Uptown Houston Being Sold to Whitestone REIT: BLVD Place Mixed-Use Development

BLVD Place, located on Post Oak Boulevard, near San Felipe, is being purchased by Whitestone REIT.

In Houston, Houston-based Whitestone REIT, a community-centered retail real estate investment trust (REIT) whose properties are primarily in business-friendly Phoenix, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, is buying BLVD Place in Houston’s Uptown Houston area.

Whitestone is purchasing the 216,944 sq ft Class-A lifestyle center on Post Oak Boulevard, anchored by a Whole Foods, as well as 1.43 acres of developable land that gives the REIT the ability to build an estimated 137,000 sq ft of additional leasable space, based on current plans.

E. D. “Ed” Wulfe of Houston-based Wulfe & Co. was the original developer of BLVD Place, the ownership of which is now controlled by the Bailard Inc. investment organization of California. Wulfe has developed a number of projects in Houston and redeveloped Meyerland Plaza and Gulfgate.

Ed Wulfe, the developer of BLVD Place.

BLVD Place will be Whitestone’s 28th property in the Houston region.

In a news release issued Wednesday afternoon, Whitestone said that as of April 15, 2017, BLVD Place was 99% leased.

Whitestone said it intends to develop a six-story, 137,000 sq ft multi-use building (the “BLVD Phase II-B development”) on the developable land at BLVD Place, for an estimated $45 million incremental development cost. No date was given for the new construction.

In The Blvd Phase II, B development is slated to include 46,000 sq ft of retail space on the first two floors and 91,000 sq ft of office space on the top four floors.

Whitestone said it was also purchasing Eldorado Plaza in McKinney, Texas; The aggregate purchase prices for Eldorado Plaza and BLVD Place are $204.6 million.

Calls to Whitestone were not returned.

Whitestone expects the closing of the pending acquisitions to occur in May 2017, subject to customary closing conditions.

Whitestone said it expects to fund a portion of the purchase price of the purchase of BLVD Place with $80 million of asset level mortgage financing; the company is currently negotiating the terms of the BLVD financing with potential lenders, but has not yet entered into a binding commitment letter or definitive loan documents.

Whitestone describes itself as a pure-play community-centered retail REIT that acquires, owns, manages, develops and redevelops high quality “e-commerce-resistant” neighborhood, community and lifestyle retail centers principally in the largest, fastest-growing and most affluent markets in the Sunbelt.