So I’m receiving all these “congratulations on your work anniversary” messages via LinkedIn, and I usually breeze by them because many represent “start dates” for affiliations that, while important, were not truly notable turning points in my career.
But March 1, 2001 was the day that I moved from my 22+ year tenure at Landauer Associates and became the chief cook and bottle washer at Hugh Kelly Real Estate Economics, operating out of a third-floor home office in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn. It has been quite a ride!
Originally I saw this as a fairly temporary situtation. It seemed to me that hopping from a decades-long association with one firm to another long-term job relationship would be akin to a “bounce-back marriage” for someone newly divorced. It might feel familiar and comfortable, but decisions made during life transitions are rarely wise.
I had the good fortune to have a residual separation agreement from Landauer in place - the result of a forward-thinking condition I had put in place when Landuaer was purchased by Grubb & Ellis from AEGON USA. And I had the added benefit of having had an investment manager, Real Estate Capital Partners, say, “We want to be your first client.” So there was some capital to set up a new business, and a source of work right at the start. {I’m proud to say that the first client stayed with me for nearly the full 20 years - and ended the relationship only because of its own acquisition a few months ago.}
Some might believe that 2001 was not a particularly auspicious year to launch a solo consulting practice. The economy started the year a bit shaky, and of course 9/11 happened with its many social, political, and economic consequences. But as it turned out, my services wound up being much in demand.
First of all, it turns out that there were not all that many folks doing quite what I do. And so, in the 9/11 aftermath, there was a great need for those who could objectively look at the New York economy and real estate market reliably but also creatively. So I wound up doing an important study of what to do with Ground Zero for the Civic Alliance and the Regional Plan Association. (That study is on this website, under New York City/Notable Writings.)
Then, too, the Dean at NYU’s Schack Institute (Ken Patton) gave me a call to say, “Now you have more time for us.” That brought me more intensively into the academic loop, and gave me the opportunity to team teach with one of my most valued colleagues, Rosemary Scanlon. Since the Fall semester launched right after 9/11, our economics and market analysis course became a kind of laboratory exercise in studying a crisis.
It is worth noting the synergy between being in the classroom and actively serving clients. I firmly believe the discipline of academic rigor made me a better industry advisor, and the on-the-ground experience of dealing with real estate investment and development pragmatics made me a better classroom teacher as well as enhancing my formal research.
That nexus, and my increasing involvement with the Homer Hoyt Institute (where I’m a Hoyt Fellow), prepared me and then enabled me to undertake PhD studies at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. My thesis, recast out of the language of academia and into plain English, found its way into publication in 2016 as 24 Hour Cities: Real Investment Performance, Not Just Promises.
I don’t have a formal “motto” for my life, but the phrase “God writes straight with crooked lines” comes close! Now, in my Seventies, I’m finding plenty of opportunities to probe new and unexpected frontiers. As they say, “Watch this space.”