KKR and Hines form joint venture to develop business park

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P., together with its affiliates (KKR), formed a joint venture with Hines and Pinto Realty Partners to develop Pinto Business Park, a 971-acre master-planned business park located at the corner of Beltway 8 and I-45. Under the terms of the agreement, Hines and KKR have exclusive rights to develop the business park, which is owned by Pinto Realty Partners, a subsidiary of Cockrell Interests. The partnership will look to pursue an industrial build-to-suit strategy for credit tenants. Located in the heart of Houston's north/northwest submarkets, where industrial vacancy rates are some of the lowest in the country, Pinto Business Park is Houston's largest development-ready business park in Houston. With drainage, detention, roads and infrastructure already designed, the site is shovel- ready, with tracts available for immediate construction and delivery. The development program includes an immediate focus on build-to-suit transactions and individual land sales to corporate end- users. "Pinto Business Park will offer manufacturing clients the benefits of a large-scale, controlled business park setting, and distribution clients the benefit of a second-to-none location that has frontage and eight access points on the city›s main connections to Houston and its surrounding markets," said Palmer Letzerich, managing director at Hines. When fully built out, the park represents an opportunity of nine million square feet. Tenants will benefit from the business park's location, which is proximate to Bush Intercontinental Airport, downtown and the Port of Houston. With vacancy at a 35-year low, ongoing positive absorption, increasing values and moderate new construction, the Houston industrial real estate market continues to be one of the strongest in the country. "We are looking forward to leveraging the partnership's development capabilities and access to capital on a site that we have owned for over 20 years," said Ernie D. Cockrell, managing director of Pinto Realty Partners. "With entitlements and development capital in place, now is the time to transform a best-in-class site into a best-in-class development." "We are very excited about the opportunity to partner with Pinto Realty Partners and to continue to expand our relationship with Hines, one of the world's preeminent leaders in the commercial real estate space," Ralph Rosenberg, Global Head of Real Estate at KKR.