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    Wrecking Ball

    Major developer eyes downtown Houston Chronicle building, with an eye on the future

    Ralph Bivins
    Jun 29, 2015 | 4:14 pm
    Houston Chronicle building downtown
    Hines is reportedly angling to buy the Houston Chronicle building for $50 million.
    Photo by Ralph Bivins

     Hines, the real estate developer that erected many of the iconic skyscrapers decorating the Houston skyline, is reportedly negotiating to buy the Houston Chronicle building in downtown Houston.

     

    The deal is viewed as a way for Hines to make its next major downtown play by demolishing the old Chronicle building, 801 Texas Avenue, and building a major tower on the newspaper site.

     

    Houston-based Hines is expected to pay more than $50 million for the property, according to Realty News Report, which broke the news in an exclusive story Monday.

     
     

      Lesser developers would not be buying additional development sites when they own a 1 million square foot spec building, with no tenants, only one block away. But Hines is no ordinary developer.  

     

     

    The Chronicle plans to sell its downtown facilities and move next summer to the former Houston Post building, 4747 Southwest Freeway, near Loop 610.

     

    In downtown, the Chronicle occupies a 10-story building, 801 Texas at Milam, and operates a nearby 560-space parking garage at 710 Preston. The newspaper recently began allowing the public to pay to park in the garage, which had been reserved for employees only for decades.

     

    Last November, as reported in another exclusive story by Realty News Report, Hearst Corp., the owner of the Chronicle retained the well-known Holliday Fenoglio Fowler firm to market the Chronicle’s downtown property.

     

    At first, the whisper number (rumored sales price) for the Chronicle property was about $40 million. With oil prices in a free fall, there was no certainty that any buyer would come forth at all. But oil prices have stabilized, the economic fear has subsided and Hines has zeroed-in the long-term value that lies in the Chronicle property.

     

    The newspaper’s facilities cover 99,184 square feet of land on two city blocks and would be an ideal platform for Hines to construct its next Houston skyscraper at some point in the future.

     

    However, there is one complication. Hines is currently building a 48-story skyscraper only one block away from the Chronicle building. The new 1 million square-foot Hines building, 609 Main at Texas, is slated to be finished around the end of 2016. The 609 Main building is a speculative project for Hines and no tenants have been announced.

     

    Lesser developers would not be buying additional development sites when they own a 1 million square foot spec building, with no tenants, only one block away.

     

    But Hines is no ordinary developer. It has $85 billion in assets under management and locations in 185 cities around the globe. Hines developed the Galleria, the First Colony community, and some 1,000 major projects around the world, including hundreds of skyscrapers, hotels, residential towers, business parks and retail centers.

     

    So if the deal goes through, Hines is not expected to immediately demolish the Chronicle building and proceed with another new tower. The development firm, founded by Gerald D. Hines in Houston in 1957, is a long-term player and it appears to be seeking to lock up a prime skyscraper development site for future years.

     

     Ralph Bivins, founder editor of Realty News Report, is a past president of the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

     
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    Real Estate Rumblings

    Vacation home sales surge as buyers seek fun and a good investment

    Ralph Bivins
    Jul 7, 2015 | 10:43 am
    Vacation home sales surge as buyers seek fun and a good investment
    Photo courtesy of HomeAway
    Rental income is an important factor in buying a vacation home, says Jon Gray of HomeAway, an online marketplace that connects renters with vacation homes like this one on Lake Austin.

    Sales of vacation home sales are surging across the nation as Americans seek out their own place for a family retreat, a regular vacation spot or a place to ski, sail, fish or hike.

     

    Vacation home sales were up a whopping 57 percent in 2014 over the sales of 2013, according to a national report by the National Association of Realtors.

     

    “Vacation home sales are skyrocketing,” says Dallas-based journalist Candy Evans, a CultureMap contributor and founder of CandysDirt.com and Secondshelters.com. “Vacation home sales have shown astounding growth. I get 50 emails a day from developers with new projects that are coming up.”

     

     

      “Vacation home sales have shown astounding growth," says Candy Evans. "I get 50 emails a day from developers with new projects that are coming up.” 

     
     

    Evans, who moderated a vacation homes panel in Miami at the National Association of Real Estate Editors Conference, says the surge is driven by “The One Percent” – affluent households who have done well in the stock market in recent years.

     

    “The wealthy got even wealthier since the recession of 2008,” says John Klemish, broker in-charge at the upscale Greenbrier Sporting Club resort in West Virginia.

     

    The buyers at the ultra-luxe Greenbrier often pay all cash and the typical buyer there has at least three or four other houses, says Klemish.

     

    The massive Baby Boomer generation is supporting the surge in the vacation home market as they acquire vacation homes now and plan to convert them to their primary residences after retiring.

     

    The top choice for vacation home buyers is the beach, according to the National Association of Realtors Vacation Home Buyers Survey.

     

    Last year, 40 percent of vacation buyers purchased in a beach area, 19 percent purchased in the country and 17 percent purchased a vacation home in the mountains. The average buyer purchases a vacation home that is 200 miles away from his/her primary residence.

     

    Foreign buyers are also supporting the vacation home boom. Owning real estate in a country with a stable economy can be an appealing haven to affluent people from other parts of the world.

     
     

      The top choice for vacation home buyers is the beach, according to the National Association of Realtors Vacation Home Buyers Survey. 

     
     

    “We’ve seen a huge desire for real estate from flight capital,” says Phillip Day, an executive with the IMI vacation realty company in Greenville, S.C. “We see a lot of people from Europe and South America.”

     

    The ability to get rental income by renting out a vacation home is attractive, says Jon Gray, chief revenue officer at Austin-based HomeAway, an online marketplace that connects renters with vacation home owners.

     

    The owner of a vacation home gains $28,000 a year, on average, by renting out their vacation home, Gray says. Many vacation home buyers can cover half, or even three-fourths of their mortgage payments with rental income, says Gray, a panelist at last week’s NAREE conference.

     

    Orlando Realtor Chris Cain, author of “Your Made in the USA Vacation Home” says the investment aspect of vacation home buying is huge. And it is appealing to a cross-section of buyers, not just the ultra-rich.

     

    “If your primary residence is the best investment of your life,” says Cain, “why not buy a vacation home, too?”

     

     Ralph Bivins, former president of the National Association of Real Estate Editors, is founding editor of Realty News Report.

    Rental income is an important factor in buying a vacation home, says Jon Gray of HomeAway, an online marketplace that connects renters with vacation homes like this one on Lake Austin.

    HomeAwayLuxuryLakeAustinVilla
      
    Photo courtesy of HomeAway
    Rental income is an important factor in buying a vacation home, says Jon Gray of HomeAway, an online marketplace that connects renters with vacation homes like this one on Lake Austin.
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