About Us
Criss Cross Commercial Group is a retail commercial real estate investment, development and finance company. With a history grounded in retail business operations, and decades of experience in real estate and small business finance, we bring a customer-focused perspective and creative flexibility to our core mission of creating value through a variety of retail real estate transactions.
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Criss Cross Commercial Group is in the business of helping retail businesses succeed. And for nearly 20 years, we have been doing just that, growing steadily year after year. We do things differently than the standard brick-and-mortar commercial real estate companies out there. We view our tenants differently--our tenants are our partners. We know that when we help them reach their dreams and become successful entrepreneurs, that is when we are the most successful. This approach, along with our ability to creatively make deals happen is what sets us apart from the rest. We never like to say no. We always like to figure out how to achieve the “yes,” seeking solutions that are a win-win for everyone involved.
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Company History
Criss Cross’ principal, Pratap “Danny” Desai, is a first-generation immigrant and entrepreneur. He came to the United States for college nearly penniless in the 1960’s and remained to work as an engineer. Working double jobs and long work weeks for decades, he found his financial footing by owning and operating various restaurants and retail businesses, but he built his foundational wealth through hard money commercial lending. Occasional borrower defaults in the hard money lending business resulted in a small real estate portfolio, and by the late 1990’s he was dabbling in a few retail real estate redevelopments.
In 2003, Danny Desai undertook the first ground-up real estate development. Ryan Dennard, his son-in-law and a commercial attorney, joined him to manage the project, handle the increasing volume of legal work created by the development, and begin to formalize business operations. As the real estate portfolio grew and asset-owning entities multiplied, Criss Cross Commercial, LLC was formed in 2006 to provide a unified management brand as well as a centralized cost and administrative center for the business.
In the years that followed, Criss Cross expanded consistently through multiple business cycles. While some of those cycles were volatile—including the 2008 commercial real estate crash and 2020 COVID shutdowns—the company navigated those challenges without experiencing material financial stress. The Criss Cross-affiliated businesses have continued to grow steadily through deliberate acquisitions and conservative decision-making.​
Ryan Dennard assumed primary management of Criss Cross in the 2010’s as Danny Desai began a phased retirement. Melissa Dennard handles primary operational and financial business functions. Today Ryan and Melissa operate Criss Cross with a staff of 11 that is anticipated to grow with our real estate portfolio.