Amir Moazami of Wes Walters Realty Inc. tells GlobeSt.com that a second closing will take place in the coming weeks for a property on Houston's north side. Wes Walters is the point man for the investment group, which wheels and deals primarily with 1031 Exchange capital. Last year, the group cracked the Dallas/Fort Worth market and this year it's Houston.

Riceland Pavilion is located at 4615 Garth Rd. in Baytown's primary commercial corridor, says Chris Winters with the Houston office of Colliers International. The four-building complex is anchored by a 25,000-sf Office Depot and has a roster that includes Factory 2U, Blockbuster Video and Washington Mutual, all nestled in a neighborhood with such heavy hitters as Wal-Mart Supercenter, Home Depot and Target.

Winters handled negotiations for the seller, Baytown Village Center Ltd., a Houston investment partnership that developed the property in 1999. The 93%-occupied center, positioned on 15.8 acres, was on the market about a year for $7.7 million. The abutting land was being marketed at slightly more than $1 million. Moazami says Wes Walters paid $8 million for both assets and immediately returned the empty tract to the market. "We wouldn't have gotten as sweet of a deal if we hadn't included the tract," he says of a trade with a 9.5% to 10% capitalization rate.