On January 19th, Divco West hosted Lifecycle of a Deal, the first Peer to Peer event for 2017 as part of YLG’s array of signature programs. The panel was made up of three speakers with diverse backgrounds – Marcus Gilmour, Principal and Lane Partners, Tyler Meyerdirk, First Vice President at CBRE, and Chris Eldemir, Associate at DivcoWest. Each speaker was able to provide a different perspective based on their current roles in their career. Mr. Gilmour spoke on the development side, Mr. Meyerdirk spoke on the brokerage side, and Mr. Eldemir spoke on the acquisitions and investment side. The night was geared to focus on the roles and responsibilities of the deal process from the perspective of the landlord, operator, financers and brokers in commercial transactions. Each speaker was able to provide their own considerations during the acquisition, ownership, investment, operation and ultimately disposition of an asset.

The stormy weather didn’t stop folks from attending the event and we had approximately 40 young leaders seated around the large table at Divco’s offices. The Young Leaders were comprised of various backgrounds and experience levels. In an effort to target the level of expertise for everyone in the room the panelists made sure to start with the basics of a real estate deal.

Mr. Meyerdirk began explaining the lifecycle of deal from the brokerage side. The brokerage side is different in the sense that a broker is only paid when a deal closes. He discussed the importance of relationships and understanding the market in closing a deal. Many do not realize that closing a deal may take half a year.

Mr. Gilmour followed in discussing “value-add” versus “core” real estate. He explained the necessity of understanding the risk and leverage related to any asset prior to undertaking any project. He explained the various private equity real estate funds and how each deal is reviewed and analyzed with careful thought.

Mr. Eldemir circled back into the panel by discussing Divco’s assessments of funds. He stressed the importance of reviewing each fund as a “theme” for both investors and for the company. They have a strategic asset allocations policy that matches each deal with their applied market research.

After the panel presentation the room turned into an open forum for discussion with nearly half the room of young leaders raising their hands with questions. Without a doubt, the night could have continued into a lengthy dialogue but one thing was certain, with all moving parts of a life cycle of a deal, relationships were deemed to be one of the most important factors. Despite the diverse roles of the panelists and their particular responsibilities of a deal, not a single part of the deal is considered more important. It was also found that all parts of the deal require a level of partnership, once again strengthening the need for the young leaders to learn from their peers and strengthen their relationships.

By Pamela Salas Nieting