Chinese invest billions in Dallas-area real estate

Developers who are redoing downtown Dallas’ landmark Statler Hotel have spent time in China courting investors.

“I’ve already made three trips to China,” said Frank Zaccanelli, a partner with Centurion American Development Group. “They are very interested in what’s going on in Dallas.”

Centurion American, which also has suburban home and commercial projects in the works in North Texas, isn’t the only local real estate firm with an appetite for Chinese investment.

Chinese money has funded recent downtown Dallas tower sales.

And capital from China is finding its way into everything from local apartments to single-family homes.

Last year Chinese investors pumped more than $3 billion into U.S. commercial real estate investment, according to data from the commercial property firm JLL.

And they bought more than $28 billion in American residential properties — more than twice what any other foreign buyer acquired, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Asian investors accounted for almost a third of Texas home sales to foreign buyers, behind only Latin Americans, who accounted for more than 40 percent, the Realtors said.

Chinese buyers are hot for Dallas-area apartments, too.

“We’ve closed $550 million in transactions in the last 90 days,” said Chris Colombe, managing director with the apartment broker ARA. “Probably a third of those deals had equity coming from China.”

Chinese investors are the top foreign buyers and funders of U.S. hotel acquisitions this year. And they are one of the top offshore players in the office market, according to data from the Urban Land Institute.

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