Upping its game to acquire commercial properties, SkyWalker Property Partners has snagged an office building in New Mexico and a retail property in South Texas for the portfolios of two managed funds.
"This is our first acquisition outside Texas. We've found pricing and opportunities that we really like in New Mexico and beyond our core territory of the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area," says Clint Holland, acquisitions director for SkyWalker Property Partners.
The Arlington-based investment group has closed on a 25,509-sf office building at 2945 Rodeo Park Dr. E. in Santa Fe for When Opportunity Knocks LLC and a 17,520-sf net-leased retail and warehouse property at 209 Park Place Blvd. in Kenedy, southeast of San Antonio, for Cash Flow Fever LLC.
Santa Fe is a recognized high-barrier-to-entry commercial real estate market. The Rodeo Park office building, developed in 2001, is a traditional Pueblo-style structure on 1.5 acres within walking distance of a Rail Runner Express station in a neatly manicured business park. The structure is visible from the double-loop intersection at St. Francis Drive and Interstate 25, just south of the heart of the capital city. The seller was 86th Street Associates LLC, a trio of partners planning to retire.
"This property checked off all the boxes for our value-add fund, When Opportunity Knocks. It was only 62% occupied and the owners wanted to exit the partnership," Holland explains. "But then, it got significantly leased up while we were under contract." Occupancy has climbed to 91% with the freshly signed 6,200-sf lease by Centene Management Co. LLC.
The stucco-exterior building will be getting $100,000 of capital improvements. The majority of the seven tenants are government-related entities with long-term leases. NAI Maestas and Ward Commercial Real Estate will lease and manage the project. On the leasing side, there is one available suite, totaling 5,000 sf. Investment-wise, there is minimal lease rollover in 2019.
The fund's managing principal, Gary Walker, founder and president of SCM Real Estate Services, represented the buyer of record, Manifest West LLC. The seller's broker was Cole Flanigan of NAI Global.
The Texas acquisition is a net-leased asset with seven years remaining on the term. The tenant, Beasley Tire Service Inc., operates seven locations in South Texas, including Houston, catering to a niche market servicing corporate fleets in addition to retail customers.
Located within the bustling Eagle Ford Shale Play, the tire shop was built just three years ago on a 2.5-acre freeway-fronting tract along US Hwy. 181 in Kenedy's primary retail corridor. The automotive store also is readily accessible to three other main highways crisscrossing the area.
"This is a strong cash-flowing asset and will be for years to come. In a tertiary market, we're able to get a little more return so the deal made good sense for us," Holland says.
Walker also handled negotiations for the buyer of record, Fly Like an Eagleford LLC, a single-purpose entity of the Cash Flow Fever fund. Cody Payne of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, represented the seller, Exchange Resource LLC.
"We still have money to deploy," Holland stresses, "and we have the flexibility and a willingness to look at tertiary markets as well as urban locations in Texas and the surrounding states."
SkyWalker Property Partners identifies, underwrites, acquires and executes highly opportunistic and value-add investments on behalf of When Opportunity Knocks LLC and Cash Flow Fever LLC, funds formed in 2017 to build a $200 million portfolio of office, industrial and retail properties in Texas and surrounding states. The strategy targets transactions from $2 million to $15 million. Additional information about the investment group is available at www.SkyWalkerProperty.com.
