The Easton Group, led by chairman Edward W. Easton, reportedly paid $30 million in 2004 for the 400,000-sf, class A building in the Galleria. Ross Collins, Transwestern Investment's senior vice president of acquisitions, isn't saying the percentage of ownership that the fund acquired. Transwestern's Houston-based affiliate will lease and manage the 70%-occupied building with the buy-in.
"Our goal there is to grow NOI," Collins tells GlobeSt.com. "The Galleria market is active, with a lot of A and B product doing well."
Collins adds the asset has strong upside potential due to an improvement in rents in the market overall. Additionally, the roll isn't offering any surprises. "We're looking at an even rollover during the next five years," he says.
Collins says the fund, which has a $3-billion gross investment, is about one-third committed to date and looking for opportunities similar to 1800 West Loop South--domestic real estate assets that are either undervalued or demonstrate a good chance for value creation. "We're in three different food groups--office, retail and industrial," he says. "With office, we do suburban and CBD in most of the major markets."
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.