383,000-SF Beltway Antoine Changes Ownership

HOUSTON-Following the development and close to lease-up of the 383,100-square-foot Beltway Antoine Business Center, joint venture partners Mountain West Industrial Properties LLC and American National Insurance Co. sold the seven-building industrial complex to DCT Industrial Trust Inc. The asset generated many offers during its brief marketing phase, with the partnership deciding on DCT Industrial Trust because of buyer familiarity and ability to close.

“DCT offered the right price, plus they’re local (DCT Industrial is headquarted in Denver),” explains Justin D. Sims, principal with Greenwood, CO-based Mountain West Industrial Properties. “A large part of this deal was the ability to close quickly, and we felt most comfortable with DCT.”

Sims tells GlobeSt.com that offers came from institutional buyers. “There was a lot of institutional money available to be placed on this type of product,” he remarks.

Mountain West Industrial Properties and its Galveston, TX-based partner ANICO bought the land for Beltway Antoine Business Center in 2007, launching the asset’s two-phase construction in late 2007 and 2008.  At the time of closing, the center was 95.2% leased to 17 tenants. Though a sales price was not available, area sources estimate the price to be north of $95 per square foot. Rusty Tamlyn and Trent Agnew with Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP’s Houston office brokered the transaction.

Sims suggests the Beltway Antoine Business Center transaction was successful due to a variety of factors, such as scarcity of available investment product, a great property location with plenty of frontage at 3403-3473 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. and outstanding credit tenants locked into long-term leases. The joint venture was faced with a choice of selling the asset now, or holding onto it for a couple of years, during which tenant roll would become an issue.

“We could either fold now or fold later,” Sims comments. “It would have worked either way, but this worked out well in terms of pricing.”

Sims says the Beltway Antoine Business Center disposition doesn’t mean Mountain West Industrial Properties plans to skedaddle out of the Lone Star State anytime soon. The company, in fact, is actively looking for industrial assets in Phoenix and Houston, though Sims acknowledges “it’s a little bit tough for a buyer like us. We’re more about value-add than cash flow, and we haven’t been able to get to the price required to acquire assets.”

In addition to seeking out industrial property, a merger at the corporate level with Baron Properties, also in Greenwood Village, CO means the company is looking for multifamily assets in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Denver as well.  “We’re actively buying apartments, while we look on the warehouse side,” Sims says. “The apartment opportunities out there are letting us bide our time a bit more on the industrial side.”