisnow.com *** Get The Texas Tea free of charge. Sign up here to join our subscriber list and receive the latest and greatest Texas news in your inbox every Wednesday afternoon. | |
