Syd Hurley, principal of Direct Development, tells GlobeSt.com that "one of the key factors that this deal stayed together" was a locked-in rate with a spread that closed at 4.44%. The buy side knew the 44,000-sf Bed, Bath & Beyond lease was up for renewal, but didn't know the retailer was "quietly looking at other alternatives in the marketplace" and close to signing a pact to relocate the top-performing store after a 10-year run at the class A center with a high barrier to entry location at Collin Creek Mall.

"We were caught off guard," Hurley says. "We were very surprised to learn they had the intent to go out."

With 36 hours to go before the original closing, Hurley and partner, David Watson, called an emergency meeting with the seller, an affiliate of Dallas-based Invesco Realty Advisors, and lender, GE Capital of Horsham, PA to work out a new plan. The Sunday afternoon meeting ended with a reprieve of 10 business days on the interest rate lock. And, Hurley says, "making a transaction that they couldn't say 'no' to."

Hurley and the retailer's broker, Steven A. Lieberman of the Retail Connection, hand carried the contract through executive channels to get vital signatures on the Easter-time deliberations. "It was a mammoth transaction to have achieved," Hurley says of a 10-year lease that finally delivered on the eve of the lock's expiration. "Everyone worked really, really hard. We felt like we jumped over the moon on this one."

Direct Development set up a single-asset affiliate for the acquisition, securing a $21-million loan with a 10-year term and 5.37% fixed-interest rate. Direct Property Management will oversee the 10-year-old asset, which has just 4,000 sf empty.Hurley says the other "gold-plated" tenants--Michaels, Barnes & Noble, Gap, Old Navy, DSW Shoe Warehouse and PetCo--have substantial terms left on their leases.

Jack Crews and Chris Cozby, an investment sales team with Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co., brokered the sale for Invesco, which owned the property about five years. The adviser's typical hold is five to seven years. "It was time for them to sell," Hurley says of the high-profile property at the intersection of Central Expressway and Plano Parkway.