Is it East Houston’s time to shine? (They've been buying enough make up.) JBL Asset Management purchased a 201k SF shopping center, and it may be a harbinger of increased investment into the submarket.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Kris Von Hohn repped the seller with colleagues Tom Salanty, Chris Harden, Mark Gilbert, and Adam Feinstein and tells us Market at Hunting Bayou received a massive response; 150 people eyed the deal. Its value-add component was attractive (it has some vacancy to lease up), but its East Houston location was another big draw. Kris says the submarket’s increasing appeal is thanks to all the petrochem investment coming down the pipeline (pun intended). $16B is being invested in the region in the next five years from groups like Bayer, Chevron, Exxon, Enterprise Products, and ONEOK.

That will lead to $35B of direct and indirect investments over the next five to seven years, which will drive jobs, and those employees will want retail offerings. (In fact, there’s some construction in the area—for example, Pappa’s has a new restaurant under construction.) Market at Hunting Bayou sits in a prime retail corridor along I-10 at 11420 East Frwy. Kris says the deal had a lot of moving pieces (the worst kind of puzzle), including a couple of ground leases. It’s anchored by a Cinemark theater and 24 Hour Fitness.