"We started getting inquiries, unsolicited offers," JamesHankins, senior vice president of ASG Real Estate Co., says aboutthe firm's first ground-up project in Dallas/Fort Worth. "We keptseeing the prices these developments were receiving and felt likethe timing was right." ASG's timing was so good that the 22-acreWatauga Pavilion at 7600-7620 Denton Highway had 25 investorsjockeying for the win from a 30-day marketing period. "We knew itwas going to be strong, but we didn't think it was going to be thatstrong," he says.

And the buyer was the Oak Brook, IL-based Inland Western RetailTrust Inc., marking its fifth purchase this year in Texas. "Inlandhad the top offer," Adam Howells, a Dallas director for HollidayFenoglio Fowler, says. "But, there was a cluster of offers in thesame proximity as Inland." The deed swapped hands after a 30-daylook and 15-day close in Inland's true MO--cash on the line.

An Inland spokesman says debt will be placed down the road withthe usual 50% to 53% leverage so the REIT, which is ringing thebell this morning at the New York Stock Exchange, can gain morepurchasing power for a pool that's been spinning Texas deeds at therate of one per month since the year began. And Joseph Cosenza,Inland's chairman of acquisitions, is holding more contracts.