FORT WORTH — Two years after buying surface rights to about 400 acres in the Barnett Shale, a Fort Worth-based investment group has sold the ground leases to Chesapeake Energy.
The ground lease, encumbering 106 urban natural gas drilling sites, was sold by 111 Realty Investors L.P., headed by real estate investor Michael Mallick. The sites are in Tarrant, Johnson, Ellis and Dallas counties. In Tarrant County, the properties are in Fort Worth, Arlington, Benbrook, Haltom City, Hurst, Mansfield and North Richland Hills. Wells have been drilled on most of them.The partnership bought the surface rights from Apple REIT Nine in 2011, which bought the land a year earlier from Chesapeake.Mallick declined to comment on the latest deal, which closed Nov. 1. A Chesapeake spokesman could not be reached for comment.The ground leases have 35 years remaining, with five five-year renewal options, according to Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, a provider of commercial real estate and capital markets services, which represented the seller in the deal.About 80 of the sites have multiple producing wells, but all have future drilling opportunities, HFF said.Mark West and Coler Yoakam of HFF handled the deal.Sandra Baker, 817-390-7727 Twitter: @SandraBakerFWST
