HP Plaza, a new office development, has been sold to Northridge Capital LLC.
HOUSTON – (By Ralph Bivins, Editor of Realty News Report) – One of Houston’s biggest office deals of 2019 was completed with an investment narrative based on need of corporations to attract and retain talent, says an acquisitions executive for Northridge Capital LLC.
Northridge Capital, based in Washington, DC, recently acquired the new HP Plaza, a 378,000-SF office development in CityPlace in the 2000-acre Springwoods Village development north of Houston.
Employee satisfaction is a major factor in the office market today. A study by OfficeBroker.com says 80 percent of job seekers say they will reject a job offer if the office and workplace is low quality. Retention of employees also is important. Developers of new buildings now include major amenities, food options, wellness facilities and interesting interior design and finish-out to keep employees (and employers) happy.
The HP Plaza, a two-building campus completed in November of 2018, has the amenities to be a winner in today’s corporate talent competition.
“HP Plaza checks the three boxes Northridge Capital looks for when pursuing single tenant opportunities: strong credit quality and cash flows; desirable underlying, functional real estate and a dynamic suburban/urban location that will cater to the workforce of the future and serve as a recruiting tool for the tenant,” said David Etemadi, Vice President of Acquisitions for Northridge Capital. “We believe more and more Fortune 500 companies will choose to locate in these types of locations around the country in the ‘arms race’ for the best human capital.”
Northridge Capital’s move to acquire the HP Plaza received an endorsement from the formidable Apollo Capital Management, a global firm with $280 billion under management.
HFF’s Chris Hew and Cary Abod worked on behalf of Northridge Capital to secure a fixed-rate acquisition loan through Apollo Global Management, which provided the loan on behalf of Athene Holding.
HP was developed by Houston-based Patrinely Group for HP Inc., which occupies 100 percent of the space in a long-term lease. The seller of the HP office properties was a joint venture of Patrinely Group, USAA Real Estate, and CDC Houston. HFF’s Trent Agnew and Jeff Hollinden represented the JV in the sale.
Springwoods Village mixed-use project in northernmost Harris County near the Grand Parkway. When fully complete Springwoods Village will include 4 million SF of Class A office space, hotels, retail, multifamily and a relatively small number of single-family homes.
Springwood Village was a long-term investment for CDC Houston, part of Coventry Development, which had owned the property for decades. The massive chunk of acreage, with Interstate 45, remained undeveloped – an obvious green spot of opportunity surrounded by the northern sprawl of Houston. Then, in a covert operation using a code name and concealed identities, representatives of Exxon Mobil quietly began examining the property about a decade ago. That eventually led to Exxon Mobil buying about 400 acres and building a 3 million-SF corporate campus.
Other corporations followed. Southwestern Energy and American Bureau of Shopping also occupy new buildings in Springwoods Village. In another new addition, Patrinely Group broke ground last summer on the CityPlace 1 mixed-use project with 122,700 SF of office and 27,000 SF of retail.
