"With this renewed business model, we hope it's going to give us seven to 10 very good years in Dallas," Thomas E. Huth, Palladium USA's new quarterback, tells GlobeSt.com. "There are a lot of opportunities in our backyard and we want to stay focused on that."
The lead-off play is the 306-unit groundbreaking for Lofts Canal Side, a neighbor to Palladium's 98%-leased, 246-unit Grand Treviso, which opened in 2002 at 330 E. Las Colinas Blvd. The Lofts Canal Side, set to rise with a separate identity and style on five acres, will build out Palladium's land holdings in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.
Land and existing class B-plus product, both with high visibility and value-add ops, will be part of the buying scenario. Meanwhile, Huth says the USA group's first property management exec--and one skilled in acquisitions as well--will be in place within 90 days.
Lofts Canal Side's first units will deliver in a year, about six months ahead of the construction completion. Units will average 906 sf; median rent, $1.30 per sf.
As for the buying plan, Palladium USA's Huth expects to acquire 1,000 to 2,500 units per year in the $60,000 to $75,000 per door range for properties with 250 to 300 apartments--first in North Texas and then Austin and San Antonio. "We want to go into town, make a significant impact and then go onto another city," he explains. The firm first bought in 1991, sold the 400 Dallas units and bought again two years later. The 268-unit Bristlecone at 2600 Preston Rd. in Plano is the only property in the 1,000-apartment portfolio, valued at slightly more than $100 million, that wasn't built by Palladium.
Huth, who's on the prowl for additional partner groups, says the buying spree will be funded with US and European capital. The buying pool, he says, "is unlimited to the extent that I can find good deals."
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