St. Mary's Reaches Out

SAN ANTONIO (San Antonio Express-News) – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded St. Mary’s University a nearly $600,000 grant to create a One-Stop Neighborhood Revitalization Center.

The center will provide residents of the surrounding west-side neighborhood with education on how to receive small-business help and how to remodel their homes. It will also endeavor to increase local homeownership, as many residents in the area lease houses.

Officials hope to use the grant to coordinate homeownership education with 100 families, help 13 families with down-payment assistance, build or rehabilitate 13 homes, provide fair housing counseling for 120 families, assist 60 small businesses and establish a $300,000 small-business loan fund.

Where the Old West Meets SoHo

MARFA (Austin Business Journal) – High art and small town life harmonize in this West Texas community, now the subject of a Door Number 3 advertising campaign.

With a population of 2,121 and a remote location — 190 miles southeast of El Paso — the town has found itself the destination of national artists and travel writers. It's now the center of an advertising campaign intended to spur travel and tourism interest.

The “Welcome to Marfa, Texas: It’s Out There” campaign will include posters, mailings and print advertisements focused in Texas. The campaign includes such marketing pieces as “Closest Airport: 200 miles. Closest Warhol: .01.”

High-End Home Sales Take Hit

DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) – High-end home sales have taken a hit from the stumbling mortgage market, with million-dollar-plus home purchases falling about 12 percent in the Dallas–Fort Worth area through August.

"The high-end market has been slow for the past year or more as the credit markets have priced those mortgages higher than normal," said Dr. Jim Gaines, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "And people who were stretching to buy the $1 million home instead of the $700,000 one they could really afford are now not able to make the stretch."

Purchases of homes between $800,000 and $1 million have taken an almost 25 percent downturn.

In the Park Cities, where homes average $1.2 million, the number of houses on the market has grown 40 percent since August while sales have decreased about 16 percent. North Dallas listings are up while sales are down about 30 percent.

Water Treatment Plant Goes Solar

SAN BENITO (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) – The Valley town of San Benito has completed a $325,000 solar-powered array for its new water treatment plant.

The plant will be able to filter up to six million gallons of water per day, with the photovoltaic system generating about 10 percent of the power to do so. At 45 kilowatts, it is the largest project of its kind on the Texas-Mexico border.

Solar projects cut energy costs, save demand for electricity and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases escaping into the environment, said Richard E. Greene, regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The EPA funded the photovoltaic system through a grant to the Texas General Land Office and its Renewable Energy Program.

Officials hope to use the San Benito plant to show the potential of solar power as a viable energy source and to spur similar projects in the border region.

Retail, Apartments on Pressler

AUSTIN (Austin American-Statesman) – Gables Residential and Capital City Partnerships have started construction on Pressler, a five-story apartment-and-retail project.

Located at 507 Pressler St., the project consists of 168 apartments and 25,000 sf of retail space.

Aquila Commerical is conducting the retail leasing.

Sheraton Arlington's Makeover

ARLINGTON (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) – The Sheraton Arlington has spent $15 million on a self-makeover in anticipation of the Dallas Cowboys moving into their new, nearby stadium.

The hotel has renovated its 311 guest rooms and 20 suites and has added two meeting rooms to the existing 26,000 sf of meeting and banquet space. This will assist clients using the neighboring Arlington Convention Center.

Owner Highgate Holdings has proposed to the city a 300-room expansion with sky bridges connected to the convention center, coupled with a city-funded expansion of the center that would double its size.

The city is conducting a feasibility study on the proposed projects.

PCD Adds to Town Square

SUGAR LAND (Marion Montgomery Inc.) – A third Class-A office building is in the works at Sugar Land Town Square, a 32-acre mixed-use project being developed by Planned Community Developers Ltd. (PCD).

Located at 2245 Texas Dr., the six-story building will offer 166,561 sf of office space and 13,176 sf of ground-level retail space.

Construction is scheduled to begin soon, with an estimated completion date of first quarter 2010.

PCD also plans to build a two-story building at 2185 Texas Dr. The building will offer an additional 9,000 sf of second-story office space and 9,000 sf of ground-level retail.

Sugar Land Town Square is at US 59 and Hwy. 6.

Elite Sales Purchases JMC Facility

HOUSTON (CB Richard Ellis) – John Maneely Company (JMC), the largest independent tubular manufacturer in North America, has sold its 188,804-sf facility at 6247 Navigation in east Houston.

The building is on almost 11 acres and housed the company’s Seminole Wheatland Tube Facility before the company was purchased last month by Novolipetsk Steel.

The buyer is Elite Sales Inc., a Miami-based importer and wholesale distributor of wire rope, cable, strand, chain and hardware. The company is relocating from its 40,000-sf facility at 2003 Edwards St.

CB Richard Ellis represented JMC and will handle leasing efforts for 2003 Edwards St. on behalf of Elite Sales Inc.

Fountainhead Sold

AUSTIN (globest.com) – Fort Lauderdale–based Victory Place LP has purchased the 129-unit Fountainhead Apartments from Fountainhead Associates of California for over $6 million.

The Class-B, recently upgraded complex is at 4100 Victory Dr. near downtown Austin. 

The 25-year-old complex on almost three acres includes studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments ranging from 400 to 900 sf. Monthy rents are between $459 and $649.

Hendricks & Partners represented the seller.

Lost in Translation?

COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – If you aced the last round of our "Lost in Translation" Spanish-English quiz, muy bien! If you didn't, now is your chance to give it another try.

According to the Real Estate Center's popular English-Spanish Real Estate Glossary, the correct English translation for corredor is:

A. Broker
B. Borrower
C. Contract

To see the correct definition in both English and Spanish, click here.