American Realty Advisors Acquires Houston Retail Center

By Keith Loria

American Realty Advisors has acquired Tanglewood Court, a 125,500-square-foot shopping center in Houston’s affluent Galleria/Uptown submarket from a joint venture between Fidelis Realty Partners and BayNorth Capital LLC.

HFF facilitated the deal on behalf of the sellers. The company also arranged financing with a national life insurance company for the new owner.

Originally built in 2014 on 12 acres at 5895 San Felipe St., the three-building shopping center is fully leased to a roster of national and regional tenants, including its anchor, H-E-B.

“Tanglewood Court attracted a wide range of interest primarily from institutional pension fund investors,” Rusty Tamlyn, HFF’s senior managing director, said in a prepared release. “H-E-B typically owns their stores, so very few come up for sale in the state of Texas on an annual basis. The combination of an urban infill location with great demographics and strong H-E-B sales led to tremendous investor interest.”

Other tenants include Mattress Firm, La Madeleine, Memorial Hermann, SH Salon, Mercantil Commerce, French Quarter and Splendid Dental.  

Affluent Neighborhood

Tanglewood Court is located within one of Houston’s most affluent and densely populated areas, as the Galleria/Uptown submarket ranks as the second-largest of the 21 submarket in the city.

It sits just a mile from the Galleria, the U.S.’ fourth largest retail complex and No. 1 performing mall in the popular Texas city.

In addition to Tamlyn, the HFF team representing the seller consisted of Ryan West, senior managing director; John Indelli, director; and real estate analyst Charlie Strauss.

“As expected, the market proved to be as efficient as anybody could hope for, start to finish,” West said. “H-E-B has done an exceptional job positioning their stores in the market, and Tanglewood is a great example of that. The H-E-B grocery experience is second to none and on full display here.”

Fidelis Realty Partners’ trio of partners, Alan Hassenflu, Lynn Davis and Glenn Airola, represented Fidelis, which will continue to lease and manage the retail center after closing. BayNorth Capital managing director David Cronin represented BayNorth while American Realty Advisors was represented by ARA Associate Director Jessica Harrison.

The debt placement team representing the borrower consisted of HFF Senior Managing Director Colby Mueck and Director Michael Johnson.

In May, American Realty Advisors acquired a newly constructed, 143,930-square-foot industrial property in Anaheim, Calif. The company purchased the asset from a joint venture between Batcheller Equities and Panattoni Development Co.