In talking with GlobeSt.com, Dubrowski says The Woodlands was vastly different when Lionstone first acquired and held Waterway Plaza I and II during the early 2000s. "The Woodlands has come of age in the 10 years since we've been involved there," he explains. When Lionstone acquired the office buildings in 2003 from Andarko Petroleum Co., the Woodlands Town Center, considered this Houston suburb's CBD, hadn't been built out – retail has expanded a great deal during the past decade. Furthermore, "since 2003, there's been a significant amount of residential added along the waterway," Dubrowski says.

Then there is the Big Kahuna – ExxonMobil, that is – which is in the midst of going north with its three-million-square-foot headquarters just south of The Woodlands. All of these factors "have made the demand here stronger and the rental growth much faster than what we experienced earlier," Dubrowski comments. As such, the Waterway Plaza I and II rental growth of 20% surprised even Lionstone. "We believed there would be significant growth there," Dubrowski observes. "It turned out to be twice what we anticipated."

With strong rental growth and obviously huge demand, what prompted Lionstone to buy – and sell -- the product, not just once, but twice? Dubrowski explains that, during the first go-around, the goal was to lease up the asset. When Lionstone acquired the buildings in 2003, Waterway Plaza vacancy was close to 60%, with neighboring Waterway Plaza II about 40% empty; Anadarko was pulling out to move to its own nearby headquarters. As such, Lionestone's goal was to lease up and stabilize the two buildings. Enter Huntsman LLC, which took approximately 50% of the available space through a 15-year-lease. In less than two years, Waterway Plaza I and II were stabilized, and Lionstone brought the 2001-constructed asset to market in 2005.

The goal was somewhat different with the more recent hold, however. Huntsman was firmly lin place as lead tenant and "we had about 15% to 20% pending vacancy," Dubrowski says. "We wanted to lease up that vacancy and sit down with the Huntsman Group to extend the lease." Lionstone succeeded with the lease extension – Huntsman now has 15 years in its current space. Furthermore, the remaining space was leased up quickly at very aggressive rent rates.

"There's been a run-up in rental rates, combined with aggressive capital market pricing in Houston right now," he adds. "Everyone wants to be in Houston right now. With all those things combined, it was an opportunistic time to sell."

Though Dubrowski acknowledges that the chances of buying back the asset a third time are slim, he doesn't discount it. He says, laughingly, that he's told HFF's Holliden that he'd be more than willing to get the "band back together" if the opportunity comes up.

On a more serious note, "it's a difficult time for us to buy in that submarket, as the capital markets are ahead of the real estate markets," Dubrowski observes. "We tend not to want to buy in those situations, unless it's a special asset."