Crow Holdings Office, Industrial Take Advantage of Growth Bursts

DALLAS—Dallas-based investment and development firm, Crow Holdings, recently formed a new company, Crow Holdings Office, specializing in the design and development of workplace environments with top amenities and services. While initially focused on Dallas where business growth and corporate relocations provide strong demand for new office space, Crow Holdings Office plans to expand to other high-growth markets.

“Today, talent wants and needs different things from the environment in which they work and employers recognize this by using real estate as a competitive advantage to attract and retain the best people,” Michael Levy, chief executive officer of Crow Holdings, tells GlobeSt.com. “The definition of amenities has evolved whereby people are searching for environments which provide a myriad of services which support their busy professional and personal lives, curate events and offer intellectual content programming, create flexibility for their ever-changing spatial needs and promote collaboration and connection through engaging environments. At Crow Holdings, we have proven we can provide a bespoke environment which companies are seeking by way of our Old Parkland campus. We are excited about providing this type of unique experience to a much wider audience, with a broader design and development mandate.”

Previously with CBRE, Cody Armbrister joins the firm as senior managing director to lead Crow Holdings Office activities. At Crow Holdings, Armbrister will be responsible for establishing Crow Holdings Office as a national office development company, sourcing and executing on new ground-up development opportunities.

“We are launching Crow Holdings Office in response to the needs of a changing workforce, and our activities will be focused on creating significant value by executing an opportunistic and build-to-core strategy,” said Ken Valach, CEO of development companies Trammell Crow Residential, Crow Holdings Industrial and Crow Holdings Office. “Office real estate is an undeniably compelling long-term opportunity for us. Cody’s expertise and relationships in this sector will allow him to not only immediately identify opportunities in Dallas, but also establish CHO’s presence on a national platform.”

Trammell Crow developed his first high-rise office building in Dallas in the late 1950s and went on to create much of the iconic Dallas skyline, further enhancing his reputation as one of the most recognized US developers.

Meanwhile, Crow Holdings Industrial announced its most active quarter to date, with record sales/leasing activity and more than 8 million square feet under construction. Following a successful 2019, the firm expects to break ground on an additional 10 million square feet in 2020.

In the fourth quarter of 2019, Crow Holdings Industrial signed more than 1.7 million square feet of new leases across seven of the firm’s properties, including a full-building 930,000-square-foot lease with LG Electronics in Franklin Township, NJ and a 350,000-square-foot lease with Wholesome Sweeteners in Deer Park, TX.

The firm also completed the sale of four properties totaling $275 million, reflecting its ability to drive value across the lifecycle from site identification and development through to lease-up, management and disposition. These sales included a 1.1-million-square-foot class-A industrial warehouse in Lathrop, CA that was completed in 2019 and is leased to Wayfair Inc., a home goods company.

The DFW market currently has 28.4 million square feet of industrial space under construction, according to a recent report by Cushman & Wakefield. Development activity is focused on Alliance (9.8 million square feet), DFW Airport (5.2 million square feet) and Great Southwest (2.5 million square feet).

During fourth quarter 2019, nearly 11 million square feet of industrial space was delivered, bringing year-to-date completions to 24.4 million square feet.