It’s new yet antique
Layne buys Original Round Top fair and ‘Big Red Barn’ event center
A popular antique fair and venue in Round Top that draws shoppers and designers from near and far has a new owner with roots in real estate.
Paul Layne, the founder of Houston-based Layne Property Partners and former CEO of Howard Hughes Corp., has acquired the Original Round Top Antiques Fair along with the “Big Red Barn” event center where the fair takes place each spring, fall and winter.
The purchase, completed last week, includes 24 acres along Texas 237 with three retail buildings totaling 64,000 square feet of tenant space for vendors. The business and real estate were purchased from longtime owner Susan Franks for an undisclosed price. The original fair was started more than 50 years ago by the late Emma Lee Turney.
Layne is expanding his family’s operations in the region, having acquired the Blue Hills antiques venue, about a mile away, in 2018. His son and daughter, Corey Layne and Stephanie Layne Disney, implemented a rebranding and improvements there that added 40,000 square feet of shopping space, boosting attendance by nearly 40 percent.
“I spent my entire career really being a landlord for major office buildings all over the country,” said Paul Layne. “Corey has a commercial real estate leasing background and Stephanie has a furniture background, so it just kind of fit. The different expertise of each of us just worked out.”
Combined, the family’s properties total about 175,000 square feet and house 225 vendors who come from all over the country to sell during the seasonal antique shows. In total, they’re open less than
five weeks of the year.
The newly acquired Big Red Barn, Continental Tent and the Annex offer authenticated American antiques, authenticated high end European art and furniture, vintage collectibles and mid-century modern goods. Blue Hill is known for high end French antique furniture, but also offers a wider range of items such as linens, carpets and new reproduction pieces that are popular among younger buyers.
“If you were going to buy a house or renovate a house and you needed new furniture, new areas rugs, new everything, new mantels for your fireplace, you could find it there,” Layne said.
The Original Round Top Antiques Fair, one of several fairs in the Round Top region, will take place Oct. 24-29. The Blue Hills fall show will be Oct. 15-29. Each fall and spring, scores of independently owned and operated venues sell antiques, art and home decor from barns and tents set up along a more than 10-mile stretch of Texas 237, from Carmine to Warrenton.
“During the show, there could be as many as 200,000 people come to the antiques fair during a twoweek period,” Layne said.
Republic Square
Hiffman National, a commercial property management firm based in the Chicago area, has been hired by Dallas-based Dart Interests to manage its Republic Square multi-tenant office campus in the Energy Corridor.
Dart Interests acquired Republic Square, the former headquarters of Exxon Chemical, in 2014 as Exxon consolidated its area operations to Spring. Following damage after Hurricane Harvey, the three-story, 301,311-squarefoot office building was renovated with new mechanical systems, refurbished restrooms, 20,000 square feet of executive space, a new cafe, conference room and fitness center with locker room and shower.
The 35-acre campus, located 20 miles west of downtown next to Terry Hershey Park, features updating landscaping, a trail system and lake. An open lobby with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooks the lake.
With post-COVID office vacancies approaching 27 percent in Houston, landlords are prioritizing nicely refurbished space with amenities and hospitality level service that makes tenant’s employees want to come to work every day, said Jim Tainter, senior vice president — Sun Belt region for Hiffman National.
“I think the big thing about Republic Square is it’s not one of those buildings that’s just a commodity in the concrete jungle of the Energy Corridor,” Tainter said. “It’s got 35 acres. It’s got a lake. There’s a nice environment that employers are starting to see the value of bringing back the tenant experience that Republic Square provides.” The property is approximately 40 percent leased, according to Tainter. Tenants include Gate Energy, Sparkhound and Samsung.
Leasing is handled by Blake Virgilio and Bill Insull of Lee & Associates.
Republic Square’s master plan calls for future development of the property into a mixed-use concept that could include components such as multifamily, hotel, office and retail.
Dart also retained Hiffman National to manage 2200 South Business 45, a 1.45 million-square-foot industrial building in Corsicana south of Dallas.
Hiffman National, which started as a division of NAI Hiffman and began operating as a separate company in 2021, has grown its management portfolio to 130 million square feet of commercial real estate nationwide. The company manages 5 million square feet of industrial, office and retail properties in Texas.
Dart Interests owns, operates and develops residential, commercial and hospitality assets across the U.S.