In making a 30% investment last year in Trammell Crow Meghraj, one of the country's leading property services firms, TCC earned a vital "introductory letter" to India's investment circles. "There are capital sources there who've indicated interest in working with us," TCC's chairman and CEO Robert E. Sulentic tells GlobeSt.com.
Sulentic says a senior developer from TCC's US ranks is considering relocation to India to launch a development program--a prerequisite for TCC to fire up the plan. "It could happen this year," he says, "although we're not committing."
TCC's road to India has been paved by the government's recent decision to allow outside direct development. "There appears to be huge pent-up demand," Sulentic says.
As the industry knows, TCC's hard focus on development makes it stand out from other US-based, full-service brokerage houses. For several years, it's been tapping capital circles by setting up specialized funds to fuel development programs. India too is a likely candidate for a fund maneuver. "It's unclear as to how we'll capitalize it," Sulentic says, "but we are exploring it as a possible fund."
TCC's US development pipeline includes funds for industrial, office and healthcare product. ING Clarion is fueling a $500,000 industrial fund; Morgan Stanley has a $350-million, medical office fund at work; and Principal Financial Group is backing a $1-billion office fund. "These are targets not limits," Sulentic says. "I expect on all of those we will go beyond the target."
Although TCC's used the mechanism to seed development for several years, the pools have gotten deeper in the past 18 months. "It's a new generation and more substantial than we've done in the past," Sulentic says. "We need a lot of capital and they need a lot of product."
Sulentic was the featured speaker at yesterday's monthly meeting of NAIOP at the Dallas Country Club at 4100 Beverly Dr., where he told the crowd that TCC's global push has been primarily client-driven. In the past six years, the company's evolved from a US-only operation to offices in 30 countries, taking stakes in two brokerage houses as part of the move.
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