DALLAS-In a move to continually expand its service offering, Encore Enterprises Inc. has brought the principals of Garfield Corp. on board to form a new division, or sector. During the first week of February, Raymond Garfield, Greg Garfield and Stephen Moffett took on leadership roles of Encore Garfield Public/Private LLC, through which they'll direct national public/private development and financing activities.

"We saw a sector that could be added to our platform, which includes hospitality, retail, multifamily and office," explains Patrick Barber, president and CEO of Encore Enterprises. "Ray Garfield has handled a lot of those components under the public-private environment, and they have a pipeline of relationships that don't have to be established from scratch."

Barber tells GlobeSt.com that Encore's growth is based both on organic methods and acquisitions similar to that of Garfield Corp.  But not just any business is acquired or sector grown from scratch. "We're a research-driven company, and we have an efficient process of looking at opportunities, with each sector having a strategic niche," Barber says, adding that sectors and companies are thoroughly vetted before Encore makes a move. "One of the advantages we've built our platform from is having diversity, with each sector being able to stand alone by themselves."

The addition of the Garfields and Moffett provides Encore with the ability to plug public sector activities into the overall lineup. "We haven't catered to the governmental areas just yet," Barber says. "This is a great way for us to obtain some investments in that area."

Prior to joining Encore, Ray and Greg Garfield were co-founders of Garfield Corp. and principals of Garfield Traub Development LLC, a leading developer of public and public/private facilities.  Steve Moffett was president of Garfield Traub's Hospitality Division.  Encore Garfield Public/Private, with the collaboration of Encore Enterprises, will bring private equity and debt to cities, counties, states, universities, hospitals and K-12 schools to facilitate efficient delivery of essential new capital projects.  Encore Garfield will deliver these facilities using turnkey, streamlined development and financing methods.

Barber says it's a little too early to talk about specific projects coming from the new acquisition, but acknowledges that Encore has taken some of the projects on which the Garfields were working.  "We're coming in and equitizing those," he adds. "There's immediately been almost $200 million projects we're involved in now, just by virtue of the fact that we're the equity partners."

The Garfield addition comes weeks after Encore acquired Zisler Capital Associates LLC, with Randy and Matt Zisler coming aboard. "That was a strategic move for us to expand in a big way on the institutional capital side, and we're already seeing the benefits of that," Barber comments.