It’s been sitting vacant for longer than most folks can remember. Work crews did gut the ground floor and many of the floors overhead.
Then the plywood barriers went up around the place, and all has been quiet.
The Barfield Building, one of downtown Amarillo’s once-glorious structures, might get new life if a high-powered group of investors can pull off a deal that might signal a rebirth of the effort to fix the place up.
Five Amarillo investors are poised to wrest control of the partially gutted Barfield Building downtown by forcing a sheriff’s sale to recover $320,000 owed by its owner, Metro Tower.
Joe Bob McCartt, Alan Rhodes, James W. Wester, Pedro Cunha and Kathy Cornett formed LT Barfield, a limited liability company, to purchase a Louisiana investor’s lien held on the historic property at 600 S. Polk St. LT Barfield has exercised its right to foreclose on the property, which is set to be auctioned in a July 3 Potter County Sheriff’s sale.
“We have posted it for foreclosure,” McCartt said Monday.
If somebody comes and bids that ($320,000) they can have it. If not, we have it.
As many as 946 acres on Amarillo College’s East Campus could be developed for businesses following an agreement between the college and private developer PRANA Development Group.
The college board of regents unanimously approved a motion for its legal counsel to begin negotiations with PRANA, a development group made up of five local executives: Kathy Cornett, Pedro Cunha, Joe Bob McCartt, Alan Rhodes and James Wester.
Amarillo College President Paul Matney said the land that could possibly be developed is not used by the college for any of its classes.
Wester, an attorney at Underwood Law Firm, said the group wants to take that property and bring in companies that would fit well with the technical programs offered on the East Campus.
“It’s a great opportunity with what Amarillo College has to use what they
already have in place and expand those programs to provide the work force and training for people who would be brought in,” Wester said.
Matney said the development would not affect any of the current programs at the campus. Shawn Fouts, dean of career and technical education, said he thinks the new development could be a good fit for the area because it might bring in new companies and more students to the campus.
Investor activity has caused some rumbling in the Amarillo real estate market.
An Amarillo apartment complex and a strip shopping center traded hands in separate deals, and an Interstate 40 office building is being offered up.
Minneapolis-based Dominium acquired Cathy’s Pointe, a 120-unit apartment complex built in 2007 at 2701 N. Grand St. Dominium owns or manages apartment communities at 226 sites in 22 states. The company also is an apartment developer.
Dominium acquired the Amarillo property, along with four others, from Wells Fargo, an announcement from the company said. The deal brings the number of units the company owns or manages in Texas to more than 2,500.
Globest.com, a real estate news resource, offered an analysis in April promoting Amarillo and other smaller, or secondary, Texas markets as potential investing grounds for buyers interested in apartment properties.
“Texas has done well creating jobs, and this impact is being felt as much in Amarillo and Abilene … as in Austin,” the April 5 globest.com analysis said.
The appraised taxable value of the Cathy’s Pointe is $2.6 million, Potter-Randall Appraisal District records said.
By Bryan Pope, Associate Editor, Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University
Sept. 26, 2011
COLLEGE STATION, Tex. (Real Estate Center) — Amarillo commercial Realtor Joe Bob McCartt has been elected chairman of the Advisory Committee for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. He succeeds Denton Realtor Barbara Russell.
Replacing McCartt as the committee’s vice chairman is Mario A. Arriaga, a Conroe commercial Realtor-broker.
Gov. Rick Perry appointed McCartt and Arriaga to six-year terms on the nine-member committee, which provides advice and counsel to the nation’s largest publicly funded real estate research organization. The Center at Texas A&M is funded almost exclusively by a portion of the state fee paid by Texas real estate licensees. This year is the organization’s 40th anniversary.
McCartt is serving his second appointment on the committee. His first ended in 2005.
President of McCartt & Associates Inc. and member of the North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors, McCartt is a member of the Texas Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.
McCartt received the highly respected Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designation in 1997. He represents Texans engaged in real estate brokerage.
Arriaga is co-owner of First Group, a full-service commercial real estate company. A 1972 University of Houston graduate, he will represent commercial real estate on the committee.
COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Denton Realtor Barbara Russell has been elected chairman of the Real Estate Center’s Advisory Committee. She succeeds J. Michael Boyd, a Houston commercial Realtor.
Replacing Russell as the committee’s vice chairman is Amarillo commercial Realtor Joe Bob McCartt.
Gov. Rick Perry appointed Russell and McCartt to six-year terms on the nine-member committee, which provides advice and counsel to the nation’s largest publicly funded real estate research organization. The Center at Texas A&M is funded almost exclusively by a portion of the state fee paid by Texas real estate licensees. This year is the organization’s 40th anniversary.
Russell was appointed in 2006 and is owner of Barbara Russell Realtors Inc. She is a member of the Texas Association of Realtors (TAR), the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the Greater Denton-Wise County Association of Realtors. She is past chairman of the Denton Chamber of Commerce and holds many real estate designations, including Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI).
The Denton Realtor represents those in the ownership, development or management of residential properties.
McCartt is serving his second appointment on the committee. His first ended in 2005. His recent appointment was in 2008.
President of McCartt & Associates Inc. and member of the North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors, McCartt is a member of TAR and NAR.
McCartt received the highly respected Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designation in 1997. He represents Texans engaged in real estate brokerage.
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