GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: New DFW Buyer Pushing $200M-Plus Plan

"We are more attracted to the cap rates and prices in Dallas/Fort Worth than we are to the rest of the country," Thomas G. Irish, president of the Torrance, CA-based Transpacific, tells GlobeSt.com. "For us to enter a new market, it has to be a fairly sizable acquisition. Now that we're in the market, we'll look at smaller buildings."

The inroad was made in late April: a 530,000-sf building at 1201 Chase Rd., leased to the locally based Shippers Warehouse, and 400,000-sf structure at 1371 Town East Blvd., occupied by JumpKing Trampolines Inc. of Logan, UT. Transpacific has tapped Dallas-based TIG Real Estate Services to manage the pair of four-year-old office/warehouses in Hillwood-developed Mesquite Skyline Business Park. "They helped us to understand the market," he says. "We're very impressed with them."

But, Irish's latest contract is raw land for spec industrial development. The deal could close in 60 days. "We could be under construction by the end of the year," he says.The 51-year-old company uses its own capital to fund all plays. Irish says there isn't a dollar amount allocated for Dallas/Fort Worth, but there is $200 million to $500 million to spend over a 12-to 18-month period--across the board. He says a couple multi-state portfolio acquisitions are under negotiation.

Though well-known in its home state, Transpacific is just now making its way to Dallas/Fort Worth after watching cap rates and prices tilt returns in California. "We can't make sense of the cap rates and distribution buildings selling at $80 per sf in California," he says. "We would consider other markets, but we like the Dallas/Fort Worth market best of all the Texas markets." Transpacific owns 4.5 million sf of office space and three million sf of industrial space, predominately in California, Arizona and Hawaii.

The buyer has an appetite for single-tenant office and distribution product with a 200,000-sf minimum, whether it's buying or building, and seeded by medium- to long-term leases. Irish predicts most Dallas/Fort Worth acquisitions will be distribution rather than office, falling into the $25-million to $50-million range.