What is life at Corp RE like?

Hey guys, curious on your thoughts. Most of the stuff on here is acquisitions, AM, PM, at REPE firms and such but what about positions within corporations RE department. Just for example..real estate at let's say a non RE firm like a Johnson & Johnson.

Are there any good exit ops or are corporate RE guys pretty much just in it for the long haul and usually stay in it? I would assume most would be dealing with leases and facilities type stuff.

 

Well I know some firms that are gobling up space (this month taken down 2m sf in my market last 45 days) have an in house leasing and RE team (under a jll/cush etc umbrella actually). They literally sit in the corporate office there for the client. They are killing it on the broker side. I also know the top RE executive or 'global workplace' type positions at heavily expanding tech firms are paying out guys in the form of shares. Other than those kind of opportunities I am not sure what major benefits/exit ops there are in corp. To add, non RE firms that have a RE guy to manage all their buildings and leases is a very senior position so just in that I am sure they get a killer comp plan. Would be interested in other responses.

 

I don't know the comp, im just looking at some job postings within company's RE department. Some of the stuff seems interesting. and more out of office stuff instead of sitting in front of Excel all day.

 

My advice? Find some on LinkedIn or company websites and call. These guys probably don't get too many younger people calling them to find out how their life is. Set up a time to talk and grab coffee and get your info straight from the source.

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 
Best Response

Look into CoreNet.

Never worked in corp RE but I worked with several large corp RE teams while I was a tenant rep broker.

Corp RE works with the exec team to develop a growth/consolidation strategy (i.e. where, what type of buildings, budget, lease vs own, etc.) Various jobs depending on if the firm leases or owns space: project managers, property managers, facilities, financial analysts, accountants, assistants. Overall, much less sales and people oriented than most other areas of real estate. Generally a pretty stable/average desk job, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

A couple examples: -If an organization has a many leases across the country for a certain division and wants to consolidate, the corp RE team would identify a brokerage team to help them align lease ends and search for new space -If a company needs to expand, they can choose to find a new lease, develop/construct new and own or leaseback, etc. -lease administration: if there are certain options/rights/terms of existing leases the corp re team manages these

Comp is on par with pretty much any other corporate position. F500 real estate execs make excellent money. I know for certain the former RE exec for target was making $millions, granted that was in the heyday of bricks and mortar retail.

Base pay is probably in the neighborhood of the following: Entry: ~$50K VP: ~$125-175k SVP: $175-225K ++++

 

Are there any exit ops to RE focused firms? Can a corp RE entry level guy be looked at for a AM or PM type role with an investment firm? I assume ACquistions long shot

 

I actually interviewed for a rotational programs for this exact thing within UBS back in the day. It was for juniors looking to help manage UBS's space globally (a massive undertaking) and not related to any investment/finance activities. It was called UBS CREAS (corporate real estate and administrative services). Not what I wanted to do at the time but interesting nonetheless. It was a rotational program where you would spend x months on managing leasing / x months on office space planning / etc. etc.

 

That was certainly one aspect, but there is also dealing with firm budgets, for example. Nowadays you hear a lot about "high cost" and "low cost" centers - Is it worth it for Goldman to move x% of its work force to Nashville? Is it worth it to build out an open floor plan or have cubes and offices? That team would be responsible for those types of analytics as well among other things.

 

Corporate real estate has a long history of being both leased and owned. When KMart was failing (which seems like always), the way they acquired Sears (not so smart either) was by performing sale/leasebacks of the KMarts buildings they owned in the early 2000's I believe.

A lot of companies spend profits on RE as a hedge or additional profit center. This is why we have Life Co's and companies of their ilk. There is a very long history of this with many companys in many different sectors.

As far as culture, it's like everywhere else. There is good and bad.

 

Could range from facilities management/maintenance tasks of existing buildings/campus to running point on new site acquisition and development for expansions, all the way to move-in/occupation of said new site. Probably more of the latter.

Array
 

Being in development, these types of guys are usually my day to day contacts. I see them spending most of their time on lease renewals, new lease negotiations, new land site feasibility, financing new developments, facility program design and capital improvement management. Whether they lease or bring a developer to build buildings for them, they have millions of sf to manage.

 

Foosball, Ping Pong, nap time, facial hair grooming, etc.

Seriously though, I know someone at both Amazon and Wal-mart. Both of them make significantly more money than I do (like double - bastards) but their ceiling is also significantly lower. No equity.

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 

NGKF? Colliers?

Anyhow, there's a push in major brokerage firms to become more consultant-type firms than sales-type firms. This allows them to charge higher fees, upcharge on services, and come off less slimy. It's a good strategy, IMO, but we'll see how it pans out.

At the end of the day, you're still either leasing or selling space. That's the business. What these firms are trying to sell clients now though is how much impact proper space and real estate planning can have on a business.

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 
CRE:

NGKF? Colliers?

Anyhow, there's a push in major brokerage firms to become more consultant-type firms than sales-type firms. This allows them to charge higher fees, upcharge on services, and come off less slimy. It's a good strategy, IMO, but we'll see how it pans out.

At the end of the day, you're still either leasing or selling space. That's the business. What these firms are trying to sell clients now though is how much impact proper space and real estate planning can have on a business.

It's a firm along those lines yes.

What type of work do guys in these do? In the job requirement as I said it states programming which I don't know why they ask that and using a lot of internal stuff to put together business cases, models and such.

I'm debating whether or not to go on interview or not. I've been wanting acquisitions or AM but this interested me. I don't want to get stuck in some data manipulation and compilation job pullimg some companies expense costs and figuring out ways for them to be more efficient.

 

I think a lot of this is not only shop to shob, but client to client. When I worked at CBRE/JLL/CW, there was one of these groups that worked with Chick-fil-a and Wendys, and they basically helped decide what kind of tile they should use and other sorts of stuff like that. Some other clients were State Farm and Progressive and they helped with office type stuff (development, leases, build out, etc...). I think it all really just depends.

 
Count_Chocula:

I think a lot of this is not only shop to shob, but client to client. When I worked at CBRE/JLL/CW, there was one of these groups that worked with Chick-fil-a and Wendys, and they basically helped decide what kind of tile they should use and other sorts of stuff like that. Some other clients were State Farm and Progressive and they helped with office type stuff (development, leases, build out, etc...). I think it all really just depends.

My interview is with people from finance so I think it is more geared towards client finance.

Is that basically just handling client budgeting and such? Last thing I want and I'm asking all these questions before committing to interview because I want to take a day off to waste my time.

 

Background: I'm a second year Associate on the investment team at a large global asset manager.

Admittedly, I haven't made any personal RE investments yet, but I have begun thinking seriously about it.

Obviously access to various research is helpful and is a good way to keep tabs on markets/strategies (assuming you have access to whatever asset class/market you would be personally investing in).

In terms of broker contacts, I think that would be less helpful, as our contacts are showing us institutional quality portfolios / deals, which cost far more than I have to invest. That said, perhaps they can refer you to one of their contacts to find a deal up your alley.

I'm definitely interested in hearing what others have to say, especially re: personal RE investments.

 

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