Category: News & Market Reports

PS Business Parks, Inc. Announces Acquisition of Port America in Texas

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GLENDALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sep 1, 2021–PS Business Parks, Inc. (NYSE:PSB) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Port America, a 717,735 square foot multi-tenant industrial park located in Dallas, Texas, for a total purchase price of $123.0 million.

Port America consists of 15 buildings with an average customer size of 8,000 square feet and was approximately 96% occupied at closing. The park is strategically located immediately adjacent to DFW International Airport on fee simple land. The park is uniquely positioned to provide institutional quality industrial space to small- and medium-size users seeking a premium location, 26-foot clear heights, ample dock loading, and access to key freeways serving DFW Airport and the Dallas Metroplex. The park is complementary to PSB’s existing Dallas, Texas, industrial and flex portfolio totaling 3.0 million square feet.

“Port America fits perfectly with our small bay industrial investment strategy. The combination of dock-served suites averaging 8,000 square feet, fee simple land in an irreplaceable location, and our best in class local operating platform should result in strong long-term growth for our stockholders,” said Mac Chandler, President and CEO of the Company. Click to read more at www.galvnews.com.

CrowdStreet Expands Leadership with Key Executive Appointments with Deep Industry Experience

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AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — CrowdStreet, Inc. (“CrowdStreet”), the award-winning online real estate investing marketplace, today announced that it has expanded its senior leadership team with the appointment of three senior executives to help drive growth of the commercial real estate investing marketplace. New executives include Genni Combes as the Chief Financial Officer, Kristen Howell as General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer and Sheldon Chang as the Vice President of Investment & Wealth Solutions. These strategic hires bring decades of experience from real estate, investment/wealth management, private equity in alternative assets, and public equity markets.

The new hires come on the back of a noteworthy time for the company. CrowdStreet recently hit a significant industry milestone with more than $2 billion raised across more than 500 real estate deals, including single-asset projects and funds, by individual investors using the CrowdStreet Marketplace.

“These executives are exceptional additions to our talented leadership team. They bring invaluable experience in a wide variety of real estate investing and financial markets to CrowdStreet. They will be instrumental in helping take to the next level the largest and most diverse marketplace that serves as a main funding platform for sponsors and investment platform for new and established investors,” said Tore Steen, Chief Executive Officer of CrowdStreet. “We have seen tremendous growth over the past few years, even during the pandemic, as investor demand for our commercial real estate investing opportunities has increased exponentially. Our expanded team makes CrowdStreet even more strongly positioned to scale while meeting the needs of both commercial real estate professionals and investors.” Click to read more at www.finance.yahoo.com.

More Than 800 apartments et to Land in East Austin on Manor Road

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A mixed-use complex featuring more than 800 apartments is in the works along Manor Road in East Austin.

Austin-based real estate developer Cumby Group announced August 24 that it plans to build three adjacent projects comprising more than 800 apartments, along with 150,000 square feet of live-work and business space. The projects will sit on nearly 9 acres between Airport Boulevard and the Mueller development.

Work is already underway on The Emma, a five-story, art-deco-style building at 3219 Manor Rd. providing 146 apartments. Amenities will include a live-work space on the ground floor and an elevated courtyard pool. The Emma is scheduled to open next summer.

Next door at 3115 Manor Rd., Cumby Group plans to build a couple of five-story, mixed-use buildings offering a total of 450 to 500 apartments. Amenities will include live-work and business space, as well as a neighborhood spot that may include food trucks, a makers market, and a farmers market. Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2022.

The third project, at 3303 Manor Rd., tentatively will supply about 200 apartments, along with an area for food trucks. Click to read more at www.austin.culturemap.com.

2021 Mid-Year Texas Apartment & Economic Outlook

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The economic recovery continues due to increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates that have allowed the reopening of the economy. Based on the most current data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, 54.5 percent of the state’s population is fully vaccinated1. Unfortunately, after months of decline in COVID-19 cases, the number of new cases has increased because of the number of people not yet vaccinated and the emergence of the Delta variant, which has shown to be more contagious. This has increased uncertainty surrounding the end of the pandemic. Until the virus is beaten, a full recovery cannot be secured.

Growth prospects for the Texas economy have improved for 2021 because of the economy’s reopening and, to some extent, the uptick in the oil industry. The strong recovery has caused supply-chain bottlenecks, putting upward pressure on prices and raising inflation concerns. Whether inflationary pressures are transitory is uncertain because of unknowns about whether the economy is fundamentally different coming out of the pandemic and the uncharted territory of recovering from a health crisis.

It’s still not clear how different the economy will be coming out of the pandemic as some changes become permanent. It is possible that some structural forces (e.g., the traditional work environment, digital divide) that were prevalent before the pandemic will no longer hold after it ends. Because this recession was caused by a health catastrophe, the recovery path will probably be different than that of previous recessions.

Apartment Market

The apartment market was aided in 2021 by further rounds of fiscal stimulus enacted by the federal government and increasing vaccination rates. Click to read more at www.recenter.tamu.com.

VariSpace Says There is Strong Demand for its Flex Office Space in Texas

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Since opening one year ago, VariSpace Southlake has leased 200,000 square feet of space amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, VariSpace Southlake is more than 52 percent leased with 180,000 square feet of contiguous space available. Notable tenants include a well-known Fortune 50 company that occupies more than 80,000 square feet. Four tenants, including Clintsman Financial and TrailRunner International, have chosen VariSpace Southlake to be their new company headquarters.

Why Tenants Are Choosing VariSpace Southlake

TrailRunner International is a strategic communications and global public relations firm with offices in New York City and Shanghai that is headquartered at VariSpace Southlake. “We were searching for a location convenient to our clients here in DFW and easy access to the airports so we can reach those outside of Texas,” said Pat Shortridge, managing director of TrailRunner International. “This, the open look and feel, plus the excellent amenities, made VariSpace exactly the right solution for a growing global company like ours.”

Solo Stove is a leading brand and provider in the portable fire pit market opening.“We’ve experienced tremendous growth recently, which is why we are leasing temporary space while we’re expanding our current headquarters,” says John Merris, president and CEO of Solo Stove and EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2020 Southwest Award winner. “VariSpace Southlake has great amenities and flexible space that our employees enjoy, which is ideal at this time of transition.”

Clintsman Financial Planning is an independent, fee-only, comprehensive financial planning firm that caters to those wanting to create a financial plan to reach their financial goals. “Our firm’s new VariSpace Southlake headquarters was chosen for the convenience to our clients and employees. In addition, in this competitive labor market the incredible amenities the location offers gives us a competitive advantage with future attraction and retention of top talent,” said Bryan Clintsman, founder of Clintsman Financial Planning. “But in the end, it was the integrity and professionalism of the staff and management team at VariSpace that made this a great fit for our culture.”

“VariSpace is a living, breathing showroom where we give tours daily to building owners and operators looking for a better way to lease their assets,” said Jason McCann, chief executive officer and co-founder of Vari. “It is also an ideation lab for Vari to test new product ideas.”

Meeting a Unique Need

VariSpace is perfect for fast-growing companies looking for a flexible office solution. Designed to elevate the way businesses approach the office, key features include:

Move-in ready, fully furnished, turn-key office spaces.

Lease opportunities are available starting at 10,000 square feet and above.
Flexible lease terms start at three years.

Fully outfitted with Vari products. Tenants can work with the company’s professional design team to reconfigure the space as needs change.

First-class amenities create a place people want to work including an on-site café, fitness center, Wi-Fi-enabled courtyard areas and more.

“Vari has worked with tens of thousands of companies to create workspaces that attract and retain the people they need to grow their businesses, and we’re bringing that expertise to buildings and tenants to redefine the future of office space,” said McCann.

McCann and the Vari leadership team work closely with building and asset owners to help transform their spaces into flexible workspaces.

VariSpace Las Colinas, the first building, was renovated and opened in 2019. VariSpace Las Colinas was already 90 percent leased while still under construction, with tenants including a Fortune 20 company.

Opening in the Summer of 2022, VariSpace Coppell will be the company’s first Class A office space built from the ground up – and will be the new global headquarters for Vari. More than 120,000 square feet of flexible space will be available for companies to lease.

Executive Managing Directors at Cushman & Wakefield Johnny Johnson and Chris Taylor are working with Vari to assist with the leasing of all three VariSpace locations.

The Hartman Promise: Hartman Thrives in Texas’ Resilient Office Market

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Anyone who’s familiar with Al Hartman and the team at Hartman Income REIT Management, Inc. (Hartman) wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the first award handed out at the 2021 REDnews Real Estate Awards went to the commercial real estate powerhouse. Hartman accepted the award for Best Technology Pivot for its adoption of NeedlePoint Bi-Polar Ionization.

“The ionization technology is capable of destroying 99.4% of Coronaviruses within 30 minutes,” Al Hartman, CEO of Hartman, explains.

Finding and introducing this technology into its office buildings is just one example of how the company has learned, evolved and thrived amid the challenges of the past few years.

“We’re very adaptable in our approach and we’ve shown that with good resilience through this pandemic,” says Anthony Trollope, Hartman’s Director of Interactive Marketing. “We’ve come out on top.”

The company’s success dates back more than 35 years when Al Hartman first started building his commercial real estate portfolio in Texas.

“The interest level in Texas has been very strong throughout the past decade and it’s only accelerated as a result of the pandemic,” says Hartman CIO and Executive Vice President David Wheeler. “A lot of folks like Texas for many reasons: overall business climate, favorable taxes, pro-business regulatory environment, and less reliance on mass transit. Those all became real factors during the pandemic.”

Between 2018 and 2021, the Texas population has grown by more than 2 million. A huge chunk of those new residents (about 13 percent since 2010) are coming from California. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.