AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 22, 2026--
PlaceMKR, a Texas-based real estate investment and development firm focused on acquiring flexible and differentiated assets, today announced the acquisition of a five-property, multi-state, single-tenant, long-term triple net lease retail portfolio anchored by At Home furnishing stores for $31.85 million. The portfolio was purchased from LCN Capital Partners and the deal was brokered by Bryn Feller and Josh Dicker of Northmarq.
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Founded in 2018 by Christopher Cortese and Jesse Weber, PlaceMKR, headquartered in Austin, Texas, is an owner and developer of industrial, office, multifamily and retail properties. The firm owns and develops properties across Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. This acquisition expands PlaceMKR beyond Texas for the first time, establishing a presence in Mississippi and Ohio while reinforcing its value-oriented strategy as a flexible, disciplined basis buyer.
“In today’s big-box real estate market, the high cost of new construction has created a significant gap between replacement cost and acquisition basis,” said Chris Cortese, co-founder of PlaceMKR. “We acquired these five high-quality, income-producing properties for less than one-third of what it would cost to build similar assets today. Paired with long-term triple net leases, strong locations and additional development potential within each location, we believe the portfolio represents a significant investment opportunity for PlaceMKR.”
CBRE's 2026 U.S. Real Estate Market Outlook reinforces this market dynamic, stating that retail availability is experiencing “historic lows” and that “new construction will remain limited due to financing constraints, high costs and limited land availability.” These supply constraints are occurring alongside financial pressure within the retail sector, with several retailers, including At Home, having undergone restructuring in recent years.
After emerging from Chapter 11 in October 2025, At Home is financially stable and operates 229 stores across 39 states. All five properties acquired by PlaceMKR in this transaction are well-performing At Home locations with strong sales volumes and prominent positions in high-traffic retail corridors. The properties comprise approximately 534,000 square feet across more than 46 acres and include identified outparcel sites at each location for development.
“The upside of this portfolio extends beyond the existing At Home locations,” said Jesse Weber, co-founder of PlaceMKR. “We see opportunities to create additional value through selling or leasing the outparcels for retail, restaurant and other commercial uses, particularly given the strong growth and demand in the surrounding markets, including the greater Dallas, San Antonio and McAllen metropolitans. We have a proven track record of enhancing the value of our properties and look forward to replicating this strategy with this acquisition.”
The portfolio properties are located at:
About PlaceMKR
PlaceMKR is an Austin-based real estate investment and development firm that specializes in identifying and acquiring differentiated properties across the Sun Belt region. Founded in 2018, PlaceMKR is a leading owner of industrial, IOS, data center, office and retail space. Alongside their acquisition and investment business, PlaceMKR has also developed several ground-up projects with several others in the pipeline.
At Home at 1600 W. Kelly Ave. in Pharr, Texas.
NEW YORK (AP) — Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas,” a simmering, midtempo, country-and-then-some heartbreak song released last October, is indisputably 2026’s biggest hit.
“Choosin' Texas” is also the longest-running No. 1 hit in the U.S., having spent 23 weeks at the top spot on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, it was announced Tuesday.
That means the track has surpassed various records set by Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” and most impressively, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” Her holiday classic held the previous record, with 22 weeks at No. 1.
The song’s laid-back sound, cross-genre appeal and heartache narrative are a few reasons why. But its dominance still comes as a surprise.
Luminate, the industry data and analytics company, found that “Choosin’ Texas” brought in 911 million on-demand streams in the U.S. and 1.26 billion globally as of mid-August. Considering that Langley started 2023, around the time she made her Grand Ole Opry debut, with under 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify — and now boasts of over 32 million — her rise has been meteoric.
Historically, country listenership has centered on radio play. That has changed somewhat as the genre grows in popularity, solidifying around what Luminate’s Jaime Marconette describes as a “younger, streaming-forward listener.” He says it is a “multiyear narrative accelerated” by hits like “Choosin’ Texas.”
Claire Heinichen, a senior editor at Spotify, says the song’s growth has been both explosive and consistent. “Choosin’ Texas” “started big,” she says, moving from the platform’s leading country playlist, ‘Hot Country,’ to its larger, generic offerings because it works across audiences.
“It made its way into ‘Today’s Top Hits,’ which is our biggest global flagship playlist, but it’s also showing up in ‘Mood’ and ‘Moments’ playlists because it fits so well in ‘driving’ or ‘chill’ or ‘cookout,’” Heinichen says. “It really can work everywhere.”
It’s not just country music fans who are connecting with “Choosin’ Texas.”
“The song’s success on a playlist like ‘Today’s Top Hits’ is an indication that this is working for audiences who are not seeking out one specific genre,” Heinichen says. “It’s definitely growing in every direction.”
Go straight to Langley’s voice for another explanation for the song’s success. It’s “like syrup,” says Nate Sloan, a musicologist, assistant professor at the University of Southern California and co-host of the podcast “Switched On Pop.”
She sings in long phrases that lull the listener into the song’s rhythm, from its opening guitar line to its coda. “It’s almost like a trance,” Sloan says.
It also pulls from other genres; a cross-pollination found in much modern country. Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” features shimmery disco grooves, not unlike Kacey Musgraves.
“It’s a little more rock or even kind of soul-inflected,” Sloan says. “Part of the reason songs like ‘Choosin’ Texas’ are able to resonate with such a wide audience is because, musically, they’re bringing in a lot of diverse influences.”
Charles L. Hughes, a Rhodes College professor and author of “Country Soul,” says the song sounds like many different eras of country music and, simultaneously, contemporary.
To his ears, “Choosin’ Texas” pulls from a late 1970s, early ’80s era of country musicians who pulled R&B and pop into their sound — think Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell and Charlie Rich — but it isn’t stuck in that period. Those sounds are filtered through a post-Musgraves, post-Miranda Lambert songwriting style, with Langley’s idiosyncratic charms. (Lambert and Langley are two of the song’s four cowriters.)
“The best country music has one foot in the past and one foot into the present, if not the future,” Hughes says. “And that’s what she’s doing.”
Even for its light, bright musicality, “Choosin’ Texas” is an unusual hit, because it doesn’t possess the features that historically make up a No. 1 smash. It’s super specific — with its detailed descriptions of characters and geography in the lyrics — which is “antithetical to what you usually expect from a big, hit pop song that’s supposed to appeal to everyone,” says Sloan. It’s also “chill,” Sloan says. “It’s not bombastic or anthemic.”
“It has no big moments,” says Hughes. But it has both a subtle dance pulse and steel guitar, so “it sounds country, but it doesn’t automatically turn off people who are allergic to certain kinds of country sounds.”
There’s a sparkle that transgresses genre lines, but it does so while sounding mellow — the kind of track that inspires repeat listens.
“Choosin’ Texas” continues a great tradition of “songs that country women do about what men do in bars,” says Hughes.
It’s straightforward: She’s losing her lover to someone else. She’s not going to fight for him — it’s a song of resignation that ends with her drinking alone as he chooses Texas (another woman) over her (and Tennessee). It’s a universal heartbreak theme with potential for cross-generational resonance: It works for both the insecurity of a first breakup and a long-term relationship ending over another woman, or a move.
“It’s got these great turns of phrase that give you a little bit of ironic distance as a narrator and as a listener,” says Sloan.
“It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see,” Langley acquiesces in the chorus, “A cowboy always finds a way to leave.”
The lyrics are also clever, standing out in contemporary country, says Hughes. (Compare it to Luke Bryan’s “Fish Hunt Golf Drink.”) And it’s detailed: Langley’s paramour loves George Strait’s “Amarillo by Morning,” a pantheon Texas track; she’s drinking Tennessee whiskey as a result.
“There is the phenomenon of what some critics have called ‘the sad banger’ within the world of pop music,” says Sloan. In country, it’s even more common to take something sad and transform it into something funny or deadpan. “And that’s what she’s really good at, at this song.”
The fact that regular chart-toppers like Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Bad Bunny haven’t released new albums this year could’ve cleared a path for the dominance of “Choosin’ Texas,” but Sloan sees its rise as indicative of something else.
“We’re in this environment where you can measure a song’s success in a numerical way,” he says. “But then in terms of its actual cultural impact, that might be more fragmented than you think.”
Essentially: “Choosin’ Texas” is on top. But how many people know Langley’s name, the way they knew Houston’s and Carey’s when those hits were released?
“It doesn’t feel like a centerpiece of a monoculture, but it is absolutely a key part of like radio culture, streaming playlists, TikTok,” Hughes adds. “But it’s hitting these various audiences in a way that combines to create something huge.”
But what does it forecast for Langley? She’s no one-hit wonder: Her award-winning 2024 collaboration with Riley Green, “You Look Like You Love Me” is evidence of that.
“It’s always hard to prognosticate with artists when they have an unexpected smash,” says Sloan. “Her ability to write songs with a lot of integrity that both reach back into country tradition and incorporate sounds of the 21st century? That’s a pretty good formula to have a successful and long career in the music world.”
FILE - Ella Langley arrives at the IHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles on March 26, 2026. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
