Leases

JLL SVPs Jeff Eckert and James Esquivel negotiated Dallas deals for three owners. Among them:

• At Parkway Centre IV, Strayer University leased 15k SF for owner Windsor Parkway LLC. Cushman and Wakefield brokers Lou Christoper, Randy Cooper, Greg Biggs and Craig Wilson represented Strayer University.
  

• At Four Forest Plaza, JLL repped property owner, Younan Properties in four leases totaling 15k SF. Colonial Savings leased 6k SF, represented by Corporate Realty Advisors'Clint Dabsky and Jay Rigelsky. THI of Texas at Samaritan Hospice leased 6k SF, represented by CBRE's Clay Gilbert and Blake Shipley. Morton PLC leased almost 2k SF, represented by Swearingen's Paul Mungia. Prescott Pailet Benefits leased 1k SF, represented by Newmark Knight Frank's Seth Weinstein.
  

• At Park Place on Turtle Creek, JLL negotiated a 3k SF lease with Willmac for property owner Dividend Capital Total Realty Trust. The tenant was represented by Swearingen's Bo Bowman.

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Another JLL deal was inked by SVP Sandie Matejek at at Two Energy Square for property owner Younan Properties. Represented by Newmark Knight Frank's John Shaunfield and Kyle Jett, Queen Biel Fissette PC leased 5k SF.

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In Fort Worth, JLL arranged 13  Fort Worth leases totaling 40k SF:

At Nuevell Building, JLL SVPs Frank Taylor and Whit Kelly negotiated a 1k SF lease for Cobb, Fendley & Associates on behalf of  the owner, The Yim Chow Revokable Trust.

Whit Kelly  repped the owners for three buildings in the following deals:

• At 550 Bailey, two leases totaling 5k SF were negotiated for GC Museum Partners. Allied Cementing Company, LLC leased 4k SF and Clear Fork Properties leased 1k SF.
  

• Two deals for owner MS Crescent One SPV, LLC were inked. The Blum Firm leased 8k SF at Carter Burgess Plaza and Main Street Travel leased 3k SF at 110 West 7th Street.

Frank Taylor  repped three owners in lease deals including:

• Three leases totaling almost 9k SF for Omni American Bank including 1k SF for Edward D. Jones & Co.; 5k SF for Marshall R. Young Oil Company; and 2k S F for Blue Crest Energy, LP all at University Centre II.
  

• Smith & Cross, LLP leased 3k SF and Hill & Woodard, LLP leased 2k SF at 1300 South University Drive for U Centre I Real Estate Ltd.
  

• ProStaff Personnel Services leased 2k SF from PNL Companies at Two City Place.

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John Bowles Company worked two deals including the 10k SF Pet Supplies Plus lease at Promenade South Shipping Center in Richardson. UCR's Karla Smith represented the tenant and JBC Retail's Taylor LeMaster represented the landlord. Subzi Mandi grocery store leased 25k SF at Spring Creek Marketplace at 6205 Coit Road, JBC Retail's Charles Williams repped the landlord with Taylor's assistance.

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Stream Realty's Kyle Jacobs and Chad Hennings represented QVL Pharmacy in a 7k  SF seven-year lease renewal and expansion at The Centre at 4141 Blue Lake Circle. GVA Cawley's Seth Thatcher represented the landlord. Kyle also worked two other deals repping:

• Sterling Bancshares, Inc. in a 10k SF, 11-year lease renewal at 1250 Mockingbird Lane with TXRE Properties, Inc.'s Justin Smith repping the landlord.
  

• Northstar Anesthesia, P.A. in a 7k SF, seven-year lease expansion and extension at 2000 East Lamar. SCM Real Estate's Theron Bryant and Gary Walker represented the landlord.

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Centennial Liquors signed a long term 8k SF lease with Centric Capital Partners at the northeast corner of Ross and Greenville avenues in Dallas. Centric negotiated the lease directly.

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CLEAResult Consulting, Inc. leased 6k SF of office space in Premier Center at 6500 N. Belt Line Road from Bro-Co, LLC. Grubb & Ellis'Heather Densmore Shover and Chris Wright represented the lessor in the transaction. JLL's Campbell Henry represented the lessee.

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Buffalo Wild Wings leased 6k SF in Denton Crossing Shopping Center at 1400 South Loop 288 in Denton. The Retail Connection's Wyatt Russo and Mitch Traub repped the tenant.

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McDonald Technologies, Inc., a long time tenant within the Valwood Industrial Park, leased 65k SF in Vintage Interests' property at 2310 McDaniel in Carrollton. The firm will move into the property during the third quarter. Stream Realty Partners' Blake Kendrick and Seth Koschak represented Vintage Interests and Jackson Cooksey's Mike Quint represented McDonald Technologies.

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Archipelago Learning Inc. signed a 10-year lease for bi-level space formerly occupied by Bally's Health Club in One McKinney Plaza in Uptown. Gaedeke Group LLC, owner of the  256k SF high rise at 3232 McKinney Ave., is in the process of white boxing or returning the two-story space to shell condition to ready it for Archipelago's build-out. The new lease drives building occupancy to 94%. The finish-out plan for the 37k SF office should be ready to bid in a couple weeks.

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Dallas-based Horizon Data Center Solutions LLC finalized a 10-year lease for its first facility on the East Coast. A West Coast location will be decided by year's end. In anticipation of a June opening, Horizon is readying 11k SF first-generation, raised-floor space in Power Loft @ Innovation Park at 9651 Hornbaker Road in Manassas, Va. As part of the set-up plan, Horizon has installed a private fiber ring to connect its facility in Prince William County's 1,500-acre Innovation Park to all major hubs in Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia. GVA Cawley's Mission Critical Connect's Bryan Loewen says Horizon evaluated all available Tier III/IV mission-critical facilities in Northern Virginia before settling on the LEED-certified Power Loft @ Innovation Park. The building's flexible two-story configuration, Defense Threat Reduction Agency-compliant design and unique, energy-efficient engineering provide Horizon optimal expansion potential at minimal cost helped it win the deal. Horizon has leased two bays in Power Loft's 106k SF data center, making an initial commitment of 2 megawatts of critical IT power. Additionally, Horizon can significantly increase its footprint via Power Loft's ability to deliver up to 30 megawatts of critical IT load. McLean, Va.,-based Millennium Realty Advisors LLC VP Rob Walters and Bryan spent four months negotiating Horizon's lease agreement, which includes a 10-year renewal option. Power Loft @ Innovation Park was developed by Power Loft LLC of McLean, Va., with financial backing from Washington, D.C.-based Iron Point Partners LLC, manager of a $460M equity fund formed in 2007 to invest in data center development and other commercial real estate investments. Power Loft also has a 23-acre development site in San Antonio's Westover Hills.

Sales

GoldenTree InSite Partners (GTIS Partners) and Hines acquired a 24-acre fully entitled 92-lot residential parcel to be named Villas at Emerald Park, the third phase of the Emerald Valley subdivision, in Las Colinas. The lots have been pre-sold to Meritage Homes Corporation under a contractual delivery schedule that commences in January. GTIS Partners ventured with the Hines southwest region in purchasing the land, and this investment provides the opportunity for GTIS Partners and Hines to explore other land investments with Hines as an operating partner. The business plan for the partnership is to finalize the engineering plans, complete the lot infrastructure improvements, and deliver the finished lots to Meritage over a 30-month period.

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SNG Realty, L.P. acquired 54k SF of land in Burleson for the development of a medical office building. The land, lots seven and eight, are part of a 200k+ SF medical office development at 300 Old FM 1187. A site plan and architectural plans have been created for the medical development; each building will contain at least 6k SF of office space and ample parking spaces. SNG Realty plans to construct an 8k SF medical office/condo building on the property. Henry S. Miller EVP Jim Turano brokered the buy for SNG Realty from local investors.

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Taco Cabana bought the 43k SF building in Weatherford Ridge at the northeast corner of I-20 and Main St. in Weatherford. The Retail Connection's Jeremy Zidell repped the seller, Weather I-20/Main St. LP. John T. Evans Co.'s Dan Garrett repped the seller.

Financial

Hillwood purchased a $38M performing loan from a national residential lender. The loan is secured by five partially developed master-planned communities and two golf courses in Georgia and Texas. The loan collateral within the communities includes more than 800 platted single-family lots  and 4k planned residential acres. Hillwood moved from offer to close in just 45 days. Hillwood is actively pursuing acquisitions of residential loans throughout the country, Hillwood Residential prez Fred Balda says.

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HFF arranged financing for Meadow Chase Apartments, an 86-unit multi-housing complex in West Des Moines, Iowa. Working exclusively on behalf of an affiliate of Abacus Capital Group, LLC, HFF senior managing director Mona Carlton placed the seven-year, fixed-rate loan with Freddie Mac. Loan proceeds are being used to acquire the property. HFF will service the loan through their Freddie Mac Program Plus(r) Seller/Servicer program. Meadow Chase Apartments is located at 5234 Boulder Drive in West Des Moines. The 97% leased property has 13 two-story buildings with two-bedroom units averaging 935 square feet each. 

Auction

A former DFW business that specialized in terrazzo tile for industrial buildings will auction its assets at 11 am on June 8. The Santa Regina International 49k SF industrial terrazzo tile building, located on I-45 in Palmer will be auctioned live and online along with its patented Breton tile system, support equipment and surplus tile inventory. Santa Regina International, or Santa Regina Tile, claimed exclusive North American rights for a unique Breton tile terrazzo manufacturing system that produced high-end durable tiles. The auction will offer the real estate first  followed by the sale of equipment by lots. The real estate has highway frontage along I-45 and the equipment includes tile manufacturing items, the batch system, office furniture, support equipment, and surplus tile inventory. Potential buyers are encouraged to attend open houses or by appointment. Details of the sale are available at the auction website, maascompanies.com.

People News

KAI Texas selected Jeff Blackwell as its new construction manager. With 25 years in the industry, Jim will assist the firm in public projects including the renovation of DFW International Airport terminals and the expansion of the DART light rail lines. Prior to KAI Texas, Blackwell worked at Austin Commercial, LP on projects including Presbyterian Hospital, Texas Instruments' Kilby Center, the Bank of America Plaza, Vista Ridge Mall, DFW Airport Terminal D and various key buildings for American Airlines.

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Josh Womack joined SCM Real Estate as acquisitions analyst and asset manager. He has a background in public accounting from national and regional firms, as well as commercial brokerage experience with a national real estate firm.

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Donald Schmidt has been promoted to senior director for Grubb & Ellis Company Corporate Services in the company's Dallas office. The newly created position that reflects the company's expanding multi-market client relationships. He will manage the company's relationships with Goodman Inc., Pioneer Drilling Inc., Texas Instruments  and Sun Belt Rentals, acting as the single-point-of-contact. He will also be responsible for the delivery of multi-market tenant rep, disposition and real estate consulting solutions. He previously served as director, Corporate Services, of the company's Houston office. 

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Trae Anderson joined  Grubb & Ellis Company as SVP, Office Group. He'll strive to enhance Grubb & Ellis' existing landlord rep presence in the Dallas office market. He spent the last two years as a managing partner with Dominus Commercial, Inc., where he was responsible for providing landlord rep services and providing oversight of the company's leasing team. While at Dominus, he earned the company's Top Producer Award  in 2009, in part by growing the firm's leasing assignments by 1 million square feet.

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Cushman & Wakefield of Texas, Inc. added retail leasing services to the list of offerings provided by the company's Dallas branch office and brought in Lisa Streidl, formerly a SVP and managing partner of boutique retail firm Blatteis & Schnur, as a director in the Transaction Services group specializing in retail leasing. Lisa will focus on both tenant and landlord rep in the retail sector. Her responsibilities include leasing, site selection/acquisition, site disposition, and portfolio administration for requirements in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She brings more than 16 years of real estate industry experience to C&W. Prior to joining Blatteis & Schnur, she was a VP with CB Richard Ellis  where she managed a team focusing on retail core, urban neighborhood and community shopping center leasing on both the tenant and landlord side of the business.

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Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services promoted  Anne Turney to president of Bradford Management Co. Inc. and hired an industry leader to oversee and expand the Greater Fort Worth portfolio with the addition of Brenda Kindt, a 20-year veteran experienced in office, retail, industrial and residential properties in DFW as VP. She most recently was general manager and Fort Worth business development manager for Stream Realty Partners L.P. Brenda will focus on developing new management opportunities in Tarrant County and Greater Fort Worth, targeting all commercial industrial and retail product types. Anne has managed many signature office assets for institutional and private investors in Dallas, including Turtle Creek Centre  and  Stemmons Place.

For Sale

According to OKCREview, Devon Energy is selling its current 307k SF headquarters building at 20 North Broadway in Oklahoma City hiring OKC-based Grubb & Ellis/Levy Beffort managing director Mark Beffort to broker the sale. Devon currently has a new 50-story downtown office tower under construction just a block away.

Kudos

The Dallas District of the Small Business Administration named the Dallas-based general contractor GCC Enterprises, Inc. prez and COO Gregory L. Cody as the Dallas District Minority Small Business Person of the Year for 2009. Gregory was selected as the Dallas District leading minority small business entrepreneur because he has demonstrated and fulfilled a commitment to support minority entrepreneurship. Other judging criterion for the annual award included his volunteer efforts that extend beyond business/professional responsibilities to advance minority small business interests, his demonstrated efforts to improve conditions in the minority small business community as a whole including providing professional services to the minority small business community and his demonstrated accomplishments in advising minority small business groups of opportunities within the overall business community.