Fairstead closed on a $20M investment to acquire and rehabilitate Sunflower Terrace Apartments at 5050 Sunflower St. in Houston’s southern Sunnyside neighborhood. 

Sunflower Terrace Apartments

Fairstead will work with R4 Capital, its mortgage lending affiliate R4 Capital Funding and the Houston Housing Finance Corp. The project will be reserved for low- and very low-income families.

The property consists of 160 affordable housing units under a project-based Section 8 contract. Rents will be capped at 50% of the area median income for half of the units and 60% of AMI for the remaining units.

Fairstead, a national affordable housing real estate company, will own the property with HHFC. Fairstead will also serve as developer and property manager.

The complex was originally built in 1971. Renovations will begin this summer and are slated for completion in August 2026. 

SALES

Houston-based real estate investment and development firm Griffin Partners acquired a 39K SF, two-building industrial park at 4901 Milwee St. in Northwest Houston. Colliers’ Todd Moore, Connor Duffy and Zack Martin represented the seller, Wolf Capital Partners. The park is 91% leased. 

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Colliers’ Tom Condon Jr., Greg Cizik and Edward Edson represented the seller of a 53K SF light industrial building at 9201 Winkler Drive near Hobby Airport. The buyer was a private investment group represented by Zane Carman of Partners Real Estate. Closing was coordinated by Charlotte Sanders and her team at Alamo Title Houston.

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Partners Real Estate’s Wyatt Huff and Hunter Stockard represented Harbor Hill Holdings in the sale of a 25K SF manufacturing facility on 7 acres at 1302 S. Cherry St. in Tomball. The property was acquired by a local private investor. 

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Ameritex Machine & Fabrication purchased a 145K SF property at 915 Conroe Park West Drive. Garret Geaccone with Stream Realty Partners represented the seller, TradeLane Properties. Tim ONeill with TSO Properties represented the buyer.

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Courtesy of Apricus Realty Capital

An 11-acre industrial outdoor storage site at 6003 Cunningham Road in Northwest Houston.

Apricus Realty Capital acquired an 11-acre industrial outdoor storage property with 32K SF of warehouse and office space across multiple buildings. The property in Northwest Houston, near Highway 290 and Beltway 8, is fully leased to Knight Oil Tools.

JLL Capital Markets worked on behalf of Apricus Realty Capital to secure acquisition financing, a three-year, fixed-rate, interest-only loan with one 24-month extension option.

CW Sheehan, Jack Britton, Peyton Ackerman and Nate Henderson led the JLL debt advisory team.

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Shawn Ackerman of Henry S. Miller Brokerage represented the seller of the 197K SF Woodforest Shopping Center in East Houston. Ackerman grew occupancy at the property from 37% to 96% over several years and sold it to a local buyer in a direct deal. 

LEASES

World Emblem, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based emblem and patch manufacturer, signed a 72K SF lease for a manufacturing facility at 6740 Signat Drive. The company is moving its regional operations from 35K SF in Northwest Houston into the larger space, which will initially produce up to 500,000 emblems and patches per week.

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Stream Realty Partners announced the following leases: 

• Marquis Distributors LLC expanded to a total of 23K SF at 525 Julie Rivers Drive in Sugar Land. Will Mason and Tyler Maner with Stream Realty Partners represented the tenant, and Boone Smith, Garret Geaccone and Natalie Gilbert, also with Stream, represented the landlord, Oxford Properties. 
• Vasa Tech North America LLC leased 35K SF at 8700 Clay Road. Jack Rathe and Brandon Preece with Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord, Entrada Partners. Jackie Chang with Forever Realty represented the tenant.

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Tri Pointe Homes renewed its 24K SF lease at Atrium at Park Ten, a 140K SF West Houston office building owned by Accesso. The homebuilder plans to upgrade its finishes and reconfigure its office layout over its new lease term.

CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

Griffin Partners Income & Value Fund IV and Peakline Real Estate Funds are expanding the Griffin 288/West Airport industrial project in Houston to three buildings with a combined 569K SF across 41 acres, CBRE announced. 

Griffin Partners and Peakline originally acquired about 18 acres in December and announced plans for a 225K SF industrial building. They acquired 23 more acres in May and announced plans for two more buildings. They have now combined those plans into a single phase with construction slated to begin this month.

CBRE’s Faron Wiley and Billy Gold will handle leasing efforts. Delivery is expected between April and June. 

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Chicago-based RSK Real Estate Partners has begun developing a 156-duplex build-to-rent community near the Market at Katy Park in Harris County. The to-be-named project will front the under-construction Galileo Way, which will create access to Morton Road in Northwest Katy.

RSK’s project will include 103 three-bedroom units and 53 two-bedroom designs, averaging 1,600 SF. The developer anticipates the buildings will start to deliver in the late second quarter of 2026.

NewQuest’s Rick Ragan and Glenn Dickerson represented RSK Real Estate Partners in the acquisition of the 9-acre development site. Matthew Davis and Kristen McDade of Cushman & Wakefield represented Morton Ranch Development LLC, the seller and developer of the Market at Katy Park, a 158K SF H-E-B-anchored retail center. 

FINANCING

Courtesy of Newmark

Layne Crossing

Crow Holdings completed a recapitalization of a 6M SF industrial portfolio that included seven buildings totaling nearly 900K SF in the Houston area. Blackstone Real Estate acquired a 95% stake in the portfolio, which also includes 18 other buildings in Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago.

The properties in Houston include Layne Crossing, with six buildings totaling 529K SF in Houston, and Victory Commerce Center, with one 349K SF building in Deer Park. 

Newmark’s Dom Espinosa, Jack Fraker, Dustin Volz and Kevin Donner advised Crow Holdings in the transaction, while the company’s Adam Spies, Marcella Fasulo and Josh King supported negotiations. Fried Frank was legal counsel for Crow Holdings.

Radom Capital and Triten Real Estate Partners are ready to go on their adaptive-reuse project at 621 Waverly St. The two Houston-based companies plan to transform the former Swift and Co. meat refinery plant at 621 Waverly St. into a 60,000-square-foot mix of retail and creative office space that will also have up to six restaurants. The property is next to M-K-T, a mixed-use project Triten and Radom redeveloped in 2021.

The Austin Business Journal reports the buildings that Radom Capital and Triten Real Estate Partners acquired were built in the early 1900s and added to in the 1950s. The two companies hired the Austin-based Michael Hsu Office of Architecture to design the project.

On the ground floor, Radom Capital and Triten Real Estate Partners hope to bring in a French bistro. Moving west, the property has a two-story component, which accounts for most of the square footage. The second floor of that section will be split between a rooftop cocktail bar and boutique offices. The final component is a freestanding building that once served as Swift’s fat-rendering facility.

Time Equities (TEI) acquired The Armory at Sam Houston, a student housing complex located at 2257 Sam Houston Avenue in Huntsville, for $25.75 million. Built in 2018, the 145-unit/502-bed development is the nearest privately owned student housing property to Sam Houston State University’s campus.

TEI targets assets serving public, tier 2 institutions, catering to schools with a student population ranging between 10,000 and 20,000, versus assets serving Power 5 schools.

TEI’s Bobby Cohan added, “We continuously identify value and growth potential in student housing nationwide, and we are actively seeking new acquisitions to augment our portfolio within this asset class.”

This acquisition marks TEI’s fourth venture into student housing, complementing its existing properties in Tennessee, including assets at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City and Tennessee Tech University located in Cookeville, as well as a property in Richmond, Virginia that serves Virginia Commonwealth University.

The seller, Stonemont, was represented by Newmark.

NexPoint Residential Trust closed on the sale of Old Farm in Houston, a 734-unit property built in 1996. The property was acquired for $84.7 million in 2016. As of March 1, 2024, the property was 91.41% leased with a weighted average effective monthly rent of approximately $1,307.

Net proceeds from the sale were approximately $49.4 million, delivering a trailing nominal tax and insurance adjusted cap rate of 5.36%, a 22.14% levered internal rate of return and a 2.98x multiple on invested capital. The Company will use a portion of the net proceeds from the sale to make a $24 million paydown on the Company’s corporate credit facility, continuing the Company’s strategic de-leveraging and balance sheet improvement initiatives.

“NXRT is pleased to announce the closing of Old Farm, which allows us to deliver a strong return on a 7-year investment, creates almost $50 million of liquidity for the Company and pays off our most expensive debt capital, a long-stated goal,” said the company’s Matt McGraner.

New Hope Housing recently broke ground on New Hope Housing Ennis – a new construction, 102-unit property that will provide much-needed affordable housing to the 55+ community for the Houston Metro area.

• 11 units will be reserved for individuals with household income below 30% of AMI
• 42 units will be reserved for those with household income below 50% AMI
• 49 units will be reserved for those with household income below 60% AMI

GSMA is the architect for the building, and Camden Builders is the general contractor. NHH Ennis was made possible in part by financing from Capital One, who originated a $16 million low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) equity investment and a $16 million construction loan. The development received $9 million in ARPA funding from Harris County. National Equity Fund served as the LIHTC syndicator.

Onsite resident services will include case management, emergency assistance and financial support, informational and referral services, and educational and recreational opportunities.