president, Colliers Barry
Company: Colliers Barry, Inc.
Title: President
Education: Marquette University High School; B.S.F.S., Georgetown University; J.D., University of Chicago Law School
Family: Wife, Nora; daughter, Joan.
City of Residence: Milwaukee
Hobbies and Interests: Skiing, sailing, golf, squash, reading history and literature
What are you working on? "Our firm is currently marketing a number of large industrial buildings throughout metropolitan Milwaukee, including a 128,000-square-foot building on Brown Deer Road owned by Concours Motors, a 125,000-square-foot building on 124th Street that is being vacated by Corporate Express and a 90,000-square-foot building in Goerke’s Corners that is currently owned by Penzey’s Spices. In addition, we are marketing a number of land sites ranging from the Jefferson Industrial Park and the West Bend Corporate Center to the Cousins Center, a 415,000-square-foot complex on 45 acres of land along Lake Michigan in St. Francis. We have also been selected to market a new downtown office tower that will be built atop the Chase Bank parking structure located at Water Street and Michigan Street."
How does the market look to you? "In general, I think the market is fairly solid, though there are strong and weak points. The market for the sale of industrial buildings seems to be very strong, particularly for buildings in the middle-size range. The industrial leasing market is recovering and some recent transactions indicate that this market could be strengthening in the next year or two. The office market, particularly downtown, is still somewhat soft – but there are a number of large tenants looking for space and this could help to kick off some new developments. The market for commercial land remains strong, and the price per acre for such land continues to increase for well-located parcels. Finally, the market for investment properties in Milwaukee continues to be very solid due to demand from Chicago and other out-of-state investors. Milwaukee continues to attract such investors because the capitalization rates, prices per square foot and availability of product are more attractive than primary markets like Chicago or New York."
What was the best deal you’ve ever been involved in? "Our company does a lot of sale/leaseback transactions, and I would have to say that the best deal I was ever involved in was probably the first large sale/leaseback that I participated in structuring. It involved the sale of an 857,000-square-foot industrial building owned by Briggs & Stratton. Harley Davidson had an interest in purchasing the building to use as a motor manufacturing plant, but at a relatively low purchase price. Kurt Van Dyke and I put together a plan to market the building as an investment property, pursuant to which Briggs & Stratton would lease back half the building, and the Menasha Corp. would lease the other half. We marketed the property to a number of investors, primarily real estate investment trusts, and we received about 10 offers within 30 days of issuing the offering memorandum. All of the offers were significantly in excess of the number offered by Harley. Yet, Harley still wanted the building, and they were willing to lease back half of it to Briggs. Due to our packaging of the property as an investment, Harley was forced to outbid the investors who had made proposals to purchase the building. In the end, they paid almost $10 million more for the building than their original offering price. This deal won one of the first Deal of the Year awards from the Commercial Association of Realtors of Wisconsin."
What was the funniest moment of your career? "Due to the range of people one meets in the commercial real estate business, there are many funny moments, but one that comes to mind is a listing proposal that myself and two of our brokers made to the Loyal Order of Moose to list a small land site located adjacent to one of their lodges. This involved us having to make our presentation before a personage known as "The Grand Moose," who was seated on some sort of raised throne and who wore what appeared to be a dead moose carcass on his head. Prior to making our presentation, the Grand Moose required us to partake in the Lodge’s rather bizarre ceremonial proceedings, which included the swearing of solemn oaths, the ringing of numerous bells, and which concluded with a series of loud Moose calls exchanged by the Lodge members seated on either side of the room. This setting for our presentation was made even more challenging by the fact that the members of the Lodge had clearly enjoyed a very extended cocktail hour prior to the meeting. We ended up winning the assignment to market the land, though one can only guess what the Order’s decision-making process entailed."
