Close Up With Troy Holme
CBRE SVP Troy Holme’s daily to-do list includes working on the 600k SF River Place, 650k SF Amber Oaks, and the soon-to-be 500k SF downtown Green Water office building, just the latest in a string of huge projects. (Our to-do list just says "write to-do list.")
Troy (second from left between his team Jayme Knight Nelson, and Casey Ford, and Katie Ekstrom in Las Vegas at the CBRE annual convention) has signed more than 2,000 lease transactions representing 10M SF valued at more than $2B in his 17-year career. Currently, he’s in charge of a 4M SF 25-building portfolio. The newest is the Green Water project (developed by Trammell Crow Co and Principal Financial Group). The 500k SF trophy office building should break ground shortly and will be completed by the end of 2016. Troy says it will be an ideally located — across almost two acres near San Antonio and Cesar Chavez streets — one-of-a-kind office building unlike anything Austin has ever seen. It's part of the Green Water Project that includes two high-end apartment buildings and a boutique hotel. Troy also leases the iconic Littlefield and Scarbrough Buildings downtown, as well as 100 Congress (which is undergoing an $8M renovation for owner, MetLife).
A native Californian, Troy made the move to Austin for his wife, Jennifer (here with their two daughters). She accepted a faculty position at UT and Troy tells us he was happy to come along because his brother lived here and he was already a fan of the city. He left a successful executive role in LA at a well known REIT, Arden Realty, where he was responsible for leasing and asset management of 6M SF of buildings valued at more tha $2B in the West Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Beverly Hills markets. On the bright side, his wife has tenure now as a professor of education policy.
Troy and his team usually work largely on the landlord side of the equation with some asset sales included, he tells us. Some of his larger transactions over the last couple of years include the 175k SF lease for Visa at Research Park Plaza, the AMD sale-leaseback of its 800k SF campus at 7171 Southwest Pkwy (pictured), and the 80k SF lease for Jackson Walker at 100 Congress. Troy credits the success to the relationships built with large institutional owners and regional landlords as well as the brokers. Beyond the transactional side of the business, Troy says he enjoys the challenge of his job because no two days are alike. He also enjoys helping new brokers to establish themselves in the industry.
Troy (here with his girls in Bar Harbor, Maine) says CRE is a game of perseverance. He jokes that being a good broker is like being a Weeble: sometimes you get knocked down, but you always gets back up. It's also about knowing where you can add value and make a difference while also realizing that many decisions can income the deal are out of your control. You have to be focused and positive while simultaneously letting the go of the negatives. That’s the trick, he says. Away from the office, Troy loves to travel, play competitive indoor soccer and recreational softball for his company, coach his daughter’s soccer team, and co-lead his other daughter’s girl scout troop.
