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Tuesday, Feb. 16, 1999

New office park spaces for sale, Staples Center property available

Also, construction to begin within 4 months on L-Head bait stand project

By ANDREA JARES
Staff Writer

   A new office park in the heart of the city's southern area is looking for business owners who want to own - not rent - their office space.
   Braselton Land Ventures has begun construction of a four-acre office park at 4337 Yorktown Blvd., between Everhart Road and Staples Street.
   The individual offices at Barton Oaks measure 3,600 square feet, said Fred Braselton, owner of Braselton Homes, part of Braselton Land Ventures.
   Braselton intends to sell the spaces with professional landscaping and concrete driveways with the aim of giving them a residential feel.
   Braselton also said he will move the offices for his company, Braselton Homes, to the site.
   Braselton said he aims for businesses that need more space, want the privacy of an individual office and are looking for tax benefits.
   Jack Harris, a research analyst with The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, said the concept of buying a property rather than renting it is a concept that was popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
   Back then, climbing values made property a great investment and tax advantages were higher, he said.
   Since then, not many builders offer property for sale rather than for lease. But, Harris said, buying an office space might still be advantageous to people who want control in the amount they pay each month and have a stable presence.
   "A lot of times in those office buildings the small guy gets the worst rental rates," Harris said.
   However, buying office space could be a drawback if the area in which the space is located falls out of popularity, he said. Then, selling the office space could be difficult.
   "There is an investment angle to it," Harris said. "There is an element of risk."
   

Service, Solo Serve

   Staples Center property managers are scrambling to fill the 79,000-square-foot retail space void that will be left when tenants Solo Serve and Service Merchandise leave.
   The strip center, wedged between Padre Staples and Sunrise malls, has lost its two anchor tenants in the past few weeks. The stores are the casualties of corporate financial troubles, resulting in nationwide store closings.
   Solo Serve Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal Bankruptcy Court in San Antonio on Jan. 20. The company has two stores in Corpus Christi - the 27,000-square-foot store at 4938 S. Staples St. in Staples Center and another at 4101 U.S. Highway 77 near Calallen. Both stores will close before summer, store officials said.
   Corporate representatives from San Antonio-based Solo Serve did not return phone calls from the Caller-Times on Monday.
   Service Merchandise, based in Brentwood, Tenn., announced last Tuesday that it will close its store in the next four months, displacing some 15 full-time and 30 part-time employees.
   Either company could work with national real estate brokers to sublet the years left on their leases, said George Clower, vice president of The Clower Co., the center's property manager.
   In the meantime, the management company is fielding calls from real estate buyers and sellers throughout the state interested in the property, Clower said.
   But that doesn't mean they will be easy tenants to replace. Too few retailers are looking for office space that large - whether they're businesses moving up in Corpus Christi or companies relocating.
   That's why stores like the former Venture, at 4717 S. Padre Island Drive, have been sitting vacant for almost a year, Clower said.
   The absence of the stores' large presence will affect smaller tenants, Clower said, because Service Merchandise and Solo Serve are a major draw to the center. They also brought name recognition to the area.
   "It's sad," Clower said. "They were recognized, and now we have to go back and re-establish that."
   Tim Clower, president of the The Clower Co., said Solo Serve had financial problems in the early 1990s, when it looked as if the company would close the building.
   "This is not the first time they've had this problem," Tim Clower said.
   Tim Clower said the store closings are the result of over-ambitious retail growth across the state. He said companies will continue to close, including ones in Corpus Christi.
   "There's too much retail square footage available," he said. "Corpus doesn't light the world on fire like it used to."
   

L-Head construction

   Construction on the L-Head Bait Stand on Coopers Alley could begin in four months, Corpus Christi Park & Recreation Department officials said.
   The construction was put on hold in October when the bids came in $20,000 more than the $200,000 budget.
   In June 1997, Jane Stubbs was awarded a 15-year lease. Plans to build a new bait stand and marina restrooms were put into motion. But she isn't as optimistic the plans will go through.
   "I've been saying that if they'd put a pile of dirt over there, it would make me feel better," she said.
   The city will open the project for bids in a few weeks, said Mike Gordon, assistant director for operations at the parks department. The re-bid will include a re-engineered foundation with added pilings. This will increase the cost of the project to the range of $240,000 to $270,000, Gordon said.
   The final bid is subject to City Council vote. Stubbs will pay costs in excess of the proposed estimate, Gordon said.
   "People are working on it right now. If everything goes, we could bid this thing out at the end of March," he said.
   The project includes a public restroom, a 2,300-square-foot bait stand and a private laundry, shower and bathroom area for boaters.
   "Our goal is to provide the best marina and restroom facility we can," Gordon said.
   Stubbs said she will get more enthusiastic when she starts seeing construction equipment on the L-Head.
   "I'll believe it when I see it," she said.
   Business writer Andrea Jares can be reached at 886-3678 or by e-mail at jaresa@caller.com. On Real Estate is published every other Tuesday about developments in local real estate. Items for consideration can be faxed to 886-3732.

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  © 1999 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.