The investor's cash swooped up a parking lot in Lubbock, using 1031 Exchange proceeds from the sale of the California Apartments in Paducah, KY. The 155-space lot, recently paved, abuts the San Antonio-based SBC's 150,000-sf regional headquarters and is used solely by its employees. SBC is just two years into a 10-year lease and is responsible for the upkeep, David Butler, principal of Colliers International's Houston office, tells GlobeSt.com.

Butler says it's the first parking lot he's sold in his 20-year career, a deal speeded up by the Internet and tossed into the title company's office within 26 hours of the first call to the buyer. "I've never met the buyer, the seller or saw the property...except for pictures of it," he says of the deal making for a property that was not yet a day old when he found it through longtime relationships in the 1031 Exchange sector.

"It's a sweetheart deal," Butler says. "That's what my man in Kentucky thought. I suspect anybody would have seen it as a red-hot deal...no fuss, good return, leased for the long term."

The seller is a Lubbock developer and investor who built the parking lot at 1708 21st St. in recent years by buying several tracts, razing the buildings and paving the property. Now, the investor, working through the Lubbock National Bank Trust Department as seller of record, has cashed out and is looking to reinvest the gain, Butler says.

In addition to Butler, Bob Parsley, CEO, director and principal in Collier's Houston office, represented the buyer. Wes Hallmark of Hallmark & Associates of Lubbock brokered the all-cash deal for the seller.