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| Aria at Rollingbrook, 1700 Rollingbrook Drive, Baytown Submarket, Houston, TX |
BAYTOWN, TX — Drever
Capital Management (DCM) has acquired Aria
at Rollingbrook, a 240-unit Class A apartment community previously known as
Watercolor, a half-mile from ExxonMobil Baytown, the largest petrochemical
plant in the U.S., and adjacent to Chevron Phillips 66 Chemical’s joint-venture
Cedar Bayou facility in Houston’s booming Baytown submarket.
DCM, which also recently
acquired the empty, bankrupt 52 story First National Bank Tower at 1401 Elm
Street in downtown Dallas, purchased Aria at Rollingbrook at 1700 Rollingbrook
Dr., Baytown, from The Leyendecker Group of Houston. The price was not disclosed.
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| Clint Duncan |
“This is more than an
acquisition of a year-old Class A stabilized apartment community with an
excellent I-10 location and a high 90% occupancy,” explains Noah Drever, senior
managing director of Drever Capital. “It is a strategic investment for our fund
in one of Houston’s strongest suburban economies that’s driven by the
downstream petrochemical sector.”
Drever said Baytown’s Gulf
Coast location, between Galveston and the Port of Houston Ship Channel, means
that Aria residents working in engineering, industrial construction or
maintenance can choose from over 120 petrochemical employers in East Harris
County without getting bogged down in long commutes.
“Residents can also put
down roots and not have to relocate when they complete a project or assignment,”
he noted.
Baytown alone is the home
of over 20 petrochemical facilities including the nation’s biggest
petrochemical plant ExxonMobil Baytown which consists of four separate
facilities.
“We’re well positioned to
attract some of the 4300 employees and personnel maintaining the plant,” said
Drever. “Additionally, the Chevron Phillips 66 Chemical plant, with its $6
billion construction campaign, will generate approximately 500 jobs annually
during the next six years on top of an existing 9,000 employee base.”
Drever discussed the
upcoming renovation program and upgrades. “Our residents are hardworking people
who also want a quality lifestyle plus great value and personalized services
for their money while our investors want safe and socially responsible
returns.”
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| Noah Drever |
Drought-tolerant
irrigation and landscaping will be added throughout to create a park-like
retreat and add recreation space, contends Drever. A commercial-grade outdoor
kitchen/bar will be incorporated into the pool area. In response to resident
demand, interior upgrades will include granite kitchen countertops, and E-Star
appliances and washer/dryer in each unit.
Drever Capital Management,
which won the 2016 Information Management Network commercial real estate Social
Responsibility Award, is continuing to live up to its motto of “Doing Well by
Doing Good” by offering monthly rent discounts to teachers and educators,
firefighters and police officers, medical workers, and active and former
military personnel.
The new owner is also
donating an apartment in Aria to a Baytown police officer. Explains Barbara
Moffitt, regional vice president of operations: “Our residents are dedicated
middle class working people who go the extra mile for all of us in the
community everyday so we create programs to repay them, to give back.”
The acquisition was
brokered by Clint Duncan, senior
vice president-investment properties of CBRE’s Houston office who represented
the seller. Tom Cabibi, director of
Acquisitions for Drever Capital, represented the buyer. Freddie Mac provided
the financing. .
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| Tom Cabibi |
“This was a complex deal
that was fully marketed nationwide but Noah Drever stepped up to the plate,
signed a pre-negotiated ‘as is’ contract and executed on the spot with no
delays, without going through batteries of lawyers, and shaving three weeks off
the contract negotiating process.” said Duncan.
“Noah and his team had
done their deep due diligence quickly and thoroughly, they were open to
feedback, took direction from us, did exactly what they said they would do and
exercised real patience with the seller. Patience was the key to this
transaction.”
Duncan also said Baytown’s
growth, coupled with an expansion at the Port of Houston and the export of
downstream petrochemical products, will ensure a demand for top-tier apartment
and single family housing for years to come.
Population projections are
exceptionally bullish, according to B.J.
Simon, associate director of Baytown Economic Development Foundation.
Growth ranged from 78,000 in 2010 to 86,000 in 2016 to 90,000 in 2019. Most of
the influx are industrial construction workers.
“Over the life cycle of the two
megaprojects—ExxonMobil and Chevron Phillips, 22,000 people will have worked at
those facilities,” he said. “The rule of thumb is that 15% of the workers will
be retained, remain in the market, work with other construction contractors
along the Gulf Coast and be deployed to other projects in the area.”
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| Bill Gilmer |
The increasing global
demand for plastics will be heavily supplied out of Baytown petrochemical
plants, notes Professor Bill Gilmer,
Ph.D., director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of
Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business.
“These huge downstream
plastics plants will turn out railcar after railcar of plastic pellets
that will be deployed nationwide to
every manufacturing plant that turns out plastic parts for, say, cars or toys
or anything that uses plastics in a finished product.”
The City of Baytown has
been gearing up for the surge in skilled workers, contends Mayor Stephen DonCarlos. “Mobility issues are being addressed with
new roads and boulevards that open up new areas to development. Regarding
public safety, we’ve added more police officers, firefighters and paramedics to
reduce response time
“The City Council has
encouraged quality over quantity in development of both multifamily and single
family dwellings,” he added. “Employment opportunity is everywhere and proximity
to Houston, with its sports, entertainment, shopping and restaurant scene and
distances to Intercontinental and Hobby airports, can be measured in minutes.”
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| Don Carlos, Mayor, Baytown, TX |
Indeed, residents can find
almost everything they want in Baytown, added Mayor DonCarlos. The city now has two Walmarts, the redeveloped
Baytown Mall, Kroger Marketplace, a new HEB store, the city-owned Pirates Bay
Waterpark, while a new little theatre is under construction and Max Bowl is
being expanded.
Drever Capital Management
and its principals have been impact investors in multifamily and senior housing
communities since 1968 and have built or redeveloped 170,000 workforce
apartments valued at over $20 billion.
For a complete copy of the company’s news release,
please contact:
Chris Barnett
Chris Barnett
Communications
2001 Fillmore St. Suite
104
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 921-5092 office
(415) 336-5092 mobile
