TCC Hooks Leading Dallas Exec for Investment Sales Push

In making the change, Jack Minter, an 18-year professional, exits as director of investments for Atlanta-based Cousins Properties Inc. "Jack Minter is the world's best income broker," R. Dary Stone, Cousins' vice chairman, tells GlobeSt.com. "We will continue to have a relationship with Jack. We will always look at Jack no matter where he is if we are going to outsource."

The resounding praise comes as Minter ends a 14-month solo run in which he steered Cousins' sales of two shopping centers in Atlanta and one in San Diego plus a Cerritos, CA office building, employing services of Secure Capital and Eastdil Realty to help on the transactions. Simply put, Minter sold all that Cousins had up for sale.

"Jack needs a whole lot to do," Stone says of the disposition pro's departure. "We obviously will consider harvesting our properties at the appropriate time, but we don't have anything on the market."

Minter, previously the top man in investment sales in Credit Suisse First Boston's Dallas office, says the decision culminates "six or seven" years of talking with TCC executives, personally and professionally. The timing was just never right ... until now.

Minter will be overseeing a network of 21 offices with investment services teams, many with seasoned brokers already in place. In Dallas, Minter joins Jack Crews, Linda Simpson, Michael Huff, Chris Cozby and his former CSFB right-hand man, John Alvarado.

Minter will wrap up duties Nov. 28 at Cousins and start at TCC the following Monday. He will replace Michael Duffy, who is transitioning to TCC's national accounts group. The immediate plan is to look at the network, see what works and what doesn't. "I don't want to break something that works," he says of the cautionary approach to ramping up changes to the disposition team's agenda so that all commercial products are represented, including hotels and debt and equity financing. He says the "coordination and focus" will be on recruiting new hires for teams in major market that might have product gaps in the lineup.

"We'd like to have product diversity on a national geographical basis," Minter explains, adding the growth strategy will be disciplined in its rollout. "There won't be a big splash, but it will be pretty steady."

Mike J. Lafitte, TCC president of global services, says in a press release that Minter's "background and experience in investment services and capital markets are expected to significantly accelerate the growth of TCC's investment service platform as well as our overall national brokerage business." The goal, he says, is to "leverage a powerful team in every major market.