HOUSTON-Investors from Yakima, WA have sailed into the region with their first local acquisition, the 100%-leased, 163,114-sf Willowbrook Shopping Center. The $36.5-million listing picked up 15 offers during two marketing periods in six months.
"We'd had a marketing campaign and ended up with buyer who hadn't performed so we remarketed it," George Cushing, senior vice president in Grubb & Ellis Co.'s Houston office, tells GlobeSt.com. He and Grubb vice president Paula Foster and associate Wendy Vandeventer represented the local seller, Gulf Coast Commercial Group Inc. The buyers were self-represented.
Cushing says Willowbrook Shopping Center, situated on 15.8 acres at 17685-17727 Texas 249, was built in three phases. The first phase, developed in the early 1990s, focused on build-to-suits for Kmart and Service Merchandise stores. Additional tracts were developed in 2000-01. "Gulf Coast had bought this in 2003 and that was the beginning of the renovation and building," Cushing says. "Their plan was to reposition it."
Current tenants include Circuit City, PetSmart, REI, Golf Galaxy, Ethan Allen, Pier I Imports, 59 Diner, Starbucks and Texas Land & Cattle Steakhouse. Most tenants have signed long-term leases.
The Washington investors beat the other offers because Cushing had known them from another transaction. "I'd gotten to know them, knew their story and felt good about them," he adds. "It was a good call. They performed."
In the meantime, Gulf Coast is preparing to sell the 85,729-sf Westgate Shopping Center along Katy Freeway in two months. "They're developers and their capital is best deployed in development opportunities," Cushing explains. "They generate capital for new projects by selling previously completed ones."
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