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FEATURE ARTICLE, JULY 2004
RIGHT ON THE MONEY
PM Realty Group strives to help its clients run profitable
real estate projects.
Jennifer Orr
“If you jump in the real estate business, you’re
one of two kinds of people,” says Dave Parker, senior
vice president and director of PM Realty Group’s eastern
division. “You’re either the kind of person who
just wants to make some money and have a bunch of fun, or
you’re the kind of person who considers making money
for your client a personal and professional challenge.”
The real estate professionals at PM Realty Group tend to fall
in the latter category. Whether the strategy is to cut expenses
or even lower rental rates, PM Realty strives to show its
clients how to make the most out of a real estate investment.
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Dils
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The Houston-based company offers a wide range of real estate
services — property, construction and facility management,
leasing and marketing, corporate and investment services, and
asset management and development — for mostly institutional-grade
clients, such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Sumitomo Life Realty and
Prudential Real Estate Investors. PM Realty handles a variety
of property types and sizes in all major cities across the country
and has a strong presence in the Southeast. “One Atlantic
Center [in Atlanta] might be the property you see on our brochure,”
says Steve Dils, senior vice president and director of the company’s
Atlanta region. “But we’re just as concerned with
and spend a considerable amount of time keeping the smaller
properties leased and managed at a Class A level as well.”
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Parker
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Historically a property management services firm, PM Realty
has been moving toward more transaction-based services, such
as land sales, building sales and office leasing. In 2001,
PM Realty handled about 900,000 square feet of properties
in Atlanta, most of which was retail. Now, the company is
responsible for 4.2 million square feet, with the majority
of which is office space. “The mix and the amount of
properties have changed significantly in the last two-and-a-half
years,” says Dils. “The culture has changed from
one that was nothing but property management to more of a
transaction-oriented firm, where we have a lot more services
that we can offer to our clients.”
PM Realty prides itself on being able to talk to its clients
effectively. The company’s advice is not just limited
to the best time for completing a transaction at its highest
profit. PM Realty also has professionals who, for example,
can help a building save up to 10 percent in energy consumption
per year. “Smart people in any profession can make a
huge difference,” says Parker.
Sometimes the advice isn’t necessarily what an owner
wants to hear, especially in this tough economy. “What
we try to do on the leasing side in a very difficult market
like Atlanta is educate the owners that you really have two
choices,” explains Dils. “You can either choose
rate or you can choose the velocity of deals you do. In a
market like Atlanta, you can’t do both.” Dils has
been advising his clients in Atlanta to consider easing up
on the rates and try to outperform the market from an occupancy
standpoint since the rates probably won’t improve anytime
soon. “We’d rather have the buildings filled, so
we’ve worked to do that,” says Dils. “That’s
not an easy thing to do.”
“It’s almost like each one of these buildings is
its own business and the whole idea is to make them more profitable,”
says Parker. “In it’s simplest form, it’s like
running a restaurant — trying to get as much money in
the door as you can and trying to keep down your expenses
as much as possible so that you walk away with the highest
net income. The real estate business is exactly like that.”
©2004 France Publications, Inc. Duplication
or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization
from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints
of this article contact Barbara
Sherer at (630) 554-6054.
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