Middle Market Digest: This Week in the South and Mountain Regions

What sector isn’t hitting on all cylinders in DFW? Certainly this is true of the office sector. The DFW office market experienced another quarter of positive net absorption, coming in at 632,068 square feet for second quarter and 963,495 square feet year-to-date. This is down from 2017, when a number of large move-ins occurred (1.4 million square feet and 3 million square feet, respectively), according to Cushman & Wakefield’s second quarter and midyear 2018 preliminary office statistics.—Lisa Brown

BY THE NUMBERS

AUSTIN, TX—Nearing the end of the second quarter, the vacancy rate dropped 30 basis points to 6.7%, compared to this time last month at 7%. Occupancy of the 913,384 square feet delivered to the market year-to-date stands at 41%, and of the 38 properties with 2.3 million square feet currently under construction, 85% of that space is available for lease, according to NAI Partners Austin industrial monthly market snapshot for June 2018.

HOUSTON—The NAI Partners sublease index—measured by the amount of sublease space as a percentage of total available office space—increased 100 basis points to 15.3% in June. Space being marketed for sublease now represents 9.3 million square feet of the 61.2 million-square-foot total availability figure. The index has hovered between 14% and 16% since last October.

NEWS AND NOTABLES

AUSTIN, TX—FOURTH& Condos, a 97-Unit mixed-use project developed by Capsa Ventures, has achieved a 5-Star rating through the Austin Energy Green Building program. This is the first time in over a decade a multifamily project has been awarded the highest rating, and only second in the program’s 28-year history. Today also marks the grand opening recognized by the state.

AUSTIN, TX/SAN ANTONIO—Joe DeCola has joined NAI Partners as a vice president. DeCola joins the company in a newly created “player/coach” role, functioning as a producer with a focus on building NAI Partners’ retail services business and teams in the company’s Austin and San Antonio offices, and also providing sales coaching and management for the company’s junior-level producers in those markets. He will be splitting his time between the two cities on a weekly basis.

DALLAS—Greg Langston, Avison Young principal and managing director of the firm’s Dallas office, announced that asset and property management specialist Ron Gilbreath has joined the company. Effective immediately, Gilbreath becomes a vice president in Avison Young’s Dallas office.

DRIPPING SPRINGS, TX—Headwaters, the new 1,035-acre development, has won the 2018 Gold Nugget Award for best indoor/outdoor lifestyle for a community. Headwaters developer Freehold Communities accepted the award at the annual PCBC 2018 Gold Nugget Awards in San Francisco last week.

HOUSTON—Randy Nerren, a 35-year Houston office brokerage veteran, has joined NAI Partners as a senior vice president in the company’s office project leasing group. Nerren has spent the majority of his career at MetroNational, the privately held real estate investment, development and management company founded in 1959 and headquartered in Houston, that owns and manages more than 8.5 million square feet of commercial real estate properties, including the 7.6 million-square-foot mixed-use city-within-a-city Memorial City.

DEAL TRACKER

ARLINGTON, TX—Marcus & Millichap announced the sale of “Ave J”, a 29,770-square-foot office property. Cody Payne, senior associate in Marcus & Millichap’s Fort Worth office and Wayne Bares, senior associate in Marcus & Millichap’s Dallas office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, a private investor and repeat client. Payne and Bares secured the buyer, a private partnership, who is also a repeat client.

AUSTIN, TX—Following the successful re-zoning of the Broadmoor campus, Brandywine Realty Trust, a leading mixed-use landlord and office developer in Austin, announced its master vision to transform the property into a mixed-use, transit-oriented and highly amenitized urban environment, centrally located in Austin’s second downtown.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO—Transwestern brokered the sale of a flex/research and development property totaling 79,887 square feet at 4725–4755 Centennial Blvd. The property was purchased for $3.95 million by Amerco Real Estate Co., an affiliate of U-Haul, which intends to occupy the building’s 32,226-square-foot vacancy. Transwestern managing directors Brad Cohen and Larry Thiel provided disposition services for DMARC 2007–CD5 Centennial Boulevard LLC.

FORT WORTH—Edward Hodge sold 1015 E. Belknap St., a 10,470-square-foot industrial property, to Eddie Stephens for an undisclosed price. Transwestern principal Todd Hawpe negotiated the transaction.

GARLAND, TX—Greysteel has arranged the acquisition financing of a Storage House of Texas, a self-storage property. Greysteel senior finance associate, Daniel Hartnett from the firm’s Dallas office secured the three-year loan on behalf of the borrower.

HALTOM CITY, TX—Jackson Supply Company signed a new lease for 20,651 square feet of industrial space at 6450 Midway Rd. Transwestern principal Todd Hawpe represented the landlord, ACE Manor Property Management I Ltd., in the transaction. Jamie White of Jamie White Commercial Real Estate LLC represented the tenant.

HURST, TX—Oasis Springs, a 154-unit apartment property, has sold. Al Silva, senior managing director investments and Ford Braly, senior associate in Marcus & Millichap’s Fort Worth office, sold the property off-market on behalf of Dallas-based MBP capital to a Dallas-based investment group who will reposition the property to be a more attractive and competitive place to live for local families. The sale closed just 60 days after an agreement was reached between buyer and seller. Oasis Springs is located at 601 Bellaire Dr.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK—Seattle based Sono Bello, a cosmetic surgery company, has signed its first Oklahoma lease for 9,600-square-feet at Memorial Springs Medical Building at 13100 North Western Ave. Susan Jordan and Kelsey Gilbert, with CBRE’s Oklahoma City office, and Brian Biege, with CBRE’s Bellevue, WA office, represented Sono Bello. Monica Uhland with Emersons Commercial Real Estate, represented the landlord, S&B Land LLC.

SAN ANTONIO—JLL Capital Markets experts secured acquisition financing for two multifamily communities in San Antonio on behalf of REEP Equity. NXT Capital closed the loans for 4000 Horizon Hill and Northgate Village. Managing director Mark Brandenburg and vice president CW Sheehan led the JLL team on the financing.

BUILDING BLOCKS

ARLINGTON/DENTON, TX—Venture Commercial Real Estate has completed land acquisitions on two locations for the first Duluth Trading Company stores in North Texas. The sites will be freestanding 15,000-square-foot prototypes.