Real Estate Firm With Historic Family Legacies Create a New Future

The chemistry was right. The timing was right.

“The stars were aligned,” said Ross Frankfurt, who is CEO of Anthem Development, a new Dallas real-estate firm that taps into the legacy of two families that are marquee names in multifamily development.

The Frankfurt and Beck families’ relationships go back decades. They’ve come together to focus on the development of Class A, garden-style apartments in secondary markets around Dallas-Fort Worth.

But before looking into Anthem Development’s future, you first have to absorb what led to this new special relationship.

Sixty years ago, Jeffrey Beck moved to Dallas from Miami, Fla., and founded Beck Ventures in the early 1970s. He formed a friendship and learned more about the real-estate game from David Frankfurt, whose father Victor started Frankfurt Properties. Beck Ventures went on to own and develop 30,000 apartment units nationwide at its peak.

Beck Ventures is now being led by CEO Scott Beck and focuses on legacy mixed-use properties. When Beck considered going back into multifamily development, they were approached by a familiar name — Ross Frankfurt, David’s grandson.

They agreed to a union and created Anthem Development, a Beck Ventures company. The new firm will be led by Ross Frankfurt (CEO), Will McNutt (president), Scott Beck (manager), and Jeff Beck (partner). Already, the firm has land under contract for 1,500 apartment units in Sachse, Garland, and Allen.

Frankfurt, a fourth-generation developer, reached out to the Becks and the discussion headed toward the creation of Anthem Development, which is a Beck Ventures company. Frankfurt discussed Anthem Development’s past, present, and future in an interview with CandysDirt.com.

Candy’s Dirt: Describe the unique relationship with the Frankfurt and Beck families that led to Anthem Development’s formation.

Frankfurt: When I was looking to find a sponsor with my business partner, Will McNutt, we were looking for somebody who we thought would be a good fit for us. The first person I thought of was Jeffrey Beck, and Beck Ventures. It was just because of exactly that — the chemistry we have, the history we have together, them understanding what we do, us understanding what they do. It just made perfect sense.

CD: Does this company generate additional momentum, more acceleration, in the D/FW housing market?

Frankfurt: The stars continued to align for D/FW in particular, so this was kind of an opportunity at this point to, yes, accelerate that. And in order to accelerate something that is a proven commodity as the Frankfurt properties model, you need an accelerate, and so that’s where the idea of starting a new entity and finding a sponsor and partnering with them was what we felt like was needed.

CD: You’ve stated that Anthem Development is sticking to its mission of developing Class A apartments in underserved secondary markets around D/FW.

Frankfurt: That is the formula that my family specifically has followed for many, many, many years, and so it is our wheelhouse. Really, the only difference is we’re going to be opening up the playbook that we have — that is the formation and foundation of Anthem Development to the broader market — and allowing outside investors to participate, and just basically scaling it.

CD: Will Anthem Development be focusing on any particularly underserved areas around D/FW?

Frankfurt: I’d like to think that we’re smarter or better at this than all the other guys. But the D/FW is not a secret to anybody. There are definitely some underserved areas that I don’t want to share just because part of the competitive advantage is knowing where to look and what makes a site a good development opportunity.

CD: With the housing market heating up in other areas of Texas, will Anthem Development be tempted to expand outside D/FW?

Frankfurt: There’s always, obviously, the temptation to it. I would say that as a new company, you want to ensure that your developments are successful. That is a thing we want to continue to do that was done at Frankfurt and Beck: Hey, let’s make sure that we have on our plate is successful because that will keep people coming back versus just overloading our plate and falling short on expectations. We don’t want to build that reputation. So, we’ll just stick to what we know and stay within our wheelhouse before we go into the broader market.

CD: Speaking of expectations, does Anthem Development have specific goals?

Frankfurt: We don’t think that we need to get extremely creative to find opportunities outside of D/FW when there’s just so much within D/FW. That is our backyard. It is what we know. I would say there’s just so much opportunity here, that with our goal of trying to hit a billion dollars worth of commercial real estate development, being multi-family, we can do that in D/FW. And in our humble opinion, we can do that in a short amount of time based on how vibrant this market is and how vibrant D/FW is.