wilber - Real Points ? Blog Archive ? Conversation With: Jimmy ...

From left, Jim Vanderslice, Jim Wells, and Jimmy Grisham, at CNL Commercial's Old Parkland office.

Earlier this year, Crow Holdings selected CNL Commercial Real Estate to provide property management services for its Old Parkland redevelopment project on Oak Lawn and Maple avenues. The four-building campus, which is set to more than double in size, was a big win for the firm, which opened its Dallas office in late 2010.

It?s led by Jimmy Grisham, along with former Trammell Crow Co. colleague Jim Wells. Jim Vanderslice, formerly with Grubb & Ellis, joined the company in March. RealPoints recently talked with the trio to get an update on CNL?and where it?s headed.

RealPoints: Let?s start with a quick summary of your career backgrounds.

Jimmy Grisham: I went to work for Trammell Crow Co. in Austin in 1983, straight out of the MBA program at the University of Texas. After a couple of years of doing a lot of leases, they moved me to Florida to help grow the Florida empire. I was there for about 10 years. I made partner out there, and built my first project out there.

In 1988, Trammell Crow reorganized and put my partner, Woody Coley, and me in charge of the whole state of Florida. We grew our business on the services side, by hiring great managers and brokers and leasing agents. Then Crow Dallas called in 1993 and said, ?We love what you guys are doing in Florida; come do it in Texas.? My wife was six months pregnant at the time and we had just bought a new house. But over a period of about six months, we decided to make the move, and came to Dallas in the summer of 1994.

From 1994 to January of 2007, the young people we had hired and mentored and trained in Florida built a very substantial business. When CBRE purchased Crow, one of the attractions was the Florida group, because they controlled about 20 million square feet of space?retail, office, and industrial.

CBRE is a wonderful company, but their structures didn?t align. Through a relationship, CNL reached out to the Florida group to see if it made sense for them to become part of the CNL family of companies. Of the 15 principals, 13 went over to start CNL Commercial in January of 2007. The other two have since come over?the last one just a few weeks ago.

RP: Did CNL exist prior to this?

Grisham: CNL Commercial Real Estate did not exist. CNL the investment company is nearly 40 years old.

RP: How did things go for you in Dallas with Crow, after you arrived in 1994?

Grisham: I ran Trammell Crow?s North Texas retail division, up until the public event. I left in late 1997 to do some things on my own. In 2009, CNL approached me about the thought of establishing a presence west of Orlando. They weren?t sure if it was going to be Dallas, Phoenix, or Denver, but they were trying to grow their business.

The investment part of CNL had registered two large global REITs that they were taking to the market, and they thought they needed bigger presence across the country. They honed in on Dallas, and then they honed in on me.

CNL ended up buying my company, Drexel Realty Partners, in May of 2010. Jim [Wells] immediately came on board, and we began establishing our services platform. A lot of those guys running Florida used to work for me, so it?s kind of reversed roles now.

RP: Jim, what about your career prior to joining CNL?

Jim Wells: I joined CNL in July of 2010, after 22 years with the Trammell Crow Co./CBRE. I worked for CBRE on the corporate services side of the business. For the first five years of 2000 I oversaw several national accounts, one of which was the EDS account. I was responsible for all of the services CBRE provided to EDS and, once HP acquired EDS, for all of those services worldwide.

During the prior 10 years with Trammell Crow Co., I was responsible for our property management services in Dallas-Fort Worth, which was about 40 million-plus square feet of office, industrial, and retail space. Jimmy and I had worked together closely back in the mid- to late 1990s, and he approached me about talking with CNL.

RP: How are things going for the Dallas office so far?

Grisham: It has been fabulous. It?s a little bit nostalgic, because a lot of these people I?ve known for most of my professional career?Jim Wells, Jim Vanderslice has been a great friend of mine for a long time, all the guys in Florida. ? It has been a reuniting of friendships, top talents, and culture that we have missed since the old private Crow days, when we all kind of locked arms and created relationships and provided a high level of service and made friendships. This is a reuniting of that.

When Jim and I started working together in 1994, we went after a lot of pursuits together. In terms of the operation of real estate, he was the best I?d ever seen. So when CNL approached me, my first thought of who I?d like to work with was Jim.

RP: Jim, what was it about the opportunity that appealed to you?

Wells: It was attractive from day one, knowing all of the guys in Florida, with whom I had worked for 10-15 years, reuniting with Jimmy, with whom I hadn?t worked in a decade. And even though it wasn?t starting a new business, it was an opportunity to start the Dallas office for CNL Commercial Real Estate.

It had a lot of unique flavors to it?it was a chance to reunite as a culture from the old TCC days. And it a very well-capitalized business that had been around for 40 years. It was well established in Florida, and it was a chance to grow that platform west.

RP: How have you gone about growing the firm here?

Grisham: We?re very sensitive to the culture. We?re in a very large, very fast market, so it can be a challenge for companies to focus on culture. We?ve focused on recruiting and having conversations with people we know. Some have Crow backgrounds, others we just know personally or professionally.

We?re trying to keep the same culture we always enjoyed at the private Trammell Crow Co. That?s what helped us grow the Florida business, it?s what we?ve missed, and that?s what we?ve gravitated back toward.

Wells: That mission holds true not just on the recruiting side of it, but our business relationships as well. The pursuits we?re talking with?we?ve had relationships with those people who own real estate, and we?re reconnecting those relationships.

Grisham: That?s how we ended up here (at Old Parkland). I was a partner of Harlan?s in the 1980s. Jim and I have had relationship with the Crow folks our entire careers. It has been a great reuniting. Even the guys who run the Crow Holdings funds were guys I used to work with back on the leasing side in the 1980s.

Being here? speaks to our close relationship with Crow Holdings and the Crow family and organizations, and it says that we?re building something special and something different here in Dallas.

Wells: Crow Holdings has been very supportive of our efforts, helping us with relationships they have when we didn?t.

RP: What types of services does CNL provide?

Grisham: Our goal is to offer a comprehensive real estate services platform. But we?ve been careful to not grow too fast. We?re a private company, we?re heavily capitalized, so we aren?t under pressure to grow for growth?s sake. We?ve been able to be careful when it comes to the people we?ve brought on and recruited.

Eventually we will be a full-service company that provides all services: brokerage, agency leasing, management, development, redevelopment, and asset management?across all product lines, office, retail, and industrial. I think we?ll have all of those capabilities in place in the next 12 months. I?m not trying to put a time-frame on it, but based on the relationships we have and the people we?ve been talking to, I think we?ll be at the level we want by then, both from a capabilities perspective and the number of people in the office.

RP: Jim, you and Will Sale left Grubb & Ellis to join CNL in March. What factored into that decision?

Jim Vanderslice: Jimmy and I started talking about six or nine months ago. I liked the philosophy, I liked the model, and I liked Jimmy. I think having a few really good people is the way to do business, instead of having 3,000 people trying to be everything to everybody. At Gaedeke, I had that kind of a model, then Grubb bought my company. I had the feeling the minute I got over there that it was a mistake.

CNL really puts all of the best things I like together: it?s a private company, very high quality, it deals with specific clients, very broad-based, and great group of people. I like the focused approach.

Grisham: It?s all about relationships. When I wake up each morning, I?m thinking about the team. I?m thinking about how can we grow the pie, make the pie bigger?as a group. I make the decisions, but I don?t want people to think they work for me. We?re all in this together.

Wells: In our careers, this is probably out last landing spot. You want to work with people you like. We have an open environment out here?it?s very collaborative. It?s very family-oriented. The culture is what sold me on the company.

RP: What are some of the projects you?re working on?

Grisham: We?re working on a lot of things we can?t yet talk about, brokerage assignments and other things. The biggest win from a profile perspective is the management assignment for Old Parkland. It?s a big feather in our cap. This is a special place, and we convinced ownership that we had some special people who could take care of it. It?s unique in Dallas. There are a lot of outstanding people who office here, and it?s fun to be on campus with them.

RP: How large is Old Parkland?

Wells: It?s about 170,000 square feet, in four buildings. Once TRT moves in it will double in size, and there are two more building sites. (TRT Holdings, an Irving-based company that owns Omni hotels, the Gold?s Gym chain, and other interests, has signed on to fully occupy a six-story office building now under construction within the Old Parkland campus.)

Grisham: Back to your question about our projects, we?re in the stage of growth where we?re focused on building the team, bringing in people like Jim Vanderslice. We?re about people. I know that?s a bit of a cliche in our business, but it truly is what we do.

RP: How are you feeling overall about the market in 2012?

Grisham: The first quarter was a game-changer, and I think it?s going to be a very active year. Everything seems to be up across the board.

Wells: Starting January 1, the pipeline just opened up. Some of it is because of relationships we?ve been cultivating, but the market has improved as well. There?s new construction taking place.

Grisham: One of the problems we?ve had on the transaction side is a lack of space, on the retail and office side, and on the industrial side, too. Lenders are becoming a little more friendly, though, and the new construction just creates a better feeling in the market.

Vanderslice: Will and I probably have 10 deals going on right now. That doesn?t sound like a lot in the scheme of things, but it?s two of us. Lease rates are going up; I always look at the rates versus the vacancy. It?s a better indicator. I think it?s going to be a big year.

(Editor?s Note: Since the interview, CNL has added two more professionals to its ranks. Brian Brooks joined the office leasing group from Lincoln Properties, and Will Wyatt, formerly with Jones Lang LaSalle, joined CNL?s industrial and land brokerage team.)

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