Whitestone REIT Buys Houston Asiatown Shopping Center

19 November 2025

Whitestone added another Houston shopping center to its cart, picking up the fully leased Ashford Village in west Houston as competition tightens for well-located retail.

The Houston-based Real Estate Investment Trust — which also owns Blvd Place in the Galleria area — closed on the 81,400-square-foot property Oct. 31, marking its 10th commercial holding in the region, the Houston Business Journal reported. The price wasn’t disclosed.

The sellers were Spencer Hough, Tommy Le of 3 Real Estate Group, and George Giannukos. JLL’s investment sales team, led by John Indelli and Ryan West, represented the sellers, with analytical support from Dawson Hastings and Max Myers.

Anchored by Seiwa Market, an 11,000-square-foot Japanese grocer, Ashford Village sits at 1801 South Dairy Ashford Road and is 100 percent leased. Other tenants include Dollar Tree, Book Off, Goldfish Swim School, Giggles and Fun and Salon Village. Seven of the center’s 15 tenants cater to Asian consumers, a demographic that has surged 23.6 percent in the surrounding area since 2010, JLL noted.

That population trend is central to Whitestone’s thesis. The Memorial–Briar Forest pocket just north of Bellaire’s Asiatown has been drawing upwardly mobile households seeking more space without straying far from established cultural hubs. Tim Ng, Whitestone’s VP of acquisitions, told the Chronicle that Asian families often migrate outward from Asiatown as incomes rise, with Memorial emerging as a preferred destination.

The 1979-built center, last renovated in 2014, also checks broader location boxes. It’s near major employment hubs in the Westchase District and Energy Corridor and fronts a busy stretch of Dairy Ashford that sees roughly 32,500 vehicles a day.

Houston’s chronic westward population growth and the tight supply of new retail — constrained by construction costs and high occupancy — have made stabilized centers like Ashford Village increasingly competitive. JLL said the property drew multiple offers even before formally hitting the market.

The deal lands amid a flurry of Houston retail trades. On the same day Whitestone closed, Baker Katz snapped up the 108,000-square-foot Lakewood Forest Shopping Center, its biggest buy in three years. Days later, Baltimore-based Continental Realty entered the market with its purchase of the 442,000-square-foot Commons at Willowbrook, its first Houston acquisition.

— Eric Weilbacher