Houston's grocery wars center around major players like H-E-B, Kroger and Walmart, but a dark horse candidate is vying for its piece of the pie—Aldi. This week, the budget grocery chain opened its 25th and announced its 26th Houston location.

Houston-based Baker Katz has leased its 23.5k SF building in Lake Jackson to Aldi. Chris Pitts and Joe Silver of Streetwise Retail Partners repped the tenant.

LEASES

Cypressbrok Co completed three deals this week:

• Greg Usher repped Lassiter Industries in the leasing of 12k SF of industrial space at 16420 West Hardy Road in Houston. Liberty Property Trust's Christie Weiss repped the landlord in-house.

• Joyce Sterling repped the tenant, DynaQual, in leasing 4,400 SF of industrial flex space at 301 Wells Fargo Drive in Houston. Nancy Bravo of Berkeley Properties repped the landlord.

• Denise Ksiazek repped the Landlord, Conroe Associates, in a 2,500 SF office lease in the League Line Professional Plaza at 1336 League Line Road, Conroe. The tenant, Sandstone Chiropractic, was repped by Stryker Commercial Realty's Rich Endres.

SALES

NAI Partners' Michael Keegan repped Spring Bridge Properties in the purchase of a 15k SF warehouse facility on two acres in Hardy Industrial Center at 21430 Spring Bridge Drive in Houston.

FINANCING

Clayton Wells of BMC Capital's Dallas office arranged a $1.3M loan for the purchase of a 30-unit apartment complex in Conroe. The terms included five years fixed non-recourse with one year of interest-only payments, amortized over 30 years.

EXECS

Arch-Con Construction brought on Scott Crain (above) as a new VP, specializing in capital improvement projects, building on the success of projects such as renovating and upgrading the iconic One Riverway lobby and atrium.

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Aron Will, co-leader of CBRE Capital Markets’ national senior housing team, has been promoted to vice chairman. A 10-year industry veteran, Aron has participated in the financing of more than $6.2B in senior housing debt in his career, becoming CBRE’s youngest vice chairman to date.

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Skanska USA promoted Marty Massey to SVP of operations for the Texas region. In his new position, Marty is responsible for growing Skanska’s business in Texas, facilitating the execution and completion of projects and ensuring a quality product for clients.

DEVELOPMENT

McCarthy Building Cos began construction for a new state-of-the-art facility for Texas Children’s Hospital that will house the new Pediatric and RPCG Clinic. The scope of work includes a nonstructural demolition of existing interior space and build back of a new 20k SF facility.

THIS AND THAT

PMRG and National Real Estate Advisors' latest residential high-rise project, 2929 Weslayan, received LEED Gold certification.