Zaya S. Younan, chairman and CEO, has had Dallas brokerage circles talking for months about his quest to become the largest office building owner in the metro. Today, he climbs one more notch by buying the 394,324-sf Four Forest Plaza at 12222 Merit Dr. and 397,328-sf Lakeside Square at 12377 Merit Dr. The deal factors out to close to $60 million just for the office space.
Not only is Younan getting two 80%-leased high-rises, but he also scooped up open land beside Lakeside Square so he can build "one of the largest [residential and retail] high-rise projects in Dallas," he tells GlobeSt.com. He says work will start immediately to get the land rezoned so he can build "a chic, modern high-rise" of condos and apartments with a retail infrastructure. Beyond that, the rest of the details won't be available for awhile.
Younan bought nearly 1.1 million sf in three office buildings from Chicago-based EOP in late August. The last leg of the deal is being financed through Countrywide Financial Corp. of Thousand Oaks, CA. And like before, Younan is planning to tackle a renovation of the office buildings. "We are going to completely renovate the common areas and reposition them to be fully occupied," he says.
Trammell Crow Co., which presently leases Four Forest Plaza, will have one building to fill and Grubb & Ellis Co. will get the other, says Younan, whose MO is to divvy assignments and keep management in-house. "We think these are excellent assets that are very well located," he says, "and in a market that we feel is going to recover significantly."
Today's acquisition takes the Dallas portfolio to 2.9 million sf of all class A office space, having just sold the last of his class B buildings in the metroplex. The company's portfolio is pushing 4.8 million sf in 22 class A buildings in California, Illinois, Florida and Texas. Younan has bought and sold more than $500 million in assets since he launched the investment group three years ago. The sold product, he says, has generated an average leveraged IRR of 65% for investors.
Younan isn't done buying by any means in Dallas although he's not holding any more contacts right now. "We are looking aggressively to buy more," he says. "We like Dallas. We've always liked Dallas. We love Dallas and we are very strong on the equity side."
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