Managed Services To Take on Trouble

ADDISON, TX-Cypress Equities and SRS Real Estate Partners have joined forces to form Managed Services, a company dedicated to boosting underperforming and distressed retail assets. Joining the joint venture is Arrow Retail, a new offshoot of Cypress Equities that will acquire distressed retail properties.

Cypress Equities CEO Chris Maguire tells GlobeSt.com that the formation of Managed Services makes sense for a company like Cypress, which has spent the past 15 years in retail development. “We’re still involved in development, we’re still finishing up a large number of developments, but we don’t see a lot of new development happening over the next two or three years,” he explains. “We have a good foundation in our company, so now we’re focusing on using those talented people to help owners, banks and institutions deal with problems they might be having with their retail.”

The logical progression is that Arrow Retail, headed by former Cypress Equities partner Todd Minnis, will buy assets; Cypress will oversee and manage them, and SRS Real Estate Partners will handle leasing. Maguire says that Managed Services wants to work with clients that own troubled assets as well. On the buying end, Maguire says the focus is on class A retail or retail-driven mixed-use properties in first-tier markets.

On the management and leasing end, though, there is a little more flexibility. “We’ll likely get portfolios of institutions taking back properties, and we may find one from Duluth, MN,” he comments. “That’s fine, and that’s more about client service. The goal there is to add value to help the client.”

Maguire believes Managed Services is competitively positioned to do well in the marketplace, because all the services and employees are under one umbrella. “We’re not an asset management company that simply pays bills and hires others to lease,” he comments. “We’re an owner that has built centers and knows how to manage them. We have all the functions in-house, whether it involves doing the financial analysis, or leasing, or asset management on the back end.”