Scott Bryant with Live Oak Capital Ltd. in Houston arranged a one-year, interest-only loan with Hibernia Bank, formerly Coastal Banc of Birmingham. The floating-rate loan kicked in at sub-4.5%. The package is embedded with an option to convert to a two-year, fixed-rate, interest-only loan after the one-year term expires, he explains.

Buchalter started developing in South Texas late last year. To date, he's completed eight of 10 stores in the first wave and now he's ramped up a second phase of both out-parcel development and well-located stand-alone tracts. Bryant says it takes about $500,000 to build each store, averaging 9,100 sf and most often positioned on a one-acre tract. The plan includes a couple 8,300-sf stores so the second development wave's build-out could rise to 11.

The closing date is fast approaching for the first location in the second phase: Harlingen in the Rio Grande Valley. Bryant says the developer's plan, though, stretches from Magnolia, north of Houston, to Brownsville at the state's southernmost tip. Buchalter's roster includes Texas City, Missouri City, Kingsville, Raymondsville, Mission, Pharr, Boerne, Los Fresnos, Flatonia and Hitchcock.