Amazon-Leased Portion of West Ten Business Park Sells

KATY, TX—In 2014, Transwestern Development Company and UBS Realty Investors purchased a 74-acre site within the West Ten Business Park developed by Parkside Capital. Transwestern developed phase one consisting of two buildings totaling 415,000 square feet, which were both leased and purchased by Bel Furniture. Phase two was delivered and fully leased to Amazon in 2019.

And now, the final phase of West Ten Business Park has been sold, which includes a 238,000-square-foot last-mile facility fully leased by Amazon at 28420 West Ten Blvd. Stonelake Capital Partners purchased the 41-acre site from a joint venture between Transwestern and UBS.

“We are very pleased with the culmination of this project, achieving superior results for our investors,” said Will Paton, partner at Transwestern Development Company. “Given the current market conditions, this sale is even more of a testament to both development quality and tenant creditworthiness. We appreciate Stonelake’s motivation to see this transaction through despite the challenging circumstances.”

In addition to the building, the site includes a 1,100-space 15-acre surface parking lot utilized by Amazon for delivery staging, as well as a 14-acre tract for future development.

“In addition to signing a 10-year lease, Amazon made significant investments in this property alongside the ownership,” Paton tells GlobeSt.com. “The sale price appropriately reflected those factors, although Amazon will operate from this location for much longer.”

The JLL capital markets team of Rusty Tamlyn, Trent Agnew and Charlie Strauss represented the seller in the Amazon building disposition. Transwestern’s industrial services team led by Brian Gammill executed the sale of the adjacent land parcel.

“This is a compelling investment opportunity with state-of-the-art construction and a high-credit tenant,” said William Peeples, principal at Stonelake Capital Partners. “The building will be combined with our existing industrial portfolio which now totals 11 million square feet. Additionally, we are planning to break ground on the 14-acre site with an approximately 180,000-square-foot distribution center on a speculative basis.”

According to the Greater Houston Partnership, Houston’s economy continues to struggle and likely will for the foreseeable future as it continues to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of the oil market. The Houston region lost 350,200 jobs in March and April, and gained back 73,800 jobs in May.

Global oil demand remains weak and the industry may have to look as far as 2022 to see demand for crude reach pre-pandemic levels. US crude production has dropped by 2 million barrels a day while the domestic rig count sits at 266, its lowest since the 1930s. On a positive note, Saudi Arabia and Russia reached a truce on output to OPEC, agreeing to hold 9.7 million barrels per day off the global market.