Houston: Younan Buys Another Office Building

In Houston, Younan Properties, a Los Angeles-based investor that says it is targeting Houston real estate, has purchased aa 10-story building on Westheimer Road, its second recent purchase in Space City.

“This is our second large purchase in the Houston market in less than two months. We are highly active in the Houston market due to the current market cycle and upside potential during the recovery,” says Younan Properties Chairman Zaya S. Younan.

Younan has purchased the 232,000 SF Royal Oaks Centre office building in the Westchase District of West Houston. The building, 11490 Westheimer at Woodland Park Drive, had been owned by California-based Hertz Investment Group since 2017.

Danny Miller, head of Houston-based HDM Realty Advisors, represented Hertz in the sale.

In Earlier this year, Younan purchased Two Westlake Park, a vacant, 17, story, 455,000 SF office tower located in the Energy Corridor. Bloomberg News. placed the sales price of Two Westlake at $19.25 million. It’s not the first time Younan has purchased the Two Westlake building.Younan previously owned the building for several years and sold it to KBS Realty Advisors in 2011 for $80 million. Although Two Westlake is vacant now, selling at $80 million and buying it back 10 years later for less than $20 million, bears a bargain appearance.

The pace of office investments was sluggish in Houston in 2020.

Today in Houston, foreclosures have been a rarity. The first quarter office vacancy rose to 22.7 percent, as stated by Madison Marquette, and about 4 million SF went vacant last year. But currently there is no expanding supply of distressed properties available to investors.

Investors that acquire Houston office properties will be compelled by competition to spend heavily to make improvements. And there is no guarantee that property values will be rising quickly.

“There will be opportunities for investments, but people must be careful not to catch a falling knife.” Andrew Pappas, managing director of Partners Capital and a shareholder in NAI Partners real estate.