Category: News & Market Reports

Austin is Still Seeing Pandemic-Era Vacancies Downtown — Why That May Change This Summer

Posted on by Sarah

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The pandemic’s economic impact translated to closed-up storefronts in a usually thriving downtown area. The Downtown Austin Alliance compiled data showing just how much downtown businesses suffered. ‘State of Downtown’ report gives a glimpse of how Austin businesses struggled during a pandemic. The alliance said as of February, about 20-25% of downtown storefront businesses are seemingly empty. “88 storefronts have reportedly closed, and another 96 storefront businesses we’re unsure about,” said Jenell Moffett, Downtown Austin Alliance Director of Research and Analysis, during Wednesday’s report presentation. Visits to the office also dropped dramatically during the pandemic. “Downtown office visits dropped by almost 90% in April. As restrictions changed, we’ve seen an uptick of employees returning… however, we’re still well below pre-pandemic levels,” Moffett said. Employers also put discussions on pause about what work would look like post-pandemic and vacancies nearly doubled throughout 2020. “Many were hesitant to lock down terms for office space. Subsequently, vacancy rates increased as well,” Moffett said. But empty storefronts don’t necessarily reflect the future of downtown, which the alliance said is poised for a rebound. John Gump, Austin executive vice president of CBRE, a global commercial real estate company, said the demand for office space right now is about the same as what it was before the pandemic. “It feels like we’re back full steam ahead,” Gump said. He said they’re tracking more than 2 million square feet of demand — tenants who are actively either looking for a new space or to move from an existing space. Click to read more at www.kxan.com.

Mintwood Real Estate Debuts First Ground-Up Residential Development

Posted on by Sarah

It’s early afternoon in the Bishop Arts District on a Tuesday, and it’s easy to see the lure of the North Oak Cliff neighborhood. Parking along North Bishop Avenue is tight as locals wander into shops and fill benches outside of eateries. I meet developers Katy Slade and Nick Venghaus outside of La Reunion, where we order a few glasses of water and iced coffee. The two long-time industry leaders ventured out about two years ago to launch Mintwood Real Estate and, along the way, have put in some groundwork for future projects and helped turn two vacant office floors in Santander Tower into a chic hotel called The Guild. Today, we were there to talk about their first ground-up project. Katy and Nick were both previously at Gables Residential for a little over a decade. She was on the development team, and he was running construction. They did a lot of really cool mixed-use deals, including the Gables McKinney Ave. The duo makes for the perfect partnership as Nick has a great capacity to understand complicated construction projects, and Katy excels at researching and understanding the needs of the market to build innovative projects. It all ties into how they could build 55 units on the site of a former 10 unit apartment building on Melba Street. Click to read more at www.dmagazine.com.

Welcome Group Expands Outside of Texas With Two Acquisitions in Georgia

Posted on by Sarah

HOUSTON, Texas — April 22, 2021 Welcome Group, LLC has turned the old adage to “go west young man” on its head by heading east to acquire two commercial properties in Georgia. These two acquisitions mark Houston-based Welcome Group’s first purchases outside the state of Texas. In recent weeks, the Welcome Group closed on the purchases of The Shaw-Almex facility in Decatur, GA. This is a single-tenant industrial/office building that was built in 1984 and expanded upon in 1996. The property totals approximately 135,000 square feet on nearly 15 acres. Welcome Group purchased the 100%-leased Shaw-Almex property for a price of $8,900,000 ($65.66/SF). The Torsion Group facility in Tucker, GA. This is a single-tenant industrial/office building totaling approximately 49,700 square feet on 3.5 acres. The building is an industrial/office masonry facility with concrete tilt-up perimeter panels that was built in 1989. The purchase price was $3,900,000 ($78.49/SF). The property has five+ years remaining on a ten-year lease to Torsion Group Corp. With these acquisitions, the Welcome Group now has more than 5.7 million square feet of industrial and office space within its commercial real estate portfolio. “These first two out-of-state acquisitions mark an important milestone for our company,” said Welcome Wilson, Jr., President, and CEO of Welcome Group. “We believe the greater Atlanta area offers tremendous potential for growth. We’re also excited about the opportunity to further our expansion across the Southeast and move ever closer to our goal of acquiring 6 million square feet of commercial space by the end of 2021.” Welcome Group made nine additional acquisitions in 2020, comprising approximately 840,000 square feet of industrial warehouse and office space. This included the purchase of 23 acres for future development within Cedar Port Industrial Park in Baytown, TX, one of the largest industrial business parks in the United States. In early 2020, Welcome Group purchased 14.89 acres of raw land to develop a 66,151 square foot facility for JDR Cable Systems’ new U.S. Headquarters in Tomball, TX. The global subsea cable supplier and servicer company’s new headquarters will bring additional jobs to the local area. This recently developed project has just been completed; the Grand Opening will be held at the new facility, May 7th, 2021. Welcome Group continues to seek additional acquisition and development opportunities across the Southeastern United States. Ted Kakambouras is the Acquisitions Director of Southeast Region and can be contacted at tkakambouras@welcomegroup.com. “We are continuing to expand our footprint across the U.S. and are always interested in attractive new acquisition opportunities,” said Welcome. Click to read more at www.welcomegroup.com.

Diamond in the Industrial Rough: The One-of-a-Kind Offering Hidden Along the Texas Border

Posted on by Sarah

When you boil down real estate, it really just comes down to three factors: demand, supply, and location. The TexAmericas Center in Texarkana can claim two of those and this summer, when its new 150,000-square-foot spec building is complete, it will hit the trifecta.
Location
Texarkana, which is nestled at the cross-section of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, is an often-overlooked distributor’s dream. Nearly 54 million people live within 500 miles, almost 10 million more than are reachable from the Dallas market. “If your goal is to access a large market, we’re a better fit because we are closer to the population center, as well as the geographic center, of the United States,” says Eric Voyles, Executive Vice President and Chief Economic Development Officer at TexAmericas Center. “Plus, you get to stay in Texas if you operate from here.” TexAmericas Center is a special purpose district of the State of Texas with the mission of redeveloping former military property in Bowie County, including portions of the Red River Army Depot, with the purpose of creating quality jobs for the region “We act as a not-for-profit industrial development and management company,” Voyles explains. Created by the Texas Legislature in 1997 and fully operational by 2000, the organization just marked its 20th year of operation. “What Texarkana needed was product,” says Voyles. “This city is in a great location. It has an available workforce. Our taxes, labor, and utility rates are all well below the rest of the state.” Demand TexAmericas Center delivered that product, becoming a high-quality, value-driven solution for the industrial real estate market. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.

One Bright Spot in the Houston Office Market? Medical Leasing

Posted on by Sarah

The Houston metro area has a long way to go until its office market fully recovers. Houston led the nation in overall office vacancies at the new year at a staggering rate of 24%, but there is one bright spot in the market: medical leasing. It’s perhaps no surprise that there’s increased demand and growth in the healthcare and medical field across the nation during the pandemic, and the trend is likely to continue in the coming years. While traditional corporate offices sent their workers home throughout the worst months of the pandemic, medical businesses maintained a presence in the workplace as an essential service.

According to recent numbers from brokerage NAI Partners, a number of key metrics in the medical market in Houston reveal some optimistic signs. First, and perhaps most important, is the overall vacancy level of 16.8% from this past February was slightly lower than 17% from the same period a year prior. Additionally, gross average asking rent has increased slightly from $25.02 per square foot in February 2020 to $25.86 this last February.

However, there’s still a lot of space to fill and even more on the way. Overall medical office available increased from 18.5% to 21.1% year-over-year, and net absorption is way down, from nearly 157,000 square feet to -65,278 over the last year. There were no new deliveries to the market in February, but there remains nearly 864,000 square feet of office space currently under construction.


Leases of note mentioned in the report include a deal for a 35,000-square-foot space in the Bissonnet Medical Plaza in suburban Bellaire, a 20,000-square-foot lease at the Texas Medical Center near downtown Houston, and a 14,000-square-foot deal at the River Oaks Medical Center in Greenway Plaza.

“As Hot as We’ve Ever Seen It:” Texas Experts Pinpoint the State’s Industrial Hot Spots

Posted on by Sarah

At this time in 2020, it was hard to imagine that the industrial market could get much better. It was arguably already the strongest of the sectors when the pandemic hit. And while shutdowns had a devastating impact on other real estate markets, industrial only gained steam. “The Dallas industrial market is as hot as we have ever seen it,” says Josh Barnes, Senior Vice President of Holt Lunsford Commercial (HLC). “Tenant demand has continued to provide +/- 20M Square Feet of net absorption, which has allowed the development pipeline to remain strong.” The Metroplex was at or near the top of just about every nationwide industrial ranking a year ago thanks to its key position as a logistics hub. “Companies located here can access numerous markets in the United States, not to mention Texas itself. That’s 29 million people alone,” says Bill Baumgardner, Executive Vice President of VanTrust. “Dallas is the hub to all that.” The pandemic accelerated consumer buying habits, increasing e-commerce business and, in turn, the need for distribution sites. “All these consumer product companies are now focused heavily on what their e-commerce strategy is and how they get their goods to your home as quickly as possible,” Baumgardner says. “Couple that with the sustained population growth and job growth, that’s a great recipe for a solid industrial market,” adds Barnes.
Another side effect of the pandemic that has benefited the industrial sector: layoffs in other areas have helped remedy a long-standing labor shortage. “With traditional retail and hospitality taking their lumps during the pandemic, we’ve seen a migration of those workers into the industrial distribution sector,” says Baumgardner. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.