Cliff Booth was recently named D CEO’s 2022 Commercial Real Estate Executive of The Year.
This award honors commercial real estate veterans in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for their extraordinary leadership and impact on the local community. Read more about Cliff’s historical involvement in the Dallas commercial real estate industry below, and head to D Magazine’s website to read more about the 2022 Commercial Real Estate Awards.
Why we believe that Cliff Booth deserves recognition for this achievement.
Entrepreneur. Real estate veteran. Mentor. Pioneer investor. These are just a few descriptors for Cliff Booth, founder and chairman of Westmount Realty Capital, a private Dallas-based commercial real estate company. With over 40 years of experience in commercial real estate investment and development, Cliff has navigated Westmount through numerous cycles of market highs, market lows, and everything in between. Today, Westmount has offices in Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, Milwaukee, San Francisco and Orlando.
Westmount is a trusted partner of numerous U.S. and foreign institutional and private capital investors. Under Cliff’s leadership, the company has grown its national and international investor base to investors from 10 countries, specializing in value-add and opportunistic investments.
Cliff has been a visionary leader when it comes to Dallas real estate, identifying and acquiring value-add infill properties in North Texas for more than four decades. In 1979, he started by acquiring and renovating what is now the Hotel St. Germain on Maple Avenue, across from the Crescent and won the Best Historic Renovation that year in Dallas from the Historic Preservation League. He knows the history of Dallas’ industrial real estate market and, he has been a longtime believer in the value of infill industrial and cold storage facilities. Cliff has been investing in cold storage since the 1990’s, long before the e-commerce revolution and the competitive market we see today in that space.
Cliff was among the first to pioneer urban living in Dallas, living in the penthouse of the now Joule Hotel for eight years beginning in 1995, believing residential development was key to reviving downtown. Cliff’s living on Main Street at that time when very few people lived in downtown Dallas, showed many what living in downtown Dallas could be like, and he helped to pave the way for what came afterward. He has achieved notable success working with the City of Dallas through a public/private partnership to spark redevelopment in the urban core during the residential real estate downturn in the 1990’s, when many urban markets were under-performing after years of decline. When Westmount originally announced plans to repurpose Dallas’ historic Santa Fe II building for residential use, many questioned its viability. That uncertainty made financing the project challenging, but Cliff and Westmount prevailed, redeveloping one of the first historic buildings in downtown Dallas for residential use, strengthening the city’s tax base to the benefit of all citizens and demonstrating that people would live in downtown Dallas.
Through Cliff’s foresight, he has led and closed numerous creative acquisitions, securing advantageous financing, enhancing Westmount’s properties through physical improvements and efficient management, and attracting creditworthy tenants. The result has been strong investment returns for both Westmount and its investors, and significant neighborhood and civic impact in several areas of Dallas.
What makes Cliff stand out when compared to peers?
Cliff, a native of Montreal, Canada, has been active in the commercial real estate industry in Dallas since 1979. Throughout his career, he has emphasized the importance of integrity, building trust, and maintaining strong relationships in everything he does along with showing a keen eye to pinpoint trends and value. This philosophy has earned the trust of numerous U.S. and foreign investors. Westmount invests its own capital alongside its institutional and high net worth investors, both domestic and foreign. Many of Westmount’s active investors have invested with the firm for more than 35 years. Westmount’s slogan, “Time-Tested”, is a nod to both the firm’s successful track record and personable approach to commercial real estate investing.
Under Cliff’s leadership and insight, Westmount capitalized on the firm’s many relationships that led them to numerous unmasked and off-market opportunities in Dallas. In fact, the early part of Cliff’s successful career in commercial real estate investment and development in the 1980’s was marked by his ability to be one of the first in the country to identify and assemble millions of square feet of light industrial properties in Dallas – one of the largest assemblages of this type of property at the time – from insolvent banks and the Resolution Trust Corporation. This assemblage of a light industrial portfolio put Cliff and Westmount on the map in the industrial real estate sector. He continued to expand the firm’s assets, including working with the City of Dallas on projects that spurred the “renaissance” in Downtown Dallas housing and redevelopment.
Cliff truly is a pioneer investor, especially when it comes to Dallas’ CBD – he identified and assembled downtown Dallas buildings, totaling 28, including the Neiman Marcus block on Main and Commerce Streets. Those buildings were sold to the developer of The Joule Hotel and the other surrounding retail on this pivotal block. Other properties include the block that Westmount assembled in Deep Ellum and sold to the developer of The Epic.
His additional Dallas accomplishments run the gamut from collaborative programs with the City of Dallas to create Tax Increment Finance Districts to redeveloping iconic sites in South Dallas. Some of Cliff’s accomplishments include:
- Invested heavily in downtown Dallas office and retail buildings (many of which were completely vacant) in the 1990’s. Cliff contributed to historic renovations – specifically remaking downtown Dallas office, retail and warehouse buildings into mainly residential properties.
- Helped create the Dallas In-Town Housing Program with the City of Dallas. The $25 million fund was made available to eligible projects in the central business district in the form of low-interest mortgages secured by subordinate liens on the real property.
- Successfully led one of the first redevelopment housing projects in downtown Dallas, converting the vacant 230,000-square-foot Santa Fe II Railroad building at 1122 Jackson Street, first as a rental property named Santa Fe Terminal Lofts and eventually sold out successfully as the Soco Urban Lofts condominiums, something that had not been done before. Cliff acquired the building at a time when housing in the central business district was not even considered a viable option. Westmount purchased the building in 1991 for $583,000 – less than $2 per square foot. The gross sell-out of SoCo totaled $35.5 million, yielding attractive returns for Westmount, loan repayment for lenders, an increased tax base for the City of Dallas and a community of urban homeowners. Westmount succeeded in securing federal Historic Landmark status for the building which then facilitated the sale of federal historic tax credits, thereby completing the project’s capitalization.
- Acquired Village on the Parkway out of foreclosure in 1995. Cliff then successfully revitalized the 375,000-square-foot development, located at the Dallas North Tollway and Beltline Road in Addison, into a retail and commercial hub.
- Redeveloped the iconic Bronco Bowl site in Oak Cliff, spurring further development and investment in the South Dallas area. The Bronco Bowl was located at 2600 Fort Worth Avenue and Bahama Drive in north Oak Cliff on 23 acres, and was built in 1961. In 2004 it was razed to make way for a 220,000-square-foot retail complex with tenant anchors including Home Depot, Walgreen’s, Citibank and Chase Bank, making it one of the first retail developments south of I-30 in many years.
- In 2003, acquired 1000 Coit Road, a vacant 437,000-square-feet office/data center on 24 acres, formerly an Alcatel USA facility. Westmount undertook several space planning studies, demolition, and interior clean-up in order to prepare the space for multi-tenant leasing options and multiple exit strategies. Ultimately, nine months later, it sold the entire site to Countrywide Mortgage.
- Purchased Riverside Commons in Las Colinas in 2004, repositioned the six-building 460,000-square-foot campus and sold it to Blackberry as its U.S. corporate headquarters in 2009 during the Great Recession. During its ownership, Westmount improvements included a complete renovation of all building lobbies and restrooms to “country club” standards, installing an on-site deli, fitness center and conference center. Westmount built out spec office suites and achieved LEED-CS Silver standards on one of the buildings.
- Acquired Garland Logistics Park in 2012, an infill site close to I-635 consisting of three dry and refrigerated warehouses totaling over 1.1 million square feet. Most tenants were in the food and beverage industry with the largest tenant being NFI, a third-party logistics provider for Kraft Foods. With NFI’s lease set to expire in 2014, Cliff saw an opportunity to establish a long-term relationship by negotiating directly with Kraft Foods. In three years, occupancy increased from 68% to 92%, with new leases directly with Kraft Foods and several other major tenants. Between 2016-2020, Westmount completed several projects including converting 98,000 Sq Ft to cold storage and raising the roof of 148,000 Sq Ft of space by 15 feet to meet modern storage and logistics requirements. In total, over $37,000,000 of capital projects were completed for tenants by Westmount. In mid-2020, Westmount positioned the property for sale as a state-of-the-art, rail served, multi-tenant, freezer/cooler distribution center known as Dallas Food Center.
- Purchased a 27-acre tract in 2006 on the northeast corner of North Central Expressway and Forest Lane in North Dallas, the site of the former Gemini drive-in movie theatre. Westmount envisioned the property as a medical hub, developed the land and branded it the Westmount Health Campus with the intent to market specifically to medical clinics and hospitals. In January of 2008, the first sale was made to Forest Park Medical Center. Today, the property has achieved Westmount’s vision with Medical City Spine Hospital, Dallas Bone & Joint Clinic, Bloom Medical Spa, Dallas Bariatric Center, Lone Star Vein and Vascular Specialists, and Unified Pain Management occupying the site.
A few details about Cliff’s key 2021 achievements.
Cliff assumed a new role in 2021 as chairman of the firm he founded more than 35 years ago. He also expanded the firm’s leadership presence in Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas, which support its national real estate investments in the value-add multifamily, industrial and office space sectors. Some of the key deals and milestones for 2021 include recapitalizing a 6.1 million square-foot portfolio of industrial properties in Chicago and Milwaukee with a global investment manager.
In spite of the COVID pandemic, 2021 was a year of rebounding opportunities in capital and investor optimism for acquisitions of industrial, multifamily and office investments for the company. Under Cliff’s direction and leadership as chairman, Westmount grew its forces to meet the challenges presented by the pandemic, adding personnel in the areas of acquisitions, asset management and accounting during 2021. He is continuing to grow the portfolio with multiple acquisitions in Phoenix, Atlanta, Tampa and Houston in 2021.
In 2021 Westmount closed one billion dollars of acquisitions and dispositions.
Westmount has done acquisitions of over 44 million square feet under Cliff’s leadership.
Cliff’s professional and civic memberships.
For decades, Cliff has been involved with Dallas-area civic and charitable organizations including the Greater Dallas Chamber, Vogel Alcove, Dallas Citizens Council, the Sammons Center for the Arts and The Real Estate Roundtable. He is currently a member of Dallas Assembly, Urban Land Institute as a Governor and Council Member and member of the National Multifamily Housing Council. He is a thought leader in the commercial real estate industry, frequently speaking at top-tier conferences and publishing bylined articles on commercial real estate trends for publishers.
Under Cliff’s leadership, Westmount has grown from a small local company to a national firm. Deals span markets across the country, and Westmount is now a driving force in cities in the Midwest, Southwest, Southeast, and Western regions.
Despite Westmount’s tremendous growth, Cliff has continued to live out the company’s values and emphasis on relationship-building and trust in both good and bad economic times. Through his vision and leadership, Cliff has solidified and grown investor relationships that span more than 35 years. He leads his team by example, maintaining consistent, honest communication which has paved the way for key strategic relationships that have helped propel the firm’s growth since its founding.
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