Boston Firms
Looking for some firms in Boston with good comp/culture.
Could be GP or LP
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Not sure about comp...but AEW, GID, CrossHarbor are some good firms to look at.
General boston firms include Baupost, Rockpoint, Boston Properties, Bain Capital, TA Realty.
A lot of life science players were active in Boston - would think Alexandria has an office there.
baupost laid off 5-6 members of their RE team recently (which was lean to start out with) - wouldn't classify that as good culture
Interesting - yeah I don’t know about culture at baupost (just know they’re a good name), but had good things about AEW and GID
Intimately familiar with Rockpoint, AEW & TA.
Rockpoint has the best comp of the three (3) but expects IB hours. They do have a large opportunistic fund series which if you like hairy deals and learning about complex structuring it would be a great place to get your proverbial “foot in the door”.
AEW went through some internal restructuring late 2021/early 2022. They combined their DIG acquisitions team (Direct Investment Group) with their Partners Group acquisitions team. The former focused on mostly Core and Light Value-Add strategies while the latter’s strategy was driven by high-octane deals with participation in both the LP & GP. Gross IRR’s North of ~20.0% in a closed end Fund Series (believe they are on Partners Fund XII now perhaps XIII).
Post restructuring a lot of acquisitions folks left as there weren’t enough markets to go around (coverage wise).
Notwithstanding, Natixis owns ~97.0% of AEW which leaves little for anyone else at the firm. As such compensation is hoarded by the top executives. It has great brand name recognition as the manage ~$100b in AUM.
IMO I would only work here as an early career analyst to gain exposure and learn as much as possible or an MD later down the road.
TA Realty is the definition of a rubber stamp IC shop. MENY bought ~70.0% of TA Realty several years ago and ever since they have been in AUM growth mode for the sake of earning fees vs chasing alpha. My friend worked there as their 2nd stop in their career. They said the underwriting was beyond juvenile. TA got lucky im serval markets as many other funds did as well due to higher than projected market rate growth coupled with cap rate compression. I was told there were several deals underperforming the underwriting at Closing but they were “successful” at Exit do to 50bps - 100bps of cap rate compression. I was also told the C-Suite team surprisingly was not sharp and they are only focused on Core strategies (which follows the aforementioned sentiment since you can’t really miss by a wide margin in a gateway market on Class A assets especially when your focus is/was Multifamily and Industrial).
Happy to give more insight on other shops in Boston if needed.
I laughed at this because I worked the tenant side of a deal on one of their buildings that they bought at such an absurdly high basis that they couldn’t issue a proposal close to market. Surprise surprise, building sat vacant since they bought it.
Thoughts on MFS? I have an offer in their Finance rotational program track and would be hoping to join the investment team afterwards.
Underselling a bit. The real “luck” was shedding office exposure (in large part for data centers) right before COVID. Firm has changed a lot over the past decade.
Following
Any info on Baupost after the layoffs in their RE group?
In a few articles Klarman talked about how they want their approach to be more opportunistic, but have been curious what it actually looks like for them.
I’d also add STAG to the mix if you like industrial. Other players that do big deals are Davis Companies, Marcus Partners, and RMR. Plenty of other smaller groups too that punch above their weight class and would be great places to learn and grow.
Have heard good things about RMR and Davis
I know a couple former RMR people. They speak fondly of the breadth of experience they got there but they always say the culture is stuffy, cliquey and that there are a lot of assholes on top. YMMV.
Anyone know hours/comp at RMR?
Old info, take with much salt: comp good, hours bad (for Analysts). One story: head of analyst pool told someone I know, “I expect you to be available by phone until 9pm daily.”
Berkshire Residential is HQ’d there and seems to have a large mortgage business now. I see their postings a lot.
Small shops: Rhino Capital, Seyon Group, Foxfield, Redgate, Federal REIT (appears to be a small satellite office in Somerville for a larger company), Blue Moon Capital (seniors housing), Jumbo Capital, Plymouth REIT, Camber Development….
There are countless CRE lending groups for banks both large and small in Boston.
I claim no special knowledge of any of the aforementioned, just have seen/heard of/met people from these places over the years.
Covid19Brah's list is pretty solid. Work in New York but have dealt with a bunch of firms up there. Obviously got your big PE players like Rockpoint, Bain, etc. Favorite GP in Boston area was Jumbo Capital, but also have had solid experiences with guys from Rhino Capital.
This is a pretty open ended question - there are many good companies in Boston. Do you have a particular property type or firm type you are targeting?
multi/office dev/acq
I've worked in Boston for 10+ years. Here are the relevant players in each property type -- mostly operator/developers, but I've also tossed in some of the equity groups. The office side is a bit all over the place. The market for new office product is basically non-existent at this point, many pivoted to life science in the last 5 years.
Multi: AVB, EQR, Wood Partners, Greystar, Fairfield Residential, Hanover Company, TCR, National Development, Davis Company, Berkshire, Samuels & Associates, Bain, Rockpoint, TA Realty, DFS, GID.
Office: BXP, Synergy, Greatland Realty, Anchor Line Partners, Biomed, ARE, Fallon Company, Skanska, Hines
Not sure on comp but Crosspoint and Winstanley are 2 more that are active.
I heard Fidelity recently started a group separate from Pembroke. No clue about comp/culture though
Yeah would love to hear if anyone has any insight on this. I know Fidelity was where Long Wharf spun out of but I was under the impression that since then they didn’t have much of a real estate presence. I think I saw they maybe had a small team working on an opportunistic fund.
Recently saw that the head of Bain Cap’s RE recruiting left to join Fidelity. Not sure in what capacity but curious if this ties into them building out a bigger team.
I can speak to this (Pembroke alum), but Fidelity has a direct real estate team that, to your point, invests opportunistically (unlike Pembroke where it's strictly office, mixed-used, and some multi now). There's been some small additions over the last year or so but for the most part, is a very lean team atm.
Barings.
Great people in the Boston office and good company culture (mentorship/hours/WFH policy/unlimited vacation). Comp is on the higher spectrum vs market and readily available on glassdoor. You will also be working at probably one of the best office building in Boston with free lunch.
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