Landon Helps Launch G&E Mortgage Service

Landon came to Grubb & Ellis from JML Capital, which he founded in 2003. Through JML Capital, Landon raised more than $200 million in capital for clients in Dallas and Austin, TX. Landon also spent 11 years with Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP's Dallas office, which he opened. During his tenure there, he was involved in transactions valued in excess of $1 billion.

Glen Esnard, president of Grubb & Ellis' capital markets group tells GlobeSt.com that Landon's hire is part of Grubb & Ellis' major capital markets platform restructure. He says the restructure is the third leg of a three-legged plan to "truly set us apart from our competition and provide more value for the brokers that are part of the company."

The first legs involved getting the company's infrastructure and systems in place, then bringing more seasoned, quality people on board. With those legs now standing, Esnard says it was time to bring in the debt and equity experts.

"There's no doubt that the biggest challenge to pricing an asset today and to conducting a transaction is the debt component," he points out. "The debt markets are in turmoil and, in many cases, non-existent, and have been for a period of time. This became a critical gap for us to fill."

David Christensen, who works out of Grubb & Ellis' San Francisco office, was the company's first hire in the financing area. Landon was the second, and Esnard says the plan is to pair more seasoned financial experts to work with already existing teams nationwide. He says the next hires could take place in Southern California, then Chicago.

"It would be ideal if we could have all our core offices fully staffed by the end of the year," he acknowledges. "But this is about more than finding people who can help find money." He goes on to say that the hiring also is about finding people with the right fit.

Because Landon was well-known to the executives at Grubb & Ellis already, everything seemed to fall into place. "This was a combination of timing for us, and Mike's interest in doing something different than he'd been doing," Esner remarks.