Ralph Heins, lic oec HSG, together with his wife, Cornelia, founded Primera Companies, Inc. in 1989. Primera is a privately held company that has developed over three million square feet of state-of-the-art industrial real estate in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Over the last 10 years the firm has developed 310,000 square feet of small-spec suites office space in Plano, Texas.
Primera, under the guidance of Ralph, has followed an investment strategy of creating and holding a commercial real estate portfolio with an integrated, hands-on approach. Development, asset management, marketing, leasing and property management are all coordinated within the firm. Ralph oversees a team of 16 employees and actively manages the commercial real estate portfolio and its growth daily.
Before founding Primera, Ralph worked in the investment division of CBRE in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He went to the Swiss boarding school, Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz, and holds an M.B.A degree from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland with a minor in banking and accounting.
Ralph has actively served as the President of the North Texas chapter of NAIOP (National Association of Industrial and Office Professionals). He is a past member of the national board of directors of NAIOP and currently serves as a Governor of the NAIOP Research Foundation.
He is an inductee of the 2014 North Texas Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame award and a member of AFIRE (Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate).
Ralph serves on the International Advisory Board to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ralph Heins wins NAIOP Pax Glen Outstanding Service Award.
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Cornelia holds a master’s degree in journalism from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich with a minor in economics, organizational psychology and philosophy. After graduation, she worked as a journalist for ZDF, the second largest television network in Germany.
As a financial correspondent, she covered the U.S. economy and stock market for Swiss financial newspapers and banking magazines. She has written seven books published by a major German publisher. Among them an oral history on the reunification of Germany called, “The Wall Falls.”
Cornelia is a member of the prestigious Overseas Press Club in New York, AFIRE (Association of Foreign Real Estate Investors in the US) and, together with her husband, an inductee of the 2014 North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors Hall of Fame award. She also served on the executive board of the British and Swiss Red Cross raising funds for children in need worldwide.
