Former MRP Exec Joins Dallas Investor To Lead Mid-Atlantic Expansion, Closes First Deal

Longtime D.C. developer John Begert has joined a new firm to lead its expansion in the region, and he has closed his first acquisition. 

Begert earlier this year joined Dallas-based Trinsic Residential Group as managing director and head of its mid-Atlantic region, he told Bisnow. He spent the last 13 years as principal at MRP Realty, one of D.C.'s most active apartment developers over that span.

Trinsic has nine offices around the country, including its mid-Atlantic office in Bethesda. Its only property in the region is a new 252-unit apartment building it developed in Richmond.

Begert said he joined to help grow its presence in the mid-Atlantic, particularly in the D.C. suburbs. He said he will miss the “unbelievable” team and culture at MRP, but it “felt like the right time for me to try something more independent.”

“It’s the opportunity to run a region up here, be entrepreneurial but have some resources in Dallas, so it felt like the right step for me at this point in my career,” he told Bisnow Thursday morning.

While Trinsic focuses on multifamily, its first acquisition since Begert joined was an office property — though one with redevelopment potential. 

The company on Friday closed its purchase of 381 Elden St. in Herndon, a 184K SF office building constructed in the 1980s and renovated in 2017, Begert said. He declined to disclose the price, and the sale hasn't yet appeared in Fairfax County property records.

The seller was Stream Realty Partners, also a Dallas-based firm. It acquired it in 2015 for $19.6M, property records show. It then launched a $5M renovation to add a conference center and a fitness center and upgrade the entrance and lobby.

Stream Realty didn't respond to a request for comment on the deal.  

The building was anchored by an 88K SF lease with the Department of the Interior that was previously scheduled to expire at the end of 2024. Begert said the federal agency is still in the building but declined to say when its lease is now set to expire.

Trinsic plans to keep the building as office in the near term as it continues to bring in cash flow, but Begert said it could be converted one day. The building sits on a 9-acre site and has surface parking. 

“It has a lot of optionality,” Begert said. “It could potentially turn into multifamily. It could turn into something else. We’re just trying to be opportunistic.

“We offer redevelopment entitlement expertise, so I think that’s our value add, but we’re not sure which way it goes,” he added. “It’s got a lot of different paths that could be positive.”

The trend of redeveloping office properties to residential has accelerated across the D.C. region in recent years. For these types of low-rise suburban offices with surface parking, developers often raze the building and develop ground-up residential. Owners of two other Herndon office properties have moved forward with that strategy this year: Buchanan Partners at the Woodland Park complex and Abod Capital Solutions at Coppermine Commons III.

As he looks for additional deals in the mid-Atlantic — his region spans from Richmond to Philadelphia — Begert said he is especially focused on Northern Virginia, given the experience and relationships he has there. 

He said he is looking at all asset classes, including Trinsic's traditional focus of multifamily, but also more sites like the Herndon one with redevelopment potential. 

“In this kind of market, we want to look at everything,” he said. “It’s a weird time out there.

“It’s obviously still a very challenging development market, but I feel like trying to get some active investments so that at the right time we could get some things built.”