RE #97: How Fort Capital Performs DD, Onboarding, & Business Plan Execution on Assets

On today's episode, Chris is joined by Corey Price, Director of Asset Management, and Steve Bailey, Director of Property Management & Construction for Fort Capital. They'll discuss how they think about due diligence, onboarding, and execution in the first year of purchasing an asset. They also discuss their roles, the nuances of their day-to-day operations, some of the mistakes they've made, and how they’ve improved. 

We’re planning on doing more of these episodes in 2021. If you have any questions on how we operate at Fort Capital, email us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com and we may just make an episode dedicated to it!

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Learn more about Chris Powers & Fort Capital: www.FortCapitallp.com

(01:21) - A High-Level Overview of Steve’s Role in Property Management in Construction

(02:01) - Corey’s Role in Asset Management

(03:43) - What happens in each of your worlds from “we’re buying this asset” to the day it actually closes in a multi-tenant industrial deal?

(05:07) - How do we continuously keep leveling up and identify red flags as we gain more data about the asset?

(06:10) - When we underwrite and put together a Cap-ex plan, how do you think about the projected Cap-ex and build a budget?

(07:41) - Are there other things you do during due diligence that fall under the asset management responsibility?

(08:46) - How do asset management and property management work together during the due diligence phase?

(10:13) - How are things different after bringing property management in-house? What are the advantages of doing so?

(12:08) - What are we doing on each side in terms of our due-diligence checklist?

(14:06) - Why is it so critical to review each lease individually?

(16:51) - Are we interviewing every single tenant with each property?

(17:32) - What happens on our team during onboarding now that we own the asset?

(19:03) - Do you have any experiences where tenants are much happier after Fort Capital has taken over as property managers?

(20:41) - What does day 1 look like for asset management after closing on a property?

(22:00) - How do you determine who will be leasing our assets?

(23:16) - What is our process for how we continue the relationship with leasing brokers once we acquire an asset?

(24:40) - How does information about tenants that won’t re-up their lease flow from leasing broker to asset & property management?

(28:20) - Is having knowledge 90 days out before a tenant is leaving a requirement in the lease?

(29:53) - Why are we able to lease things that prior owners weren’t able to?

(31:33) - Are our TI costs pretty consistent across our portfolio?

(33:25) - Is anyone ever putting money into warehouse spaces beyond clean up or is it mostly allocated to office?

(34:11) - What is the re-forecasting process like? Why is it valuable?

(36:40) - Is it cost-prohibitive for small tenants in an environment where we see 10-15% rent jumps?

(38:17) - How do you attempt to stabilize an asset from a tenant perspective?

(39:53) - How do you think about creating a budget for the year after purchasing?

(41:02) - How valuable is the massive amount of data available to us since bringing these operations in-house?

(42:12) - What do our lenders require from us throughout the year?

(44:43) - How have you taken your experience from home building and property management to think about how we can do things differently from everyone else?

(46:28) - FCP Management’s ‘2-24/7’ Expectations

(46:58) - Where do the majority of tenant inquiries/complaints come from?

(47:59) - How do you think about vendor management?

(49:32) - How does having a large portfolio help us land great leasing agents?

(50:25) - FOS Dashboards: Leasing Activity

(54:12) - Merrick Park -  An Example of ‘How the Sausage is Made’ Between the Property & Asset Management Teams

(56:30) - How would this asset process have gone with a third party group?

(58:36) - Do we tell our tenants during DD about our plans for the building or do we wait until we close?

(59:24) - How do you think about the 9 months after the first 90 days are under our belt? Does anything change?

(1:00:45) - What have you learned after 9 months of bringing property management in-house?

(1:02:26) - What breakthroughs have we made in Asset Management?

The FORT with Chris Powers is produced by Straight Up Podcasts