Retail asset on the San Antonio River Walk trades to Fifth Corner

JLL Capital Markets has closed the sale of South Bank, a 46,704-square-foot, high-performing retail asset located on the world-renowned San Antonio River Walk, the top tourism attraction in Texas.

JLL marketed the property on behalf of the seller, and Fifth Corner acquired the asset. Fifth Corner’s predecessor, AMREIT, formerly owned this property from 2005 to 2015.

This trade is significant as only one River Walk retail asset transaction has occurred over the last five years, and only six individual retail assets have traded since 2005.

Featuring a strong mix of food and beverage and local and national retailers, the property caters to the over 11 million visitors to the River Walk annually.  South Bank generates total commerce of over $22 million, the center is 100% occupied and boasts an average tenant tenure of 20.1 years. Original tenants include Hard Rock Café, The County Line Bar-B-Q, Paesanos, Cowboy’s Alamo City Harley-Davidson, Ben & Jerry’s and Howl at the Moon. Recent additions include Merkaba, a live-music sister concept to Howl at the Moon, and Fat Tuesday, which has returned to its original South Bank location after 17 years.

Situated at 111 W Crockett St., South Bank is set within a highly coveted retail micro-market. The tenants have access to a San Antonio’s population of 2.6 million, as well as the approximately 37 million tourists that visit the city annually. Additionally, the location of the asset benefits from the 16,877 total hotel rooms within a five-mile radius. South Bank is also supported by incredibly strong fundamentals driven by high retailer demand and development restrictions established by the RIO-3 zoning that was implemented in 2002 to protect, preserve and enhance the San Antonio River.

The JLL Retail Capital Markets Investment Sales and Advisory team that represented the seller was led by Senior Managing Directors Chris Gerard, Ryan West and Barry Brown and Associate Erin Lazarus and Megan Babovec.

Cresa acquires Elevate Growth Partners in Austin

Cresa has acquired Elevate Growth Partners (Elevate), Austin’s premier tenant representation firm.

The firm’s staff of 12 makes the move and will immediately operate under the Cresa banner. Leading the new team will be Principals Scott Studzinski and Logan Dalgleish, while Founder Chris Skyles shifts his focus away from the firm to oversee active development projects and AnthemIQ, a proptech company started by Elevate, which is not part of the acquisition. Karra Guess will join Studzinski and Dalgleish to help lead and grow the office. 

Founded in 2018, Elevate provides tenant representation services with a focus on serving companies in the tech space. The team is comprised of entrepreneurs and industry experts with a powerful understanding of how the right space can inspire innovation and growth. Notable clients include: FloSports, F45, Buc-ee’s, Virtex, Front Gate Tickets, Silverton Partners, Hippo Insurance, Babson Diagnostic, CORT Furniture, Walmart Technologies and Nulo. 

The acquisition fortifies Cresa’s presence and capabilities in Texas. The cultural alignment allows for a seamless integration, one based upon a strategic and consultative approach to supporting only occupiers, rather than a transactional model. 

This is Cresa’s second major acquisition in Texas this year. In March the firm acquired esrp, a leading tenant representation firm based in Dallas, growing their ranks by more than 50+ advisors and staff.

Tech industry struggles another blow to weary office sector

Another challenge for the U.S. office sector? Tech companies, which for so many years remained in constant expansion mode, are finally beginning to reduce their payrolls to save money. They’re also shrinking their office footprints to slash even more costs, another blow to an already beleaguered office sector.

That is the takeaway from the December office report recently released by CommercialEdge.

It’s yet another report highlighting the struggles of the office sector since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just consider some of the numbers CommercialEdge highlights:

The average U.S. listing rate stood at $38.06 at the end of November, down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. The national office vacancy rose 110 basis points at the end of last month to hit 16.2%.

And tech company struggles are only exacerbating the office market’s woes.

Look at Meta, the company still better known to most as Facebook. Meta has already left four office buildings and is set to give up its presence at two more. And this is happening only since Meta’s third-quarter earnings call.

On the brighter side? CommercialEdge says that several tech companies have stated that their workers won’t be able to work out of the office on a full-time basis. That at least brings hope that the tech sector will remain an important contributor to office demand in the coming years.

Two key markets in the Midwest have at least held steady when it comes to office rents and vacancy rates. In Nashville, the average listing rate for office space in November was $31.20 a square foot, an increase of 2.8% from a year earlier. The office vacancy rate here actually fell 10 basis points from last November to 18%.

In Chicago, the average listing rate for office space rose to $27.89 a square foot at the end of November. That is an increase of 2.7% from the same month a year earlier. The Chicago office market’s vacancy rate stood at 19% at the end of November, up 30 basis points from a year ago.

The sluggish state of the office market hasn’t choked off development completely, though. CommercialEdge reported that 132.3 million square feet of office space was under construction as of the end of October of this year, the equivalent of 2.1% of existing stock.

CommercialEdge also reported $80.4 billion in office transactions through the first 11 months of the year. Dallas recorded more than $4 billion in office sales through the first 11 months of 2023, while Chicago saw more than $3.1 billion.

Austin, Texas, recorded more than $1.9 billion in office sales during this time, while Nashville saw more than $1.3 billion. Minneapolis-St. Paul notched more than $970 million in office sales during the first 11 months of 2022.

Colliers Mortgage Closes Fannie Mae Loan for The Edmond in Waco

Fritz Waldvogel of Colliers Mortgage’s Minneapolis office closed a Fannie Mae loan for a repeat client for the refinancing of The Edmond in Waco, Texas. The 124-unit market rate property was constructed in 1967 and includes 10 two-story garden-style buildings and two one-story maintenance/storage buildings. Community amenities include a courtyard, BBQ/picnic area, covered parking, on-site management, pool, package receiving, clothes care center, on-site maintenance, and surveillance camera system.

The loan was arranged through a partnership with Old Capital Lending and carries a 10-year term.

Fritz Waldvogel of Colliers Mortgage’s Minneapolis office closed a Fannie Mae loan for a repeat client for the refinancing of The Edmond in Waco, Texas. The 124-unit market rate property was constructed in 1967 and includes 10 two-story garden-style buildings and two one-story maintenance/storage buildings. Community amenities include a courtyard, BBQ/picnic area, covered parking, on-site management, pool, package receiving, clothes care center, on-site maintenance, and surveillance camera system.

The loan was arranged through a partnership with Old Capital Lending and carries a 10-year term.

Hines Announces Newest Industrial Venture with The Galesi Group

Hines, the global real estate investment, development, and property manager, announced that it has formed a joint venture with The Galesi Group (Galesi) to develop a Class-A industrial and logistics park at the NE corner of Harris Branch Parkway and Parmer Lane in Austin. The site encompasses 150 acres and lies between Harris Branch Parkway and SH 130 and is accessed by both Howard Lane, from the north, and Parmer Lane, from the south.

Phase I of the project is being designed by Powers Brown Architecture and will offer 315,000 square feet of Class-A industrial warehouse space across three buildings. The buildings will feature a sleek, distinctive design while also providing tenants with functional and efficient floor space, all within a controlled business park setting. The park will contain approximately 1.7 million square feet of industrial and logistics space upon full build-out. The venture is located two miles from the Samsung Austin Semiconductor plant, less than one mile from SH 130, and less than 10 miles from downtown Austin as well as the Tesla Gigafactory.

The site is in a PUD with LI Base Zoning and allows for warehouse distribution, light manufacturing, high-tech industrial, and e-commerce fulfillment center uses, among other permitted uses.

Lennar and Icon Announce Visionary 3D-Printed Homes Underway in Georgetown

GEORGETOWN, Texas, Nov. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Lennar, one of the nation’s leading homebuilders, and ICON, a construction technologies company pioneering large-scale 3D printing, announced today that construction on the largest community of 3D-printed homes is underway and reservations will begin in 2023.

Situated north of Austin in the city of Georgetown’s master-planned community of Wolf Ranch by Hillwood Communities, a Perot company, the 100-home community combines innovative robotics, software and advanced materials to create homes that are technologically advanced, environmentally sustainable and architecturally striking. Each Lennar home in Wolf Ranch is co-designed by the renowned architectural firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. Prices are anticipated to start from the mid-$400,000s.

“We are very pleased to partner with ICON and BIG in building a first-of-its-kind, printed home community that combines innovative designs with sustainable features at an affordable price,” said Stuart Miller, Executive Chairman of Lennar. “Given the housing shortage that persists across the country, it has never been more important to innovate in order to find new methods of construction that will enable greater design flexibility and greater production at affordable prices.”

Click to read more at www.prnewswire.com.