New HQ Breaks Ground At East River: The Houston Deal Sheet

Construction is underway on Anton Paar USA’s new South Region headquarters in Midway’s East River. Anton Paar will move from an industrial building on World Houston Parkway to a new three-story, 30K SF facility within the mixed-use development. 

The precision instruments company acquired the tract at the southwest corner of Clinton Drive and Meadow Street in April. Designed by Powers Brown Architecture, the building will include about 13K SF of office space, 13K SF dedicated to technology, lab, training and conference facilities, and 5K SF for distribution and shipping.

Benchmark Houston Builders is constructing the facility, with completion scheduled for summer 2026.

Just east of The Studios at East River, the new Anton Paar headquarters will join a growing cluster of companies, including OJB Landscape Architecture, which acquired one of the 10K SF Studio buildings for its Houston offices.

Also at East River, Orion Group Holdings has moved into its new headquarters, and Midway is developing Port Houston’s 95K SF headquarters, which will be completed in late 2025. 

PEOPLE

Hines hired three people to its leadership team as the firm with $90.1B of assets under management continues to scale its global platform. All three will be based in Hines’ Houston headquarters. 

John Jones joins as managing partner, general counsel and chief compliance officer, bringing nearly two decades of experience from Cantor Fitzgerald, where he helped scale its investment platform into a $13B AUM business.

Simon Okunev joins as senior managing director and global head of technology following his role as chief information officer at Tishman Speyer, where he pioneered smart building systems, IoT platforms and AI-driven efficiencies.

Jason Lorenz joins as senior managing director, head of human resources technology, operations and employee experience, joining from Citadel.

SALES

Blacktop Industrial Trust acquired Rosslyn Business Park, a fully leased heavy industrial campus in Northwest Houston, from Houston-based Clay Development & Construction Inc. Rosslyn Business Park is a 338K SF, 11-building campus on 45 acres that also encompasses outdoor storage space. 

Blacktop closed the transaction in partnership with an alternative investment firm with dedicated real estate investment vehicles. Blacktop is backed by Rizk Ventures. JLL Capital Markets served as financial adviser to Blacktop. 

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Bridge Tower Partners sold a 375-home single-family rental portfolio across eight markets in Texas, Georgia and North Carolina. The largest concentrations are in Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and San Antonio. The portfolio is 93.7% occupied.

JLL Capital Market’s Investment Sales and Advisory team representing the seller was led by Matthew Putterman, Jim Humphries, Daniele Colbertaldo, Casey Sherman and Rhett Robins. 

LEASES

Stream Realty Partners announced the following leases: 

• Adams Warehouse & Delivery expanded into 29K SF at 309 McCarty St. Boone Smith and Meg Zschappel with Stream represented the landlord, ATCAP Partners. Jim Arledge with Arledge & Co. represented the tenant.
• De Well Container Shipping leased 248K SF at 9120 I-10 E. in Baytown. Tyler Maner, Jeremy Lumbreras and Jake Linderman with Stream and Andrew Lara with Lara CRE Group represented the tenant. Richard Quarles, Mark Nicholas and Joseph Berwick with JLL represented the landlord, Archway Properties.
• ChiChi Trade expanded into 36K SF at 7121 Brittmoore Road. Garret Geaccone, Jack Rathe and Smith with Stream represented the landlord, DRA Advisors. Nile Copeland with World Wide Realty represented the tenant.
• China Jushi Co. leased 70K SF at 9040 Railwood Drive. Geaccone and Smith with Stream represented the landlord, DRA Advisors. Feiyun Cheng with RE/MAX Memorial Commercial represented the tenant.

CONSTRUCTION & DEVELOPMENT

PV Hardware USA, a provider of solar tracking and foundation solutions, opened its second U.S. manufacturing facility in Houston. The 95K SF facility began operations in July and created more than 100 jobs. It joins the company’s first $30M U.S. manufacturing facility, which opened in Houston in May 2024.

FINANCING

The mortgage on Decorative Center of Houston was sold to a new lender, according to Ross Cohen of Cohen Brothers Realty Corp., which lists the building in its portfolio. This comes after the 515K SF building was filed for potential foreclosure in May, but a representative of Cohen Brothers said it was working on a “mutually satisfactory resolution.”

Morningstar Credit reports that the loan was resolved at an $11.9M loss. Cohen said he does not have insight into the transaction between the old lender and new loan purchaser. The originally $50M loan moved to special servicing in January after missing maturity, per Morningstar.