At present, it appears that Integrust is essentially a one-man shop with several strategic alliances.  According to LaFavre’s CCIM Professional Profile, he has been involved in commercial real estate for 20 years, starting with The Trammel Crow Company in 1989.  He joined Colliers Turley Martin Tucker in October 2004, after ten years with United Properties, where he was Vice President of Corporate Real Estate Services. 

LaFavre is also a former the Co-Chair of CoreNet Global’s Midwest Chapter, and former President of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) Mid-Continent Chapter.  He holds an MBA with Finance concentration from the University of Minnesota (1991), a BS in Marketing from Oral Roberts University, and several professional designations.

Integrust Advisory Group may be contacted via phone at 612-605-8467 or mail to 3116 Chelsea Ct, Burnsville, MN, 55337.

In a future article, we hope to provide a more personal look inside the new Howard Ecker + Company.  For now this highlight certainly reinforces the theme of new business opportunities in the tenant rep space, as discussed by CRE Insights earlier regarding CresaPartners’ accelerating growth.  Chicago-based Ecker, however, will be running up against UGL Equis in his hometown, which may serve as catalyst for the immediate national push.  Detroit, one major city that is notoriously short on strong tenant reps, should be fertile ground.

Clearly the Ecker team is off to a strong start.  Real Estate Weekly reported on August 20, 2008 that the firm represented BDO Seidman LLP in recently-signed 15-year, 121,000 SF lease at 100 Park Avenue in New York – a deal that is likely valued over $150 million.  According to its website, Ecker’s New York office is led by Michele Brown, who joined in 2008 from the investment management and commerial banking arenas.

1095 Avenue of the Americas (aka 1095 Sixth Avenue) has been owned by Blackstone Group since its 2007 acquisition of Equity Office Properties.  EOP purchased the building (minus a 20% carve-out) in 2005 from Verizon, which traced ownership back to its construction in 1974 as both a “Central Office” and the corporate headquarters of New York Telephone (Verizon predecessor/subsidiary). 

Beside Verizon, which still owns (presumably via condominium) floors 6 through 12 of the building, tenants include (with details and links to related articles):

• MetLife; >400k RSF; $90/RSF average; represented by Jones Lang LaSalle
• Dechert LLP; 234k RSF; 21-yr term; signed 12/2006; represented by Cushman & Wakefield
• iStar Financial; ~107k RSF flrs 35-37; starting at $132/RSF; signed 6/2007; representation unknown
• Royal Bank of Scotland; ~70,000 RSF; around $150-160/RSF; representation likely Staubach/JLL
• Centerline Capital; 100,000 RSF flrs 3-5; $125-140/RSF; signed 12/2007; representation unknown

It seems the people who should really be – ahem – “recgonized” are CBRE’s Bob Alexander and Robert Stillman, who head-up the agency leasing assignment on behalf of Blackstone.  These guys have managed to squeeze city-leading rents out of a former utility company building.  Now that is what brokers call “perfuming the pig“!

In its Autumn 2008 Survey of CRE managers, London-based GVA Grimley reports significant pessimism and plans for portfolio contraction across the board, particularly in leisure (hotels & restaurants), retail, and financial services sectors. 

Among the findings, personnel cuts have left 50% of the corporate real estate users with surplus property, and 40% sitting on completely vacant sites.  Rather than hold the space for better times (e.g. subleasing), a strong C-level emphasis on cost control and profitability has over half of all firms aiming to downsize their portfolios by up to 25% in the coming months, mainly through lease terminations (“lease breaks” to the Brits) and non-renewals.  The survey was conducted largely before the dramatic economic problems of the past month.

The complete executive summary points out:

• Business confidence has continued to fall since the Winter 2007 survey.

• Significant job losses are expected across many sectors as output expectations have weakened.

• Occupier demand for property has eased in the last six months and looks set to fall in the next six months.

• The majority of sectors are reporting significant effects from the credit squeeze and the economic slowdown.

• Over half of Corporate Occupiers would ideally shed up to a quarter of their leases.

• Corporate Occupiers are intending to exercise a significant number of breaks and not renew leases expiries.

• Half of all Corporate Occupiers are carrying surplus property, and over three quarters of those have vacant property.

• The changes to vacant rates are having the biggest impact on medium size firms and those in the engineering and transport sectors.

• Business is being driven by profitability and reducing costs.

• Property decision making is based on cost reduction and the contraction or expansion of the business.

Although the report contained nary a positive remark, there is always the implicit fact that “Negative Absorption Means Opportunity” for corporate real estate professionals, as discussed here a short time ago.  For those who are poised to grow (or just renew), now is the time to get out there, push great lease deals, and “go long”.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) co-publishes the survey with GVA Grimley.

From a quick review of Cresa’s PR archive, it appears that the firm began touting this attribute with their announcement of a merger with Triangle Commercial of Raleigh, NC in late June.  (Cresa did NOT use the language in its announcement of a combination with Liberty Greenfield of Denver, CO, in March, or in the announcement of a combination with The Sande Company of San Diego, CA, in October 2007.) 

Of course it wasn’t the merger with Triangle that allowed Cresa to use the tagline; it was the dilution of Staubach, with its 1,000 employees and $28 billion in deal flow, into JLL’s comprehensive services platform.  The only other exclusive tenant rep firm with a national footprint is Studley, which has a fairly modest ~20 offices despite giving birth to the concept in 1954.  Cresa’s recent expansion is part of a declared strategic objective to plant their flag in “the Top 40 US commercial real estate markets and beyond”. 

Cresa today has 44 US offices, plus 5 in Canada and a few overseas outposts.  Consider also its partnership with Atisreal Group (67 offices in 14 EMEA countries), which has actually been in place since 2000, and you may start imagining a waking giant, or the fair younger sister who has been stuck in the shadows all these years.  Bottom line: It is time for Cresa’s “coming out” party.

(Suggested Reading: Lauren Eikes of The Real Deal wrote an article in July, surveying the industry in the immediate wake of the Staubach – JLL merger.)