Bayport Funding to Open Dallas Office

A lender that specializes in value-add investment properties in the single-family and multifamily rental markets is expanding to Texas.

Bayport Funding, which is based in New York and has an office in South Florida, plans to open an office in Dallas by the end of this year.

The firm, led by CEO Marcia Kaufman, is following its customers to the Lone Star state.

“It was very easy for us to move to Dallas because we have proven borrowers with a great track record with Bayport, and we followed them to Dallas,” Kaufman said.

The prevalence of universities and hospitals in Dallas-Fort Worth was part of Bayport’s decision, with the range of jobs tied to the “eds and meds” fields seen as engines for single-family and multifamily rentals.

“We’re very committed to supporting developers who are building affordable and workforce housing,” Kaufman said.

One of Bayport’s first loans, when it started 13 years ago, was to a developer who knocked down a block of single-family homes to build multifamily. The firm sees a lot of opportunities like that in the Dallas area.

“As we’ve expanded our business, we’ve seen developers take that model up and down the Eastern Seaboard,” Kaufman said. “And we’re seeing it very heavily in Texas as well.”

The firm plans to expand to Austin and Houston next.

Here’s what else is shaking in Texas real estate:

Stream Realty Partners promoted Bates Arnot to managing director, leading industrial development services for the central region. Based in Dallas, Arnot joined Stream as an industrial leasing broker in 2009.

Nan and Company Properties, a luxury residential brokerage in Houston, has hired Maribel Juarez and Bob Jones.

Jones has 20 years of experience and a sales volume of $56 million and over 2,500 transactions, according to a news release from Nan and Co. He previously worked for Christie’s International Real Estate and Engel & Völkers.

Juarez transitioned to real estate from the oil and gas industry. She previously worked for eXp, gaining expertise in farm and ranch and sports and entertainment. Nan and Co., an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate, has expanded recently into those two fields — it recently launched a farm and ranch division and a sports and entertainment division.