While industrial construction starts have dropped sharply this year, Junction Commercial Real Estate isn’t tapping the brakes. The firm will soon break ground on Pasadena Logistics Center, a 140K SF industrial distribution project. The project helps meet the need of getting products from warehouses to doorsteps, Junction founder Reed Vestal shared exclusively with Bisnow. Read more here. The Best Of Bisnow A long-term Dallas land use plan cleared a major hurdle but is likely to continue being dogged by controversy. The Dallas Plan Committee advanced ForwardDallas 2.0 to the full city council, but the blueprint for future development has attracted the ire of residents, wary that calls for greater density could mean the end of single-family neighborhoods.
The timing is right for Houston-based Cornerstone Capital Bank to venture into CRE capital markets. Executives waited patiently for cap rates and property values to settle to an acceptable rate, and now they are moving into the real estate market for the first time and say they are open to any asset class.
Medistar Corp. is facing a double whammy on its properties in and near Texas Medical Center. Medistar tried to sell a TMC-area property it owned with a subsidiary of Beijing Construction Engineering Group. But the latter sued the Houston-based developer, alleging a deal gone bad. Meanwhile, Medistar defaulted on $135.8M worth of financing for its student housing development in TMC, and the lender filed paperwork to sell the property at the next Harris County foreclosure auction.
Fort Worth’s downtown retail vacancy rate is more than five times higher than the metro as a whole. A new canvass of Fort Worth storefronts indicates nearly 1 in 4 storefronts are vacant, with empty spaces concentrated in the northwest corner of the 104-block area. New work patterns are the likely culprit.
Transwestern shuttered Delta Associates, a 44-year-old CRE research firm. Houston-based Transwestern closed the research firm that it purchased in 1995. Transwestern said the move is part of a broader realignment and optimization strategy. The Best Of The Rest The Lone Star State’s Status As America’s Most Business-Friendly Is Taking More Hits (Financial Times) Bisnow readers have known for some time that Texas is losing some of its housing affordability cachet. Now, a new report on the so-called Texas Miracle outlines more cracks in its once-formidable corporate appeal thanks to divisive politics, higher costs and strained infrastructure.
CenterPoint Wants Houstonians To Pay For Its Storm Damage Repairs (Bloomberg): Despite millions being left in the dark for up to two weeks, CenterPoint plans to sell bonds to cover about $1.8B worth of storm damage, which would raise customer utility bills by 2%. Meanwhile, CenterPoint’s second-quarter profit rose 31% from the previous year.
Panther Island Plans Pounce Ahead (DBJ): It’s been a long road for Fort Worth officials’ plans to turn a former mecca of heavy industry into a developer’s dream. But infrastructure stars are beginning to align — and federal dollars are rolling in — for the 500-acre site within cat-swinging distance from Downtown Fort Worth.
All Musk's Xes To Live In Texas? (ABJ): With Austin marking the spot for X, the billionaire owner of the platform once known as Twitter is in search of new digs for employees set to move from its former home base in San Francisco. Musk announced he would move the company earlier this month and is reportedly seeking at least 100K SF to house 600 employees.
Texas Buildings Nab Financing From Israeli Lender (ConnectCRE): Westdale Properties America has secured a $115M senior loan for office properties in Dallas and San Antonio as well as for a multifamily complex in Irving. Reznik Paz Nevo Trusts provided the five-year, fixed-rate financing.
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