4 posts tagged “transwestern”

NRG Texas and its retail business Reliant Energy have executed a long-term lease at Pavilions Tower in the Houston Pavilions complex, an agreement that includes the space in floors one through ten (Sheehy, Serpe & Ware occupy the top floor). Eric Anderson and Greg Tilton of Transwestern represented the owner, Houston Pavilions LP. NRG Texas was represented by George Strake and Christopher Oliver with Cushman & Wakefield of Texas, Inc.

With the completion of the NRG lease, the second largest lease to be completed within the last year in downtown Houston, the office section of the project is now completely leased. "Even in the best of economic times, it's not often that a 240,000-square-foot tenant comes along," said Geoff Jones, co-developer/principal of Houston Pavilions. "In today's climate, we feel extremely fortunate to have executed a lease of this size with a tenant like NRG."

For more news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Representatives from various commercial real estate and community organizations and associations met on Thursday, brought together by the National Association of Realtors, to work together to provide policymakers with a package of principles and policy priorities to help their efforts in addressing the current CRE credit market crisis. Bob Toothaker, chair of NAR's Realtor Commercial Alliance and host of the meeting, said, "We face a liquidity crisis, the likes of which most of us have not seen in our lifetime. There is not one silver bullet to fix the huge problem, but we believe there are key steps that can be and should be taken to ensure the continued health and vitality of the commercial real estate industry."

NAR believes the success of programs and initiatives aimed at restoring liquidity and stability to the markets is intrinsically tied to and must work in conjunction with supportive federal tax policies and accounting principles that support commercial real estate lending. According to NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun commercial real estate is the hardest hit industry outside of the auto industry. "A recovery in commercial real estate always lags a general economic recovery, but with the right policy prescriptions we can recover more quickly," said Yun. Organizations involved in the meeting included the Building Owners and Managers Association, CB Richard Ellis, CCIM Institute, Coldwell Banker Commercial, Colliers International, Commercial Mortgage Securities Association, Grubb & Ellis, Institute of Real Estate Management, International Council of Shopping Centers, Mortgage Bankers Association, NAI Global, NAIOP, TCN Worldwide, The Real Estate Roundtable, and Transwestern.

For more news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Orchard One, a four-story multi-tenant office building in the Denver Technological Center (DTC), has sold for $4.4M from an undisclosed seller. The buyer, 6143 South Willow LLC, has retained Transwestern to provide property management and leasing for the 46,368 square foot building, according to a crefeed.com report.

6143 South Willow Drive was 96% occupied at the time of sale with tenants including CIS Insurance Group, Lang & Co., CPA, M&T Bank and Charter Financial Resources. Transwestern’s Lynda Duke, property manager, will provide management services.

For more news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Hurricane Ike swept through Houston early on the morning of September 14th and left a path of $18 billion in damages, the third costliest storm in US history.  Prior to Ike, Houston's office market was reporting encouraging numbers: according to a CB Richard Ellis report, Houston's office market recorded an 11.7% vacancy rate in 2Q 2008 while the national average trailed at 13.8%, and the unemployment rate was at 4.9% in July against the nation's 5.7% as Houston added 57,1000 new jobs in the past year according to the Texas Workforce Commission.

Now, as the city remains under a 9-6 curfew through Friday, owners, managers and investors are starting to evaluate the damage done according to a National Real Estate Investor article.  Downtown Houston, one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Ike, is home to the 75-story JPMorgan Chase Tower (Texas' tallest office building) which saw most of its eastern windows from the ground floor to the 40th blown out at the height of the storm.  Chip Clare, president of the Gulf Coast region for Houston-based Transwestern, describes the pattern of damage across the city as "indiscriminate." He estimates that about 30% of Transwestern’s management portfolio was back in operation by Tuesday, but fewer than 50% of those tenants are reporting to work. "Most people have figured out a way to work remotely. They are also resourceful. A guy came into the office today because we had air conditioning and his house didn’t."

"The fact that the hurricane went through won’t change the fact that we’ll continue to look there," says David Steinwedell, executive vice president of AIC Ventures, an Austin-based company that has completed more than $500 million in sale-leaseback deals. "As long as Houston has a viable economy it’s going to be a good investment market. You might have higher insurance costs, but if their economy stays on course, guess what? Money is going to go there to invest."

For more real estate news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.