The doctors intend to occupy 15,000 sf to 20,000 sf of the building and lease the balance to other medical tenants, Bill Forrest, senior adviser in Houston for Sperry Van Ness, tells GlobeSt.com. He says the seller, Pete Terpstra of Houston, is a local land investor who paid the Resolution Trust Corp. less than $300,000 in 1991 for the land in a plan to sit tight until it was the right time to sell. With the deal done, Forrest is now looking for replacement property so the seller can complete a 1031 Exchange.

The parcel received 16 offers in a 60-day marketing period due to its location in an area where there is little land to be had, Forest says. The doctors, buying as Tuscany on the Bayou Ltd., got the seller's nod because they had the ability to close quickly and had a solid use planned for the land, he says. Offers also came in from apartment and office developers, but Forrest says their plans were more speculative.

"This property was attractive to the buyer because of its prime location in a fast-growing area of Houston," Forrest says. The parcel, with feeder road frontage, is located in the affluent Memorial Drive area. Cliff Brock with Realty Associates in Houston represented the buyers in the sale.