Brandon Beeson, Principal – Capital Markets, Edge Realty Partners

In an interview with Invest:, Brandon Beason, principle of capital markets at commercial real estate company Edge Realty Partners, discussed the growth of the real estate sector in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, underscoring the opportunities that his company has been exploiting in “the best market in the country and, really, in the world.”

What have been the major milestones and achievements for Edge Realty Partners over the last 12 months?

I’m a partner on the capital market side, focused strictly on investment sales. We work together with Edge Realty Partners’ retail side, which is strong on tenant rep and landlord leasing. As far as the past year has gone, obviously with what we do, interest rates have been quite a headwind, but I think we’re seeing some uptick. The beginning of the year was slow for us, but we’ve gained some momentum, and I think if we can finish off the year – the fourth quarter – strongly. We should be at or above where we were the last couple of years. That’s significant for us given the headwinds that we’ve had in terms of higher interest rates. Even though the Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark rate in September, there is not an immediate effect. But we’re hoping that rates will continue to come down, which would help us a lot on the sales side.

What makes North Texas an ideal location for Edge Realty to be operating in?

In my opinion, it’s the best market in the country and, really, in the world. Just with the flood of people moving into North Texas, we’ve been blessed and sheltered from what a lot of the country has seen. There has been a trickle-down effect of so many people moving in and needing retail services. We do work all over the country. We have offices in Houston, Austin, and Phoenix, and DFW is just the gold standard. 

What is your differentiator from other firms? What gives you that competitive edge? 

We’ve been doing this for quite a long time. I’ve been doing investment sales for over 20 years, and I’m an attorney as well, although I don’t practice. That experience coupled with a really strong team is important. It’s not just me or my partners. We have a robust team that is really good at what they do, from the research to the marketing to the packaging; they’re just the best. That has enabled us to continually compete on a high level with our competitors. They make us look good. 

What types of properties or sectors are in the highest demand, and how are you capitalizing on these? 

Our team is structured a little bit differently. Edge Realty Partners is really a retail company,

but on the capital markets side, we work in all product types. We’re obviously heavily retail, but we sell a lot of office, a lot of multifamily, and some industrial. That allows us to mitigate some risk as different product types expand or contract in demand. Retail is the darling right now, but that ebbs and flows. After 20 years, you can tell that sometimes different product types are hotter than others. That gives us the ability to be more flexible, and it really helps us get through challenging times. My partner also does a lot of work with special services and banks on the distress side. We sell a lot of distress product across all product types. 

In terms of retail, there’s not a lot of it, but we recently launched a portfolio in Dallas for retail deals. They’re well located, and they have upside in that they’re all between 60-70% leased. When we take something like that out, it gets an enormous amount of interest because you just don’t see a lot of that in markets like this. That’s really the perfect scenario: to get well-located real estate in strong markets with upside because that’s what everybody looks for.

With all the interest in mixed-use and suburban, how is the company positioned to capture growth in these segments? 

As far as the suburban growth from Fort Worth to Dallas, most of the stuff that we’re selling is in peripheral submarkets. That’s where the real growth is. In the core Dallas or Fort Worth areas, there is just not a lot of room for growth, so all the growth is in those peripheral areas. As far as mixed-use, we see a lot of that. We are about to take out a mixed-use deal that has upside retail in office. You don’t see a ton of that, but if it’s in a market like this, it gets interesting.

Where do you see office development moving forward, given the holdover effects of the pandemic?

Office is obviously the product type that’s struggled the most. We’re sheltered here in DFW and in Texas, but there are a lot of states that haven’t come back. They’re still working from home a lot. That has had a huge impact on office. In the long-term, it’s going to straighten itself out. It typically does. But if you look at transactions and rates and everything across the board, office has been the one that has struggled the most. 

Is there any innovation or technology that’s impacting your operations? 

A good example of technology that has really helped us specifically on the retail side is a software called Placer.ai. They track cell phone data for different retailers across the country. When you’re selling a retail deal, one of the most important factors on the value side is how healthy the tenants are. If you’re selling a Best Buy, for example, here in DFW, and they don’t report sales, how do you know how healthy they are? Are they going to renew? Are they going to leave? This software allows us to basically rank that Best Buy among other Best Buys in DFW, other Best Buys in Texas, and other Best Buys in the country. It’s based on self-data: you just track how many people go in, how long they stay, these sorts of things. Unfortunately, your cellphone knows where you work, where you sleep, and what you do during the day. It allows us to track that, and we say, OK, this Best Buy that we’re looking to sell is the No. 3 Best Buy in the market, it’s No. 10 in the state, and it’s in the Top 25% in the country. That tool has been helpful for us to really push the product that we’re selling, specifically on the retail side. It helps to show how healthy these tenants are, because that’s really what people are looking for. Luckily, in this market, most tenants are doing really well.