| Branding Chinatown: Neighborhood transforms
Flocking from SoCal to Houston," trumpeted a Los Angeles Times headline in December. "Vietnamese Americans are lured to the Texas city by cheap real estate, a lower cost of living and a burgeoning cultural enclave." Sell your house in Los Angeles, Houston Realtors urge, then buy a bigger one here for a third the cost and invest the rest in your business. The gold rush appears to be on, and new settlers are setting up shop in the boomtown. But as much as I like that Wells Fargo sign, with its Wild West stagecoach, it doesn't entirely work as a symbol of its neighborhood. In this new Chinatown, the West isn't charging into the East. Really, it's the other way around. So what would work as a visual symbol for the new Chinatown? How could you depict a place that's pan-Asian, old and new, united mainly by entrepreneurial zeal? "I don't know," says William Kao, chair of the Asian American Business Council's beautification committee.
Joint Venture Expands Its National Portfolio With Two Self-Storage ...
PHOENIX, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- 180 Development Services, LLC in its joint venture with Harrison Street Real Estate (HSRE) and Morningstar Properties, LLC announces the acquisition of two self-storage properties in the Houston, Texas market. The storage facilities, operated under the trade name Morningstar Mini-Storage, are located in Friendswood and West Houston and have a total of 129,000 rentable square feet and 1,140 storage units. This acquisition brings the number of properties acquired into the joint venture to seven representing approximately 420,000 square feet of storage space and 3,050 units. Larry Hoffmann, President of 180 Development Services said, "Through this acquisition, we have successfully added product to the portfolio that compliments our earlier purchase in Houston.
Camden Property Q3 FFO Per Share Falls, Yet In-line With Estimates ...
11/1/2007 10:32:41 PM Thursday evening, Camden Property Trust (CPT) announced third quarter financial results, reporting funds from operations that fell year-over-year on lower expenses and top-line growth. On per share basis, funds from operations for the quarter were in-line with analysts' estimate. The company provided earnings guidance for the fourth quarter. Further, the company narrowed its earnings forecast for fiscal 2007.
The Houston, Texas-based real estate investment trust reported Funds from operations or FFO for the quarter totaled $56.28 million or $0.91 per share, compared to $77.82 million or $1.24 per share in the year-ago quarter. On average, sixteen analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial expected the company to earn $0.91 per share.
FFO for the prior year quarter included a $0.40 per share impact from gain on sale of land.
Dallas-Fort Worth job growth slowed last year, but it's still hot
If there's any doubt about the economic slowdown, just look at the Dallas-Fort Worth employment numbers. Early in 2007, the D-FW area was churning out new jobs at a pace of more than 95,000 a year. But by December – the most recent numbers – the local job gain had fallen to about 65,800. Even with that big falloff in job growth, the area had one of the hottest employment markets in the country last year. The economy in D-FW was even stronger than energy boomtown Houston, which had 59,800 more jobs at the end of last month than it did in December 2006, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. But the deceleration on the D-FW job market is worth worrying about. Job growth is the engine that drives the real estate industry in demand for everything from apartments to office space.
FAMSA plans distribution center in S.A.
Grupo FAMSA, Mexico's largest furniture, appliance and electronics retailer, is preparing to increase its presence in the U.S. market. The company, which operates in 71 Mexican cities and four U.S. states, announced Tuesday it is building a 198,000-square-foot distribution center at Interstate 35 and Fischer Road, just south of Loop 410 in Von Ormy. "It's a convenient location among the markets we have in Texas," said Federico Uribe, director of marketing for FAMSA USA. "The cost of real estate is also convenient in San Antonio." FAMSA operates more than 300 stores in Mexico and 25 in the U.S. But the company plans to open 300 additional stores in the U.S. in upcoming years. "We're expanding in the Valley, so being closer to the Valley is another reason to have the center here," Uribe said.
Koontz McCombs, LLC
Koontz McCombs, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is a multi-faceted commercial real estate company with active disciplines in Development, Construction, Leasing and Property Management. This unique combination of services provides our clients a single, seamless point of contact for all their commercial real estate needs. Koontz McCombs has been involved in the development and/or acquisition of over 1,600,000 square feet of commercial property. Koontz McCombs is active in the Texas market, specifically San Antonio, Austin and Houston. Koontz McCombs, LLC Executives Bart C Koontz [Chief Executive Officer] Troves B Gilbert [Chief Financial Officer] Alex H Yount [Vice President, Koontz McCombs Realty Services, Inc.] Monte Barrett [Vice President of Multifamily Construction, Koontz McCombs Construction, Ltd.] Thomas Wells [Vice President of Multifamily Development] .
Unpopulated, 1-House Texas Town 'Sold'
Someone in Italy placed the winning bid of $3.8 million on Friday for an unpopulated, one-house Texas town auctioned online.
No one lives permanently in the 13-acre town of Albert, about 60 miles north of San Antonio, but the tavern created from the frame of the old general store is open on weekends.
The town also includes a pavilion, an 85-year-old dance hall, a tractor shed, a three-bedroom house, plus peach and pecan orchards.
But before town owner Bobby Cave signs the deed over, he must ensure the eBay bid is legitimate. Cave said that unlike the usual items bought through eBay, there are no contractual obligations when it comes to real estate.
"There's just not any way to insist that a guy from Italy write me a check for three million," said Cave, 47, an Austin real estate agent.
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