Ryan Cos. has nearly 1,300 employees across 15 offices nationwide. The 80-year-old development company hasn’t been a big player in North Texas, but, with two newly hired developers and a three-pronged strategy to grow locally, it’s working to change that.
About a month ago, Minneapolis-based Ryan hired Paul Rowsey, former vice president of development at RED Development, to help grow its local office. (Rowsey will have the same title at Ryan.) In late 2016, Ryan hired its first DFW exec—Rich Couturier, who had previously spent over a decade at Duke Realty. Rowsey says Ryan’s Dallas office will likely grow to include three more people before the end of the year, including a construction manager and estimator. Ryan Cos. is a vertically integrated developer and builder in the office, mixed-use, industrial, healthcare, senior living, multifamily, and retail sectors.
Ryan Cos. will focus on growing its local office in three sectors, according to Rowsey. First, the firm will pursue “urban catalyst development,” not unlike The Union, the $400 million mixed-use development Rowsey previously worked on with RED. “There’s continued demand for new product in emerging districts,” he says.
Second, Ryan will hunt corporate build-to-suit developments, a sector in which Ryan’s other offices already do quite a bit of work. Its office portfolio includes high-profile projects such as Austin’s Oracle campus, Minneapolis’ Wells Fargo campus, and State Farm’s regional campus hub in Tempe, Arizona.
And finally, Ryan will work with its clients from elsewhere to show the attractiveness of the DFW industrial climate. “Capital still wants to be in industrial real estate,” Rowsey says. “We’ll be working with our national partners to take an opportunistic approach … which could be a mix of build-to-suit and spec development.”
As for now, Rowsey says his priority at Ryan is to reconnect with past partners and “understand the chess board” of development in North Texas.
