Wu Properties buys two shopping centers amid hot leasing market

Wu Properties expanded its Houston portfolio with the recent purchase of two shopping centers.

The local investment firm acquired Northwest Crossing Centre, a 182,000-square-foot center at Highway 290 and Hollister, as well as Stables 1, a three-building property with a total of 42,800 square feet in the 18000 block of Champion Forest Drive, the Houston Chronicle reported. 

Burlington, Dollar Tree and Planet Fitness anchor Northwest Crossing Centre. The center was 81 percent leased at the time of purchase, and deals with three new tenants will increase it to 93 percent. Walgreens-anchored Stables Town Centre is 53 percent leased and includes a health facility and a two-story Coldwell Banker office building. Wu Properties plans to invest in rent-raising improvements to increase occupancy for the Spring-area property.

These acquisitions followed Wu Properties’ purchases of the Market Square at Eldridge and the Willowchase Center last summer.

The retail vacancy rate in the Houston area is around 5 percent, and with new construction limited by rising building costs, prime spaces are leased quickly, and conversions are trending. A local investment company plans to convert the former site of a Halliburton campus to retail and office space, for example. Nationally, retail leasing saw its highest rate in five years, according to real estate research firm JLL.

Well-located, high-quality properties where buyers invest in improvements to fill vacancies and raise rents are driving the deals in the Greater Houston area. Matt Berry of CBRE told the newspaper. Wu Properties’ latest acquisitions are expected to further boost the Houston real estate market, which has experienced a surge in investment in the wake of the pandemic.

Sales of Houston-area multi-tenant shopping centers soared to a record $1.8 billion in 2022, compared with $1.3 billion a year earlier, according to real estate research firm MSCI Real Assets. The 2022 figure is also 77 percent higher than the pre-pandemic average of $1 billion from 2015 to 2019. The deals include single-asset sales and exclude portfolio transactions.

– Brandon Sams