MIDWAY DEVELOPMENT BREAKS GROUND ON CITYCENTRE THREE

CITYCENTRE THREE


A rendering of the 120,000-square-foot CityCentre Three in Houston. HOUSTON — Midway Development has contracted with Hoar Construction who has commenced construction on the 120,000-square-foot CityCentre Three, a mixed-use property slated to be six stories, located in CityCentre in Houston. Midway Cos. has still more office towers they can develop on the  property, which was designed by by Munoz & Albin with Kirksey Architects and all they hope all will achieve LEED Silver certification. The exterior will have a courtyard featuring fountains and landscaped seating areas. Construction for the property is expecting to last 12 months. For more information on Houston office space, Houston retail space or Houston warehouse space and Houston industrial space, please call 713 782-0260 or see my web site at : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com Thank you for your interest.


Thanks,

Ed A. Ayres

Houston Realty Advisors, Inc.

Mitaquye Oyasin

5 Building sale by GE Commercial, was that a GOOD price?

General Electric Commercial Finance Real Estate, and entity of GE Capital Corp., sold its five-property office portfolio in Houston to Peloton Capital Partners. The properties traded for $19 million, or approximately $55 per square foot.

The assets consist of 347,587 square feet of office space in Harris County. The buildings are at 2950 and 3030 S. Gessner, 10200 Richmond Ave., 11931 Wickchester Lane and 1250 Woodbranch Park Drive
 

For more information on Houston office space, Houston retail space or Houston warehouse space and Houston industrial space, please call 713 782-0260 or see my web site at : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com  Thank you for your interest.

Whats Howard Hughes been up to? Is He still is SO quiet and reclusive? NOT LIKELY!!!!!

Check it out......The Howard Hughes Corp., (NYSE:HHC) bought an interest in The Woodlands, a master-planned community in Texas, from a unit of Morgan Stanley (MS) for $117.5 million.

Howard Hughes, spun off last year from General Growth Properties Inc. (NYSE: GGP), will control the Houston development by taking a 47.5% interest through a definitive agreement with Morgan Stanley Real Estate. The consideration includes $20 million in cash payable at closing and a $97.5 million non-interest-bearing note due Dec. 1, 2011.
Howard Hughes and its predecessors has been an investor in The Woodlands since 2004 and its partner, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, has been an investor since 1997. Upon completion of the purchase, Howard Hughes will wholly own The Woodlands as a subsidiary, including all unsold property.

As of March 31, unsold property in included 1,372 acres of residential land representing 4,532 lots, and 936 acres of land earmarked for commercial use.

The Woodlands also has full or part ownership in 434,000 square feet of office space, 203,000 square feet of retail and service space, 865 rental apartment units. It also owns a 440-room conference center facility and 36-hole country club.

For more information on Houston office space, Houston retail space or Houston warehouse space and Houston industrial space, please call 713 782-0260 or see my web site at : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com Offer opportunities for Houston office space. Thank you for your interest.


Thanks,

Ed A. Ayres

Houston Realty Advisors, Inc.

Mitaquye Oyasin

I wonder where they got the 340 Million ?? Oh yea, from Me & You!!!

Chevron Corp. purchased Four Allen Center, the 1.23 million-square-foot office tower it fully occupies at 1400 Smith St. in downtown Houston, from Brookfield Office Properties for $340 million, or approximately $277 per square foot. The investment entity Towanda Development I Ltd. sold the building to Brookfield for $120 million in September 2006. “This sale is reflective of our ongoing strategy of recycling capital from mature assets into more accretive opportunities,” said Ric Clark, chief executive officer of Brookfield.
Built in 1983, Four Allen Center is a 50-story structure on 1.14 acres in the central business district. Chevron has leased the property for nearly five years.  The U.S. oil and gas company also inked a 311,000-square-foot office renewal next door at Continental Center I, a 1.1 million-square-foot, 51-story skyscraper at 1600 Smith St. Chevron's previous lease for 475,000 square feet expires in May of next year. The new deal will leave 164,000 square feet available next spring.  Brookfield has owned 1600 Smith St. for five years. It is 95.4 percent leased. Continental Airlines also anchors the property with 414,578 square feet. The average asking rent per year is approximately $23 per square foot, according to CoStar Group information.
“We have created significant value through the sale of this stabilized asset concurrent with Chevron’s sizeable lease extension at our adjacent property,” said Dennis Friedrich, president and global chief investment officer of Brookfield. “Chevron represents the type of top-flight corporate tenant we seek to partner with in our global energy-sector markets.” Paul Frazier and Margaret Gosda negotiated the lease in-house for Brookfield. Tim Relyea of Cushman & Wakefield represented Chevron.For more information on Houston office space, Houston retail space or Houston warehouse space and Houston industrial space, please call 713 782-0260 or see my web site at : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com

Houston Oil companies take more office space 1st quarter. I wonder if its because.....

 Houston absorbed 422k SF during Q1, but deliveries outpaced tenant demand, pushing vacancy 1 0bps to 16.1%. Class-A vacancy jumped 20 bps to 13.9%, largely due to Hines’ delivery of the 972k SF BG Group Place. Class-B properties ended the quarter with a 19% vacancy, a 10 bps increase. Oil drilling activity in South Texas increased recently, leading numerous service companies to take occupancy last quarter. This helped Class-A assets absorb 480k SF. A lot of energy firms also signed expansions last quarter, led by KBR with a 216k SF Class-A expansion in Eldridge Oaks. EnerVest, Koch Industries, Noble Denton, Willbros Group, and EDG also expanded in Q1. One last tidbit: Houston’s sublease inventory decreased by more than 500k SF in Q1, lowering total inventory to 3.6M.

For more information on Houston office space, Houston retail space or Houston warehouse space and Houston industrial space, please call 713 782-0260 or see my web site at : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com  Offer opportunities for Houston office space. Thank you for your interest.

"Life is a Storm my friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment and be battered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and say You must do your worst for I will do mine and the fates will know you for the man you are."

The Count of Monte Cristo

Rising Occupancy Should Bring Growth In Retail Rents By Year-End

Near-Term Outlook For Retail Real Estate Remains Positive Despite First-Quarter Pause In Net Absorption


Falling vacancy rates and rising demand for retail real estate should finally bring about meaningful rent growth for landlords in most U.S. retail markets by the end of 2011, according to CoStar Group economists, Randy Drummer reporting from COSTAR on May 11th, 2011

Growth in employment and moderately rising demand fueled by greater numbers of shoppers and little new supply of retail development on the horizon should set the stage for a significant drop in vacancy rates, which CoStar expects to fall as low as 5% by late 2014.

Bolstered occupancy will in turn lead to growth in rental rates, which have been in decline since the recession. By the end of this year, rents should turn positive across the U.S. and from there rise fairly rapidly, peaking at about 6% growth annually by 2014, CoStar Group forecast recently in its First Quarter 2011 Retail Review and Outlook. CoStar Real Estate Strategist Suzanne Mulvee co-presented the retail market report with Real Estate Strategist Kevin White and Real Estate Economist Ryan McCullough.

The near-term outlook is promising for retail properties, but longer term, starting in 2013, uncertainties such as employment growth, rising oil prices, delivery of new supply and mounting pressure to generate continued high levels of retail sales could challenge the strength of the recovery, CoStar analysts noted.



"While it is the negligible new supply that is allowing retail real estate to turn the corner, the future depends on job and wage growth levels," said Chris Macke, senior real estate strategist for CoStar Group.



Retail sales have already returned to 2007 levels, with year-over-year growth in the 6% range for the last couple quarters -- well above the historical range of 4.5% to 5%. Spending should remain strong if jobs and economic growth stays on track, Mulvee said.



Though appliances, electronics and other big-ticket purchases are still down, spending on health care and personal care is up over 13%, with increases also reported in online sales, food and beverage, general merchandise, clothing and sporting goods spending. The level of sales per square foot of retail space has also moved well above pre-recession levels -- evidence that retailers are doing better and may eventually need more space, providing a platform for rent growth, Mulvee said.



Leasing volume has also picked up robustly, with CoStar projecting more than 53 million square feet of retail space leased in the first quarter. While it’s not yet translating into large net absorption gains -- just 9 million square feet of absorption nationwide in the first quarter, the lowest since fourth-quarter 2009 -- the heightened activity and diminished supply kept the national vacancy steady in the first quarter at 7.2%.



Fast-recovering, high-barrier Northeast corridor markets are seeing the most demand, with Washington, D.C. posting an absorption increase of 1.5%, followed by Houston (1.2%), Boston, (1.1%), Philadelphia (1%) and Detroit and Minneapolis, (each 0.8%.) Markets hard hit by oversupply and housing issues like Tampa, Phoenix and Atlanta continued to show flat absorption in the first quarter.



Demand remains weak for power centers, where construction of new supply was quite heavy for several years starting in 2005. Construction in all retail sectors is at a standstill and debt market constraints will continue to limit building, though a few projects delayed by the recession are starting to come back.



With little new space available, vacancy rates are finally cresting. Underscoring the breadth of the occupancy recovery, as much as 60% of the 1,000 retail submarkets tracked by CoStar showed declining vacancy rates in the first quarter, with the strongest declines in Northeast and Texas markets like Houston, Detroit, Denver, Boston and Philadelphia.



Housing-bust markets like Phoenix and the Inland Empire still are seeing vacancies well above their historical average. Among product types, lifestyle centers and to a lesser degree malls are seeing vacancy rates tick down.



While the situation is expected to reverse quickly as existing supply gets leased up, overall rents are still edging downward year over year across the retail spectrum. Similarly to occupancy and absorption, rents are improving at different rates in different markets and product types, McCullough said. Rental rates for lifestyle centers and community shopping centers are still seeing downward pressure, while malls and power centers are seeing quoted rents stabilize and even move up slight over the last couple of quarters, McCullough said.



Markets that depend on strong population growth to drive retail sales such as the Inland Empire, CA are seeing largest year over year rent losses. Rents fell 8.4% in the Inland Empire, followed by Phoenix (-7%), Tampa (-7.5%) and Denver (-9%). Markets with sustained growth like Texas and perennially under-retailed markets like New York and Los Angeles saw the least erosion.



The nation’s overall growth rate of around 3% annually "isn’t spectacular" and not as strong as the early recoveries in previous recoveries, but it’s enough to generate jobs and gradually bring down the unemployment rate and create renewed positive absorption and a "pretty meaningful recovery" in commercial real estate, White said.



"We expect it will gather momentum over the course of this year and into 2012," White said.



For more information on Houston office space, Houston retail space or Houston warehouse space and Houston industrial space, please call 713 782-0260 or see my web site at : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com Offer opportunities for Houston office space. Thank you for your interest.

LOOPNET SOLD to COSTAR; How much more will our fees go up on the 88,000 subscribers ?

COSTAR ACQUIRES LOOPNET

CoStar Group has signed a definitive agreement to acquire LoopNet for approximately $860 million. The transaction between the two companies is expected to close by the end of 2011. As part of the agreement, LoopNet shareholders will receive $16.50 in cash and approximately 0.04 shares of CoStar Group common stock for each share of LoopNet common stock. This equates to a total equity value of approximately $860 million and an enterprise value of $762 million. Upon closing, LoopNet shareholders will own approximately 8.5 percent of CoStar shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis. In addition, CoStar has received a commitment from J.P. Morgan for a $415 million loan and a $50 million revolving credit facility, which will be used to fund the acquisition and for general operating purposes.
"CoStar revolutionized how the industry researches commercial real estate and LoopNet revolutionized the way the industry markets commercial real estate," said Andrew Florence, president and CEO of CoStar, in a statement. "We expect the combination of our companies to give the $11 trillion commercial real estate market the full benefit of the Internet." With the merger, CoStar's subscriber base stands to grow from 88,000 subscribers to at least 160,000 subscribers, representing approximately 15 percent of the commercial real estate market's participants. LoopNet.com currently has 4.8 million registered users and more than 6 million unique visits quarterly.

For more information on Houston office space, Houston retail space or Houston warehouse space and Houston industrial space, please call 713 782-0260 or see my web site at : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com  Offer opportunities for Houston office space. Thank you for your interest.