Showing a strong demand for new office product coming to market, there are 22 projects remaining in the construction pipeline with pre-lease rate of 49.6%. The DFW office market had its 31st consecutive quarter of positive absorption and the fourth quarter had the highest absorption of 2017 with 1.1 million square feet, bringing the year-to-date total to nearly 2.7 million square feet. Asking rates rose once again for a DFW-wide average of $24.48, up 96 basis points from third quarter 2017. Vacancy rates began to compress slightly by 10 basis points from third quarter 2017, but are still up a full percentage year-over-year. DFW's unemployment rate of 3% continues to outperform the US average of 4.7%, according to a report by CBRE Research.—Lisa Brown

NEWS AND NOTABLES

DALLAS—Whitebox Real Estate, a full-service commercial real estate firm in Dallas, is adding a new investment sales division to round out its services. Matthew Otte has been hired as senior vice president, director of investment sales, to begin building a team to provide a full-service solution to clients on both the acquisition and disposition side. With a primary focus on urban/infill office assets across the DFW metroplex and more than 14 years of experience, the Dallas native comes to Whitebox from Transwestern Commercial Services.

DENVER—Alec Wynne, Avison Young principal and managing director of the firm's Denver office, announced the strategic hiring of highly regarded commercial real estate industry veteran David Tilton. Effective immediately, Tilton becomes a principal of Avison Young and will continue to focus on his capital markets specialty. Working closely with Wynne and principal Rick Egitto, he brings 36 years of commercial real estate industry experience to Avison Young, most recently as executive managing director with Newmark Knight Frank in Denver.

HOUSTON—Adding more than 50 years of collective industry experience, Belvoir Real Estate Group has announced the addition of Pat Grimes and Reggie Shipman to its team to kick off 2018. Grimes joins the Belvoir team as senior director after 30 years with industry leaders such as Hines, Transwestern and Equity Office. Shipman brings more than 12 years of experience in the multifamily industry.

RICHARDSON, TX—Hill & Wilkinson General Contractors kicks off the new year by celebrating its 50th anniversary. The company has launched a new website (hill-wilkinson.com) and is commemorating the milestone all year long with special client and employee events. The company will also host a 50th Family Fiesta this April for all employees, their spouses and children.

DEAL TRACKER

ARVADA, CO—Park Place Olde Town Apartments, located at 5743 Teller St., sold for $46.58 million. Dan Woodward, Dave Potarf, Jake Young and Matt Barnett of CBRE Capital Markets, multifamily properties, represented the seller, a confidential investor. The buyer was Seagate Properties of Denver. Just completed in 2016, Park Place Olde Town is a TOD-adjacent site located within the heart of Olde Town Arvada.

AUSTIN, TX—Cousins Properties, Riverside Resources and Ironwood Real Estate have formed a new joint venture to develop 300 Colorado, a $175 million office tower in downtown Austin with more than 300,000 square feet. The new entity has inked a 12-year lease for all the office space in the new tower with Parsley Energy Inc., an independent oil and natural gas company. Parsley presently occupies 135,000 square feet directly across the street from the new project in Colorado Tower. It will retain that space through the duration of its lease, which runs until 2022–bringing its future downtown footprint to more than 435,000 square feet.

AUSTIN, TX—Mood Media has leased 55,000 square feet in Central Austin at the Regency Office Center. Mood Media's new headquarters is at 2100 S. Interstate 35, Suite 200. The new site brings all of Mood's Austin employees together under one roof, Additionally, Mood's new corporate headquarters features a mix of modern and industrial design elements, with eight in-house recording studios for production activities and an increase in both public and private meeting spaces. Sam Pruitt and Jeff Sheehan with Site Selection Group represented Mood Media with the leasing at Regency.

AUSTIN, TX—NAI Partners' Austin office recently represented CapStar Lending LLC in a 9,654-square-foot office lease renewal at 6836 Austin Center Blvd. NAI Partners' David Stojanik represented the tenant, CapStar Lending LLC, during the negotiations.

BEDFORD, TX—Marcus & Millichap, announced the sale of Toscana, a 160-unit apartment property. Al Silva, senior managing director investments, Ford Braly, senior associate and Mark McCoy, associate in Marcus & Millichap's Fort Worth office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller.

DALLAS—Leon Capital Group announced a new debt capital platform for developers of class-A self-storage facilities. This new platform will provide developers with high-leverage, non-recourse construction financing that will be unique in the self-storage industry. Leon Capital will finance up to 99% of the total project cost and will purchase the financed facility at completion, for a price agreed to at loan closing.

DALLAS—Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP announces refinancing for Advenir at Frankford Springs, a 332-unit garden-style apartment community. The HFF team worked on behalf of Advenir Inc. to secure the seven-year, LIBOR plus 2.16% floating-rate loan with three years of interest-only payments through Freddie Mac's CME program. The securitized loan has qualified for Freddie Mac's Green program and will be serviced by HFF. The HFF debt placement team representing Advenir included managing director Josh Simon and senior managing directors Eric Tupler and Andy Scott.

GALVESTON, TX—Marcus & Millichap announced the sale of 2111 Post Office, a 15,500-square foot mixed-use property located in downtown. The asset had a listing price of $1,2 million. Derek Hargrove, first vice president investments in Marcus & Millichap's Houston office, had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller, a limited liability company.

HOUSTON—Key Energy Services recently sublet Rockcliff Energy in a 9,422-square-foot transaction at Fulbright Tower located at 1301 McKinney St. NAI Partners' Lane Morgan and Dan Boyles negotiated the transaction.

HOUSTON—HFF announces the sale of 5757 Woodway, a 162,188-square-foot boutique office property. The HFF team represented the seller, Woodway Office Partners LLC, Fuller Realty Partners and Harbert Management Corporation, and procured the buyer, a partnership led by Braun Enterprises. The two- and four-story property is 70% leased to a diverse tenant base spanning the finance, healthcare, communication, technology and education sectors. The HFF investment advisory team representing the seller included senior managing director Dan Miller and senior director Marty Hogan.

HOUSTON—Cathedral Energy Services Ltd. renewed a 26,550-square-foot industrial lease at 6622 Willowbrook Park Dr. JLL's David Buescher and Jordan Raney represented the tenant in the transaction. Grant Rollo with Carson Companies represented the landlord.

HOUSTON—Skanska has reached a lease agreement with Crossmark Global Investments for approximately 16,000 square feet at West Memorial Place, the first LEED Platinum campus in the Energy Corridor. Located at 15375 Memorial Dr., the development now includes two LEED Platinum-certified class-A office buildings-West Memorial Place I measuring 331,000 square feet and West Memorial Place II measuring 385,000 square feet. The buildings consume 30% less energy than typical baseline buildings. Russell Hodges and Bubba Harkins with JLL represented Skanska, the developer and owner of the campus, and Kevin Saxe with CBRE represented Crossmark Global Investments.

PASADENA, TX—Chrisman Road Property LLC has closed on the purchase of a 100% leased multi-tenant industrial/flex portfolio of properties comprised of 1605 Genoa Red Bluff Rd. from the seller, Bart Industries LP, consisting of ±81,936 square feet on approximately 21.74 acres and 400-403 N. 10th St. in La Porte, TX from the seller, Bayou Properties Company consisting of approximately 40,000 square feet on approximately 2.11 acres. All told the approximately 121,936 square feet on 23.85 acres are made up of a mixture of office/warehouse, office/flex spaces and stabilized land catering to the southeast submarket's port and petrochemical industry related tenant base. Clay Pritchett of NAI Partners represented the purchaser, Chrisman Road Property LLC, while John Ferruzzo and Chris Kugle, also of NAI Partners, represented Bart Industries. Bayou Properties Company was self-represented the transaction.

SUGAR LAND, TX—NAI Partners recently arranged a 63,000-square-foot industrial sale located at 12835 Jess Pirtle Blvd. Chris Caudill, partner of NAI Partners, negotiated the transaction for the seller, Wormser Family Trust. Preferred Shipping Inc. was the buyer.

WESTMINSTER, CO—JLL's Capital Market secured construction financing for Ascent Apartments, a planned multifamily community for the new mixed-use development. The financing, secured on behalf of the developer, Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates, includes a $50 million senior loan and $16.2 million in preferred equity from Everwest Real Estate Partners. Managing directors Baxter Fain and Ken Dayton led the JLL team on the financing.

Instant Insights /

Middle Market Digest: This Week in the South and Mountain Regions

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