A commercial real estate development and management company with a portfolio of more than $5 billion has opened a regional office in Dallas.
Founded in Baltimore in 1971 by Edward St. John, St. John Properties has its sights set on acquiring land for ground-up development of Class A commercial office, retail, flex and research and development buildings primarily in Collin and Denton counties.
According to Rafael Alterman, the new head of the local office, North Texas’ sustained population growth, industrial diversity and talented workforce pool were the deciding factors for St. John’s to locate in the region.
“Based on our continued success in other markets across the country, we believe the unique characteristics of our signature flex product will meet a variety of end-user real estate needs and surpass what is currently available,” said Alterman. “Our first step is to identify and acquire suitable land for our signature flex/R&D, office and retail buildings, as well as establish relationships with key brokers and business professionals to support our long-term development plans.”
The company’s signature product, Flex/R&D, is defined as a single-story office and industrial building divided into bays. Tenants for the space include companies in technology, light manufacturing and distribution.
Alterman said the company is open to joint venture partnerships with local development groups as it expands in the region.
Saint John, which has 15 offices in 11 states, has speculatively broken ground on nearly 1 million square feet of commercial space across the U.S. over the past four years.
The Dallas office will be St. John’s second in the state. The company is opening a location in Austin in 2022 and has three locations under development in the Austin area totaling more than 600,000 square feet.
This includes a 50-acre parcel in Leander earmarked for an eight-building community with flex/R&D, retail space and pad sites.
There is also a 35-acre business community near the Georgetown-Round Rock border, plus construction of an office building within Leander’s Northline mixed development project.
St. John’s President and CEO Lawrence Meikrants said the success of its Austin regional office was a key factor in expanding into Dallas.
“While we view Dallas as an entirely different submarket with its own unique characteristics, we believe we will be able to realize certain operational efficiencies by opening a second regional office in Texas,” Meikrants said.
St. John has offices in Legacy Tower at 7250 Dallas Parkway in Plano.
