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PARADIGM: SCOTTISH ACCOUNTING CAMBRIDGE VALUES
February 25, 2010
| Paradigm Properties' Kevin McCall blames his Scottish heritage for his wary outlook on the CRE markets. Genes, he says, are what moved him to announce a new business line this month, offering consulting and workout-restructuring to owners of distressed properties. (We won't engage in Scot stereotypes—not for kindness, just realizing our flaws would open our heritage to many critiques.) |
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| We snapped Kevin and Bridget High reviewing reports for Paradigm Capital Advisors? investors who were, no doubt, pleased that Paradigm?s fund made distributions throughout '09. ?It performed at projected levels,? she said. Keeping with Scottish mode, during the boom, Paradigm shied away from flashy deals, letting others buy high and flip. Instead, it focused on plain vanilla industrial buildings like 8 Seafood Way on Boston Harbor, a warehouse and seafood processing facility. The 13-year-old firm already does property mgmt, advisory services, and investment management for itself and others. |
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| L.A. Richard, Filomena Muthu, and Jon Shepherd head up the accounting operation. Paradigm keeps the bean counting in-house rather than farm it out. That way the accountants and property and asset managers can work together to keep a tight rein on assets, trying to steer their performance toward investment goals. Kevin tells us, ?As we've taken over property from other managers, we've gained an advantage from great accounting.? |
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| Kevin let his progressive social values surface from Paradigm?s inception. He started the Community Connection program in 1998 to facilitate Paradigm tenants working with local non-profits on efforts like food drives and collecting learning materials for children. Group spirit, he says, is good for people and helps properties perform better as investments. By '03, Community Connection had an annual impact of about $300K, prompting Paradigm to form the non-profit Building Impact, to extend CC to commercial buildings throughout the area. We snapped BI folks (front) Sarah Gudernatch and Jen Green; (rear) Tamara Vatnick, Paul Teplitz, David Katz, Alison Spindler, Kristin Armitage, and Lisa Guyon. |
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| Here's Kevin with Elyse Hanson and Tom Woods, part of the asset management team, as well as Jocelyn Keith, Megan Kenny, and Jim Reynolds, from the property mgmt. crew. Paradigm manages 6.5M SF of office and industrial buildings, half of which it owns. Kevin?s aiming to do more third party management and raise a $100M investment fund to take advantage of depressed values. His latest venture is Paradigm-Exeter Advisors, which helps lenders do work-outs for troubled commercial office, industrial, and hotel properties. It already has assignments across the country and expects business to be booming because hotels followed housing into this downdraft, which Kevin expects to last for several more years. ?When you lose 8M jobs in 18 months, you feel it for a long time.? (That's the optimistic Scottish view.) |
