GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Moran Launches Dallas Office

Paul Harris has been named managing partner for the Southwest region, an office initially being staffed with four and promises of more to come by year's end. Thad Wetterau, formerly with M/PF Research Inc. and L&B Realty Advisors Inc., is returning to Dallas from Moran's Atlanta office to be second in command for the 1,500-sf office at 5440 Harvest Hill Rd. in North Dallas. By week's end, a senior research analyst will join the team, which includes one to start out the admin staff.

Harris tells GlobeSt.com that the office is coming out of the gate with listings for two class A properties and one class B portfolio and definitely more en route. He says Moran & Co. is banking on Dallas-Fort Worth's historical high-growth, high-demand arena as a long-term playing field. "It's a perfect time to start," he says, noting multifamily is strong in terms of sales activity although it's still not quite as hardy as years gone by. "They'll (Moran) have a local guy on the ground that can work the properties that are available and the clients that are here."

Harris was one of three senior vice presidents for Irving, TX-based Archon Residential, with his focus on national disposition and acquisition strategies. In the last six years, he sold 255 properties, with 56,000 units, to collect proceeds of $2.4 billion. The acquisition side produced about 29,500 units in 101 properties, with a value of $1.4 billion.

Harris, a 20-year veteran, says Moran is poised to close this year with a volume in excess of $500 million, of which a fair share will come from the Dallas-Fort Worth marketplace. "With the extent of transaction activity in Dallas, having an office in Dallas makes a lot of sense," he says of the 32-year-old company's decision to expand. Moran also has offices in Costa Mesa, CA, Boca Raton, FL, and Highlands Ranch, CO. The boutique investment-banking and brokerage firm specializes in the sale of multifamily, institutional-quality, rental properties in the US.

Of the amicable split, Scott Ferguson, Archon Residential's senior investment manager, says "we're going to miss him tremendously. He has the history for all the deals." A replacement for Harris, who shared the title with Jay Jacobson and Mark Wolcott, has not been named.