News
BRINGIN' DOWN THE HOUSE
April 16, 2012
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| We chatted with Buchanan Street Partners CEO Robert Brunswick, who tells us the company is closing on its fourth apartment project in Austin, Texas. He also shared the news that the firm’s recent charitable concert, Encore for Education, successfully raised $120k for VHI Save the Music Foundation and the UCI Foundation’s John Parker Memorial Fund. The event, which filled The Observatory in Santa Ana with about 850 attendees, featured performances by Blues Traveler and the Gin Blossoms. Robert says the event achieved financial goals, and among other goodies, “enabled us to buy a thousand new musical instruments” for school children in OC. (Robert gives in other ways too as an adjunct professor at UC Irvine, teaching an introduction to commercial RE course to undergrads.) |
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| How’s this for a sign of real estate recovery—people waiting to get on the other side of the velvet rope. Encore for Education is one of three branded events hosted by Buchanan Children’s Charities. Founded in 2007, the public non-profit org raises funds to improve children’s quality of life and educational opportunities. Robert says each of the three programs provides a different sort of experience “to give the donor some value.” Besides Encore, the others are the Real Estate Summit, an educational program, and Challenge for Children, an athletic competition pitting teams of real estate firms against one another. Combined, the programs have raised more than $2M for charity. However, Robert notes they weren’t held the last several years because of the economy. “It’s nice to get it back on track.” |
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| Buchanan Street has devoted copious resources to charities, particularly ones that focus on children, since its inception 13 years ago, and found it actually created a positive work environment. For many of its employees, Robert says, “job satisfaction is aligned with that sense of doing well for your community.” The company also wanted to make a statement: In times of need, the charities need help more than ever. The RE industry went through turmoil these past few years, and companies had to reinvent themselves. At the end of ’07, Buchanan sold a majority interest to TCW. “That in itself was a big change for us and frankly prepared us for this down market in that we had some institutional clout behind us now.” (Though it may take more than clout to cash a bass drum-shaped check.) |
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| Fans obviously expressing enthusiasm for CMBS. Robert says the company re-looked at its business and what’s evolved is a platform that makes it both a lender and a direct buyer of real estate—in previous cycles, Buchanan was predominantly a supplier of equity to developers. As a value-add investor, Buchanan has been buying office assets in Houston, apartments in Austin, and industrial in Phoenix. Recently, Buchanan bought the two-building, nearly 171k SF The Offices at Kensington in Sugar Land, Texas, from KBS REIT. Coincidentally, the two companies are in the same building (620 Newport Center Dr in Newport Beach), and Buchanan bought the Class-A property in an off-market deal. |
