Baltimore-based commercial real estate development company, with a national portfolio valued at over $5 billion, opens second Texas office led by Regional Partner Raphael Alterman

DALLAS, TX – St. John Properties, Inc., a Baltimore-based full-service commercial real estate development and management company which has developed more than 24 million square feet of space and a portfolio valued at over $5 billion, has expanded within Texas with a new regional office in Dallas. Raphael Alterman, who was recently named Regional Partner, will lead the Dallas office and oversee the search for opportunities to fulfill the company’s speculative development strategy. This expansion follows the opening of the company’s Austin regional office in spring of 2022. St. John Properties operates 15 offices in 11 states and intends to grow its portfolio to 40 million square feet by continuing to expand its footprint and development activity across the country. The company has speculatively broken ground on nearly one million square feet of commercial space nationwide during each of the last four years.

“High-growth sectors including defense and security, business & financial services, information technology, and health services continue to drive economic growth and create jobs throughout the greater Dallas region, and we anticipate long-term opportunities to develop and deliver our signature real estate products to fulfill emerging requirements,” stated Lawrence Maykrantz, President and CEO, St. John Properties. “The rapid success and momentum generated by our Austin regional office was a key factor in our expansion plans in Dallas. Although we view Dallas as a completely different submarket with unique characteristics, we believe we can leverage certain operational efficiencies with the opening of a second Texas regional office.”

Alterman, who joined St. John Properties in 2019, will lead day-to-day operations of the new regional office, and be responsible for site and property acquisition, development, construction, marketing and leasing, and property management activities. He holds a Master of Business Administration in Real Estate Finance and Development from the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

St. John Properties differentiated by speculative development and building sustainability missions

Founded by Edward St. John in Baltimore in 1971, St. John Properties is recognized throughout the industry for its invention and refinement of its signature product type: highly-specialized flex/research & development buildings which satisfy the real estate needs of a wide range of end-users. Flex/R&D buildings are single-story “part office/part industrial” buildings divided into bays which can be fully customized to meet end-users’ needs. St. John Properties’ flex/R&D product is home to a broad array of users, from high-tech companies with majority office needs, to light manufacturing and distribution centers, and everything in between.

St. John Properties stands apart from its peers for its philosophy of developing real estate space almost exclusively on a speculative basis. This proactive mission enables the company to respond instantly to the emerging requirements of new and existing clients. The company continues to expand its national presence with new regional offices around the country. Within the past two years, St. John Properties has expanded into Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida and Austin, Texas, with plans for additional regional offices forthcoming.   

St. John Properties is also recognized as a leader in sustainable building innovation, with a long-term goal to further refine processes that improve indoor air quality while boosting employee wellness and productivity. “St. John Properties prioritizes the preservation of energy and natural resources, alongside the continual drive to create and advance environmentally-friendly buildings, as crucial factors in enticing new tenants,” said Maykrantz. The U.S. Green Building Council consistently ranks St. John Properties among the top five developers of LEED certified buildings nationwide. 

St. John Properties, under the direction of Raphael Alterman, is searching for strategic sites throughout the greater Dallas metropolitan region, specifically in Collin and Denton counties, to develop ground-up Class ‘A’ commercial office, retail, and flex/R&D space.

St. John Properties developing three sites in greater Austin totaling more than 600,000 square feet of space

Earlier this year, St. John Properties acquired a 50-acre parcel in Leander, Texas with intentions to develop an eight-building, 270,000 square foot business community including flex/R&D and retail space, as well as three pad sites. Groundbreaking activities at Leander Tech Park will commence later this year, the first phase of development is expected to deliver in fall of 2025 and will include two of St. John Properties’ signature flex/R&D buildings collectively offering nearly 90,000 square feet. At full build out, Leander Tech Park will have the capacity to support approximately 850 jobs.    

Last spring, the company acquired a nearly 35-acre site near the border of Georgetown and Round Rock, and revealed plans to develop Westinghouse Crossing, a business community containing approximately 225,000 square feet of flex/R&D, single-story office, and retail space. Construction activities have commenced, with the first building scheduled to deliver by end of year.

Together with partner Tynberg, LLC, St. John Properties is also developing a four-story 120,000 square foot office building within the 116-acre Northline mixed-use development in Leander. The Class ‘A’ office building located at 1133 Main Street features ground-floor retail space and is expected to be completed in mid-2025. 

Why Dallas-Fort Worth, TX

According to data published by the Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC), more than eight million people reside in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth region, making it the fourth-largest metropolitan statistical area in the country, after New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the area added the second-highest number of new jobs in the country last year, with the total of 154,000 people only behind New York City. Over a five-year span, Dallas ranked first nationally in job growth with nearly 600,000 new positions added. In addition, eight of the 10 most-rapidly expanding U.S. counties were in the area, with Collin County ranking second. The Dallas-Fort Worth region achieved the highest year-over-year job growth in the country in 2023 with an unemployment rate less than 3.4 percent. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.5 percent of all new jobs created in the U.S. between August 2022 and 2023 were in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.   

The DRC reports that the Dallas-Fort Worth region has attracted 24 Fortune 500 company headquarters, and 49 companies from among the Fortune 1000. Major corporations with headquarters in the area include AT&T, American Airlines, Exxon Mobile, Kimberly-Clark, McKesson, Southwest Airlines, and Toyota. Major industries include aviation and aerospace, financial services, healthcare, high-tech, hospitality, life science, logistics and manufacturing. Chief Executive Magazine has ranked Texas as the “best state for business” for 19 consecutive years. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is the largest hub for American Airlines, and ranks as the third-busiest airport in the world with nearly 82 million passengers passing through its terminal last year. Nearly 70 million people visit the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex each year.

“The sustained population growth over the past 10 years, the diversity of industries operating within the market, and its talent-rich labor pool prompted us to select the Dallas area as the latest target for our national expansion,” stated St. John Properties’ Alterman. “Economic growth starts with a region’s ability to attract talent and fill available positions, and Dallas has few peers in that regard. The presence of several Fortune 100 companies, diverse arts, cultural, and sports, and favorable quality of life have combined to bring Dallas to the forefront of national commercial real estate development. Therefore, we see a long runway and new opportunities ahead, and we are thrilled to plant the St. John Properties flag in Dallas.”

“Based on our sustained success in other markets around the country, we are confident that the unique characteristics of our signature flex product will satisfy the real estate requirements of varied end-users and out-perform what is currently available,” Alterman added. “Our initial step is to identify and acquire suitable land holdings for our signature flex/R&D, office, and retail buildings, as well as to establish relationships with key brokerage and business professionals to support our long-term development plans.”

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 “St. John Properties’ customer-first philosophy and best-in-class real estate products have resonated in every market in which we operate, and that has allowed us to develop a critical mass of properties which generate increased operational efficiencies. We intend to hit the ground running in Dallas, and are open to forming joint venture partnerships with local development groups that will enable us to execute our proven real estate development strategies.” Founded in 1971, St. John Properties, Inc. is one of the nation’s largest and most successful privately held commercial real estate firms. The company is distinguished by its commitment to customer service, achievements in green building, and top-rated workplace culture. Throughout St. John Properties’ 53-year history, the company has developed more than 24 million square feet of flex/R&D, office, retail, and warehouse space, and has investments in over 3,000 residential units. The company proudly serves more than 2,600 clients in Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Utah, and Wisconsin. For more information about the company, visit www.sjpi.com.