Author: Amy Chavez

1 Dust Group leased 6,686 square feet at North Dallas Business Park, 3109 Garden Brook Dr. in Farmers Branch. Elaine Xu at Younger Partners represented the tenant.

The wholesale electronic products business, which has been providing warehouse and fulfillment services to clients in Asia since 2018, saw an opportunity to expand its existing U.S. business lines with a relocation from Mo. to Texas. North Dallas Business Park’s centralized location will enable 1 Dust Group to provide added storage solutions and quicker fulfillment for customers.

“Dallas-Fort Worth continues to be a magnet for regional, national and even international businesses like 1 Dust Group,” says Xu. “Fulfillment centers such as this benefit from our shipping infrastructure, lower operational costs, favorable tax rates and huge talent pool.”

Front Porch Pantry was a relatively unknown contender in the prepared meal delivery business when it launched in 2016 from a small deli kitchen at the back of an Addison liquor store. The Dallas-based company now competes with the likes of Freshly and Factor and ships over 50,000 meals a month across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Founder and Managing Partner Michaelann Dykes claimed her stake in the $10.29 billion global industry with a mission to help busy people eat healthy by delivering tasty home-cooked meals to their doorstep. She began by assembling a cookbook of ‘family favorite’ recipes and started testing her meals.

“The first deli kitchen was fine for making sure my recipes could be precooked from fresh ingredients and reheated without compromise,” says Dykes. Front Porch Pantry initially had two to three customers a week and quickly expanded to a large customer base in the Dallas area. Dykes says the company has an 88% loyalty rate today.

As the menu options for Front Porch Pantry grew, so did the need for more sophisticated real estate. Within the first year, Dykes sought assistance from Tanja McAleavey of Younger Partners who located a commercial gluten-free kitchen with accommodations that were prime for clean cooking. The new facility came with a space expansion option and gave Front Porch Pantry the edge it needed to accelerate in an industry experiencing compound annual growth rate of 13.5%.

In 2019, McAleavey teamed with Jerry Averyt of Younger Partners to find an even larger floor plate that could further scale with company progress. Front Porch Pantry purchased a former office warehouse located at 4600 McEwen Road in Farmers Branch and the pandemic struck during finish-out. Supply chain issues stalled renovations, affecting everything from commercial stoves and plumbing, to build-out on the office and walk-up retail areas. This happened just as Front Porch Pantry’s business, and the prepared meal delivery industry, was skyrocketing.

“No one could have predicted a pandemic that would astronomically affect the industry. Everyone was searching for great meal delivery options, and Front Porch Pantry had them,” says Dykes. “We had difficulty getting many necessary ingredients but with our extensive catalog of recipes, we were able to write and modify recipes according to what was available.” 

The doors opened at the new facility in September 2021 and momentum remains strong for Front Porch Pantry. Dykes expects to escalate eight times the current volume as the business takes a national focus.

“Our online ratings speak for themselves. Even customers who love to cook are busy. We give them great taste, great value, and the added convenience of having fully cooked dinners delivered right to the front porch. We deliver in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas and look forward to expanding nationwide,” says Dykes.

Front Porch Pantry contact info:

(972) 925-0526
contact@frontporchpantry.com
www.frontporchpantry.com

Younger Partners Co-Managing Partner Kathy Permenter talks about the company’s recent acquisition of Crockett Row during an interview with David Johnson, host of CEO Spotlight on KRLD 1080-AM.

>>Click here to listen to the August 16, 2022, podcast to learn about upgrades planned for the 282,000-square-foot mixed-use development in Fort Worth’s Cultural District.

FORT WORTH, Texas (August 9, 2022) – Younger Partners Investments (YPI) acquired Crockett Row, a 282,334-square-foot urban village with five blocks of pedestrian-friendly Class A retail and office space. Located at the southeast corner of University Drive and West 7^th Street, the property sits within the city’s Cultural District just west of downtown Fort Worth.

Younger Partners’ Co-Managing Partners Kathy Permenter and Moody Younger, and YPI Managing Director Micah Ashford, represented YPI in the acquisition. Financing was arranged by Adam Mengacci of Hamilton Realty Finance. Mark Sloan and Jacob Dow at Holland & Knight provided legal representation. Terms of the deal, which was the third acquisition for YPI, were undisclosed.

Embedded within Fort Worth’s larger live-work-play West 7^th development, Crockett Row is surrounded by world-class museums, eateries, pubs and entertainment venues, including the new state-of-the-art Dickies Arena. Developed in 2009, Crockett Row’s overall occupancy at the time of closing was 74.6 percent, presenting lucrative opportunities for new tenants to join Movie Tavern, LA Fitness, Fidelity Investments, PMG and Common Desk on the property roster. Younger Partners will handle the property management and leasing of the property.

“Crockett Row has it all,” said Ashford. “Visitors can park, walk, shop, play, dine, see a movie and have a cocktail at the property.”

YPI has plans to freshen the brand and to make improvements to enhance customer experience through the addition of gathering spaces, parking technology to help locate open spaces, improved signage and additional elevators. “We also plan to work with the City to enhance accessibility throughout the property,” said Younger.

“Crockett Row was a target investment for us because of its strong supporting demographic and iconic location in the Cultural District, next to some of Fort Worth’s most affluent neighborhoods,” said Permenter. “The amount of tenant interest in this neighborhood has already far exceeded expectations.”

Crockett Row will benefit from upcoming developments to the area, including Crescent-Fort Worth, bringing 200 luxury hotel rooms, 170,000 square feet of office, and 17 multifamily units within a block from the property in mid-2023. Directly across the street from Crockett Row, the Van Zandt will deliver 147 multifamily units, 100,000 square feet of office and 11,000 square feet of retail, along with upcoming additions Triune Centre, Burnett Lofts and Encore Panther Island.

About Younger Partners

Dallas-based Younger Partners is a full-service boutique commercial real estate firm providing investment, leasing, and management services to investors and tenants in the Dallas/Fort Worth region. They specialize in the acquisition and disposition of land, multifamily, office, industrial and retail properties. Younger Partners Investments (YPI) is a Younger Partner platform designed to acquire retail properties. Launched in July 2020, YPI targets retail properties from lifestyle to neighborhood centers throughout the DFW area. Younger Partners and YPI are also affiliated with newly formed Apricus Realty Capital.