Editors’ Weekly News Roundup November 11 – November 15
“Unfinished” doesn’t always mean half-finished, and a project may be very close to the finish line when it runs out of momentum. That was the case with X Houston, a 475-unit luxury high-rise multifamily development in Houston’s Museum District and the object of the past week’s most-read story on Connect CRE.
Enter Mavik Capital Management. As detailed in Mavik Provides $172M for Stalled Houston Project, the firm facilitated a recapitalization which will allow the 475-unit residential tower to top off—just four stories taller than its currently unfinished state.
Development was also the theme of the week’s second-highest-ranking story. In this instance, it’s a redevelopment which is contemplated for some time in the future. First, though, WPG needs to complete an assemblage, a process that came a step closer to fruition with the $10-million acquisition of the Macy’s store at WestShore Plaza in Tampa.
Tampa Mall Owner Buys Macy’s Store informed Connect CRE readers that the eventual goal is to launch a 3.5-million-square-foot mixed-use project at the mall. Acquiring the real estate of its anchor tenant represents further progress in a decade-long campaign to amass the assemblage.
Moving from acquisition to disposition, the week’s third most-read story reported Harrison Street’s success in monetizing some of its holdings in student housing. The buyer in Harrison Street Sells Nearly $900M Student Housing Portfolio was another Chicago-based firm, The Scion Group.
The portfolio includes 14 student housing properties across 11 states. The sale occurred shortly after Harrison Street completed a disposition of three senior living properties to Inland Real Estate Group.
Another marker of commercial real estate’s progress in rebounding from a slump was a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). We reported it as CRE Lending Volume Increases 59% Year-Over-Year in the week’s fourth most-read story.
Loan volume rose for all property types except office, according to MBA. The big winner was healthcare, which saw a 510% Y-O-Y increase in dollar volume. That said, all other major property types saw healthy double-digit annual increases in lending.
On the subject of office, the past week’s fifth most-read Connect CRE article marked a success story. The setting was downtown Boston, a market that has seen its share of leasing challenges, and the landlord was The Davis Companies.
Davis Brings Downtown Offices to Full Occupancy recounted the company’s leasing milestone at 200 High St. in downtown Boston’s Financial District. That was managed “despite office leasing trends across the region,” said Duncan A.C. Gilkey, SVP & director of leasing at Davis.
A forward-looking story in the latest edition of Weekender reported that institutional target allocations to real estate are anticipated to decrease in 2025 after remaining flat for two consecutive years. These investors will pursue other allocations instead. That’s among the topline findings of the 12th annual Institutional Real Estate Allocations Monitor, published by Hodes Weill & Associates and Cornell University’s Baker Program in Real Estate. You can read the full story here and sign up to receive Weekender on a regular basis here.