The Precedent team, led by former Dallas Cowboy Jim Eidson and Barry Hancock, isn't playing the niche medical market, but so far the "all-cash" buys are shaping up that way. About 18 months ago, Precedent paid $6 million for a 100,000-sf hospital in Jackson, MS and set about with its two Louisiana equity partners to reposition it as a long-term, acute-care facility.

The Plano purchase, positioned on nearly seven acres at the corner of Preston Road and Tennyson Parkway, attracted 70 bidders. "We stepped up and bid and bought," Eidson tells GlobeSt.com, "and paid cash." Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. was the seller for both buildings, constructed in 1987.

LifeCare Hospital of North Texas, signing an 11-year lease, intends to open an acute-care facility that will be staffed by 300 workers. Finish-out will take about a year. In DeSoto, talks are in final stages with a single tenant, also hailing from the health-care industry, to lease the building and 3.8 acres at 800 Kirnwood Dr., says Eidson, Precedent's president.

The Precedent acquisitions are independent of an opportunity fund that has been set up with Crescent, the former employer for Eidson and Hancock. Since breaking away in 1999, the duo has scored about $300 million in sales of Crescent assets, excluding the two DFW medical properties.

Eidson and Hancock, both Precedent principals, are closely guarding the upcoming plays, mostly for DFW properties. The buys, Eidson says, will come "when the market tells us. We are opportunistic investors looking for niche plays that are interesting. The opportunity fund has the current capacity to do transactions totaling approximately $100 million right now."

The partnership opportunity fund consists of Precedent's operating company, Meadowbrook Equities Ltd., as the general partner and Crescent as the limited partner. Meadowbrook and Crescent used in-house representation to close the medical building sales.