Local real estate investors David Long and Sam Hawthorne closed on an iconic office property — known as Pyramid Plaza — on the Texas plains in mid-2022, with plans to spend $1.5 million on renovations and ratchet up the occupancy of the building.
Those plans, which are already being executed, have led to the building's occupancy rate rising from an average of 46% last year to 72% today, with even more leasing activity on the horizon, said Scott Womack, an office specialist with Coldwell Banker Commercial Capital Advisors. The new owners are not only tackling deferred maintenance but also modernizing the elevators, redoing the lights in the parking lot and upgrading finishes throughout the building, he said.
"Lubbock is a little bit of an outlier of an office market; we saw our office occupancy increase by 9% in 2022," Womack told CoStar News, adding the new owners, who happen to be local, are leaning into that demand. "The new owners are bringing a product to market that is less per square foot than new construction and brings a landmark property back to relevance. The timing was perfect for this ownership group."
The deal earned a 2023 CoStar Impact Award, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
About the deal: The buyers purchased the six-story, 116,000-square-foot office building at 3223 S. Loop 289 in Lubbock, Texas, for an undisclosed sum from Gemini Rosemont Commercial Real Estate. The deal closed in June 2022.
What the judges said: "This particular building was in need of some new blood," said Robert Wood, owner of Robert Wood Custom Homes. " [I'm] so happy to see it cleaned up. It is in a very visible location and needs to stay nice."
They made it happen: Scott Womack of Coldwell Banker Commercial Capital Advisors and Darrell Betts and Jessica Alexander of Avison Young represented the seller, Gemini Rosemont. Jordan Wood and Taylor Tucker of Coldwell Banker Commercial Capital Advisors represented the local buyers.