Hartman REIT Changes Name, Market briefs

In Houston, Hartman Short Term Income Properties XX, a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust headquartered in Houston, has reported the company’s name change to Silver Star Properties REIT.

The name change comes as the company reported a plan to diversify its portfolio with the addition of self-storage properties.

The newly named Silver Star Properties will also sell some of its existing properties, office buildings.

“Silver Star Properties plans to pivot away from being primarily an office REIT to include the new asset class in 18 to 24 months. Additionally, Silver Star Properties expects that this pivot will better position the company to provide enhanced liquidity to its shareholders, potentially through a tender offer, resumption of share redemptions, and potentially a listing of its securities on a national exchange,” the company said in a press release.

“We intend to be highly strategic in our disposition of assets as we make the pivot to self-storage on a national basis. We believe self-storage is one of the best performing asset classes for inflation and recession resistance, while also providing enhanced revenue opportunities for growth in both up and down markets,” said Chief Executive Officer, Mark Torok.

The plan to expand the company’s asset classes should allow it to maintain a resilient investment approach and create a more inflation resistant portfolio, the Houston firm said.

Torok cautioned that the new direction is still subject to approval by the company’s Executive Committee.

Hartman has extensive experience acquiring, owning, managing, and leasing commercial office, retail, light industrial, self-storage, and warehouse properties located in Texas. Since 1983, the company and its affiliated entities have sponsored 27 programs and purchased interests in more than 90 real assets totaling over $805 million.

The Hartman company was founded by Allen R. Hartman. In 1984, he formed Hartman Management and began sponsoring private real estate investment programs. During the next 24 years, he built Hartman Management into one of the leading commercial property management firms in Texas and sponsored 20 privately offered programs and one publicly offered program that invested in commercial real estate in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas.

In 1998, he merged the Hartman real estate programs and formed Hartman Commercial Properties REIT, now known as Whitestone REIT.