Middle Market Digest: Mid-Week in the South and Mountain Regions

Here's a look at the trends, announcements and deals you may have missed at the mid-week point in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

NEWS AND NOTABLES

AUSTIN, TX—Avison Young's second quarter and global office market reports show Austin's hot office market and how it's leading the nation in tech startup company relocation. Avison Young is adding to this trend by developing a startup SWAT team who provides a smooth one-stop-shop for startups making a transition to a new city–offering services in leasing, structure redesign, furniture and everything else a new company needs to get the ball rolling.

BY THE NUMBERS

HOUSTON—The amount of sublease space as a percentage of the total amount of available space increased to 17.8% halfway through the third quarter of 2017, compared to 17.6% at this time last month, according to NAI Partners.

DEAL TRACKER

AUSTIN, TX—Boston-based Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation has acquired 5th & Colorado, a newly constructed class-A office tower located in downtown. This core asset was completed in 2016 and is comprised of nine floors of office space above eight levels of structured parking, all of which stand above a ground floor lobby containing 5,822 square feet of retail space. The tenant profile includes firms from the finance, technology, energy and co-working industries with strong credit. 5th & Colorado is located in the southwest quadrant of downtown, where much of the new Austin construction activity is taking place. The property is ideally situated proximate to the CBD's Warehouse District and boasts some of the city's best restaurants, award-winning hotels and a wide range of live entertainment options.

DALLAS—Streamline Brands, the fastest growing franchisor of swim schools in the world, and Leon Capital Group, a Dallas-based private equity and real estate investment-development company, announced a partnership that includes a significant investment in Streamline by Leon Capital and a preferred real estate development program. With this investment, Leon Capital and Streamline will create a real estate development program for franchisees that will help Streamline continue to expand its position as the largest franchisor of swim schools in North America. Streamline Brands includes SafeSplash, Swimtastic and SwimLabs swim schools, totaling 145 open locations and 27 under development in 19 states and 3 countries. The financing and development program is expected to help Streamline launch up to 20 additional locations per year in the United States beginning in 2018.

DENVER—AvalonBay acquired a recently built 252-unit apartment community for $76.8 million. This marks the company's first acquisition in the Denver market and is the first new market entered this cycle. The company cited Denver as having many of the same attributes as its existing markets with a well-educated workforce, focused in higher-paying sectors. AVB looks to grow its Denver footprint over time via acquisitions and its best-in-class development platform. Interestingly, this acquisition strays a bit away from AVB's strategy of owning apartment communities in coastal high-barrier-to-entry markets, which may indicate a lack of attractive opportunities in its legacy markets.

SAN ANTONIO—NAI Partners recently arranged a 8,640-square-foot office sale in North Central San Antonio at 417-419 San Pedro. Joshua Swank of NAI Partners represented seller, undisclosed, during the negotiations. Other terms of the sale were not released.

BUILDING BLOCKS

AURORA, CO—Majestic Realty Co., a privately held developer of industrial business parks, has begun construction on the state's largest speculative warehouse/distribution facility, breaking its own prior records for speculative development–construction that is started without a lease agreement or end user in place. The 701,900-square-foot building #15, nicknamed the “Big Bomber,” broke ground this summer and is scheduled for completion in early 2018.

Here's a look at the trends, announcements and deals you may have missed at the mid-week point in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

NEWS AND NOTABLES

AUSTIN, TX—Avison Young's second quarter and global office market reports show Austin's hot office market and how it's leading the nation in tech startup company relocation. Avison Young is adding to this trend by developing a startup SWAT team who provides a smooth one-stop-shop for startups making a transition to a new city–offering services in leasing, structure redesign, furniture and everything else a new company needs to get the ball rolling.

BY THE NUMBERS

HOUSTON—The amount of sublease space as a percentage of the total amount of available space increased to 17.8% halfway through the third quarter of 2017, compared to 17.6% at this time last month, according to NAI Partners.

DEAL TRACKER

AUSTIN, TX—Boston-based Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation has acquired 5th & Colorado, a newly constructed class-A office tower located in downtown. This core asset was completed in 2016 and is comprised of nine floors of office space above eight levels of structured parking, all of which stand above a ground floor lobby containing 5,822 square feet of retail space. The tenant profile includes firms from the finance, technology, energy and co-working industries with strong credit. 5th & Colorado is located in the southwest quadrant of downtown, where much of the new Austin construction activity is taking place. The property is ideally situated proximate to the CBD's Warehouse District and boasts some of the city's best restaurants, award-winning hotels and a wide range of live entertainment options.

DALLAS—Streamline Brands, the fastest growing franchisor of swim schools in the world, and Leon Capital Group, a Dallas-based private equity and real estate investment-development company, announced a partnership that includes a significant investment in Streamline by Leon Capital and a preferred real estate development program. With this investment, Leon Capital and Streamline will create a real estate development program for franchisees that will help Streamline continue to expand its position as the largest franchisor of swim schools in North America. Streamline Brands includes SafeSplash, Swimtastic and SwimLabs swim schools, totaling 145 open locations and 27 under development in 19 states and 3 countries. The financing and development program is expected to help Streamline launch up to 20 additional locations per year in the United States beginning in 2018.

DENVER—AvalonBay acquired a recently built 252-unit apartment community for $76.8 million. This marks the company's first acquisition in the Denver market and is the first new market entered this cycle. The company cited Denver as having many of the same attributes as its existing markets with a well-educated workforce, focused in higher-paying sectors. AVB looks to grow its Denver footprint over time via acquisitions and its best-in-class development platform. Interestingly, this acquisition strays a bit away from AVB's strategy of owning apartment communities in coastal high-barrier-to-entry markets, which may indicate a lack of attractive opportunities in its legacy markets.

SAN ANTONIO—NAI Partners recently arranged a 8,640-square-foot office sale in North Central San Antonio at 417-419 San Pedro. Joshua Swank of NAI Partners represented seller, undisclosed, during the negotiations. Other terms of the sale were not released.

BUILDING BLOCKS

AURORA, CO—Majestic Realty Co., a privately held developer of industrial business parks, has begun construction on the state's largest speculative warehouse/distribution facility, breaking its own prior records for speculative development–construction that is started without a lease agreement or end user in place. The 701,900-square-foot building #15, nicknamed the “Big Bomber,” broke ground this summer and is scheduled for completion in early 2018.