Jones Lang LaSalle
Aiming for Leases Instead of the End Zone
By ALISON GREGOR
As a college and professional quarterback, Roger Staubach was an athlete with a flair for the dramatic, but in his 25-year career in commercial real estate, he has built his approach around a fairly unheralded side of the business: representing tenants rather than landlords.
In New York, Mr. Staubach has consolidated the Staubach Company's two offices under one leader: the broker Peter B. Hennessy. He said the move signals an ambitious crusade on the part of the brokerage firm, which is based in Dallas, to increase its New York City market share in the next five years to 20 percent, after hitting 5.5 percent in 2005.
"We're growing, and this is about getting the right people in the right places doing the right things," said Mr. Staubach, 64, whose physique has withered a bit since his playing days with the Naval Academy and the Dallas Cowboys, when he was listed as 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds. "We've got some excellent people who got us started here, but Peter Hennessy has emerged. He's making the decisions here in New York."
Mr. Hennessy, whose family has been in the metropolitan area for several generations, says the two New York offices handle more than 250 transactions annually. Staubach has about 60 outlets in 38 cities throughout the country. The firm also has an international partnership with DTZ, a British-based real estate service firm.
Last year was the first for Staubach to have as much as 5 percent of the tenant representation market in New York in terms of revenues. It opened its first office in the city 10 years ago.
In 2005, its two biggest deals were securing 235,000 square feet of office space for the Securities and Exchange Commission at 3 World Financial Center and finding about 211,000 square feet for St. Paul Travelers, the insurer, at 485 Lexington Avenue. In 2004, the firm found 250,000 square feet of office space for New York State at 90 Church Street near ground zero.
Those deals have helped to earn the company a reputation in New York City as a brokerage firm that handles large government accounts. It is a role the firm has adopted nationwide. "We've got 10 contracts with different states around the U.S., so we've got basically a 20 percent market share in the state business," Mr. Hennessy said.
Public agencies are somewhat different from private companies, he maintained, as their highest priority is finding space that allows them to deliver services to their constituencies.
"Governments are not looking for space that allows them to have a profit," Mr. Hennessy said. "Their objectives are very different from those of corporate America."
Mr. Staubach has also been linked to public officials in a more personal way. He contributed $25,000 to Gov. George E. Pataki's re-election campaign in 2002 and was a "pioneer" who raised more than $100,000 from other contributors for George W. Bush during the 2000 election.
Though his firm does not have a huge presence in New York City, with 65 employees versus more than 400 at some of its large full-service rivals, brokers consider Mr. Staubach a potentially formidable competitor.
"For people of the generation that knew Roger Staubach, he certainly is taken seriously," said Mary Ann Tighe, chief executive of the New York tristate region at CB Richard Ellis, the largest brokerage firm in the region. "Their No. 1 account in New York is the state, and I'm told that they obtained that account because Roger Staubach met directly with Governor Pataki."
Despite those ties, some competitors maintain that much of Staubach's business in New York has come from out-of-state companies seeking space in the city.
"If he's representing corporations all over the country with their real estate needs, and they happen to have a New York office, great," said James S. Meiskin, president of Plymouth Partners Ltd., a firm that, like the Staubach Company, represents tenants exclusively. "I think that's how a lot of his business here is developed."
But the firm's goal of capturing 20 percent of New York City's tenant representation market is a lofty one, Mr. Meiskin said. It is perhaps a quixotic one. Currently, only the mammoth commercial real estate firms of CB Richard Ellis and Cushman & Wakefield have such a hefty chunk of the market.
Staubach's growth in New York City will rest heavily on Mr. Staubach's involvement, Mr. Meiskin said.
"If he really was to flex his muscle, and if he was spending a great deal of time working with the New York City office on the development of new business, it could be done," Mr. Meiskin said. "There's a strong possibility they could become a market leader."
In a marketplace with more than half a billion square feet of office space, it remains to be seen if Staubach, which mainly handles moderate-size leases here averaging 45,000 square feet, will make a bigger dent.
Mr. Staubach, the Heisman Trophy winner in 1963, first became involved in real estate in the late 1970's in the off-season to cultivate a career beyond professional football.
Though he was known as a quarterback who sometimes improvised on the run, Mr. Staubach has developed a conservative reputation in the real estate world.
After some initial lackluster experiments in real estate development in Texas, Mr. Staubach has focused on the brokerage end of his business. "We don't have big financial risks as far as what we do," he said. "We're a service company, and our risks are our people."
Mr. Staubach said he had chosen the best of the lot, with a strong corporate message stressing teamwork and perseverance, though, as he pointed out, every organization has a few "terrorists."
To protect clients against bad performance, the brokerage firm promises to forgo its commission if clients are unsatisfied, a situation that cropped up recently in another part of the country, Mr. Staubach said.
"We've been in some very modest litigation through the years," he said, "but not with a customer, because we have this guarantee of service."
Aiming for Leases Instead of the End Zone
By ALISON GREGOR
As a college and professional quarterback, Roger Staubach was an athlete with a flair for the dramatic, but in his 25-year career in commercial real estate, he has built his approach around a fairly unheralded side of the business: representing tenants rather than landlords.
In New York, Mr. Staubach has consolidated the Staubach Company's two offices under one leader: the broker Peter B. Hennessy. He said the move signals an ambitious crusade on the part of the brokerage firm, which is based in Dallas, to increase its New York City market share in the next five years to 20 percent, after hitting 5.5 percent in 2005.
"We're growing, and this is about getting the right people in the right places doing the right things," said Mr. Staubach, 64, whose physique has withered a bit since his playing days with the Naval Academy and the Dallas Cowboys, when he was listed as 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds. "We've got some excellent people who got us started here, but Peter Hennessy has emerged. He's making the decisions here in New York."
Mr. Hennessy, whose family has been in the metropolitan area for several generations, says the two New York offices handle more than 250 transactions annually. Staubach has about 60 outlets in 38 cities throughout the country. The firm also has an international partnership with DTZ, a British-based real estate service firm.
Last year was the first for Staubach to have as much as 5 percent of the tenant representation market in New York in terms of revenues. It opened its first office in the city 10 years ago.
In 2005, its two biggest deals were securing 235,000 square feet of office space for the Securities and Exchange Commission at 3 World Financial Center and finding about 211,000 square feet for St. Paul Travelers, the insurer, at 485 Lexington Avenue. In 2004, the firm found 250,000 square feet of office space for New York State at 90 Church Street near ground zero.
Those deals have helped to earn the company a reputation in New York City as a brokerage firm that handles large government accounts. It is a role the firm has adopted nationwide. "We've got 10 contracts with different states around the U.S., so we've got basically a 20 percent market share in the state business," Mr. Hennessy said.
Public agencies are somewhat different from private companies, he maintained, as their highest priority is finding space that allows them to deliver services to their constituencies.
"Governments are not looking for space that allows them to have a profit," Mr. Hennessy said. "Their objectives are very different from those of corporate America."
Mr. Staubach has also been linked to public officials in a more personal way. He contributed $25,000 to Gov. George E. Pataki's re-election campaign in 2002 and was a "pioneer" who raised more than $100,000 from other contributors for George W. Bush during the 2000 election.
Though his firm does not have a huge presence in New York City, with 65 employees versus more than 400 at some of its large full-service rivals, brokers consider Mr. Staubach a potentially formidable competitor.
"For people of the generation that knew Roger Staubach, he certainly is taken seriously," said Mary Ann Tighe, chief executive of the New York tristate region at CB Richard Ellis, the largest brokerage firm in the region. "Their No. 1 account in New York is the state, and I'm told that they obtained that account because Roger Staubach met directly with Governor Pataki."
Despite those ties, some competitors maintain that much of Staubach's business in New York has come from out-of-state companies seeking space in the city.
"If he's representing corporations all over the country with their real estate needs, and they happen to have a New York office, great," said James S. Meiskin, president of Plymouth Partners Ltd., a firm that, like the Staubach Company, represents tenants exclusively. "I think that's how a lot of his business here is developed."
But the firm's goal of capturing 20 percent of New York City's tenant representation market is a lofty one, Mr. Meiskin said. It is perhaps a quixotic one. Currently, only the mammoth commercial real estate firms of CB Richard Ellis and Cushman & Wakefield have such a hefty chunk of the market.
Staubach's growth in New York City will rest heavily on Mr. Staubach's involvement, Mr. Meiskin said.
"If he really was to flex his muscle, and if he was spending a great deal of time working with the New York City office on the development of new business, it could be done," Mr. Meiskin said. "There's a strong possibility they could become a market leader."
In a marketplace with more than half a billion square feet of office space, it remains to be seen if Staubach, which mainly handles moderate-size leases here averaging 45,000 square feet, will make a bigger dent.
Mr. Staubach, the Heisman Trophy winner in 1963, first became involved in real estate in the late 1970's in the off-season to cultivate a career beyond professional football.
Though he was known as a quarterback who sometimes improvised on the run, Mr. Staubach has developed a conservative reputation in the real estate world.
After some initial lackluster experiments in real estate development in Texas, Mr. Staubach has focused on the brokerage end of his business. "We don't have big financial risks as far as what we do," he said. "We're a service company, and our risks are our people."
Mr. Staubach said he had chosen the best of the lot, with a strong corporate message stressing teamwork and perseverance, though, as he pointed out, every organization has a few "terrorists."
To protect clients against bad performance, the brokerage firm promises to forgo its commission if clients are unsatisfied, a situation that cropped up recently in another part of the country, Mr. Staubach said.
"We've been in some very modest litigation through the years," he said, "but not with a customer, because we have this guarantee of service."
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 11:11 AM
<< Home