Houston Investor Pays $40M for Clear Lake Mall Property

Alpine Income Property Trust, a REIT, has unloaded a large part of a Clear Lake mall property. Local investment company, Ashita Investments acquired a significant portion of the retail property at Baybrook Mall from the publicly traded REIT. The Houston Business Journal said Ashita’s chairman Sammy Virani paid $40 million in cash for the 33-acre property. The acquisition includes more than 175,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space on both sides of the Gulf Freeway just north of Bay Area Boulevard.

Current tenants include The Burger Joint, Crazy Alan’s Swamp Shack, Olive Garden, Ethan Allen, Rooms To Go, Rooms To Go Patio, Visionworks, Longhorn Steakhouse and Charles Schwab. Ashita has the option to buy an adjacent Lowe’s.

Ashita tried to purchase the portfolio in 2021 but was beat out by Alpine. When Alpine put the property back up for sale Ashita bought it within three weeks.