In recent weeks, the breakup news made its way to the marketplace, but Napper kept quiet until the last paper was signed. "I'm excited. I can be the entrepreneur that I like to be," he tells GlobeSt.com, "and it gives me the opportunity to work with new investors." Napper's team is the Sacramento-based Panattoni's second-largest development shop in its US network, pushing a 2007 construction pipeline with 71 million sf.

Panattoni's other Texas partner John Thomas will run the Dallas/Fort Worth shop until Napper's replacement is found. In divvying the developments, Panattoni gets the 712 Business Center in Frisco, which has been assigned to marketing director Peter Billipp. Also staying in place is Daniel Anderson, the Texas development manager.

Napper is holding onto 160 acres in Mountain Creek Business Park and its under-construction 441,000-sf spec building; 483,000-sf proposed warehouse and 180 acres in Northlake Business Center; and Beltway 8 Corporate Center in Houston, where there are two office build-to-suits under way, including 83,729 sf of spec, plus 90 acres of developable land.

Co-investments in the 15-acre Cedar Ridge Office Park in Southlake and Pinnacle Park in Dallas will be sold just like the 107,000-sf Bunge Oils' build-to-suit along Snowden Road in Carter Industrial Park in Fort Worth, which recently was handed over with a 20-year lease to a net-lease buyer from California. The hand-off reportedly brought one of the highest per sf closings in the region, tipping $90 per sf at the closing.

Napper is overseeing the disposition, with Courtland acting as the joint venture partner for managing, marketing and developing any remaining land in the to-be sold developments in Dallas and Houston. Napper estimates it will take one year before Cedar Ridge, now getting its sixth building, will come to market. The 550,000-sf Pinnacle Park West II at 4117 Pinnacle Point Dr. is being marketed as are two office buildings in Houston. As for Mountain Creek, the last two tracts are under contract and in line for summer closings.

With Courtland's breakaway from Panattoni, Napper is looking for a development manager in Houston. Napper's Dallas office is starting out with his two long-time administrative assistant and Lisa Brinser, a development manager, in a 3,000-sf lease in the Berkshire at Preston Center at 5950 Berkshire Lane in North Dallas. Eventually, he plans to hang a shingle in San Antonio or Austin.

Napper, a veteran developer of office and industrial, also wants to expand into retail and residential lot development. "I think I can get the expertise to do that," he says. The key, he adds, will be to find "entrepreneurs who can generate deals working with me."

Napper and Panattoni aren't turning their backs on each other forever, but the "exclusive" shackle and development constraints are now gone for Courtland. "The equity is there to work with me," Napper says. And with that backing, he's hit the ground running with negotiations underway for 134 acres in two development sites in the metroplex.