Category: Editorial

Stream Realty Partners Closes Eight Industrial Deals in Houston Metro

Posted on by Sarah

Stream Realty Partners’ Houston office recently brokered eight real estate leases in the Houston area. The deals were all for industrial and/or flex space. Onus Global Fulfillment Solutions expanded its lease by 89,533 square feet at Carson 249, 12202 Cutten Road in Houston. Dillon Dummit with Savills and Pablo Ng with United Heroes Realty represented the tenant. Justin Robinson and Jeremy Lumbreras with Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord, The Carson Companies. SpaceManager Closets signed a lease of 28,640 square feet at Prologis Bondesen, 10633 West Little York Road in Houston. Chase Spence with Colliers International represented the tenant. Jeremy Lumbreras and Jeff Pate represented the landlord, Prologis. TT Stone expanded and renewed its lease of 70,238 square feet at Northwest Industrial Park, 5750-5730 Campbell Road, Houston. Geoff Perrott and Jeff Venghaus with JLL represented the tenant. Boone Smith and Garret Geaccone with Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord, DRA Advisors. Designs Brokers renewed its lease of 4,660 square feet at Silber Road Business Park, 2055 Silber Road in Houston. Patrick Buckoff with RE/MAX represented the tenant. Garret Geaccone and Boone Smith with Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord, Agellan Commercial REIT. Winfull Corp signed a lease of 6,860 square feet at Corporate Park, 12613 Executive Drive in Stafford, Texas. Heath Donica with Stream Realty Partners represented the tenant. Boone Smith and Garret Geaccone with Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord, Alpha Industrial Properties. Monolithic Precision Technology renewed its lease of 10,800 square feet at Commerce Park Northwest, 8601 Jameel Road in Houston. Jeremy Lumbreras and Boone Smith represented the landlord, Link Industrial Properties. Oxford Builders signed a 6,000-square-foot lease at Commerce Park Northwest, 6001 Stonington Road, Houston. Boone Smith and William Carpenter with Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord, Link Industrial Properties. Pronto Vending renewed its lease of 17,134 square feet at Agellan Minimax, 2301-2399 Minimax Drive in Houston. George Montes with Cypressbrook Company represented the tenant. Boone Smith and Garret Geaccone represented the landlord, Agellan Commercial REIT.

Bellomy & Co. Brokers Sale of Life Storage in Haslet, Texas

Posted on by Sarah

Bellomy & Co. announced the sale of Life Storage in Haslet, Texas, approximately 16 miles from Downtown Fort Worth. The Class A property comprises 623 units and 22 parking spaces in 78,950 square feet. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Bill Bellomy and Michael Johnson of Bellomy & Co. represented 287 Willow Springs Storage, LP, the North Richland Hills, Texas-based seller. The team also procured the New York-based buyer, Angelo Gordon Real Estate, Inc.

PPP and Other SBA Loan Provisions in Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021

Posted on by Sarah

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 — which includes a $900 billion COVID-19 stimulus package that extends unemployment benefits and provides additional assistance for small businesses — was signed into law December 27, 2020. The Act also contains several key provisions regarding the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the paycheck protection program (PPP). Here is a summary:

Deductibility of PPP funded expenses: This provision overturns the IRS ruling that expenses funded with PPP loans were not deductible. Effective date is back to enactment of CARES Act.

EIDL advances: The $10,000 EIDL advance is excluded from income and no expenses are disallowed with respect to the income exclusion. In addition, EIDL advances no longer will reduce the amount of PPP loan forgiveness.

Income exclusion and expense deductions for payments made on Section 7(a) SBA loans: Section 1112 of the CARES Act provided that the SBA would pay up to six months of principal and interest on certain SBA loans. The new Act would provide, similar to PPP loans, that the principal paid by the SBA does not result in income forgiveness and no deductions are disallowed as a result of the income forgiveness.

Click to read more at www.wipfli.com.

How Parking Garage Conversions Can Help Address Overbuilding

Posted on by Sarah

Oversupply of parking for office buildings continues to be ineffective in terms of capital expenditure and material waste. I first wrote about the unrealistic parking ratios expected by the real estate brokerage community in 2018. Brokers continue to operate under the principle of protecting the tenants they represent, and CMBS lenders continue to routinely dictate parking requirements that far exceed the current or future needs of corporate office facilities. Four parking spaces per 1,000 rentable square feet of office space is an outdated standard that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of seldom or never used parking spaces. DonPowellOne of the region’s most successful developers, Granite Properties, did a formal study at its Granite Park that continues to serve as a relevant metric and clearly identifies the over-parking problem in suburban office buildings. Its study found that 2,600 parking spaces within its mixed-use complex have never been utilized. BOKA Powell estimates the order of magnitude of investment in those unused spaces equates to just under $40 million—28,000 cubic yards of concrete placed, 144,000 construction person-hours expended, and 819,000 square feet of inflexible, single-purpose concrete structure. Contrarians say that as buildings age, the class of tenants drops a notch or two, resulting in more back of house office uses (i.e., higher-density workspaces), and that is when the higher parking ratio will pay off. Click to read more at www.dmagazine.com.

Children’s Hospitals, Tech Giants and More: The Top 5 Northwest Austin Development Stories of the Past Year

Posted on by Sarah

By Iain Oldman | 8:40 AM Dec 28, 2020 CST

While sections of the local economy closed down due to the coronavirus pandemic, residential and commercial development plowed along in Northwest Austin. Looking ahead, 2021 looks to be a transformative year for Northwest Austin with massive development projects, including the Austin FC soccer stadium and the upcoming Apple 2 campus, ready to open their doors. Here are the five most read development stories from 2020.

1. Abbott executive order deems residential construction as an “essential service” across the state
Gov. Greg Abbott on March 31 issued an executive order that implements essential services protocols across the state of Texas. Read the full story here.
2. Revised Apple campus site plan in Northwest Austin includes new 6-story hotel
A revised site plan submitted earlier this year by Apple Inc. includes a new six-story hotel at the technology giant’s upcoming Northwest Austin campus. Read the full story here.
3. Northwest Austin family building first brewery in Anderson Mill
When Derek and Haley Law began initial designs on their upcoming brewery, they went in knowing they wanted the space to be as welcoming to the community as possible. Read the full story here.
4. Why did Dell Children’s Medical Center choose Northwest Austin for its newest pediatric hospital?
Click to read more at www.communityimpact.com.

Buying Time: Austin’s Retail Market Can Wait Out the Pandemic

Posted on by Sarah

Think back in time five quarters or so. At the end of 2019, brick-and-mortar retail was feeling the pinch of e-commerce. Virtually everywhere in the country, landlords struggled as storefronts went dark. Virtually everywhere, that is, but not in Austin. “We were not experiencing pre-pandemic challenges in market demand within the Austin MSA,” said Kevin Murphy, vice president on NAI Partners’ retail services team in Austin. “The increased cost of property taxes was causing downward pressure on rates. Nonetheless, development and demand remained healthy.” The key component of this unexpected performance is population growth. Between 2010 and 2019, U.S. Census figures show that Austin grew by over 177,000 residents, moving up the country’s list of most populous cities from 14th to 11th. Where the people go, so to do physical retailers, even in the age of online shopping. That was 2019; then 2020, of course, altered the trajectory of this and every other asset class. With COVID-19 leaving patrons unable or unwilling to go out to restaurants, stores, bars, bowling alleys and every other type of retail establishment, the sector took a hit. But again, Austin’s retail market proved to be slightly more resilient to the effects of the pandemic. According to NAI Partners data, the metro’s year-to-date retail occupancy rate at the end of October 2020 hovered around 95.2 percent. That’s nearly on par with the year-to-date figures from the previous October, which stood at 95.7 percent. “Austin continues to experience strong population growth numbers,” Murphy said, “with absorption of existing retail and back-filling of struggling tenants being healthy and strong.” Click to read more at www.rednews.com.