investment is going up and our expansion
is progressing rapidly,” Cooper adds. “We
believe there is a gap in the type of firm and
type of service that is being provided to real
estate clients today. We are the only com-
pany that is entirely principally owned by its
people. In other words, the people deliver-
ing the service are the same people who
own the company. Other companies are
owned by the public or a third party, and
that creates challenges in terms of putting
your organization and its culture and its
people in alignment with what is in the cli-
ents’ best interests. We feel that, because
there is this neat gap to be filled, we are
moving aggressively to fill it. Clients tell us
this, the market tells us this and the brokers
we’re recruiting tell us this.”
The story’s a little different for American
Realty Capital, a firm that’s been on the
same course for many years, says Nick
Schorsch, chairman and CEO. “It’s like the
50-year-old actor who’s an overnight suc-
cess,” he jokes. “We’ve been doing the same
thing since ’08: we’re steeped in best prac-
tices and durable income. Earn what you
pay, pay what you earned, stay with less
opportunistic asset classes in real estate and
other types of investments, focus on high
occupancy and high credit quality. It’s all
income based, so work at the higher end of
the quality or the lower-risk side.”
Schorsch tells Real Estate Forum that
part of the reason his firm has been growing
successfully is that the economy has moved
to where yield-based or durable-income
products are at a premium because treasury,
government yields and stock-and-bond yields
have been declining for the past five or six
years. “The market for our products is
increasing. People need income and the
protection of principal. We’ve looked at low-
ering fees and creating a more transparent
product and without any legacy assets from
the 2006-2007 vintage, and we had a really
good running start on a good product line.
It creates a massive leverage for us in the
sense that we’ve delivered major liquidity
events. We’ve made over $2.5 billion of prof-
its from three full-cycle liquidity events.
We’ve returned almost $8 billion to inves-
tors, and that helps demonstrate the value of
these types of products.”
For integrated loan originator, mortgage
banker and loan servicer Berkadia, hiring
good producers and putting the tools into
their hands to be productive have helped it
grow its production or servicing portfolio,
says CEO Hugh Frater: “A lot of time in
recruiting, we’re making sure we have the
right product in place for mortgage bankers
to hang their hats. We’re trying to find ways
to help customers as much as possible and
have the right tools in the box. We hire good
people in areas where there is activity.”
Being an outsource provider for other
services has been another means for
Berkadia’s growth. “We’ve achieved a scale
on servicing that’s hard for others to
match,” says Frater. “We’ve had 10 years of
refining processes and finding ways to do
things faster and better and cheaper. We’ve
been the beneficiary of those who want to
outsource services and want to turn fixed
costs into variable costs. We’re also a sub-
servicer for other servicers who can’t do
things at the same cost as we can.”
Colliers International has added experi-
enced SVPs in a variety of markets, expand-
ing across geographies and property sec-
tors. The philosophy behind the firm’s
recent growth has been client driven, says
Doug Frye, the firm’s global CEO. “We
need to be able to provide the absolute best
service across business lines and geography
for our clients. It’s truly a global economy
now, and you need to be in a position to
accelerate the success of your clients.”
Healthcare REIT Ventas Inc. has done
more than $12 billion of acquisitions over
roughly the past two years, and Lori
