This Week's Dallas-Fort Worth Deal Sheet

Palm Harbor Villages Inc., a producer of manufactured and modular homes, has moved its DFW headquarters from Addison to Plano.

The company, a division of Cavco Industries Inc., subleased a more than 10K SF office in Preston Park Towers East, according to CBRE. Palm Harbor Villages has been in Addison since its founding in 1977.

“We are excited about the beautiful new space and the amenities it offers to our team as we all return to the office,” Matt Niño, president of retail for Cavco Industries, said in a statement. “This finish-out and the services in the building are all first class and have provided a new energy at this important transition.”

Campbell Puckett of CBRE represented Palm Harbor Homes in lease negotiations, and CBRE’s Ben Davis represented the sublandlord. Puckett said Palm Harbor chose Plano for its new headquarters because of its centralized location in the Metroplex. The building’s upscale amenities will also help the company keep and hire more employees, he said.

“Palm Harbor Homes experienced significant growth through the pandemic and decided this was a perfect opportunity to upgrade their office space to attract and retain top talent,” Puckett said in a statement. “This mirrors the flight-to-quality trend we've seen consistently over the past year where companies are gravitating towards more amenitized space for their employees to return to the office.”

PEOPLE

Jennifer Scripps was named as the next president and CEO of Downtown Dallas Inc., a placemaking, advocacy and economic development nonprofit. Scripps currently serves as the city of Dallas’ director of arts and culture. She will assume her new role in April.

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William Hancock and James Roberts left Northmarq’s Dallas office to form Brazos Residential, a real estate private equity company focused on acquiring value-add multifamily. The duo has more than $200M in assets across 1,800 in-process units throughout DFW and North Carolina. Hancock was the No. 1 ranked mortgage broker within Northmarq nationally in 2021, having placed $7B of multifamily debt/equity over the last few years. Roberts was the No. 3 overall broker within Northmarq nationally while personally selling $1B of multifamily assets in 2021.

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Dallas-based Westmount Realty Capital, a private national real estate investment firm with offices throughout the country, named four female leaders to senior-level director roles with the firm. Julie Butticarlo was promoted to senior director, asset management; Laura Collins was promoted to senior director, asset management and advisory; Ginny Goldsmith was promoted to senior director, property management; and Barbara Georgakis was promoted to senior controller.

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Transwestern Investment Group named Kimberly Steinberg as managing director, head of business development and investor relations. In her role, Steinberg will oversee capital raising efforts for the firm’s fund vehicles and separately managed accounts as well as relationship-building between existing and prospective U.S. and foreign institutional investors. Steinberg comes to TIG from Minneapolis-based Värde Partners, where she served as managing director of business development and investor relations.

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Hanover Co. hired James Melody as development partner of Hanover Industrial, a new division focused on developing industrial properties in the leading growth and logistics markets across the U.S. Based in Houston, Melody will be responsible for overseeing Hanover’s development efforts in Texas markets, including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin.

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NewPoint Real Estate Capital LLC hired Marc Cesare to its production team as a managing director based in the firm’s Dallas-area office. Cesare will focus on conventional multifamily and affordable housing lending throughout the Sun Belt and beyond. Before joining NewPoint, Cesare was with Truist, where he originated real estate financing transactions valued at approximately $4B. 

LEASES

Plastronics Socket Partners LP renewed close to 13K SF of office/warehouse space in Las Colinas Distribution Center 5, 3251 West Story Road in Irving. Brian Pafford, executive vice president and managing partner of Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services, represented the landlord, Las Colinas AAA Investment LLC. Mike Cleary of Colliers International North Texas represented the tenant.

FINANCING

Berkadia identified and secured a JV equity partner for Legacy Partners to develop Merit, a 296-residence, mixed-use community in Lewisville. Chinmay Bhatt, Cody Kirkpatrick and Noam Franklin of Berkadia JV Equity & Structured Capital arranged Pondmoon Capital Holdings USA as the equity partner. The real estate investment manager contributed more than $20M in equity toward the project. Dallas-based JHP Architecture is the designer for Merit; the general contractor is Provident General Contractors.

THIS AND THAT

DFW homebuilder Taylor Morrison in partnership with Christopher Todd Communities is establishing its build-to-rent housing footprint in North Texas via newly purchased land sites in Grand Prairie, Celina, Denton, Melissa, Lavon and Saginaw. The six projects will combine for more than 1,300 residences on the ground in the next few years. Each community will be branded as a Christopher Todd Community Built by Taylor Morrison.

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Holt Lunsford Commercial, a Dallas-based, third-party commercial real estate service and investment firm, opened its new retail division in Fort Worth. Located at 1200 Summit Ave., the office will expand HLC’s presence within the retail sector, concentrating on project leasing, tenant representation and investment sales. The new retail team will be led by Tracy Gray, who joined HLC in late 2021. Reilly Clark, another recent hire, will also contribute to the efforts of the retail division, serving as market associate.

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For the fourth year in a row, Greenhill Towers earned the Building Owners and Managers Association Greater Dallas TOBY award in the Suburban Office Park Mid-Rise category. The building has earned three consecutive BOMA Lone Star Industry Excellence Awards and will compete for the fourth Lone Star award later this year. Last year Greenhill Tower also won the BOMA Southwest Region Awards and is on its way to qualifying to compete in the International TOBY award competition.

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Gaia Real Estate and Starwood Capital Group fully exited their PJ Portfolio investment. The portfolio consisted of over 9,500 multifamily units located in major metropolitan areas throughout the Sun Belt region. More than 45% of the units are located in Dallas. The acquisition of the portfolio was executed in May 2012 via Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The exit culminates a nearly 10-year partnership between Gaia and Starwood during which time the joint venture selectively refinanced and strategically sold certain assets in the portfolio while buying out minority shareholders.