Company Startup

Background - Engaged as a consultant by the CEO of a Dallas-based commercial real estate startup with plans to build a large investment fund to buy institutional quality core office properties in major US markets

Challenge - The company was still trying to raise capital for the acquisition fund and budgets were limited.  With approximately 10 employees, human capital was also limited and there was very little existing analytical framework in place to launch a major investment fund.  In order to execute their investment strategy, the company first needed to develop underwriting processes,  analytical structure and also needed to establish deal sourcing networks in the major markets where they had no transactional experience.

Results - Developed a comprehensive acquisition platform in Excel and consistent underwriting methodology for Argus.  The acquisition model prompted the user to input specific data in order to ensure thorough and uniform underwriting standards and the output was designed to insert directly into an investment package for the Investment Committee and Board of Directors.  Worked with the CFO to include return metrics specific to the fund as well as traditional return metrics in the model.  All deal inputs were displayed alongside return metrics, allowing real time sensitivity analysis during meetings with the Investment Committee and Board of Directors.  

Established deal sourcing networks in target markets; sourced, underwrote and closed on $2 billion in new deals.  The fund eventually grew to 25 million square feet of office assets representing $6 billion in value.