Carter's Bob Peterson Reveals Biggest Challenges

ATLANTA—Bob Peterson, chairman and CEO of Carter, has had some good years in the commercial real estate business. Of course, he's also seen plenty of challenges along the way.

In part one of this exclusive interview, Peterson shared about the "best year of his career." In part two, he's diving into memories of obstacles he had to overcome to get to where he is.

GlobeSt.com: What was the biggest challenge you've had to navigate in the commercial real estate industry?

Peterson: Navigating a business in a cyclical industry through two large and very long recessions. The first was at Peterson Properties from 1988 to 1993.

It was so bad that our largest lenders even went broke. We had no one to talk to about our loans. The 2008 to 2012 Great Recession was also a huge challenge, but I believe because I had been through the first one, Carter was better positioned to handle it.

GlobeSt.com: How did you get through that challenge?

Peterson: The key to dealing with any challenge is to face the harsh reality and tackle it head on. These types of challenges usually take a long time to work through, so it is very important to be creative, adapt and plan for the future. 

For example, in the 1988 to 1993 recession there was no capital available from traditional real estate sources to allow us to take advantage of distressed prices. So, we decided to try to raise money from private sources who had never invested in real estate, but understood value regardless of the product. Our strategy proved successful, as it allowed us to acquire a number of office buildings and grow our portfolio which led to the sale of our company just four years later.

At Carter, during the recent recession, we completely revamped our business model from being a full service real estate company to becoming a highly focused real estate investment and development company. I believe this has led to the great success we are having today.