The 83%-occupied Wells Fargo Building at 1500 Broadway St. came to market at the year's start at an asking price of $5.8 million. Austin-based Cummings-Baccus Interests was the seller and the successful buyer was Midland, TX-based TCTB Partners, led by principal Jon Morgan. The other offers came from a Houston investor and three from Dallas, Keith Fisher of Stream Realty Partners in Dallas tells GlobeSt.com. He negotiated the sale for Cummings-Baccus, which also has a Lincoln, NE office property up for sale in a bid to dispose of assets in tertiary markets.
Fisher says the key to the sale was the stabilized nature of the 15-story building positioned on about 6.2 acres in the downtown. The average lease carries a nine-year term, he confides. Still, the deal wasn't without its complications. A 50-year ground lease had to be resolved with its holder, Marjorie Kastman of Lubbock. The lease would have expired in 2013. "It made it challenging," Fisher says.
The Wells Fargo Building dominates the Lubbock skyline and is home to the elite Lubbock Club as well as the city's most prestigious law and accounting firms. It's also the bank's regional headquarters. It stands as the largest office building in town, boasting distinctive "Double-T" Texas Tech University logos and the Wells Fargo moniker. It represents 32.8% of the CBD office space and 13.3% of all office product citywide. The structure was built in 1966, delivered in 1968 and underwent renovations in 1970, 1980, 1995 and 2001.
The buyer's principal owns the controlling interest in Lubbock's minor league hockey team. TCTB Partners' commercial interests include an oil company in its Texas Panhandle homeport and real estate assets.
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