Source: Globest.com

HOUSTON-Bailey, Banks & Biddle has become the latest tenant to commit to retail space in the $500-million CityCentre at Town and Country. The jeweler will sign an agreement this week to take 7,000 sf for 10 years, bringing retail preleasing to 30% in the 1.1-million-sf project.

Shawn Merecki, vice president of leasing for Houston-based developer Midway Cos., says more retail deals should be secured within 30 to 90 days. He says the project’s 539,319-sf retail component most likely will be 70% preleased by the grand opening in April 2009.

To date, tenants include Lifetime Athletic in a 140,000-sf anchor space, Studio Movie Grill, Norris Conference Centers, Sur la Table and Eye Couture. CityCentre also is getting several restaurants new to Houston: Brio Tuscan Grill, Yardhouse and Eddie V’s. Other eateries in the lineup are RA Sushi, Potbelly, Jamba Juice, Chipotle, Wine Loft and Como Se Dice.

Midway Cos. is handling leasing in-house. Typical retail asking rates are about $40 per sf, triple net in the submarket.

GlobeSt.com previously reported the retail component would be about 90% occupied, which was to be in late 2008. Merecki acknowledges the economic slowdown has changed Midway’s expectations, including a push on its delivery to second quarter 2009. “Retailers are a little hesitant so there’s been some slowdown in that regard,” he says. “On the flip side, Houston is kind of a port in a storm with tremendous job growth so we decided to move ahead full throttle with the development.”

Also under construction is the project’s 475,000-sf office component. Merecki tells GlobeSt.com that the three-building office collection is already 60% preleased, adding the office space could be 90% committed by the grand opening. Colvill Office Properties of Houston is handling office leasing for the 250,000-sf, 125,000-sf and 100,000-sf buildings. Midway Cos. will be one of the office tenants. Others are Structure Consulting Group LLC, Regus Group, McGriff Seibels & Williams of TX Inc. and Amegy Bank. Office space in the western submarket can run from $27 per sf to $30 per sf.

Also under construction are the 245-room Hotel Sorella, 250-unit Lofts CityCentre, 375-unit Domain at CityCentre and 40-unit Brownstones at CityCentre. The hotel is being developed by Valencia Group of Houston and will include 22 executive condominiums on the top floor. Local companies Chancellor Property Management Co. and Simmons Vedder & Co. are working with Midway Cos. to develop the lofts and multifamily units, respectively, while McGuire Homebuilders Inc., another local firm, is building the brownstones, which have a starting price point of $800,000.

CityCentre’s architects are Gensler and Kirksey Architecture, both from Houston, and Los Angeles-based Peter Remedius. Burton Construction Co. of Houston is the general contractor.

Source: Chron.com

Historic Real Estate is preparing waterfront property in League City for 35 single-family home sites and four “family compounds” large enough to accommodate multiple buildings and as many as three boats.

Two homes are already under construction in the gated boating village called The Peninsula Clear Lake.

Allegro Builders and Tuscany Estate Homes will build all of the houses, which will start at $1 million and range from 3,400 to 8,500 square feet.

Designed by Robert Dame, the homes will have Tuscan, Mediterranean and Spanish Revival architectural styles.

The project is being built in League City along 4,400 feet of shoreline on the south side of Clear Lake along Davis Road.

It looks across the lake to Johnson Space Center and across Clear Creek to a nature preserve and bird sanctuary.

The development was planned by Richard Browne, principal of Historic Real Estate, whose background includes helping plan The Woodlands.

Part of the developers’ motivation for the project was a lack of single-family waterfront home sites on Clear Lake.

“This is a very rare development opportunity,” Browne said.

Each home will have an optional private boat dock or boathouse for pleasure
vessels.

Boats will have direct channel access to Clear Lake, Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, Historic Real Estate is planning WaterLights District, an office, restaurant, retail and residential development planned
along Texas 288 just
south of Beltway 8.

Arguably the most compelling part of the development is a Presidential Park that will have a collection of busts, each at least 18 feet tall, of presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush. The country’s next leader will be added.

Source: Chron.com

Owners of the Continental Club and other investors are buying two Midtown blocks just north of the music club and next to the Ensemble/HCC light rail station, moving a step closer in their plans to develop the parcel.

The property is owned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which bought it last year and has been holding it for the investors in what became a controversial development strategy.

The blocks are along the west side of Main Street, bordered by Holman, Winbern and Travis.

Bob Schultz of RHS Interests, whose group originally assembled the land from multiple owners, said the closing on the property will happen in two or three months.

The investors are considering several development scenarios to promote walking and transit use, potentially including student housing, apartments, office space and a hotel. William Cannady is the lead architect.

One thing is certain. It will include a retail component similar to what Schultz and his partners did next door, which was fill the space with small, independent retailers. Those tenants include the Continental Club, the record store Sig’s Lagoon, Tacos A Go-Go and the Big Top bar.

The well-known Continental Club in Austin is on South Congress, a street of eclectic shops and restaurants. The developers envision the same sorts of tenants for this part of Midtown.

“We’re trying to bring some of that to Houston,” Schultz said.

Construction could start in 18 months.

Last year, the transit authority’s board voted to spend $7.2 million for the property. The new owners will reimburse Metro for what it paid.

The idea was that the transit group would carry the land for a specific amount of time and later sell it to Schultz and his partners, who were sensitive to the adjacent transit station and rail ridership in general.

As the Main Street rail line was built, speculators began buying land in the area and asking huge sums to sell while others were developing only small parcels.

At first, Metro and the investors planned to develop the project through a public/private partnership. But Metro decided its money would be better spent elsewhere,
Schultz said.

Without Metro’s help, the land would probably have been used for new townhomes, banks or drug stores, Schultz said.

“The opportunity for creating great mixed-use density at that rail stop would have been lost,” he said.

THE WOODLANDS: Staubach Retail has been chosen by The Woodlands Development Co. to broker retail properties on The Woodlands Waterway in The Woodlands Town Center. Staubach Retail will be represented by Rip Reynolds. Plans call for about 100,000 square feet of retail space to be constructed along The Woodlands Waterway.

INTERWOOD: Wolff Cos. announced several land transactions in Interwood, a 440-acre, master-planned business park at Beltway 8 and John F. Kennedy Boulevard.

Schultz USA has purchased 16 acres on Interwood North Parkway, just east of Heathrow Forest Parkway. The property will serve as the company’s North American headquarters and distribution center. The project will consist of a 56,880-square-foot building. Construction will begin this fall.

CCIB, an affiliate of Austin-based Capital Commercial Investments, has acquired a 12.5-acre site located between FM 525 and Interwood South Parkway from Essex Capital. The property will be used for light industrial development.

Scomi Oiltools has purchased 6.3 acres at Interwood South Parkway and Heathrow Forest Parkway.

Live Oak-Gottesman, an Austin-based investment builder, has purchased a site at Interwood South Parkway and Heathrow Forest Parkway for the development of a 35,000-square-foot facility for the U.S. Customs and Border Control Protection Services.

RETAIL: Trammell Crow Co. has started construction on the remaining phases of Atascocita Commons Shopping Center FM 1960 near West Lake Houston Parkway. Anchoring the 500,000-square-foot center will be a 177,000-square-foot SuperTarget and an 88,000-square-foot Kohl’s. The final anchors, a 50,000-square-foot TJ Maxx/Home Goods store along with a 30,000-square-foot Ross Dress for Less, will join Palais Royal, Petco and Office Depot as major tenants in the development. Dress Barn, Famous Footwear, Panera Bread, Zales Jewelers and Johnny Carino’s are some of the other tenants.

Leases
RETAIL: Safari Braiding has leased 1,072 square feet at the Oxford Shopping Center, 3007 Dairy Ashford. 

INDUSTRIAL: Sunbelt Service Group has leased 10,000 square feet of office/service center space at 9750 Tanner Road.

INDUSTRIAL: Houston Refinery has leased 20,000 square feet of office/warehouse space at 317 Allen Genoa Road off Texas 225.

RETAIL: Strasburg Children, a boutique specializing in children’s apparel and accessories, has leased 1,404 square feet at 16049 City Walk in Sugar Land Town Square from Planned Community Developers.

OFFICE: ENGlobal Corporation Services signed a 52,528-square-foot lease with Clay Real Estate Development at 3155 Executive Blvd.

OFFICE: Acme Chemical Marketing has leased 3,795 square feet at 7236 Wynnwood.

RETAIL: Hourly Playcare has leased 3,290 square feet at 3311 FM 518, League City.

OFFICE: Gowda & Gowda has purchased a 7,827-square-foot building at 2507 Williams Trace Blvd. The building was 55 percent leased and the buyer will occupy the remaining space for medical office use.

RETAIL: Joel Jeschke has leased 3,040 square feet for a restaurant and wine bar called Joel Ugly Dawg at 3612 W. Main/FM 518, League City.

OFFICE/WAREHOUSE: Several leases have been signed at 100 E. NASA Parkway. Noble House Real Estate represented the landlord in all of the transactions. Westco expanded into 1,575 square feet. Upstage Arts has leased 1,909 square feet. Jose Elias Moran has leased 1,885 square feet. Allied Industrial expanded into a 3,050-square-foot space.

OFFICE: Lemle & Kelleher has leased 6,051 square feet at the Bank of America Center, 700 Louisiana, Suite 2060.

OFFICE: Premier Wall Systems has leased 4,500 square feet at 1205 West Loop North.

INDUSTRIAL: Hawksen Corp. has leased 21,604 square feet of crane-served manufacturing space at 6304 and 6400 Hurst St.

RETAIL: Enterprise Rent-A-Car of Houston has leased 1,760 square feet at 12280 Westheimer in The Village Shops Shopping Center.

OFFICE: Accretive Solutions-Houston has renewed their lease of 11,332 square feet at 10375 Richmond Ave.

INDUSTRIAL: Clay Development & Construction has purchased 149 acres in Deer Park for an industrial development.

Located in the 4900 block of Texas 225 between the Houston Ship Channel and the Bayport terminal, the property was owned by a home builder and intended for an expansion of the Deerwood Glen subdivision, according to the Henry S. Miller Commercial real estate firm, which represented Clay in the transaction.

The developer is planning an office warehouse and manufacturing facilities.

INDUSTRIAL: Charles and Brenda Everts have purchased two office/warehouse buildings totaling 13,500 square feet at 15003 and 15005 Mintz Lane from C & S Ellis Business Interests.

LAND: Khaled Yassir has purchased 3.9 acres on Kirkwood just north of Bissonnet from Boniuk Interests.

COMMERCIAL: Western Nights has purchased a 5,151-square-foot building at 4006 N. Texas 146 in Baytown from Clius and Ozola Felicien.

Source: Bloomberg

With high oil prices, rig rental rate and DEMAND have gone up phenomenally. The high rate is expected to stay strong beyond 2011. We could expect how positively this is going to improve the office (mainly energy and oil services companies) and industrial market in Houston and the growth be sustainable.

————————————————————————-

Seadrill, the Norwegian oil-rig company set up by billionaire John Fredriksen, expects rental rates to increase and for the market to stay strong for at least the next three years.

“At this stage, the cycle is staying for quite a while,” Chief Executive Officer Kjell Jacobsen said in an interview in Oslo today. The market will be strong beyond 2011, he said, adding that the “deep-water sector is very attractive.”

Seadrill expects rig rental rates to increase to $700,000 a day, Jacobsen said. Seadrill got rates as high as $630,000 on an order from Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA in April, according to Stian Eliassen, an analyst at Carnegie ASA.

Seadrill, founded by shipping tycoon Fredriksen in 2005, owns 38 drilling units alone or with partners, of which 11 are under construction. The Bermuda-based company run from Stavanger said yesterday it will pay a first-quarter cash dividend of 60 cents a share, after a 25-cent dividend in the fourth quarter.

Jacobsen said that the company expects to announce new rig contracts in the “next quarter or two.”

Jacobsen said yesterday he’s stepping down for “private reasons” on June 1 and will be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Alf Thorkildsen.

Source: Houston Chronicle

Etc.

INDUSTRIAL: The developer of an ecofriendly industrial development near Bush Intercontinental Airport has found a tenant for its 63,600-square-foot facility.

McLean Cargo Specialists signed a long-term lease for the building in the Central Green Business Park, according to developer Liberty Property Trust of Malvern, Pa.

Liberty owns and manages more than 3.8 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space in Houston.

The new building is registered with the U.S. Green Building Council through its Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design program.

The business park includes nine buildings and more than 80 acres of developable land off Beltway 8 along Hardy Toll Road.

The developer also announced leases in its other Houston projects.

American Tire Distributors signed a 94,089-square-foot lease at 860 Greens Parkway at the Greens Crossing Distribution Center. Omni Laboratories renewed its 68,428-square-foot lease at the Legacy Center Business Park at Beltway 8 and Fallbrook Drive. The company also signed a new lease for 78,400 square feet at 5200 North Sam Houston Parkway West and the Beltway at the Bammel Business Park. And Thomas Hudson Enterprises leased 32,000 square feet at 5250 North Sam Houston Parkway West.

RESIDENTIAL: Caldwell Cos. broke ground on the clubhouse within The Heritage at Towne Lake active adult development. The 14,000-square-foot clubhouse will feature amenities such as a fitness center, a ballroom, a billiards room, an arts and crafts room and a swimming pool. The age-restricted development is planned for 440 homes near U.S. 290 in the Cypress-Fairbanks area of northwest Houston.

FUND: Parkway Properties has teamed up with the Teacher Retirement System of Texas to form the Parkway Properties Office Fund II targeting office building investments in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, Charlotte, Memphis, Nashville, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa and other markets. TRS will be a 70 percent investor and Jackson, Miss.-based Parkway will be a 30 percent investor in the $750 million fund.

BUILDING PRODUCTS: YKK AP has opened a branch in Houston to serve its commercial building industry customers in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Located at 3550 Brittmoore Road, Suite 200, the branch is the company’s ninth and will have 15 to 20 employees involved in sales, customer service, estimating, assembly and warehousing.

Leases

RETAIL: Golf Galaxy has leased 15,000 square feet in Market at Town Center near U.S. 59 and Texas 6 adjacent to First Colony Mall. 

INDUSTRIAL: Sharon Trial has leased 6,000 square feet in Highway 90 Industrial Park at 18574 Van Road from Combs Enterprises.

RETAIL: Michaelyndon’s On The Blvd has leased 8,800 square feet at 5250 W. Alabama.

INDUSTRIAL: Frontier Lease Co. has signed a 247,240-square-foot lease with Port Crossing A-4 LP at 1701 South 16th St.

RETAIL: Goodwill Select Store and Donation Center has leased 13,000 square feet at 17001-17307 FM 529.

RETAIL: Castle Donuts has leased 3,478 square feet at 9401 Kempwood.

RETAIL: The U.S. Government Census Bureau has leased 6,677 at 1450 W. Sam Houston Parkway and 5,269 at 7509 South Freeway. 

INDUSTRIAL: ENGlobal Corp. has leased 30,250 square feet at 5105 W. Cardinal from Phelan Investments.

OFFICE: InterMed Management has leased 5,000 square feet at Center Square, 589 FM 517, Dickinson.

INDUSTRIAL: Dillard’s has signed a lease to relocate their Houston warehouse to 10,395 square feet at 4515 South Pinemont, Suite 210.

OFFICE: Fitts, Roberts & Co. has renewed and expanded their lease to 22,235 square feet at Capital One Plaza, 5718 Westheimer.

OFFICE: Holloman Corp. has leased an additional 4,714 square feet at 333 Northbelt, situated at 333 North Sam Houston Parkway East.

OFFICE: Amigo Energy has leased 12,699 square feet at 777 Post Oak.

RETAIL: First Community Bank has leased 3,000 square feet in Brazos Town Center at 24310 U.S. 59.

Sources: Houston Chronicle