Los Angeles-based Rising Realty Partners purchased Commerce Center Stafford, a 245K SF industrial park in Stafford, southwest of Houston.

It is the first Texas acquisition for Rising, which also purchased two other industrial properties over the past year. The Stafford property at 3750 Greenbriar Drive is home to 16 buildings and is 90% occupied. Director Charlie Strauss, Senior Managing Director Trent Agnew and analysts Katherine Miller and Jack Moody, all of JLL, represented the seller in the transaction.

“We’re excited to enter the Texas real estate market, one of the fastest growing, pro-business environments with a strong demand for light industrial space,” Rising CEO Christopher Rising said in a release. “We remain bullish on light, multi-use industrial and logistics spaces in sunbelt states from California to Texas.”

The property, built between 1996 and 2004, was acquired for $33.6M, according to investment site RealtyMogul, which is helping Rising find investors for the project. Rising estimates the property will deliver an average 7.5% cash return in an area it says is lacking in newer industrial buildings. According to the company, no new product has been built in the submarket since before the financial crisis of 2007-2009.

Current tenants at the property include NCS Subsea, Pika, Sunrgy Solar Distribution, CMT Engineering Laboratories, First National Bank Texas, American Water Damage, Lightsome Flooring and Socon Sonar Well Services.

In an investor memo, Rising said tenant turnover at the property is low, adding leasing activity had been "robust" over the past 12 months, growing from 72% to 90% occupied while rental rates climbed 18%. Rising intends to reposition the asset through project rebranding, building accent striping, adding new project and tenant signage, landscaping, and building out eight currently vacant suites to position them as market-ready suites.

Commerce Center Stafford is the third property acquired by Rising’s investment arm. Previously, the company snapped up Cheyenne Airport Center in Las Vegas and 9320 Telstar in Del Monte, California. In addition to RealtyMogul, capital for the acquisition was raised through the Rising Investor Platform, Rising’s internal platform that allows accredited investors to partner in a building’s ownership structure.

Christopher Rising told the Houston Business Journal that he was looking to expand further into Texas, with an expected Dallas purchase to come in the next six months. Another lease at Commerce Center Stafford is also in the works, he told the HBJ.