Three Locals Start Office for Investment Firm

Jeff Panzi, Tom DeWaay and Colin Panzi are now operating the outpost. Matthew Fitzgerald, based in Madison, WI, will run the office with his corral of seven other small offices. When asked why Des Moines, which many research organizations don't track currently, Fitzgerald says there's a tremendous amount of opportunity in Des Moines. "It's a fantastic market, and there's lots of secondary markets for us to go into. Plus, we can bring clients there, who are looking to invest outside of Iowa, into the national platform," he tells GlobeSt.com. For example, locally-based Principal Financial Group Inc., which just paid $41.1 million for 684,235-sf in the Buckeye Logistics Center, could be a client that the new office will go after, Fitzgerald says.

He says the company already has two offices in Wisconsin, one in Minneapolis, one in Omaha, NE and another in Kansas City, MO, as well as several in Illinois. "This is another very complimentary piece of the puzzle," Fitzgerald says. "Overall, we're happy with the Midwest. One of the reasons it does so well is it doesn't have the wild mood swings of Vegas or the coasts, it's always attractive." A CBRE official did not return a call for comment.

Recent purchases locally include a joint venture between Baltimore-based Alex Brown Realty Inc. and Chicago-based Sydney Partners LLC, which bought the Merchants Distribution Plaza Industrial Park in Clive, IA for $6.5 million, as part of a portfolio investment that will total about $70 million. Also, in Cedar Rapids, IA, another joint venture of Alex. Brown and Trinity Property Group LLC acquired the 168,563-sf Collins Road Square retail center for $14.1 million. Both sales were complete in January.