OFFICE OPTIONS
Nitya Capital adds a second office building to its portfolio, boosting its diversity.
Nitya Capital has added a second office building to its portfolio just as renovations wrap up on its initial office investment.
The Houston-based company, which has expanded into other types real estate after amassing a large Texas multifamily portfolio, purchased the Park Central Plaza building at 1111 N. Loop West from Gemini Rosemont. The sales price was not disclosed, but the building is valued at $11 million by the Harris County Appraisal District.
The 11-story glass-clad building, located near the Garden Oaks/Oak Forest neighborhoods along the North Loop 610 near U.S. 290, is 93 percent occupied. The 327,000-square-foot building was built in 1981.
“We’re going to go in and rebrand the asset, upgrade the common areas, improve the quality of the management and customer service,” said Swapnil Agarwal, chief executive and managing partner of Nitya Capital and Karya Property Management.
Rents that are about 20 percent below asking rates in the nearby Galleria area, along with the recent widening of U.S. 290, are draws for tenants, he said.
Nitya, which translates as everlasting in Hindi, purchased Norfolk Tower, a 208,000square-foot, 11-story building at 2211 Norfolk, about a mile east of Greenway Plaza in late 2017. A total renovation of that property included rebranding the building as Nitya Tower, modernizing its lobby, adding new signage and landscaping, garage updates and the renovation of common areas. Blue and white bands of light at the top of the building draw attention to the lighted Nitya Capital name.
The investor has boosted occupancy to 91 percent from 82 percent at the time of purchase, Agarwal said.
Even in a competitive market, the company has been able to renew and sign new tenants at higher rates, taking them from about $26 per square foot annually at the time of purchase to $29 a foot per year today. The building has about 80 tenants, including law firms, medical tenants and engineering firms.
“We take a very proactive and active role in management, which is what tenants want to see,” Agarwal said. “We are on site. We are really hands-on operators.”
Nitya Capital, which has a portfolio valued at $2 billion, has been diversifying beyond the competitive multifamily market, where it owns and manages 16,000 units across 59 properties.
The company raised a $25 million fund to buy single-family homes around Texas, Agarwal said. Its new Nitya Housing division is targeting homes priced at $100,000 to $150,000 and will make improvements, then either lease or sell the houses. The initial markets are Austin, Waco, Houston and Beaumont.
“We’re buying close to 25 to 30 homes a month,” Agarwal said.