News
What's Next for Schnitzer
January 19, 2012
| If Schnitzer West founder and managing partner Dan Ivanoff was making up the rules, the winner of Monopoly might be the player who sold all of his trophy assets in an opportunistic market. This week, we chatted with Dan about his $1.26B selling spree (representing 3M SF to date) and what's next for him and Schnitzer. |
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| ?We're in the early stages of figuring out our next move,? says Dan, who has so many claims to fame, we'll just point to the 36-story 1918 Eighth building, almost completely leased to Amazon in 460k SF, which sold for $350.1M in August 2011. Likely, the new strategy will be woven together with different threads: selling the remaining properties in the portfolio is one. There's 1M SF of stabilized suburban office in Bothell to be sold incrementally going forward, he says. A 200k SF building in Redmond is something that could sell this year or next. And then there's another 200k in Denver slated to sell in 2014 or ?15. |
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| As those final sales empty the company's portfolio, Schnitzer will be watching the market for healing signs and the ?right entry point,? which Dan says it believes will be sooner rather than later. When Schnitzer does re-enter, it will be in its area of expertise—industrial and office—and also a brand-new bag, single-family plats. ?It's a very dislocated market right now, which is something that matches up with what we do every day.? (Recall that two office towers, above, part of Schnitzer?s Bravern mixed-use project in Bellevue and completely filled with Microsoft workers, sold for $410M in September '10, or $547/SF in a bad economy.) There are still development opportunities—M5 is an office project on the drawing board. ?We have another building right next to us that's called Watermark that we don't have any tenants in,? says Dan. ?That?ll be an example of a future development.? |
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| As the company recharges, it may also be a turning point for Dan. ?We're working on transitioning our enterprise to our key leaders assuming all plays out as expected,? he tells us. Meanwhile, he'll shift his focus into helping them get capitalized. He's also looking at teaching at the University of Colorado, where he holds two masters and plans to set up a professorship that bridges the construction management program and the business school. What his personal focus will not be is to build another 10M SF. (Above, 1918 Eight Ave.)What Dan enjoys most: the people he's worked with, spending a decade?s worth of time with everyone from contractors and architects to the people in his office. ?It's one thing to say that you're profitable,? says Dan. But the greatest treasure may be ?the opportunity that you touch that many lives.? |
