Downtown blocks stack up in Amarillo buy

AMARILLO – An Amarillo investment alliance has purchased over three blocks of downtown property in a multimillion-dollar development move.

PRANA Development Group has purchased the former Blackburn Brothers and Levine’s retail buildings on South Polk St., the 100,000-sf Commerce Building and other downtown tracts, said Joe Bob McCartt, PRANA member.

The price tag for revamping the properties, including the acquisition, lies in the range of $5 million to $10 million, said McCartt.

Amarillo Commerce Building, a limited liability company, sold the Commerce Building at 720 S. Tyler St., its adjacent parking lot, a tract at 718 S. Van Buren St. and another nearly full block of parking between Southwest Eighth and Southwest Ninth Avenues and Harrison and Van Buren Streets.

The Commerce Building is just 40 percent occupied, said McCartt.

Office use probably will be in the cards for the former Blackburn Brothers store at 810 S. Polk St. “Your office market is still the healthiest thing downtown,” said McCartt, estimating the district’s office occupancy at more than 90 percent.

PRANA Development Group is a mix of Amarillo and Texas Panhandle investors. The company has placed all the acquisitions under the ownership of a New Commerce Partners limited partnership.

Read more at the Amarillo Globe-News and ConnectAmarillo.com.