Financing

The Houston and Dallas offices of HFF arranged financing for three deals:

• The Dallas office secured a $5.8M refinancing for Jupiter Tech Center and Summit Service Center, flex/industrial buildings totaling almost 132k SF in Plano. HFF associate director Brandon Chavoya worked exclusively on behalf of Vintage Interests in arranging the five-year, fixed-rate loan through ViewPoint Bank. 
  

• HFF closed the sale of and arranged financing for Broadstone Walker Commons, a Class A REO multi-housing community in League City. HFF senior managing directors Craig LaFollette, Todd Stewart and Todd Marix, director TreBanks and associate director Chris Curry led the investment sales team on behalf of the seller, a bank participation with Bank of America as the agent bank.
  

• The Dallas and Houston offices also arranged $6.5M  in financing for Oaks of Woodforest, a 494-unit multi-housing community in Houston. Working exclusively on behalf of Post Investment Group, HFF managing director Kevin MacKenzie and associate director Cameron Cureton placed the three-year, adjustable-rate loan with Texas Capital Bank.

Leases

Zio's Italian Kitchen leased almost 6k SF in The Village at Sports Center at the NEC of South Cooper Street and Wimbledon Drive in Arlington from The Village at Sports Center, repped by The Retail Connection's Scott Rose and John Mathes. The tenant was repped by Quest Commercial Realty's Paul Natwick.

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Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services handled two lease renewals and three new leases.

• Sigma Relocation Group renewed almost 10k SF and added close to 4k of office space at Regent Place at 1304 Walnut Hill Lane in Irving. Bradford SVPs Sharon Friedberg and Melanie Hughes and  Sunwest Real Estate Group's Marc Grossfeld repped the landlord, Regent Place. Stream Realty's Kyle Jacobs repped the tenant.
  

• Metroplex Distribution renewed more than 6k SF of warehouse/distribution space in Port America Place I at 755 Port America Place in Grapevine. Bradford's Joe Santaularia represented the tenant. Lincoln Property Co.'s Gil Stroube repped the landlord, AMB Property Corp. 
  

• Sleeptech Systems Co. leased 18k SF of warehouse space in Regal Business Center Building 6 at 4647 Leston Ave. in Dallas, from Regal Business Center. VP Brian Pafford represented the landlord. CBRE's David Easterling represented the tenant.
  

• North Texas UMS LLC leased 5k SF of office/warehouse space in Trinity West Business Park Building 1 at 2550 114th St. in Grand Prairie from William J. Owen Trust and OMO Investment Co. VPs Jim Ferris and Michael Spain repped the landlord. Houston-based CITI Realty's Kenneth Ray Purswell repped the tenant.
  

• Import Design leased 4k SF of warehouse/distribution space in DFW Airfreight Center at 1200-40 Texan Trail in Grapevine from Tarrant County. Market director Nick Talley and EVP Karen Simon represented the landlord.

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Plano's 1st and 10 Sports Bar leased 4k SF in Spring Creek Marketplace in Plano. The John Bowles Co.'s Taylor LeMaster and Charles Williams repped the landlord and Triumph's Vann Shank repped the tenant.

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UCR repped six leases for 43k SF.

• Wild Salsa, a restaurant by Mike Hogue (owner of Dallas Chop House) leased 5k SF at The Mercantile building in Dallas from FM Merc Complex. UCR's Jack Gosnell represented the tenant. 
  

• Spirit Halloween Store leased 11k SF at Highlands Ranch Shopping Center in Flower Mound from UCR Asset Services.  UCR's Darrell Hernandez and J.D. Robertson represented Highlands Ranch. 
  

• Natural Grocers leased 11k SF at Preston Forest Village in Dallas from PFV/Realty III. UCR's Tey Tiner represented the tenant. 
  

• Smile Magic of Lewisville has leased 6k SF at 1111 S. Stemmons Frwy. in Lewisville from 121 Plaza. UCR's Stan Lotridge represented the tenant. 
  

• Edwin Watts Golf leased 7k SF at Inwood Village in Dallas from L&B DEPP Inwood Village. UCR's Lawrence Attaway represented the lessor. 
  

• Scrubs & Beyond leased 3k SF of retail space at Medallion Center in Dallas. Tom Heraty of NAI Robert Lynn represented the tenant, and Chris Gibbons of Venture Commercial repped the landlord.

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United Southern Waste Material Co. signed a long-term lease for its corporate HQ and distribution center in an 88k SF warehouse/office facility at 2800 W. Illinois in Dallas. NAI Robert Lynn's Tom Lynn and Craig Jones repped the tenant and Gillis Thomas Co.'s Don Conlan repped the landlord.

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Zigmo leased 25k SF of office/warehouse space in North Fort Worth. NAI Robert Lynn's Todd Hubbard repped the tenant. NAI Huff Partners' Jerry Alexander represented the landlord, Fort Worth Northbrook. 

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Grubb & Ellis Co. completed the following lease transactions:

• Superior Air Parts leased 41k SF of industrial space at the Freeport Business Park at 621 S. Royal Lane from Texas Dugan Limited Partnership. Mackenzie Schriber and Brock Wilson represented the lessee. Duke Realty's Randy Wood represented the lessor. 
  

• NPL Construction leased 14k SF of industrial space at 2820 Market St. in Garland from DFA. Gary Lindsey represented both parties. 
  

• D2 Architecture leased 5k SF of office space at The Oilwell Supply Building at 2001 N Lamar St. from BACM 2000-2 Lamar Supply Building. Cribb Altman and Lee Wagner represented the tenant. Bradford Corfac International's Steven Ferreira repped the landlord.
  

• LaRoche Petroleum Consultants renewed its lease of 7k SF of office space, located at 4600 Greenville Ave., from DFW Advisors. Cribb Altman and Lee Wagner repped the tenant. ANA Properties' Jim Falvo repped the landlord. 
  

• Sean Dalton and Chris Wright repped the landlord in two deals. Association of Drilled Shaft Contractors leased 5k SF of office space at Parkway Tower at 8445 Freeport Pkwy. from SMA Equities. JLL's Stephen Holley represented the lessee. They also repped the landlord, Overlook Group, in a 4k SF renewal of  Darling International at The Overlook at Las Colinas at 251 O'Connor Ridge Blvd. The Weitzman Group's Larry Denisoff repped the tenant.

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Leo A. Daly Co. renewed its 16k SF lease at the office complex at Mockingbird Station. CAPSTAR Commercial Real Estate Services'Clint Madison and Ward Eastman negotiated for the landlord. JLL's Brooke Armstrong and Carl Ewert repped the tenant. Clint and Trey Smith  also repped Silvertree Partners in the 11k SF lease for Citrix Online at Heritage Square Two at 5001 LBJ. Cushman & Wakefield's Mike Wyatt also worked the deal.

Sales

New York-based HMS Holdings Corp. purchased 5615 Highpoint Dr. in Irving as the new national HQ for its wholly owned subsidiary, HMS. With this purchase, HMS will expand into 223k SF. Built in 1983, the Class B office building was renovated in 2007.

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Two buildings in the Hills at Decker Court development, a Las Colinas office complex lenders foreclosed on in November, have been purchased by Conroe-based investor, Texas Opportunity Fund I. The 100k SF two-building complex at 100 and 102 Decker Court was sold by GE Capital Equities. The appraisal district values the complex at $2.8M. The investment firm plans to invest capital to upgrade the properties, specifically the mechanical systems and common areas, before turning its focus on leasing the buildings.

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Responsive Education Solutions, a Texas-based Public Charter School operator with more than 50 campuses statewide, acquired a 158k SF Class A HQ building in Lewisville. Bradford prez Kevin Santaularia, EVP Bernard Deaton and VP Brian Pafford repped the seller of 1301 Waters Ridge Dr. in Lewisville. Axis Realty Solutions' Russell Chase represented the buyer.

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NAI Robert Lynn worked three sales totaling more than 166k SF of space with Todd Hubbard taking a role all three deals.

• Co-Operative Industries purchased a 121k SF warehouse at 1401 S. Cherry Lane in White Settlement. Todd repped   the buyer, and UCR's Ryan Tinch repped the seller.
  

• Compass Christian Church purchased a 32k SF building at 4201 Pool Rd. in Grapevine. Todd and Tyson Erwin represented the seller, Liberman Television. Century 21's Roslyn Gauntt and Tim Gauntt represented the buyer.
  

• Fort Worth Gasket purchased a 13k SF office/warehouse at 2200 Gravel Dr. in Fort Worth. Todd repped the buyer and Bradford's Todd Lambeth repped the seller.

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Twin Peaks purchased a 96k SF former Red Lobster building at 3111 E. SH 114 in Southlake. Darden SW was the seller. UCR's Jack Breard and David Shelton represented Twin Peaks. In another UCR deal, Carter Butler represented buyer and seller in a 41k SF acquisition by McDonalds USA at Centreport Station in Fort Worth from CentrePort Retail.

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Elcoteq moved its North American HQ to Irving from Richardson into 7k SF at 100 E. Royal Lane. Capital Commercial purchased the building. Peloton Commercial Real Estate's Jeff Wood and Barbara Houlihan represented the landlord. Grubb & Ellis' Sheila Bellinger represented Elcoteq.

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Private individual investors purchased almost a full acre of land at 3115 Forest Lane in North Dallas. The property has been under construction and is nearing completion on a Comerica branch bank. Comerica recently entered into a 20-year NNN ground lease on the property. Cushman & Wakefield's Dallas Capital Markets Group's Stephannie Mower, Brandon Beeson, and Will Walters represented the seller, BOMAC Partners.

People in the News

Ken Nwokedi of NAI Robert Lynn Co. was promoted to be a director in the corporate services division. Ken will provide commercial real estate corporate services to regional and national firms. He's already repped a seller in a 44k SF office building sale at 400 N. Akard. 

New Business

The new Parkland  Hospital selected Gene Burton & Associates to provide medical equipment planning services at the $1.27B replacement hospital campus in Dallas. The firm's consultants are currently working with the hospital's design and construction team to provide medical equipment installation specifications and develop cost estimates.

Good News/Bad News

Good news: CoStar reports that fundamentals in US office markets appear to have stabilized and are headed toward an expected recovery; positive net absorption returned in the 2Q and office vacancy rates that appear to have peaked and are no longer rising. At the current pace, if the current absorption and delivery trends hold, CoStar projects the office vacancy rate will fall from 13.6% to less than 11%  in (bad news) 2013. Looks like more staycations and thumb-twiddling ahead.

Rumors

The DBJ reported that CBRE Investors  placed Sterling  Plaza and Preston  Commons under contract and is expected to close the sale within a month. Located in the Preston Center business district, the two properties total more than 700k SF. The DBJ says CBRE Investors is reportedly buying the properties from Chicago-based Capri Capital, which took over ownership of them from BentleyForbes in early March. The pending sale, which the DBJ claims is at about $130M, would be one of the largest in North Texas this year.