"Like a lot of other investors, we were running into the maturity of another loan, so we refinanced to get more term to get through current economic times," comments J. Andrew Scott, managing director with Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP's Dallas office. Scott teamed with HFF associate director C. Brandon Chavoya, also with HFF's Dallas office, to arrange financing though CapitalSource Finance LLC.

But unlike a lot of other investors, the Chicago-based Walton Street Capital and Stacy were able to get the financing with help from rock-solid credentials and asset's quality. "The success of this definitely had to do with the sponsorship, the location and the asset itself," Scott tells GlobeSt.com. "If any of those attributes had been compromised, it would have been harder to get the deal done." He goes on to say that capital is still available in the marketplace for quality assets and great sponsorship.

Walton Street and Stacy acquired the property in 2004, which takes up a full city block at the intersection of 6th Street and Congress Avenue. Assets on the land include the 261,609-square-foot Bank of America Building at 515 Congress, which is 90% occupied. Also on the site are a vacant parking garage, a 90,000-square-foot vacant commercial building and a little more than three-quarters of an acre of land which will be the site of a future 1,150-space parking garage.

A report last February in the Austin Business Journal says Stacy and his capital partner had planned up to a $500 million investment in the area that would result in a 500,000-square-foot office and retail center as well as a potential hotel and condominium tower. Scott declined to discuss the plans specifically, but did acknowledge that a larger development is on the drawing board.

"The property is definitely zoned for a larger development," he adds. "As soon as the capital markets correct themselves, we'll see this project moving forward into something different, something larger."