NEW YORK CITY—It may be the biggest of the big in terms of sheer density, but the New York metro region is, in a way, like any other market that Xceligent has entered. The company establishes its property database one building at a time, and establishes an advisory board for each of the sectors for which Xceligent reports transactions in a given market, a process that's now underway for the firm's recently established New York office.
Xceligent CEO Doug Curry recently gave GlobeSt.com a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of an advisory board, whether in the context of a large market with numerous submarkets—each with its own advisory board—or a smaller city. The board's function is multi-faceted: to map out the market or submarket, to review and verify the firm's transactional and occupancy data and to help pave the way for the transparency and information-sharing that arises from the partnership between Xceligent and the brokerage community.
Step one in assembling an advisory board is enlisting the participation of that market's best brokers, based on peer nominations from the leading firms. “By 'best brokers' we don't mean the ones that make the most money,” says Curry. “We mean the brokers that have the most complete market knowledge, based on seeing companies move and in and out of that market. It may be the number two guy who's involved with all of the deals rather than the market champion who gets people excited about coming to see the space.”
Once a nominee list has been compiled, Curry says, “we then go out to meet the nominees, invite them to an advisory board kickoff meeting and describe the advisory board process and what the benefits to them would be. Once they agree to be participants in the advisory board, we set the first meeting date.”
In preparation for that first meeting—to establish a board for Lower Manhattan's office market, for instance—the Xceligent team culls all of the relevant data for the that submarket's office sector. “At the first meeting, we ask the brokers to define the geography for what they consider Downtown vs. Midtown vs. Midtown South—what do they think the lines are that create the geography that they work in?” Curry explains.
Some markets are easier to define in terms of geography than others: in Manhattan, for example, “you have some natural borders because of the water.” The boundaries may be less clear-cut in other submarkets within a region, and it's up to the board members to reach a consensus.
On a quarterly basis, the advisory board meets to review the transactional data Xceligent has prepared, beginning with a list of all of the transactions the firm has compiled for that quarter. “We send that list out to the advisory board members about two weeks before the end of the quarter,” says Curry. “We hold a meeting three days later, after they've had a chance to review the list. When they come to the meeting, we literally sort the transactions from the largest to the smallest.” Through such sorting, advisory board members are able to compare notes and provide feedback, thereby helping the firm to refine its statistics and establish a basis for local players to gauge market conditions, identify trends and make projections.
Although the same methodology is used regardless of market size, Curry says the results are not cookie-cutter identical. The participation of advisory board members enables Xceligent to identify characteristics that may be unique to a particular market.
Xceligent CEO Doug Curry recently gave GlobeSt.com a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of an advisory board, whether in the context of a large market with numerous submarkets—each with its own advisory board—or a smaller city. The board's function is multi-faceted: to map out the market or submarket, to review and verify the firm's transactional and occupancy data and to help pave the way for the transparency and information-sharing that arises from the partnership between Xceligent and the brokerage community.
Step one in assembling an advisory board is enlisting the participation of that market's best brokers, based on peer nominations from the leading firms. “By 'best brokers' we don't mean the ones that make the most money,” says Curry. “We mean the brokers that have the most complete market knowledge, based on seeing companies move and in and out of that market. It may be the number two guy who's involved with all of the deals rather than the market champion who gets people excited about coming to see the space.”
Once a nominee list has been compiled, Curry says, “we then go out to meet the nominees, invite them to an advisory board kickoff meeting and describe the advisory board process and what the benefits to them would be. Once they agree to be participants in the advisory board, we set the first meeting date.”
In preparation for that first meeting—to establish a board for Lower Manhattan's office market, for instance—the Xceligent team culls all of the relevant data for the that submarket's office sector. “At the first meeting, we ask the brokers to define the geography for what they consider Downtown vs. Midtown vs. Midtown South—what do they think the lines are that create the geography that they work in?” Curry explains.
Some markets are easier to define in terms of geography than others: in Manhattan, for example, “you have some natural borders because of the water.” The boundaries may be less clear-cut in other submarkets within a region, and it's up to the board members to reach a consensus.
On a quarterly basis, the advisory board meets to review the transactional data Xceligent has prepared, beginning with a list of all of the transactions the firm has compiled for that quarter. “We send that list out to the advisory board members about two weeks before the end of the quarter,” says Curry. “We hold a meeting three days later, after they've had a chance to review the list. When they come to the meeting, we literally sort the transactions from the largest to the smallest.” Through such sorting, advisory board members are able to compare notes and provide feedback, thereby helping the firm to refine its statistics and establish a basis for local players to gauge market conditions, identify trends and make projections.
Although the same methodology is used regardless of market size, Curry says the results are not cookie-cutter identical. The participation of advisory board members enables Xceligent to identify characteristics that may be unique to a particular market.
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