CRESA Takes Aim at Virginia
This morning, we snapped CRESA local chief (and recently elected global CEO) Rich Rhodes at Cosi in Bethesda—he’d been up since 5:30am doing his daily workout at Equinox (sometimes supplemented by yoga and swimming), and as you can see treats himself just to a fruit cup and water. With the same discipline, he tells us he’s trained his sights on growing in Virginia and will be starting a search today for 4k SF for a new Tysons office in the Greensboro-International Drive area, where he can add 20 folks over the next two years—including himself. Today he has 65 comrades in the region, with around 35 in Bethesda and 25 in DC, but Tysons is just getting started. Yet of the $25M in local fees (up from $4M when it spun off from the Rome Group 2004), 40% already come from Virginia. Rich sees huge potential for further growth, as government “gets back in the game,” he predicts, and Fed IT firms reconstitute themselves into cybersecurity gurus.
A block up Woodmont Avenue, on the left, is construction of the tony Lauren condos, where the penthouse is being offered at $10M—but Rich proudly points to where he works, on the right, a much more modest office building, in keeping with his focus on the bottom line. As for CRESA worldwide, it now has 58 North American offices and almost 20 abroad, from Buenos Aires to Perth to London. With 1,000 employees in its network (comprised of independently owned firms), including 180 partners, he’d like to grow revenues from $250M to $500M. Given the sale in recent years of Studley and Staubach to full-service firms, CRESA considers itself the one remaining national tenant-rep only alternative.
On the side, Rich has played the keyboard for 15 years with the “Seven Car Pileup,” seven old pals who do '70s and '80s hits from the likes of The Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, and Squeeze—three times a year, contributing admission fees to charity. Above was a gig they played at Nationals Park (you can see slivers of Rich behind his two-tiered keys). Next gig: Sept. 19, check your local listings. With two daughters off at Indiana and Tulane, and a third in 11th grade, it’s only a matter of time before he can spend even more time on the road spreading the CRESA gospel—and maybe also playing at the Roxy.
