In the News—Week of November 15, 2021
Around the Nation
Fort Wingate, an Old West military outpost in New Mexico, is up for sale
A New Mexico settlement that housed U.S, soldiers from 1860 until 1910 is up for sale for $11 million, the New York Post reports. That price includes the site of the original trading post with Fort Wingate — which has a gas station and cafe — and 27 rental units. All the rentals are occupied. “It’s been in the family since 1946,” says Mark Price, whose real estate firm is representing the seller. “The current owner has lived there his entire life. He has never been outside the lines of the town and the family now wants to spend the rest of time traveling.” The property includes 18 acres.
Energy & Environment
Program designed to use energy from EV charged vehicles to power buildings
A three-year pilot program has been launched in Canada that will charge electric vehicles and redistribute off-peak power to buildings, Environmental Leader reports. The idea is to demonstrate how a managed energy sharing can be for building owners and EV owners. The pilot will use a Slate Asset Management owned building in Toronto.
Texas
Shell Oil decides to renew its lease early for downtown Houston offices
Shell Oil signed an early renewal for its office space in downtown Houston’s 1000 Main, the Houston Chronicle reports. Shell leases 259,000 square feet of space in the building. The oil giant’s original lease ran through 2025. Madison Marquette announced the lease, which is among the largest office deals of the year. Shell employs about 8,000 people in the Houston area. Most of its operations are housed in buildings that Shell owns in west part of the city.
Texas
Mavericks’ owner Cuban might build or develop team’s next home arena
The American Airlines Center has been home to the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association since 2001. But now that the building has turned 20 and the team has only 10 more years left on the lease, Mavs owner Mark Cuban is making noise about possibly finding a new arena, Forbes reports. “I’d say the likelihood of us staying at the AAC right now is less than 50%,” he told a local newspaper. Is he serious? With Cuban, an entrepreneur, investor and star of “Shark Tank,” it’s hard to know. He owns land in such Dallas neighborhoods as Deep Ellum, Design District and Preston Hollow.
Arizona
Walton sells off 319-plus acre Vista Ranch property in Case Grande
Walton, a global real estate investment company based in Scottsdale, has completed a bulk sale of the 319-acre Vista Ranch property in Casa Grande to a group of local investors, AZ Big Media reports. Vista Ranch is located at the future traffic interchange of Interstate 10 and Kortsen Road. The local investors group has not disclosed plans for the property, but the area is seen as a potential high growth area as the Phoenix metro area expands.
Mexico
Mexico City CRE is a renter’s market and is becoming more so
About one quarter of Mexico City’s office space is unoccupied, and that share will almost certainly grow when pre-pandemic development projects are completed, Mexico Business News reports. “The over-supply in the commercial rental market has allowed renters to emerge as unequivocal winners but places owners at a growing disadvantage,” says Pedro Azcue, CEO of JLL Mexico. Currently the capital city has about 7.5 million square meters of commercial office space inventory, roughly 1.8 million square meters remains available. About 700,000 square meters is in development.
