Former Finard & Co. principal William J. Beckeman has formed a new real estate investment company, Pivotal Properties. Its first purchase was this 30,000-square-foot shopping center in Dracut, which was acquired last week for $4.2 million.

From designing Boeing 757 fuselage parts and nuclear power plants, William J. Beckeman’s foray into commercial real estate seems like a sharp turn in his résumé. But Beckeman says, with a laugh, that he’s one of the few people who got into the business intentionally.

It started with his real estate and finance concentration at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and followed with his management of one of the country’s tallest buildings and later his 13-year property and asset management career at Burlington-based Finard & Co., a real estate firm noted for its expertise in the retail sector. This month, Beckeman forges out on his own as a real estate investor, although not entirely. Principal Enterprise Capital, an investment arm of Iowa-based Principal Global Investors, is backing Beckeman and his newly formed private investment vehicle, Pivotal Properties, with $100 million, a sum Beckeman plans to invest in the Greater Boston real estate market over three or more years.

While commercial real estate is mired in a slump, Beckeman is banking on a unique approach within an isolated market.

“With retail there are none of the peaks and valleys that the office market has,” he said. “It’s not as volatile.”

For one, new shopping centers are hard to build. Residents typically don’t want new strip centers in their communities and those that do pass the planning phase are often costly to develop. The resulting tight market somewhat insulates retail space from the falling rents and rising vacancy rates that have plagued the office market. There’s another bonus: consumer spending remains remarkably resilient, Beckeman said.

“They’ve [retailers] experienced a hit but not to the point that there are widespread problems,” Beckeman said. “People have certain needs for goods and services … Times aren’t bad for everyone.”

People will always have to buy groceries, said Robert Lemons, managing partner of Finard & Co. and a former colleague of Beckeman’s for more than four years. Recent leasing activity gives an indication of the continued strength of the retail market. Finard recently closed deals with Kohl’s for locations in Burlington, Vt., and Saugus Plaza in Saugus. Also, Roche Bros., a grocery chain, will move into a new Mashpee development.

Beckeman is chasing convenience retail, smaller “unanchored” retail properties ranging from fully stabilized shopping centers and free-standing stores to retail sites in need of complete redevelopment. He plans to purchase between 75 and 100 properties for prices ranging between $500,000 and $10 million.

“People are time-starved. It’s ‘what’s the most convenient way to shop? Wal-Mart or a place where you can get in and out of quickly?’ I look at it as a bifurcation of shopping trips.”

‘A Major Client’

Pivotal focuses on a niche that larger investors aren’t interested in, Lemons said. Pension funds, with their hundreds of millions to draw from, prefer the grocery-anchored centers for one main reason: The time it takes to execute the deal costs the same if you spend $1 million or $50 million. But, Lemons said, if Pivotal buys enough of the small shopping centers it will create a portfolio that will attract the interest of large investors.

The niche market has experienced growth driven by flourishing restaurant concepts, as well as financial, professional, educational and medical services, according to Beckeman.

“You’re seeing more chiropractors, health clubs, spas, educational test prep, real estate offices and stock brokers,” he said. “A variety of businesses have migrated toward these retail locations.”

Beckeman made his first purchase last week, a 36,250-square-foot retail center with 18 tenants in Dracut. The deal closed for $4.2 million. The center is home to 18 different retailers and service providers including Dracut Town Variety, O’Hara’s Tavern, China Maxim and Brother’s Pizza, as well as national and regional operators including H&R Block, Fleet Bank and Subway.

While Pivotal Properties was launched less than a month ago in partnership with Principal Enterprise Capital, a subsidiary of the Principal Financial Group, Beckeman holds the local investment discretion. In addition to Principal’s support, Pivotal also has the ability to utilize additional financial leverage.

In forming Pivotal, Beckeman left behind a 13-year career at Finard & Co., where he last served as principal in the Burlington office. During his tenure he led property and asset management and built the company’s research and investment capability. Prior to Finard, Beckeman worked as an asset manager for John Hancock, where he oversaw the 100-story John Hancock Center in Chicago.

The Pivotal Properties concept originally developed within Finard. Executives there had hoped that Beckeman could run the venture from his post at Finard but, ultimately, the team decided that it made more sense for a separate company. It worked out well for Finard – the company will provide property management services for the properties acquired by Pivotal.

“He’s one of the smartest guys I know; he’s very diligent,” Lemons said, adding with a laugh, “and he’s got a great team behind him.”

Chris Cardoni, marketing manager at Finard, agrees. “He’s a major client for us now,” he said. “We were joking the other day, saying that we’ll have to be nice to him now.”

Cardoni said that Beckeman has the kind of mind that will make Pivotal work.

“He’s very detail-oriented, very careful and extremely knowledgeable on a wide range of topics,” he said. “His wide frame of reference will work well for him in the decisions he makes and in the properties he looks at.”

Pivotal Properties has established its new offices at 5 Burlington Woods Drive in Burlington.

Beckeman said that he’s still assembling his team, adding that Pivotal’s long-term view in building the new company makes it different from creating a typical real estate fund. “This will allow us to pursue very diverse opportunities and also to bring a new level of sophistication to the operation of this very fragmented segment of the retail real estate industry,” he said.