Economic momentum remains in place as tight labor markets contribute to steady growth. Driven by consistent job gains and the lowest unemployment rate since the early 2000s, retail sales remain on an upward trajectory. The steady recovery in the labor market has been dominated by advancement in office-using sectors, which combined for more than 734,000 new jobs over the last year, representing the strongest overall sector in the economy, according to a recent report by Marcus & Millichap. Indeed, the market is firing on all cylinders, with all property types getting near-equal attention.—Lisa Brown

NEWS AND NOTABLES

DALLAS—​Sean Goff has been appointed the leader of the CBRE Americas Local Project Management business. Goff most recently led this business in the Texas and Oklahoma Division and Latin America.

DALLAS—​Mike Smith has joined Venture Commercial Real Estate as a vice president. He will focus on landlord representation and investment sales, representing clients across the North Texas region.

DALLAS—Andrea Wehler has been appointed Transwestern creative director to oversee all marketing and communications initiatives in the firm's North Texas operations. In this role, she is responsible for overall creative strategy, business development, brand management, media relations and internal communications.

HOUSTON—Transwestern has appointed Josh Richards as director of sustainability for the firm's asset services group to continue the firm's sustainability efforts. Richards will be responsible for measuring the progress of Transwestern's managed portfolio, which exceeds 225 million square feet nationally, against the firm's sustainability strategies, objectives and performance targets.

DEAL TRACKER

AUSTIN, TX—Oakpointe purchased Lake Pointe II, a 44,000-square-foot office property located at 11612 Bee Caves Rd. Patrick Ley, Matt Fain and Haley Smith with ECR represented the seller.

AUSTIN, TX—Art Sansome leased 448 rentable square feet of office space at the Hills Office Park, located at 4611 Bee Caves Rd. The landlord was represented by Patrick Ley and Haley Smith with ECR.

AUSTIN, TX—Dr. Sunita Swamy leased 1,573 rentable square feet of medical office space at The Jefferson Building at 1600 W 38th St. The tenant was represented by Steve Pannes with ECR and the landlord was represented by Deborah Maldonado with Healthcare Realty.

DENTON, TX—Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP announces the sale of and acquisition financing for ESAB North American Center, a fully leased 422,819-square-foot triple-net-leased industrial facility located in this North Dallas suburb. The HFF team marketed the property on behalf of the seller, Mohr Capital. New Mountain Net Lease Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of New Mountain Finance Corporation, a publicly traded business development company, purchased the property free and clear of existing debt. Additionally, working on behalf of the new owner, the HFF team placed the five-year fixed-rate securitized loan with KeyBank N.A.

DENVER—Hines recently secured a key tenant for the top floor of 1144 Fifteenth, the largest speculative office building built in downtown Denver in more than 30 years. Unicom Capital LLC signed a long-term lease for 20,036 square feet on the 40th floor in the 672,000-square-foot building. JLL brokers Jamie Roupp, Michael Crane and Andy Ross represented owner and developer Hines in the transaction.

DENVER—Mass Equities Inc., a private equity real estate investment firm based in Santa Monica, CA, has announced its acquisition of one of Denver's premier development sites: 7.8-acres of land, including two existing buildings totaling more than 219,000 square feet in Denver's River North Arts District (RiNo). MEQ's vision for the property is to create a creative mixed-use live-work-play environment. The initial phase will include the re-imaging of the existing 62,000-square-foot building located at 3060 Brighton Blvd. into a creative office building, taking advantage of the soaring and dramatic ceiling heights, and open space already existing in the building.

GRANBY, CO—Marise Cipriani, 22-year owner of Granby Ranch, announced her decision to sell the 5,000-acre property. The community is home to more than 600 families and known for its recreational amenities including snow skiing, hiking, mountain biking, fly fishing and championship golf. The owner has enlisted CBRE, specifically Eric Roth and Martin Roth with CBRE Land Services in Denver and Jeff Woolson with CBRE's Golf and Resort Group, to market the property for sale beginning January 2018.

SAN MARCOS, TX—Transwestern's San Antonio office has been retained to provide leasing services for Hunter Medical Plaza, a development by Kogut Commercial Real Estate and Mittman Real Estate. Transwestern senior vice president Ken Adams and senior associate 'Licia Shreves are the leasing agents for the 26,000-square-foot medical office building at 2202 Hunter Rd. The project is currently under construction with completion expected in third quarter 2018.

WAXAHACHIE, TX—Northgate Plaza has sold. The 196,006-square-foot property sits on 18.57 acres and was 88% occupied at the time of sale. Jennifer Pierson, a managing partner at STRIVE, had the exclusive right to market the property on behalf of the seller, an investor out of California. Pierson also sourced the buyer, an investor out of California. The additional terms of the sale were not released.

BUILDING BLOCKS

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO—Plans are underway for a new medical office campus on the north side of Colorado Springs, adjacent to the expanding UC Health Memorial North Campus. Mortenson Development in a joint venture with Realty Management Group, recently announced plans to build a multi-phased medical office campus at the intersection of Union and Powers Boulevards, across from the UC Health Memorial Hospital and future Children's Hospital of Colorado. The project, formally known as the Pine Creek Medical Center, will include up to 50,000 square feet of class-A medical office space in the first phase. Mortenson Development has selected National Healthcare Realty to be the exclusive broker to handle the marketing and pre-leasing of the new campus.

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Lisa Brown

Lisa Brown is an editor for the south and west regions of GlobeSt.com. She has 25-plus years of real estate experience, with a regional PR role at Grubb & Ellis and a national communications position at MMI. Brown also spent 10 years as executive director at NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where she led the organization to achieving its first national award honors and recognition on Capitol Hill. She has written extensively on commercial real estate topics and edited numerous pieces on the subject.