Colorado Buyer Picks Up 337,227-SF Portfolio

HOUSTON-Working to achieve critical mass in the marketplace, a Colorado company has bought the 337,227-sf Houston Southwest Portfolio in its bid to spend $50 million this year. The four-building asset, sold by First Industrial Realty Trust, was 92.8% leased at sale time.

The appeal for Mountain West Industrial Properties in Greenwood Village, CO was the portfolio's size and positioning in the city's southwestern sector. "This was a good opportunity to acquire a critical mass of properties in the area," says T.J. Tarbell, Mountain West's acquisition and development officer. He says minimal cosmetic upgrades will be made to the 1980s-era buildings, but no major renovations are planned.

Darryl Noon, senior vice president with locally based Transwestern, says the asset offers good upside potential for the new owner with leases and the growing demand for industrial space in the submarket. "I'd say that the in-place lease rates are below market on most of the buildings," Noon says. "The roll has probably 20% over the next four or five years."

The just-bought buildings are located within a 13-mile stretch of each other. The portfolio consists of a 75,567-sf warehouse at 3727 Greenbriar St.; a 58,248-sf building at 10610-28 Rockley Rd.; 131,000-sf structure at 10325-10415 Landsbury Dr.; and 74,462-sf building at 8100 Westpark Dr. Transwestern associate Matt Young and Noon will lease the warehouses and senior property manager Billy Reed will oversee them.

Mountain West also owns the 120,000-sf Kirby Business Center at 3015 Richmond Ave. and the 203-408-sf Beltway Antoine Business Center at Sam Houston Parkway at Antoine Dr. "We like land and value-add opportunities," he says. "We're looking for essentially non-core asset type products."

Tom Lynch, first vice president of CB Richard Ellis. in Houston, represented First Industrial. Mountain West was self-represented.