The Houston-based Simpkins Group this week closed on 100 acres, with the balance to be acquired in the summer. Don Janssen, senior vice president for seller Sugarland Properties, says about 15 acres of retail-zoned land remains up for grabs.

B. Douglas Simpkins Jr., chairman, tells GlobeSt.com that several developers were in the running for the office and industrial balance of raw land. The selling price is being kept under wraps, but the going rate in the park has been falling between $2.50 per sf to $3 per sf, Janssen says.

Simpkins was interested in the property because of the "rapidly growing high-end residential and retail" developments fueling the area, the firm's chairman explains. Simpkins specializes in build-to-suit industrial, office, retail and healthcare facilities.

Going forward, Simpkins plans to resell the raw land or develop build-to-suits or fee development projects for corporate users. The acreage will be subdivided into tracts ranging from a half acre up to 40 acres, with prices going from $2 per sf to $4 per sf.

Robert E. Bryant Jr., senior vice president for the Simpkins Group, estimates it will take five to seven years to sell the land, based on the area's historical absorption. Sugar Land Business Park got under way in 1977. Today, it contains about 3 1/2 million sf of industrial and office product. The park is located at the intersection of US highways 59 and 90-A, about 15 miles southwest of Houston's CBD.

Tom Lynch of the Houston office of CB Richard Ellis Inc. and Janssen represented the seller's interests. Bryant negotiated for the Simpkins Group.