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Tuesday, January 4, 2000

Car dealer out, shopping center in
Former Courtesy Ford's bays coming down to make room for strip mall
By Andrea Jares
Caller-Times

David Adame/Caller-Times

Bays that made up the former Courtesy Ford at 4601 S. Staples St. are being dismantled to make way for a shopping center.
Blink and the airy showrooms that once made Courtesy Ford will be gone.
   Construction crews are dismantling the bays that made the dealership's presence at 4601 S. Staples St. to make way for an upscale shopping center, those involved with the project say. The location would put it close to the Padre Staples and Sunrise malls, and almost adjacent to the Cine 6 movie theater.
   Property owner Marie Colson did not return phone calls with questions about her plans for the property.
   The green Shamrock Demolition bulldozers are expected to be finished with their work and gone by Jan. 15, said Chuck Olson, president of the company. A permit for $85,000 worth of demolition was taken out on Nov. 12 from the city building inspection department.
   David Richter of Richter Associates Architects Inc. is designing the development. He was not available for comment Monday. Fulton Construction is the general contractor. Calls about the development were referred to Colson.
   Matthew Cravey, president of the tenant's broker, NAI Cravey Real Estate Services, said commercial shopping real estate capacity is running in the upper 90th percentile. He hears that the shopping center will cater to higher-income consumers, similar to Taylor Center, Lamar Park and Village Center. Colson owns Taylor Brothers jewelry store in Taylor Center.
   "But I don't know how much room there is for a high-end shopping center here," he said.
   Plans for the two bays that make up the 30,000-square-foot former car dealership are more concrete.
   One of the bays will be reborn in Kingsville as an expansion of South Texas Towing and Body Shop, said owner Vic Moreno of Kingsville.
   "I can fit three of my shops in this," said Moreno, who had been pulling nuts and bolts out of the building since Dec. 27.
   Workers for Dale Moore of Waelder were doing similar work last week. Moore, former owner of Frontier Surveying, plans to use the building as a hangar at his 350-acre ranch in Gonzales County, said Patrick Moore, his son.
   CapRock's new offices
   CapRock Communications Corp. has moved its Corpus Christi headquarters into the Frost Bank Plaza at 802 N. Carancahua St.
   The company signed a five-year lease for 4,434 square feet of sales office space, said Matthew Cravey, president of the tenant's broker, NAI Cravey Real Estate Services.
   The lease shows that the Nasdaq-traded company is in Corpus Christi for the long haul, Cravey said.
   Last year, CapRock finished linking virtually all of South Texas via its fiber optic network as part of a 6,100-mile, $400 million network stretching along the Southwest.
   "It's aggressive for them to put their lines in before they have an office," Cravey said.
   Dallas-based CapRock offers local, long-distance, Internet, data and private line services.
   Cravey said Frost Bank Plaza will give CapRock a front-row seat to the downtown area that has many potential business clients.
   New bank branch
   First State Bank of Odem is expected to open its first branch office at 12130 Leopard St. near Callicoatte Road next fall.
   The 7,100-square-foot building, also designed by David Richter of Richter Associates Architects Inc., is designed to look like a building found in a South Texas town square, said Craig Cook, senior vice president and director of the 55-year-old bank.
   The courtyard and awning-covered doorways will give it a folksy feeling,, he said.
   "We kind of think it represents the bank's old-fashioned type of service," Cook said.
   The full-service bank will employ 12 people when it opens in September.
   Cook said the bank chose the location wedged between Interstate 37 and Leopard Street after demographic studies showed high potential for growth.


Business reporter Andrea Jares can be reached at 886-3678 or by email at jaresa@caller.com. On Real Estate is published every other Tuesday in the Business section.

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