Ares REIT Affiliate Pledges Woodlands Retail Site in BofA Deal

An affiliate of Ares Real Estate Income Trust gave Bank of America, acting as administrative agent, a lien on a retail site in The Woodlands as collateral, according to a deed of trust recorded with the Montgomery County Clerk on Oct. 26.

Why it matters

The deed covers Lake Woodlands Crossing, a 7.64-acre retail parcel in the Metro Center Woodlands subdivision. Its borrower list runs up the full Ares corporate chain, from a single-asset entity through two holding companies and the operating partnership to the public parent, Ares Real Estate Income Trust. A sixth grantor carries the name of Whitestone REIT, the Houston-based retail landlord. No warranty deed documenting a sale between the two companies appears yet in the county’s index. The record shows only that both names sit on the same financing instrument.

The numbers

The deed secures Reserve A of the Metro Center Woodlands subdivision, Section 81, 7.636 acres, in Montgomery County, part of the eight-county Houston metro. Its text recites a loan “in the maximum principal amount of up to $200,000,000.00 advanced by Lender pursuant to that certain Loan Agreement,” with Bank of America NA named as agent and the deed’s designated trustee as the other grantee. That figure, read from the recorded text, describes the ceiling of a credit facility under a separate loan agreement. It is not a price or a loan sized to this 7.64-acre parcel, and it is not a value for Lake Woodlands Crossing.

What’s next

The next deed or release the two companies record in Montgomery County will show whether this is a completed transfer to Ares, an internal restructuring or a refinancing. No such filing has posted yet.

More Houston capital and deals coverage tracks financing activity across the metro’s eight counties as records post.