It was a fast start for 2022, with first-quarter data showing that Dallas anchored a North Texas market that topped New York and Los Angeles in real estate investments, with almost $13 billion worth of properties changing hands. In March, Dallas and Houston ranked as the first- and second-most active real estate markets in the U.S., according to a StorageCafe report. Those are data points–but there was no shortage of unforgettable moments when it came to culture and vibe inside the numbers on Texas real estate.
Starwood buys Texas oil & gas history
Converting the nation’s unused office buildings into much-needed housing sounds like a win-win. The reality is quite different, as conversions were planned for just 2 percent of the nation’s office market this year. When office-to-resi projects are successful, however, they can make quite the little trophy. It sounds as though Houston-based Hines had some secret sauce with its resi conversion of a 1960s office building in Salt Lake City. And Miami-based Starwood has plans to breathe life into an Urban Cowboy-era Houston office building. The 41-story Marathon Oil tower — built in the Galleria/Uptown area in 1983 and renovated in 2018 — was scooped up in foreclosure this year. The company is looking to a resi conversion rather than invest in the sort of tenant improvements that current market for office leasing requires, Starwood’s Barry Sternlicht told investors.
Meta pulls the reins in Austin
The Zuck backed out of a plan to lease an entire 66-story office building in Austin–part of Meta’s larger pullback on its office footprint throughout the U.S. this year. The tech giant plans to sublease rather than occupy its 589,000-square-foot commitment at Lincoln Property Company’s Sixth and Guadalupe, The Real Deal reported in November. The lease, announced in January, was one of the largest in the city’s history. “We are currently evaluating our real estate portfolio globally, and making focused, balanced investments to support our most strategic long-term priorities,” Meta spokesperson Andrea Beasley told TRD.
ExxonMobil exits Irving
The largest oil and gas company in the United States has called Irving, Texas, home since the days of bouffant bangs. But Exxon-Mobil Corporation announced its move to the state’s hub of that industry in Houston back in January. Last spring, ExxonMobil began marketing the 290-acre campus it has occupied in the Dallas suburb since 1989. The energy giant expects to have its HQ fully moved to City Place in Houston by the middle of 2023. While one major U.S. company leaves, another is moving in. Wells Fargo is building a $400 million campus in Irving.
USAA leaves downtown
The San Antonio office market took a hit this year when the city’s largest employer peaced out of downtown. USAA is subleasing its offices at 300 Convent Street, which had about 500 workers. Even though the financial services titan, known as an insurance provider for members of the armed forces, is bending to the pressures of remote work, execs said it is not going anywhere. “San Antonio has been our headquarters for 100 years, and we will continue to grow here, bring in new talent and be a good corporate citizen in the San Antonio community,” USAA CEO Wayne Peacock told the San Antonio Business Journal recently.
Related two-steps into Texas
Nothing says you’ve arrived as a real estate investment darling quite like a big ol’ chunk of change from blue-chip developers. Related Companies, the Miami-based titan helmed by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, shelled out $65 million for a piece of South Congress Avenue in 2022. The now unrelated Related Group’s Jorge Perez opened an office in Dallas in 2017, prior to the split between Related Companies and Related Group this year. Related Group also this year announced plans to build on vacant land just across the Trinity River from downtown Dallas.
Disco Kroger goes to disco heaven
A Georgia-based developer rocked the boat in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood with plans to redevelop the “disco Kroger” as a $68 million, seven-story apartment building at 3300 Montrose Boulevard. Southeastern plans to redevelop the former 24-hour grocery store in the nightlife district, locally famous as a place to pick someone up while picking up produce. The developer plans 330 luxury apartments, costing about $206,000 per unit to build.
Oilcan Harry’s lives
A developer planning to build residential high-rises in a nightlife area that’s within an Austin historic district struck a compromise this year. As part of a plan to demolish part of a downtown block, Hanover Company made a deal with the city’s oldest gay bar, Oilcan Harry’s. Under the deal, the bar will move temporarily from its home at 211 West 4th Street, and when Hanover finishes its residential tower and ground-floor commercial space, the 30-year-old establishment will be offered reduced rent to return.
Gone but not forgotten
The real estate industry in Texas lost a few of its icons in 2022. Among them were Houston’s “king of apartments” Marvy Finger, who died in October at age 86. Over the course of his 64-year career, Finger built an empire of more than 28,000 residential units in Texas, California, Colorado, Georgia and Illinois. Mary Frances Burleson, the longtime CEO of Ebby Halliday in Dallas, died in November at age 87. Burleson started as a secretary for Ebby herself in 1958. During her tenure as CEO, Burleson grew the Halliday firm to 1,700 agents in 35 offices across three brands, making it the largest independent residential real estate brokerage in Texas and the 10th largest in the nation.