"We see this as the first leg of an expanded program we hope will be in place for several years and go through several iterations," he tells GlobeSt.com. "Our goals and objectives are clearly aligned with the Harbert guys."

The team concept adheres closely to a joint venture program Koll established with Prudential Real Estate Services Parsippany, NJ for the Intellicenter office development program. Launched in 2005, the program has invested more than $200 million in projects in Dallas, Houston and Atlanta, with more on the way. "It's a very efficient way to develop once you get through the initial documentation," Grove explains. "There's a lot of benefits to both groups. Deal costs go down both with our partners and our lenders."

Dallas-based Koll and Harbert, a Birmingham, AL-based investment management firm managing over $20.3 billion of assets and capital, met for more than a year before hammering out the final partnership agreement. Grove says the two companies were brought together through a financing source with which Koll has an on-going relationship. "This is very much a relationship business for us," he notes. "We always try to build on the connections we already have." The only serious point of contention, he reports, concerned overall capital structure and how to capitalize projects, but in the end they reached a consensus. The agreement precludes revealing specifics about the chosen method, but he describes the selected capital structure as "fairly traditional."