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April 1, 2010
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A MAN'S WORLD?
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| GVA Thompson Hennessey is pretty rare, a 20-year-old woman owned real estate services firm in a male dominated business. Perhaps that’s why it’s making rare deals, brokering an expansion and relo for Investment Technology Group which moved into 75k SF at 100 High St earlier this month. |
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We snapped Cathy Thompson and John Hennessey (who closed the ITG deal) strategizing for long-term client Arnold Worldwide, for its acquisition and disposition projects in Boston, NY, and DC. Cathy and John now have a staff of 23 for the business that Cathy started with another partner, Kathy Doyle, in 1990. The two did tenant and landlord rep downtown. John came on as a partner in ’98 and they’ve widened their horizons to do national brokerage, advisory, and investment sales services. Most recently, Larry Guilmette joined to build a workout team for lenders or owners with properties that are underwater or have loans rolling over that will be tough to re-fi.
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Ryan Weber, Peter Herbst, and Kaitlyn Skerry on the Life Science team are finding that tenants still want to be in Cambridge near MIT and Harvard or the Longwood Medical Area, already very densely packed. Now, many of their brokerage clients are relos or downsizing into smaller lab/office spaces. But they’re betting on some tenants wandering into the wilds of North Cambridge where they’re leasing space at 85 Bolton St, a 47k SF building called Walden Square Science Center. Cathy says even in this economy, “there’s plenty of business for everyone.” Getting it is a matter of “creating and maintaining strong relationships.”
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Unbeknownst to them, Cathy and brokers Steve Lombardi (Financial District) and Peter Bean (Back Bay), are dramatically re-enacting what is was like for her to often be the only woman in the room. Cathy says she doesn’t look at business situations from a gender perspective. In any room, she just wants to be “the smartest, most creative, best prepared person who has the most value to add.” She isn’t totally sure why there are so few women in the field but doesn’t think it’s an exclusionary attitude. When she advertises a job, she says respondents are 30 men to 10 women. If a man comes across a woman he thinks is qualified for a job, “he’d hire her.”
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| BIG DEBT ACTION |
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Riemer Braunstein’s Don Rothman got the good word last Friday that the firm's plan for one of its clients to restructure $1.51B in debt owed it by General Growth Properties was accepted by US Bankruptcy Court in NYC. Of all his workouts, he says this was among the most rewarding because GGP has a good business operation but its Achilles heel was billions in debt coming due “when no one’s out there to finance it.” The client, U.S. Bank, with a large syndicate of lenders, “was the single largest secured facility.”
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No Foolin': A Dream House For You
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Want a $650k house, furniture, a 2010 GMC Terrain, and $100k in cash? HGTV announced on Wednesday that is just what it’s giving away in its 3rd annual Green Home Giveaway (modeled after its 14 annual Dream Home Giveaways). Last year, it had 17M entries for the Green Home; of course, some entrants clicked multiple times. The house is in The Pinehills in Plymouth, a community where 3052 homes (and thousands of acres of open space) are planned. So far, 1350 are occupied, and 50 under construction. The HGTV house, built by MacKenzie Brothers (Glenn and Gary) near the village center has many green features including low flow faucets, dual flush toilets, carpets and countertops with recycled content, and eco-friendly furniture and accessories. The $800k house package will be introduced to HGTV viewers April 18.
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Send ideas to Susan Diesenhouse, susan@bisnow.com
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