JLL Capital Markets completed the $26 million sale of University Park, a 206,657-square-foot, mixed-use building in Austin, Texas.

JLL represented the seller, Lionstone Investments, in the sale of the property to the City of Austin.

Located at 3300 N. Interstate Highway 35, University Park is just north of the University of Texas and adjacent to St. David’s Medical Center. The property is close to a variety of restaurants, retail shops and entertainment options at The Triangle, The Drag, Mueller and Manor Rd. In addition, University Park is just 2.5 miles north of downtown Austin and 1.6 miles from the burgeoning Innovation District, Austin’s emerging life sciences hub.

University Park was built in 2008 and offers eight stories of Class A office space with collaborative workplaces and views of downtown and Western Hill Country. The property was approximately 20% leased at the time of closing.

The JLL Capital Markets Investment Sales and Advisory team representing the seller was led by Managing Directors Ryan Stevens and Drew Fuller.

For the first time in 16 quarters, more retail space was vacated in the first quarter of this year than was occupied, according to JLL.

In its first quarter U.S. retail outlook, JLL reported that net absorption in the country’s retail sector fell to negative 2.7 million square feet in the first three months of 2025.

JLL also reported that announced retail closures from 2024 through early 2025 totaled more than 9,900 locations, with big names such as Party City, Big Lots and JOANN leading the way.

These closures might result in higher leasing activity, with JLL saying that they are returning millions of high-demand square feet back into the market in the second quarter of this year.

Freshly vacated space often gets leased quickly by retailers that are expanding. According to JLL, nearly one-third of the 17,248 new leases signed in the first quarter of the year sat on the market for less than five months. More than half of the new leases were signed within 10 months of the space being listed.

A good example of this can be found in the bankruptcy auction of Party City space. Nearly one-third of Party City’s 695 leases were bought by other retailers. Value stores like Five Below and Dollar Tree led this buying spree.

JLL reported that U.S. retail investment volume in the first quarter grew 13% on a year-over-year basis. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, though, retail investment volume dropped 7%.

Despite challenges, the U.S. retail market remains resilient. JLL reported that the sector’s vacancy rate stood at 4.1% in the first quarter of the year, while average market rent hit $25.51 a square foot.

A total of 44.7 million square feet of new retail space was under construction as of the end of the first quarter.

Provident Industrial announced the successful closing of Eastex 59, a planned four-building industrial park in North Houston, Texas.

Eastex 59 will be located just east of George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The site totals 740,404 square feet of industrial space, offering unit sizes ranging from 148,000 to 224,000 square feet.

The project features ample trailer storage & car parking, efficient circulation, and coveted visibility, making it highly attractive to prospective tenants.

Strategically positioned with direct access and frontage on Highway 59, Eastex 59 presents a unique opportunity for businesses seeking efficient logistics in an attractive location. The North Houston submarket consistently ranks as a top performer within the Houston MSA, with year-over-year rents, net absorption, vacancy rates, and sales volume all outperforming the overall Houston market.

Triten Real Estate Partners completed the sale of an infill industrial outdoor storage (IOS) portfolio in the Houston market.

Marketed by CBRE, the “Houston Infill IOS Portfolio” is comprised of 11 properties across 117 improved acres strategically located just east of Downtown Houston. The assets offer direct access to major freight corridors – including the Inner 610 Loop, I-10, and Hwy 90 – and critical regional infrastructure, such as the Port of Houston terminals and the UP/BNSF intermodals.

Triten acquired the portfolio in 2022 from a local family, identifying significant upside in a fragmented submarket with high barriers to entry. Triten’s strategy centered on professionalizing operations, activating tenant relationships, and repositioning sites to meet the needs of IOS users.

Investors are still sinking their dollars in U.S. industrial real estate, even with the threats of tariffs and other uncertainties facing the country’s economy.

That’s the most recent news from Colliers, which recently released its May Capital Markets report charting the performance of the main commercial real estate sectors in the United States.

And in good news for industrial real estate professionals, Colliers reported that the U.S. industrial sectors remains a favored destination for investment dollars. This isn’t overly surprising: U.S. real estate, despite its challenges, is still known as one of the safest investments. And the industrial sector, though not nearly as hot as it was during the days of the COVID pandemic, remains a solid performer.

How strong is the country’s industrial sector? Colliers reported that the U.S. industrial sector recorded $7.9 billion in sales volume in March. That’s a solid figure and is up 27% from a year ago and up 26% from February.

Other U.S. commercial sectors recorded strong performances, too.

The hospitality industry saw strong sales volume, too, recording $2 billion in sales volume in March. That is up 9% from March of 2024 and up 30% from February of this year.

The U.S. multifamily sector saw $9.2 billion in sales volume in March, up 20% on a year-over-year basis. That sales volume, though, was down 10% when compared to February.

The U.S. retail sector held steady, too, registering $4.5 billion in sales volume in March, up 30% year from the same month a year earlier. That figure was down 40%, though, from February.

The big laggard? Not surprisingly, it’s the office sector, which continues to face challenges from the work-from-home movement. According to Colliers, the U.S. office sector recorded $3.5 billion in sales volume during March. That is down 67% from the same month a year earlier and down 11% from February.

Whitestone REIT acquired the 31,832-sqaure-foot, restaurant-anchored San Clemente at Davenport retail center in Austin, Texas, which is just minutes from the Apple and Tesla campuses and situated amidst the bustling hub of the area’s several technology companies.

The San Clemente acquisition complements Whitestone’s existing Davenport Village retail center at the same intersection along Loop 360, one of Austin’s most traveled corridors, and marks the fifth neighborhood shopping center in Whitestone’s portfolio that is located in Texas’s capital city.

Whitestone plans to leverage its institutional knowledge of and strong position in the market to strengthen the performance of the asset and unlock its significant upside potential. Whitestone expects to capitalize on the center’s very strong dynamics and its own retailer relationships to position the property for long-term growth and relevance within the upscale neighborhoods it serves: Davenport Ranch, Westlake, Rob Roy and Barton Creek.

The center tenant mix includes Fresa’s, a local Mexican favorite with a welcoming atmosphere and outdoor patio that anchors the property, Iron Fitness, a state-of-the-art training and fitness facility and Greenlake Energy, an emerging energy technology company.