Any thoughts on Greystar ?
Seem to be growing (recently acquired Monogram REIT) and were on the PERE 50 for a few years. Appear to be most active in the south and west US
Would this role pigeon hole you in multifamily moving forward?
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They have 10,000 employees, not units, employees, lol. That's a lot. I talked with their recruiter out of Dallas a few years ago. In general the company seems pretty rock solid. You get in with Greystar you can stay and grow or move on with ease. Lots of potential there.
Greystar is very legit.
Most of those 10k employees are part of their 3rd party management platform, but their principal investing group seems to be growing quickly. Raised a big fund and brought in some good talent to lead it - and as you mentioned, the MORE acquisition was a pretty big deal; very few firms taking down multi-billion dollar public REITs.
As far as pigeon-holing you into multifamily: I think that is going to depend on how long you stay there and your interest in leaving multifamily. If you decide you like and want to grow your career in multifamily, there aren't going to be many better names for your resume. If you want to transition to another product, I think that having a few years of experience on the deal team at a widely recognizable name will not hurt you. (Not saying it's going to be totally seamless, but opportunities should exist - especially at mid/junior level.)
I think Greystar is going to be the top real estate company of the coming decades. They have excelled in third party property management, development, acquisitions, and have branched off into international, niche markets, and services startups. So far, they have shown tremendous success and ability to scale. They have shown ability to be a great partner to JV equity partners as well as direct investments with LPs. This one-stop shop nature along with the largest management company will not be surpassed by anyone. Greystar has a bright future and working there gives you tremendous exposure.
I would argue the complete opposite. Their management has declined in quality dramatically over the last decade because of a lack of ability to control quality while scaling.
Their development team is generally solid, but very young.
Not sure if you completely disagree with me or partially. I think OP wanted opinion prob for career prospects. My industry observation is they will be a less New York-like Tishman with urban and suburban assets with the global reach of a Hines buttressed by a property management platform that will be hard to surpass in scale (this is a lower margin business few people appreciate, easy to criticize and everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but steady operating CF). Seems like they’ve reached an inflection point in the past few years with international expansion. My hunch is they will learn office and retail while doing large mixed use projects, and selectively develop those product types as well (so don’t worry about being pigeon holed in MF). Like Security Capital and Trammel Crow, there will be spin-offs and those who gain experience and venture on their own. I don’t see them stopping which is why I think they will be a top global real estate company of the coming decades.
I've worked on a few deals this year in which Greystar was being replaced as the operator/manager because of poor performance and terrible tenant feedback. Rents at those buildings were far below market despite being new. I know this is purely anecdotal, but I'm sharing in light of your comment about the quality of their management declining. I've clearly seen the evidence of this claim, though don't know how drastic and widespread it is. All that said, I don't know much about the development arm.
I hope to never work in third party property management. You get totally thrown under the bus if things don’t go right, irregardless of product market fit, competing supply during lease up. One of the great mulligans you should keep but use sparingly.
Multifamily is the preferred asset over the past two years. I wouldn't think of working with Greystar as a potential to be pigeon holed into a singular asset class.
I have had significant contact with Greystar through the deals I've worked with them including some mixed-use apt/retail deals north of $100MM. They are fantastic when it comes to development but also have an excellent management team that really drives asset value and has succeeded with several value-add opprtunities. Nothing but positive things to say about Greystar.
Develop and operate a lot of high-end/luxury projects. Not sure how they rank as operators, but their development team is aggressive. I've comped against them in a couple of marketing and both projects were priced significantly above market, trended.
Worked with them a bunch as the operating partner on new development deals when I was back in private equity. The management quality may not be the best, but that's not the point - they use it as information to underwrite the investment side, and as a cash-flow generator during down cycles.
Bob Faith is about as smart an investor and operator as there is in the real estate space. If you're going into the management side I'd try to go elsewhere - if the position is on the investment side then seriously consider it. That company is going nowhere but up.
Can anyone talk specifically about their compensation packages on the development team?
Worked for Greystar as part of the management trainee program. PM me if you've got any questions.
I've met Bob Faith, Bill Maddux, all the higher ups. Great management team.
They pride their management services, as they're the #1 property management company, and have got streamlined services, but as an operator, it comes down to the PM team at the local/regional level. It pays for the day to day cashflow and in down cycles, they snap up cheap property or develop a lot.
Last time I checked, they were doing extremely well and bought Monogram and also Education Realty (both $4B acquisitions), trying to expand into the student housing niche in other countries. Great company to be a part of and was very exciting.
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