Category: News

Berkadia arranges sale of Houston value-add garden-style multifamily community

Posted on by Benton

Berkadia has arranged the sale of Edgewater Apartments, a 228-unit, Class A garden-style multifamily apartment community located in Lake Jackson, Texas, a suburb of Houston.

Senior Managing Directors Chris Curry and Todd Marix, Managing Director Jeffrey Skipworth, Managing Directors Chris Young and Joey Rippel, and Director Kyle Whitney of Berkadia Houston, along with Director Adam Sumrall, Senior Managing Director Kelly Witherspoon, Senior Directors Justin Cole and Michael Gonzalez of Berkadia Austin represented the seller, Redwood Capital Group out of Chicago. A New York-based buyer acquired the property for an undisclosed price. 

“Edgewater is consistently one of the top-performing multifamily assets in Lake Jackson with limited competition. The regional economy is anchored by a healthy and expanding petrochemical industry and will drive new housing demand and strong fundamentals,” said Curry. “Edgewater will continue to perform well and drive cash flow for the new owner.”   

Completed in 2005 and located at 514 That Way St., Edgewater consists of 19 two-story residential buildings and one one-story clubhouse on a 12-acre site. The pet-friendly, gated community offers one- and two-bedroom floor plans ranging from 742 square feet to 1,319 square feet. Individual units feature built-in desks and bookshelves, garden-style bathtubs, expansive walk-in closets and private patios and balconies. 

Community amenities include beautifully landscaped social areas, a pool, an elegant clubhouse with a business center, picnic arbor with gas grills, an enclosed pet park with agility equipment and a fully equipped 24-hour fitness center. Reserved parking, detached garages and storage units are available. 

Edgewater is located approximately 45 minutes south of Houston in Lake Jackson in Brazoria County, consistently ranked one of the best places to live in Texas, and within a short drive to two of the major petrochemical companies, Dow Chemical and BASF. Other major employers nearby include Olin, Wood, Brazos Mall and St. Luke’s Health- Brazosport Hospital. 

The New Class A Office: How to Reposition Assets to Remain Competitive in Today’s Market

Posted on by Benton

As more people return to the office, we are seeing certain pandemic era
predictions come to pass. There is a renewed focus on wellness, hybrid work
in one form or another is here to stay, outdoor space is highly valued, and
experiential work destinations are winning tenants.
The flight to quality, or more appropriately, the flight to experience, where
tenants flock to Class A assets, leaving behind outdated buildings, is a
common theme in most of our cities. Owners of Class A assets cannot rest on
their laurels: empty downtowns have deprived even marquee assets of the
kind of vibrancy that made such destinations special.
Now more than ever buildings need to earn the commute, those 40 minutes a
day on average that people gain when they work from home. People are using
that time to connect with family and improve their health, so workplaces
must respond with amenities that deliver the comforts of home, foster
wellness, increase productivity, and nurture social connection. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.

Cresa acquires Elevate Growth Partners in Austin

Posted on by Benton

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.

Sale of two Class A industrial buildings in North Fort Worth closes

Posted on by Benton

JLL Capital Markets has closed the sale of Westside 35, a two-building industrial park totaling 540,324 square feet in Fort Worth, Texas.

JLL represented the seller in the sale to CBRE Investment Management. 

The recently completed industrial park is fully leased to three tenants, Gulf Relay, Mattel Sales Corp. and Texas Corrugated Box and Packaging. Westside 35 comprises two front-load warehouses with 36-foot clear heights. Building A offers 59 dock doors, two oversized doors, a 185-foot truck court, 54 trailer parking spaces and 188 auto spaces. Building B features 50 dock-high doors, two oversized doors, a 185-foot truck court, 53 trailer parking spaces and 185 auto spaces.

Located at 2555 and 2575 Downing Drive, Westside 35 is proximate to Interstates 35 and 820, essential transportation routes for local and regional distribution. The property is 10 minutes from Downtown Fort Worth, 18 minutes from Alliance Airport, 25 minutes from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and 40 minutes from Downtown Dallas. Furthermore, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex ranks as the fourth largest metro area in the country with over 7.9 million residents. The region’s low cost of living and pro-business environment has people and corporations relocating to the area, making it the No. 1 MSA for projected population growth.

The JLL Capital Markets Industrial team representing the seller was led by Senior Managing Directors Dustin Volz and Stephen Bailey, Directors Dom Espinosa and Zach Riebe and Analysts Matthew Barge and Jake Benalloul.

Zumper’s year-end report: Interest rates, recession worries weighing down renters

Posted on by Benton

Worried consumers. That’s what Zumper’s Annual Rent Report for 2022 uncovered. The renters whom Zumper surveyed for its end-of-the-year report agreed that the U.S. economy was slipping into a recession, and they expressed little to no confidence that the economy would improve anytime soon.

The report, then, is a bit of a downbeat way to end the year. It’s not surprising, though, considering the uncertainty that comes with rising interest rates and persistent inflation.

A total of 76% of the respondents in Zumper’s year-end report said that they think the United States is in a recession. And 62% of respondents said that they weren’t confident in the country’s economy. A total of 63% said that they had recently moved because their monthly apartment rent was getting too expensive.

In a sign that more renters are struggling economically as 2022 draws to a close, 31% of respondents told Zumper that they were behind in their rent, while 36% said that they are spending more than 45% of their incomes on their monthly rent.

The country’s economic uncertainty has hit the multifamily market, that is made clear in Zumper’s report. According to Zumper, the national median one-bedroom apartment did rise in December, hitting $1,497. But rent growth has definitely leveled off, with the national median one-bedroom rent rising less than half of a percentage point in December.

The national median rents for two-bedroom apartments actually fell in December, dropping 0.1% to $1,822.

What will the future bring for the apartment market? That’s unclear. But demand for multifamily living doesn’t appear to be tapering off, largely because it is so expensive today to buy a single-family home. According to Zumper’s year-end survey, 28% of respondents said that the traditional American Dream no longer involves owning a home. And the percentage of respondents who said that now was a good time to buy a home? Just 27%. A total of 32% of survey participants said that rising interest rates have deterred them from buying a home this year.

Tech industry struggles another blow to weary office sector

Posted on by Benton

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.