Partners Real Estate Sells Austin Retail Center

Partners Real Estate’s investment platform has sold Oak Hill Plaza, a 115,512-square-foot retail asset in Austin, Texas, after a five-year hold period, executing its value-add strategy. Newmark brokered the agreement.

Trademark Property Co. and Cohen & Steers purchased the property. The joint venture funded the deal with a loan from East West Bank, according to Yardi Matrix. The new owners plan to further renovate the property.

Trademark will handle management and leasing. The tenant roster consists of Wells Fargo, Pluckers, Dollar Tree, AutoZone, Jim’s Restaurant and The Picklr.

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Oak Hill Plaza is at 7101 State Highway 71, in an area that just witnessed the completion of a $674 million infrastructure project that improved regional mobility following a five-year construction process along State Route 71 and U.S. Route 290. Downtown Austin is about 10 miles northeast.

Newmark Senior Managing Director Kyle Minter, together with Director James Sharpe V and Associate Director Cole Frantz, brokered the sale.

Following this acquisition, Trademark owns three properties in metro Austin, including two neighboring centers that total 282,466 square feet dubbed Great Hills Market & Station. The company is based in Fort Worth, Texas, with its headquarters at Westbend, a 281,000-square-foot mixed-use campus for which it obtained a $55 million refinancing loan earlier this year.

Oak Hill Plaza wasn’t Cohen & Steer’s first metro Austin investment of the year. In June, the company teamed up with Sterling Organization to buy 1890 Ranch, a 442,000-square-foot asset in Cedar Park, Texas. Endeavor Real Estate Group sold the shopping center, Yardi Matrix shows.

Austin’s strong retail fundamentals draw investors

Austin’s retail market scene weathered the seasonal net absorption slump with positive figures during each of the first two quarters, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report. Meanwhile, the national reading fell below zero during the first three months before rebounding in the second quarter.

Consistent demand led to the market’s vacancy remaining unchanged on a yearly basis, clocking in at 4.2 percent in June, 180 basis points below the national figure, the report shows. The average rent increased 70 basis points annually to $31.2 per square foot in June, 21.8 percent above the U.S. average.