Retail Dealmakers Set Out on New Expedition

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DALLAS-Three retail professionals have decided to strike out on their own, hitting the streets as Expedition Capital Partners. As they build the ground floor, they are polishing off a pipeline of deals for the Staubach Co. and affiliate Cypress Equities.

The trio’s skill sets include land brokerage, development, acquisitions and financing. The new firm’s principals are Stephen Summers, formerly a land broker for the Dallas-based Staubach; Jason Claro, Cypress’ former development manager; and Stephen Swann, vice president of acquisitions and financing for Cypress. “We feel like our skill sets match up perfectly,” Summers tells GlobeSt.com. They’ve tapped office space in Advancial Towers at 1845 Woodall Rodgers Freeway in Uptown.

The trio has hit the ground running with one contract in hand for a retail property and four deals working through letters of intent, according to Summers. He says the first development site should be in hand within two months. The game plan is to start construction as soon as the land changes hands.

Summers and Claro say the specialty play is to find and buy land in retail growth paths “where the highest and best use isn’t being utilized.” That translates into scouting expeditions for infill and suburban tracts, with equity being raised on a deal-by-deal basis. “We’re taking it as it comes,” Claro explains, “and out hustling deals as it makes sense.”

With the firm’s launch now official, Summers has just cleared one deal from his Staubach stack: an 83-acre purchase by Wally Properties Inc. of Fort Smith, AR. Summers’ long-time client is planning to build retail and office space on a cornerstone piece with 4,000 feet of frontage along the Dallas North Tollway at its intersection with US Highway 380. The dealmaker estimates the project could top out at 900,000 sf.

Right after Wally Properties’ contract went on the table, Chicago-based General Growth Properties and Blue Star Land LP announced their plans for neighboring acreage. Had the deals happened in reverse, Summers says the Stratford Group of Dallas most likely would have raised the price considerably higher than the $5 per sf ask.

The land had been on the market a couple years. Summers says talks got under way with Wally Properties holding 1031 funds to deploy and a desire to get a second claim as a bookend for its foothold at US Highway 380 and Custer Road, where the plan is to build a 300,000-sf power center.

“Prosper has to be very excited about what’s happening up there,” Summers says. “It’s a very development-friendly town.”