Category: News & Market Reports

Houston Approves Midtown Affordable Housing Project Despite Concerns About Developer

Posted on by Sarah

A new affordable housing project for homeless individuals is moving forward in Midtown after the Houston City Council approved a $18.7 million loan agreement at its Aug. 24 meeting.

A new affordable housing project for homeless individuals is moving forward in Midtown after the Houston City Council approved a $18.7 million loan agreement at its Aug. 24 meeting.

However, some council members said they are concerned about the project’s developer, which has come under scrutiny following a string of resident complaints at another area community.

The loan funds were made possible through Hurricane Harvey Community Development Block Grants designed to help cities recover affordable housing projects that were lost during the 2017 floods. The project at 3300 Caroline St. will feature 149 apartments and shared space for supportive programs and office space. It will be built through a partnership between the nonprofit Magnificat Houses and the NHP Foundation, a New York City-based company that works to preserve affordable housing. Click to read more at www.communityimpact.com.

Centris Industrial Breaks Ground on Generation Park Industrial Site in Houston

Posted on by Sarah

Centris Industrial, Inc. (Centris), an externally managed private real estate investment trust (REIT), today announced the groundbreaking of its Generation Park development in Houston. The development will consist of two buildings, totaling 255,871 square feet and 1,026,000 square feet, which are anticipated to be completed in the Q2 and Q3 of 2023, respectively.

“The groundbreaking of the Generation Park development is a milestone for Centris, having been one of our first transactions completed alongside the formation of the REIT,” said Centris CEO Michael Podboy. “Houston has seen significant demand for industrial real estate in the last several years that continues to outpace supply. We anticipate the Houston Ship Channel expansion project to drive continued demand for Houston-based industrial and logistics real estate, and more specifically our Generation Park development, as it provides prime access to one of the nation’s busiest ports,” added Centris COO and Southwest Market Officer Joe Trinkle.

Situated just 10 minutes from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport and 15 minutes from the Port of Houston, Centris’s two-building development at Generation Park is located within one of Houston’s fastest growing zip codes. The site provides ideal highway access to five Beltway 8 interchanges and is nearby the I-45 and I-10 interchanges, offering customers premier access to the area’s major transportation network. The larger facility will feature 40-foot clear heights, cross-dock loading with 185 truck courts and more than 300 trailer parking spaces, while the smaller building will feature 32-foot clear heights and 185-foot truck courts for efficient circulation, loading and trailer parking.

Centris operates alongside CA Industrial, the dedicated industrial and logistics arm of CA Ventures. Since inception, CA Industrial has closed transactions totaling approximately $1.2 billion of project costs and has more than 10.3 million square feet of industrial space currently under development in key US markets including in Phoenix, Houston, Richmond, Dallas, Orlando, Atlanta, Savannah, Columbus, Indianapolis and Las Vegas.

OfficeMax Signs Long-term Lease at Hartman’s Cooper Street Plaza in Arlington

Posted on by Sarah

Bizmart dba OfficeMax has signed a long-term, 21,500 square foot lease renewal at 4601 Cooper Street in Arlington. Beginning August 2022, the American office supplies chain store will renew its lease in the Arlington Cooper Street Plaza retail shopping center operated by Hartman Income REIT Management, Inc., a commercial real estate operator of its portfolio and owned by its affiliate, Hartman Short Term Income Properties XX, Inc. headquartered in Houston.

OfficeMax’s 21,500-square-foot warehouse retail store serves as a co-anchor tenant with Home Depot, UPS, and Mattress Firm at the high-trafficked retail plaza. The office supplies store will renew its space in the second largest building of the retail plaza. Additionally, the new lease agreement will feature placement of monument logo signage on the northwest corner of the property facing I-20.

Hartman’s Cooper Street Plaza is a conveniently located retail center just one light south of Ronald Regan Memorial Highway. The property sees an average count of 150,000 vehicles per day while residing within three square miles of a population of 121,939. In the past three months, Cooper Street has welcomed two additional well-known tenants to its mix, Black Rifle Coffee Company and State Farm Insurance.

In the leasing transaction, Claudia Hutchinson with Realty Ventures represented OfficeMax and Richard Maloof represented Hartman, the landlord.

Sale of Newly Built Dallas-Fort Worth Industrial Park Closes

Posted on by Sarah

JLL Capital Markets announced today that it has closed the sale of Urban District 183, a three-building, 366,771-square-foot, Class-AA industrial park in Euless, Texas.

JLL marketed the property on behalf of Urban Logistics Realty (ULR).

“We could not be more excited about the successful completion and sale of Urban District 183,” said ULR Director Drew Feagin. “A huge team effort from a lot of folks that we are very grateful for. This project was 100% preleased at the time of delivery, which is a testament to the infill and irreplaceable location that we repeatedly aim to invest in.”

Urban District 183 is located near DFW Airport and one of the last remaining sites in the GSW/DFW Airport submarket. ULR worked closely with the city of Euless to rezone the former Coopers Golf Park. This new facility was built on a speculative basis and now stands as Omni’s new global headquarters for executive offices, warehousing and ecommerce fulfillment.

The property is situated off SH-183 and Industrial Boulevard at 1010 and 1000 S. Industrial Blvd. on 22.02 acres. The industrial park is centrally located between Dallas and Fort Worth and is an eight-minute drive to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Located in the GSW / DFW Airport submarket, the property benefits from the area’s strong demographics with a population of 1.2 million people within a 20-minute drive, up 40% since 2000, and $20 billion of consumer spending power within the same radius. In addition, Urban District 183 benefits from the strong labor pool with 245,000 daytime workers within a five-mile radius.

The JLL Capital Markets Investment Sales and Advisory team representing the seller was led by Senior Managing Directors Dustin Volz and Stephen Bailey, Director Dom Espinosa, Associates Wells Waller and Robby Westerfield, and Analyst Megan Babovec.

Texas Real Estate Firm Prevails Over Malpractice Claim on Appeal

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• Suit alleged breach of standard of care, gross negligence
• Jury instructions unfairly prejudiced defendant, court says

A commercial real estate firm and one of its attorneys won an appeal to reverse a jury trial’s verdict that made them liable for malpractice because they failed to timely assign someone as a responsible third party in a fraud lawsuit, a Texas appeals court ruled.

Real estate broker Henry S. Miller Commercial Co. was represented by Newsom, Terry & Newsom LLP in a lawsuit over damages from a property sale that fell through after buyer James Flaven disappeared. The company later sued the firm and attorney Steven Terry, claiming that they must pay the full $12 million in damages because Terry failed to designate Flaven as a responsible third-party until 24 days before the trial.

The case has been up to the Texas Court of Appeals, Fifth District, twice. This most recent time, the court recognized some of the language from the jury’s instruction as coming from its first opinion on this case but said it was given to the jury out of context.

The excerpt said that the attorney didn’t have to prove that fraud was committed to designate the buyer as the responsible third party, making many jurors think that the attorney’s reasoning for designating the buyer so late in the case was flawed, the appeals court said Wednesday. Click to read more at www.bloomberglaw.com.

Big Deal in the Midwest: Northmarq Purchases Stan Johnson Company

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In a major deal in the Midwest commercial real estate industry, Minneapolis-based Northmarq will purchase Stan Johnson Company, a real estate brokerage and advisory firm that focuses on investment sales across multiple asset classes.

Northmarq’s acquisition will also include affiliate debt services company Four Pillars Capital Markets.

“This is an important milestone for our growing platform, as our company now has investment sales professionals across the country that can service investors across all major asset classes,” said Jeffrey Weidell, chief executive officer of Northmarq in a statement.

“Adding this talented group of real estate professionals further establishes Northmarq as a full-service investment sales and capital markets platform,” Weidell said.

With the acquisition, Northmarq will have nearly 1,000 commercial real estate professionals working across its investment sales, debt/equity financing, loan servicing and fund management operations.

Founded in 1985, Stan Johnson Company has expanded from a Midwest-based CRE company to a full-service investment sales company. It specializes in net lease investment sales and other areas including multi-tenant retail, office, industrial, self-storage and healthcare sales.

Stan Johnson Company has more than 100 brokerage professionals across 16 offices in the 10 states of Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Texas.

During its 40 years, Stan Johnson Company has closed nearly 7,500 transactions exceeding $45 billion in sales volume.

“Our vision has been to build a very special, diversified real estate company with a singular focus on providing the highest level of service to our valued clients,” said Stan Johnson, founder and chief executive officer of Stan Johnson Company, in a statement. “Our professionals will be able to offer our clients greater investment opportunities, advice and product offerings by leveraging the size, scale and established expertise of the Northmarq brand.”

Since the Pohlad Family purchased the company in 1999, Northmarq has grown steadily through a series of acquisitions. In early 2000, the company added 25 offices and 200 employees and has continued to expand through frequent acquisitions of both regional teams and national companies.

The integration of Stan Johnson Company’s brokerage services into Northmarq is the culmination of the company’s move into investment sales, which began in 2018 with just six offices focused on multifamily properties. Prior to the Stan Johnson Company acquisition, Northmarq grew to 22 investment sales offices in 13 states.