GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Telecom Corridor HQ Trades for $15M

Todd White, senior vice president and acquisitions director for the Dallas-based Macfarlan, tells GlobeSt.com that the team looked at 3000 Research Dr. in Richardson about 18 months ago, but Dallas-based DalMac Corp. wasn't quite ready to sell. When the listing did hit the market, Macfarlan seized the moment and took control of the deal within the first week to nudge out a handful of others from the chase, he confides.

Build-to-suit developer DalMac constructed the two-story, single-tenant office building in 2000 on 10 acres along the George Bush Tollway. AMX has 6.5 years left on a 10-year lease. "We love the location of the real estate and the flexibility of the real estate...and the capacity to expand with their five- to seven-year business model," White explains of the drive to buy the headquarters of a leading developer and manufacturer of integrated remote control systems and specialty electronics.

Macfarlan secured a five-year loan with a 25-year amortization and a fixed interest rate of sub-6% from State Farm Bank. White says the financing closed with a 65% to 70% loan-to-value ratio in a package arranged by Dan Mosley in the Minneapolis-based NorthMarq Capital Inc.'s Dallas office. The deal's negotiators were White and Jeff Ledyard, Macfarlan's transactions manager, along with Brad Stewart and Ethan Garner, both with the Weitzman Group in Dallas, and DalMac's Gordon Joiner.

White says the company's "conservative" plan this year will deliver at least $150 million of leveraged acquisitions, of which $100 million most likely will be single-tenant, net-lease assets in the US. In January, Macfarlan spent $7.2 million for the 100,200-sf Innova Electronics headquarters building in Houston, as previously reported by GlobeSt.com. And, the buyer is lobbing contract plays for similar product in Salt Lake City and Minneapolis.

"We've made more traction as a net buyer in the nation and we're doing more than just looking at high-profile, high-solicited deals," White says of a three-year-old play to target smaller companies and product of all type. "What sets us apart is we pursue the opportunity, we close it immediately and then we internally put our partnership program together and go back to the investors."

But, the funds aren't just dedicated to net-lease buys. Earlier this month, Macfarlan spent $8.7 million for the 191-room Hawthorn Inn & Suites at the El Paso International Airport. The three-story, limited-service hotel, built in 1995, was bought from a family trust in El Paso. The Hawthorn flag, he says, is good for the long term.

Though the pipeline's brimming, Don Epperson, Macfarlan's senior vice president and business development director, stresses that "under no circumstances are we going to go buy a property just because our investors need a property. We want our investors to be successful." The team's not saying where the next deal falls, but did say the closing should be in 60 days.