NEWPORT BEACH, CA-Australian REIT Dexus took a big stepWednesday in a plan to invest at least $600 million in industrialproperties in three West Coast port markets, primarily in theGreater Los Angeles area, when the Sydney-based company opened anoffice here and staffed it with a team to execute its West Coaststrategy.

Dexus CEO Victor Hoog Antink tells GlobeSt.com that the strategyinvolves selling the company's East Coast and Central US holdingsover the next few years in order to concentrate its portfolio onthe West Coast. That plan is intended to replicate the company'sAustralian strategy of investing in a very few markets but with ahigh concentration of holdings in those markets, which has workedvery well for the REIT in Australia, Hoog Antink explains.

Heading the Newport Beach office is Jane Lloyd, managingdirector of US investments. Dexus has hired Bruce McDonald andBryan Bentrott, both formerly of Master Development Corp., asmanaging director of development & asset management andmanaging director of acquisitions & leasing, respectively,along with a team of six former Master Development executives withexpertise in property management, finance and operations.