AmREIT Advances Expansion Strategy for Dallas/Fort Worth

Steve Hefner, with 17 years' experience, takes the helm as vice president and managing director for the region after a three-year stint as vice president of acquisitions and dispositions for locally based Cencor Realty Services, an affiliate of the Weitzman Group. The plan is to add team members "as we grow the number of assets and square footage," he says. With another retail purchase looming for the second quarter, Hefner tells GlobeSt.com that he expects to begin adding staff in roughly three months for leasing, management, analysis and development. The office location is under negotiation, but it appears headed to Premier Place at 5910 N. Central Expressway.

AmREIT has followed the Wall Street map to build a portfolio, mostly retail properties at irreplaceable corners. Hefner says AmREIT will stay true to that strategy, but also plans to expand the longstanding business model. "We are looking at other opportunities, even joint ventures," he says. "In order to double or triple their size in the next couple years, there are not enough irreplaceable corners to buy. We will have to go out of the box a little. We aren't replacing the irreplaceable strategy. We'll do both."

Hefner says the upcoming purchase is a "Main and Main" location, like its other 3.5 million sf that's been bought since last year's Dallas/Fort Worth market entry. The new plan will include redevelopment and development to tap into all that the North Texas market has to offer, he says.

"Dallas is one of my favorite cities and we have done business there for over a decade," AmREIT CEO Kerr Taylor says in this morning's press release. "We have looked for over a year to find a professional of Steve's caliber." Hefner wrapped up work at Cencor at the beginning of the month.