23,660-SF Shopping Center Changes Hands

HOUSTON-Los Angeles-based GWR Property & Mortgage Co. Inc. has sold a 23,660-sf shopping center at 8 Uvalde Rd. in far northeast Houston.

The 19-year-old center has a Grandy’s restaurant as one of its tenants. Eldridge Land LLC of Houston purchased the building in a transaction structured by Gus Lagos and Paula Foster, both with the Houston office of Grubb & Ellis Co. The brokers could not be reached by press time for comment.

According to Harris County Appraisal District, the seller acquired the holding, situated on less than an acre, in 1996. Its 2002 assessment is $361,140.

Small centers fared relatively well this year unlike larger developments, which were forced to bounce back from Albertsons shutting down 43 anchor stores in the Houston area, said O’Connor & Associates in its Q3 retail report. Strip centers, the size of the Uvalde Road center, absorbed 1,720 sf citywide through the third quarter and were maintaining an occupancy average of 88%.