Good morning,
Below, please find this week's real estate news from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. Noteworthy, are this links to the Real Estate Center's podcast and the ability to subscribe to the newsletter at the bottom of the post. Texan's are fortunate to have such a wealth of information available to them.
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RECON Real Estate Center Online News May 21, 2010 Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Material herein is published according to the fair-use doctrine of U.S. copyright laws related to non-profit, educational institutions. Items attributed to sources other than the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University should not be reprinted without permission of the original source.
SUGAR LAND HITS HOME RUN SUGAR LAND (City of Sugar Land) – The City of Sugar Land, along with Opening Day Partners LLC, has announced plans for a $30 million stadium to house its new minor league baseball team. The stadium will be a flexible multi-use facility that will be used year-round for college and high school baseball tournaments, concerts and various community events. A cost-benefit analysis shows an annual benefit of $7.7 million or a total return of $169 million over a span of 30 years. Funding for the stadium will partially be drawn from sales tax revenue that was approved during a special election on Nov. 4, 2008. Sugar Land’s new baseball team plans to take the field in April 2012.
DPS PULLS OVER IN WESLACO WESLACO (Mid-Valley Town Crier) – Ground broke last week on the Texas Department of Public Safety’s new regional headquarters in Weslaco. The city's economic development corporation donated 20 acres near FM 1015 and Mile 9 for the new 110,000-sf facility, slated for a summer 2011 completion. “It will provide more security for Weslaco. It will be good for the economy as well,” said Jose C. Rodriguez III, DPS regional commander. “Two-hundred twelve employees will be housed in this office, many of which will be from Weslaco.” The complex will include three separate buildings, a two-story headquarters building, a drivers license facility and an ancillary building.
NEWS TOUR DE TEXAS COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Take a quick tour of the latest Texas real estate news on this week's edition of the Real Estate Red Zone podcast. Hosts Bryan Pope and Edie Craig travel to the state's major metros as well as to Paris, Odessa, Waco, Midlothian, South Padre Island and Boerne. You can listen to the free podcast from your computer by going to recenter.tamu.edu/podcast and clicking the “play” button beneath each episode. To subscribe, click on the RSS feed found on the podcast page. You can also subscribe through iTunes and download each episode to your iPod. So grab a cup of coffee and join us in the Red Zone. And be sure to tell your friends about us.
HOUSTON HOME SALES TAKE OFF IN APRIL HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – Sales on existing single-family homes in the Houston area totaled 5,321 last month — a 26.7 percent increase over the 4,199 homes sold in April 2009. The largest sales jump appeared in properties priced above $500,000. The average price of a single-family home appreciated to $206,414, up 6.8 percent from April 2009. This is the second month in a row for a rise in sales and the seventh consecutive month for an increase in home prices for the Houston area.
SYSCO TO EMPLOY MORE HOUSTONIANS HOUSTON (Houston Chronicle) – Sysco Corp. has acquired the 669,000-sf facility at 24500 Northwest Fwy. on US 290. The 100-acre site, formerly the Hewlett Packard customer call center, will now be home to a shared services center for the food service supplier. The center is expected to create up to 2,000 positions, many of which will be filled by individuals in the Houston area. ALAMO
CITY HOME SALES UP, PRICES DOWN SAN ANTONIO (San Antonio Express-News) – At the end of April, there were 2,189 pending existing home sales in the San Antonio area, up almost 40 percent from April 2009. The median home price dropped 3.8 percent to $143,000. Almost 75 percent of homes sold in April were priced under $200,000. The average number of days a home was on the market in April was 90, a decrease of six days compared with April 2009.
RETREAT TO LUBBOCK LUBBOCK (GlobeSt.com) – Landmark Properties and Harrison Street Real Estate Capital LLC have partnered to develop a $42 million student housing project near Texas Tech University. Wells Fargo Bank has committed to providing construction debt for the project, named The Retreat Lubbock. The 218-unit development is scheduled for a fall 2011 completion and will offer a mix of two-, three-, four- and five-bedroom cottages averaging almost 1,800 sf.
ACC BRANCHING OUT MORE ELGIN (Austin Business Journal) – The Austin Community College (ACC) District signed a deal to purchase 98 acres in Elgin after buying a 100-acre plot in Leander less than a week ago. Elgin ISD is considering joining the ACC taxing district along with Bastrop, Hays, McDade ISD and San Marcos CISD. If the city is annexed into the district, the 98 acres will be home to the future Elgin-Austin Community College campus. “ACC’s land-banking strategy is a forward-looking effort to acquire potential campus sites within the college’s 7,000-square-mile, eight-county service area. Changing demographics as well as increasing demand for workforce degrees and certificates are driving dramatic enrollment increases,” ACC President and CEO Stephen B. Kinslow said. If the annexation effort is successful, the first phase of the Elgin’s campus construction will be set for completion in 2014. For more information on ACC's Leander purchase see "ACC Branches Out" in the May 14, 2010, issue of RECON.
ARMY'S NEW HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT COMPLETED SAN ANTONIO (San Antonio Business Journal) – Satterfield and Pontikes Construction Inc. has completed construction on its 132,000-sf primary health clinic at Fort Sam Houston. The $34.9 million health center will provide inpatient, outpatient and specialty health care services for service duty soldiers, relieving the patient load from the post’s existing medical facilities. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded the contract and oversaw construction. In addition to the clinic, almost $3 billion in military construction, primarily at Fort Sam Houston, is being invested in San Antonio military bases.
MERCEDES-BENZ PARKING AT GRAPEVINE GRAPEVINE (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) – Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Park Place Mercedes-Benz facility in Grapevine happened Wednesday. The multimillion-dollar project at 1300 Texan Trail and Hwy. 114 will include a 27,000-sf showroom with space for 15 vehicles, a 37,000-sf service shop with 71 service bays and a 20,000-sf Park Place BodyWerks paint and body shop. Construction on the 20-acre site is expected to be completed by August 2011. Good Fulton & Farrell of Dallas is the project architect. Hill & Wilkinson of Plano is the contractor.
'SIGNS OF STABILITY' FOR COW TOWN, TEXAS, NATIONAL HOME PRICES FORT WORTH (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) – Prices of existing homes in Fort Worth-Arlington increased 0.75 percent in March compared with last year, according to the CoreLogic real estate research firm. Overall, Texas had a 2.2 percent increase while there was a 1.7 percent increase nationwide. “In more than half of the 100 markets surveyed by CoreLogic, home prices increased from March 2009. The year-over-year increase is a sign of stability,” said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic’s chief economist.
DOWNTOWN WACO'S NEW MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT WACO (Waco Tribune) – An $18 million mixed-use development is planned for the east side of Franklin Ave. between South Sixth and Seventh Streets. The developer of Franklin Place is 921 Partners LLC. Waco's tax increment finance zone board approved $2.5 million in tax benefits for Franklin Place. Construction is set to begin in two to four months. Four buildings on the property will have to be removed to make way for the four-story building which will include commercial and residential units. Turner said 20 percent of the development will be used for commercial business while the remainder will be housing units available for leasing.
LANDCORE ADVANCES WITH TIMBERCREEK FLOWER MOUND (GlobeSt.com) – Pending city approval, Landcore Development plans to break ground this fall on phase one of a two-building medical office development next to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on FM 2499. The $20 million Timbercreek Medical Park will total 120,000 sf in two 60,000-sf Class-A buildings. Once 75 percent of the first building is leased, at an asking rate of $22 per sf, the firm will begin on the second three-story building. In addition to the two buildings, land for a three-acre park for patients and staff as well as covered parking has been included in the design. VERUS Real Estate Advisors will handle leasing on the property.
BEAN PLANT SPROUTS NEW OWNER FORT WORTH (GlobeSt.com) – Allens Inc. has purchased the former 211,743-sf Ranch Style Beans facility at 1734 East El Paso St. from ConAgra. The property was appraised at $15 million, according to the Tarrant County Appraisal District and is on 20 acres close to the downtown area. The family-owned vegetable processing plant is expected to be operational by June 15. HOUSTON'S
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY SALES DROP 50 PERCENT HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – The Bayou City’s commercial property sales dropped 50 percent in the last 12 months, according to research firm LoopNet Inc. Last year’s cycle, ending in March 2009, had sales totaling $4.7 billion while this year’s reached $2.36 billion. However, the price per sf of industrial property improved to $65 compared with $45 last year. The price per sf of Houston’s office and retail markets this year dropped from $172 to $110 and $143 to $69, respectively. The city’s multifamily market showed a $3 million difference in deals closed between the two cycles and an increase of purchase price from $42.2 million to $56.3 million.
@ THE CENTER To subscribe or unsubscribe to RECON or to view back issues go to the Real Estate Center's website. To send news items for consideration, e-mail Bryan Pope. The Real Estate Center is part of the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University in College Station - the heart of the Research Valley.
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Enjoy and have a great Sunday!
Sam White
MarketReports.SamWhiteRealty.com
979-589-4487
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