This Week's Houston Deal Sheet

An industrial project in the ultra-hot Northwest Houston submarket sold to a Mexican investor.

Monterrey-based GBP Properties purchased a 30K SF industrial building occupied by GE Oil & Gas at 11150 Equity Drive in Westway Park. CBRE’s Tom Lynch and Mark Redlingshafer represented seller Investment & Development Ventures.

“This investment property generated a significant amount of interest from local, regional and national private buyers due to its irreplaceable location with easy access to Beltway 8 and a tenant with strong credit,” Lynch said.

Westway Park is just off Beltway 8 north of Clay Road, in the Northwest submarket. Northwest and Southeast Houston accounted for more than half of industrial absorption in Q1, showing strong industrial demand in those markets.   

EXECS

Friedman Real Estate opened a Houston office at 333 Cypress Run. This is the full-service commercial real estate firm's entry into Texas and its seventh regional office in the U.S. Friedman Vice President of Brokerage Mark Zeidman will oversee the Houston office. He was previously director of acquisitions and chief lending officer for PrivCap Cos.

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Bryant Lach joined JLL as vice president in its office tenant representation team. Lach has negotiated 50M SF of leases and won NAIOP's 2017 Rising Star award.

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Diana Bridger joined Colvill Office Properties as director of leasing. She will focus on representing owners of Class-A office buildings, a switch from her previous role as a tenant rep for JLL. While there, she negotiated 4M SF in deals.

SALES

HC Chapman No. One purchased 8 acres at the northeast corner of Imperial Valley Drive and Regional Park Drive in Houston. Finial Group represented the seller, and NAI Partners' Travis Land represented the buyer.

DEVELOPMENT

Museum BLVD, a 37-unit, $12M condo property under construction, has pre-sold 54% of units in 14 days. That was done just through a VIP launch, and the property is now opening to the public for sales. Site development is underway at 4819 Caroline St. now that Plains Capital Bank secured construction financing.

LEASES

Slowpokes restaurant is expanding into the Upper Kirby District. Owners Juan Carlos Rubiralta of Levure Bakery & Patisserie and Mazen Baltagi of Chapman & Kirby, Mi Luna and Christian’s Tailgate signed an 1,833 SF lease at Midway’s Kirby Grove at 2925 Richmond Ave. It will open this fall on the ground floor of the 16-story, LEED Gold Kirby Grove Office building, and its patio will overlook Levy Park.

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Valvoline Instant Oil Change ground-leased a 0.93-acre retail pad to develop a 2K SF structure in Marketplace at Ninety-Six in League City. NewQuest Properties’ Rebecca Le and Heather Nguyen represented the landlord in-house, and Weitzman’s James Namken and Kyle Knight represented the tenant.

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Absolute Fabrication leased 20K SF of industrial space at 7210 Clinton Drive in Houston. JLL’s Travis Secor and Jordan Raney represented the tenant, and Boyd Commercial's Andy Sowell and David Munson represented the landlord, GSL Welcome Group.

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Freeway Logistics leased 32K SF of industrial space at 5910 West by Northwest Blvd. in Houston. JLL’s Travis Secor and Ryan Fuselier represented the tenant, and Holt Lunsford Commercial's John Kruse represented the landlord, TA Realty.

FINANCING

JLL's Tom Fish, Jimmy Board and Molly Leinsdorf secured a permanent loan to refinance Clear Lake Marketplace for Fidelis Realty Partners. The 265K SF, H-E-B-anchored retail property is in Clear Lake. A Houston-based life company correspondent provided the fixed-rate nonrecourse loan.

THIS AND THAT

The Shops at Spring Village is artsy now. Developer Capital Retail Properties asked artists A.J. Rose and David Maldonado to create a mural on the side of its 21K SF retail center at 2209 Spring Steubner Road in Spring. The goal: give the suburban center some urban edge. The 16-by-40-foot mural was inspired by the woven quilts of the Atakapa tribe that once inhabited the area.

“Living near downtown, urban art catches my eye nearly every day, but outside of the central core, where we do most of our work, there haven’t been the same opportunities for artists. We want to change that and hope this is the first of many pieces to come,” Capital Retail Properties co-founder Anderson Smith said.

Rose and Maldonado have done installations at Revention Music Center and SXSW and are doing a mural for the Houston Maritime Museum.

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Central Management Inc. was retained as facility manager for the Baroness Kandy Kaye Horn Employment and Technology Building, 2525 San Jacinto St. in Houston. Paul Panus will handle the operations.

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Weitzman was named exclusive leasing agent for Willowbrook Plaza, a 393K SF retail center at 17355 Tomball Parkway in Northwest Houston. James Namken, Kyle Knight and Brett Levinson will handle the assignment. Availability ranges from an 18K SF junior anchor to small tenant spaces by the AMC cinema.