Thoughts on the Carlton Group?

Carlton Group is a boutique real estate investment bank. I was doing some due diligence on the company and it seems like a firm a tier below Eastdil or HFF.

What really caught my eye though was the enormous number of anonymous posts on TheRealDeal.com shitpanning the company and its CEO Howard Michaels.

Anyone know the scoop on this company and its leadership?

27 Comments
 

They only vaguely ring a bell, if that, but if the "recent transactions" on their site are legitimate, then you'd get great experience working there. Remember that the market is still nowhere remotely near as active as it was in the boom years, so some people are just taking what they can get.

 

There is someone in my current office that used to be at the Carlton group. He worked on the whole capital stack for the Trump Soho development while he was there, so when times were good they certainly did legitimate deals. Not sure what they are up to these days but in my humble opinion i would say that is a great place to go. Good luck OP.

 

Incredible track record and the principals all have strong backgrounds. I hear the culture is terrible though. The chairman is kind of a nutjob and requires you to be pretty much be working all the time. High turnover from what I understand.

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I would check BIWS for a model that shows equity-level returns, ideally with a waterfall, and leave it at that. You won't be doing M&A or bond deals, you'll be doing asset-level stuff.

I do know a guy who left a true i-banking job (REIT IPOs, etc.) for Carlton, but I can't say that I know anything about it that you wouldn't know. Clearly they do some pretty sexy deals.

 

First, thank you both for the comments!

Second, what is BIWS? For modeling I am thinking of taking a KAHR 2-day intensive course. If you think this would be valuable please provide input as I could use the $800 for you know, like bills, or food.

And of course third; since there is terrible culture would their be any good exit opps after a year or two?

Sincerely-me

 

Mixed reputation, some people have a great respect for the company and the deals they have done. Some people do not have respect for the CEO and his management style. Comp is base with discretionary bonus. Exit opps depend on the deal flow that you get, right now there seems to be significant deal flow on the debt and equity side with Carlton selling an RFR portfolio of office buildings, this was noted in Real Estate Alert. I am not sure what the structure is if you are on the principal side there.

PM me for more info.

 

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