The former Trammell Crow Co. executives--Pryor Blackwell, Charles A. "Chuck" Anderson and Thomas Leiser--say Bandera Ventures Ltd., taking a cue from the Spanish word "flag," affords the opportunity to plant their banner as owners and developers with some help from capital connections gleaned from their years in the business. Bandera, formed in the last 45 days, has had equity partners ringing the telephones to offer support with the venture.

Blackwell and Anderson left the Dallas-based Trammell Crow last summer, giving up titles as president of the development and investment group and senior executive director for the Western US development and investment group, respectively. Leiser, who left a week ago, was senior managing director of development. As for their new titles, it's "partner, partner, partner," Anderson tells GlobeSt.com. "That's what is so exciting...partners in the truest sense of the word."

The publicly held status of the halls where they built their reputations in the trade prevented them from getting their names on deeds. Each always yearned to be an owner of the caliber of office and industrial product that they've acquired and developed on behalf of their old boss.

"You reach a point in your life where you want to experience the adrenalin rush of doing something on your own," Blackwell explains. "We enjoyed Trammell Crow immensely and it has enabled us to do this."

The office opened March 3 at 8117 Preston Rd. in North Dallas. Since then, they've been on the phone and surveying the real estate scene. They're still looking; nothing is under contract. The goal is to close the first acquisition by year's end, Leiser says of a search now pointed at Texas, California, Florida and the Chicago area of Illinois.

Anderson says the plan is three-pronged: distressed office properties for a turnaround strategy to buy, stabilize and sell to an institutional owner; industrial assets for a long-term hold; and single-tenant, net-leased properties of all types, also with long-term ownership in mind. The size of the deal, one-offs mostly, goes from $5 million to $100 million, fueled in part with their own funds and the balance from co-investors. Anderson says they've fielded a number of calls from deep-pocketed well-wishers who said "we'll be there for you." And that, he quickly adds is "very humbling."

The trio's bent for office and industrial at Trammell Crow carries over to their new world. But, they aren't ruling out some retail in the triple-net leased arena. The bottom line is the deal. "A good deal for me is where the reward outweighs the risk," Leiser says.

From the partners' point of view, the sellers' shops are open for business, with Bandera looking to acquire some 40 million sf to 60 million sf. "There's no better time to enter the market than when it's distressed," Leiser adds. "Given the times right now, it's going to be a good time to be an acquirer." They figure there's a 24-month window of opportunity for the partners, who have opened doors with one analyst and two admin employees.