90,400-SF Sale-Leaseback Cements Purchase

Ampam, headquartered in Round Rock, TX, was asking $2.3 million for the 4 1/2-acre holding at 12507 Telge. The selling price, though, is hushed. Mark Nicholas and Steve Burkett, both of the Houston office of Dallas-based Staubach Co., represented Ampam at the bargaining table. John Ferruzzo of NAI Partners Commercial's Houston team negotiated for the buyer of record, CCI-MBM II LP. Ferruzzo tells GlobeSt.com that it was an investment-driven decision primarily based on the sale-leaseback possibility.

In July 2001, Capital Commercial Investments purchased an 81,282-sf warehouse from the Crow Family Holding Industrial LP. Solely occupied by Continental Can, the holding is located at 6831 Silsbee in southeast Houston's Santa Fe Industrial Park. At the time, Capital Commercial held the deeds to 28 office and industrial buildings in Houston, Clear Lake, the Woodlands and Austin.

Ferruzzo says Houston's industrial market, as a whole, is looking good despite the high vacancy of the northwest submarket. So far this month, he says, it's been busy for many industrial brokers. "We are chipping away at it (vacancies), slowly but surely," he says.

But, Ferruzzo's still cautious about being too optimistic. The end of the first quarter and beginning of the next will tell the tale for the 2002 industrial market. While he sees clients regaining interest in the industrial market, obstacles such as Enron, the nation's recession, terrorist threats and Compaq's merger have created a "wait-and-see" attitude that may not be fully alleviated.