Colorado Real Estate Journal -
CBRE’s Tim Swan didn’t become one of Denver’s elite investment brokers by chance. To get from his first deal – a 5,000-square-foot industrial lease – to his most recent transaction – the $82.5 million sale of Plaza Tower One – took patience, persistence, and years of experience and hard work. His advice for prospective brokers? “Anyone considering the industry should have a couple of years’ worth of savings. I was told that, and it’s still true,” said Swan, who ran his own “credit card Ponzi scheme” until closing his first large transaction. Today Swan is executive vice president and managing director of CBRE Institutional Services in Colorado. He represents the company’s top institutional clients and is responsible for ensuring they understand the breadth of services available to them: leasing, sales, asset services/ property management, debt and equity finance, appraisals and project management. “It’s a platform change. Ours is the only firm that is that deeply and fully integrated,” said Swan. “Our institutional clients love that one-stop shopping – as long as its best-of-class in service, which it is.” Swan is among a core group of CBRE brokers who have been with the Denver office for more than 25 years. “I started in land. My clients were developers for about five minutes, and then my clients were the lenders, and we moved rapidly into the RTC (Resolution Trust Corp.) era,” recalled Swan. “The only land to sell was distressed land, and there was even very little of that. So as a junior broker, I learned the Class B office and light-industrial market along Arapahoe Road. At that time, you could still go hunt pheasants in Lincoln Executive Center. “Over time, I was just surviving doing that type of leasing. But as the market came back, I was the only one who still was around who understood land and development. I had one 90-acre listing just north of Inverness that I had listed for 10 years. We only had one 3 ½-acre sale in that time, and then I sold the whole park twice in six months.” Swan continued selling large tracts of land, “But I could see that that phase of the cycle would eventually come to an end, and I reached a crossroads of trying to decide whether to try to become an office tenant rep broker or move into investment sales. I found the idea of investment sales the most intellectually stimulating part of our business, and I still think it is.” A Cleveland native, Swan majored in diplomacy and foreign affairs, with a minor in English literature and history, at Miami (of Ohio) University. His first job was with a Fortune 500 distribution company in the automotive aftermarket industry. Reporting to the national director of industrial relations, “I got to sit at the union bargaining table in Cleveland with the United Auto Workers, in Newark with the Teamsters, in Rockford, Ill., with the International Association of Machinists and negotiate three-year labor contracts. Now I was primarily a note-taker, as I was so wet behind the ears, but it was a fascinating experience for me to be part of.” Swan took a hiatus to trek through the Alps with friends and future business partners before coming to Colorado in the 1980s to start a firm focused on solar energy. They had the company for three years before the oil bust ripped apart the economy and state and federal solar tax credits disappeared. “We had 12 employees, and when I left that partnership, we didn’t owe any of our employees a dime, nor any of our vendors, though we principals missed plenty of paychecks,” he said. Swan had a good friend who was selling apartments. “My friend at CBRE, then Coldwell Banker, said if I could just get myself hired, that I could have $100,000 in the bank in two years, and then I could figure out what I really wanted to do when I grew up. Now 28 years later, here I am.” Swan has sold approximately 27 million sf of investment properties with consideration of $6 billion. Plaza Tower One, once the preeminent building in the southeast suburban office market, was among the most memorable. “Last year sales of suburban office product nationally just ended with a skid … Trying to understand value relative to current market conditions and potential future value made for some very interesting negotiations for a long period of time. “That deal literally died four times before we were able to get it done. We had a great buyer ultimately, in Granite, that exhibited great patience and tenacity.” The $118 million sale of 1515 Wynkoop was memorable because of its connection to the story of Denver Union Station, whose rebirth Swan watches from the window of his office. “Being part of that sale and getting the pricing we got and understanding its attachment to everything that is going to make Denver so special made for probably one of our most memorable sales processes,” said Swan, who has seen Denver escalate in prominence among institutional investors. “In times of volatility, institutional investors will seek lower-risk opportunity, which means gateway cities on each coast,” he said. “But when they lift their heads up and see the compressed returns in those markets and they look to see where else they can go to get better return for low risk, they’re looking at Denver.” Swan believes it takes brokers five to 10 years in the business before key decision makers will trust their advice, and even then, “you’re only as good as the market.” “We’re at the vagaries of the wider economy, interest rates, a million different things that we can’t control. So I think our biggest challenge is to strategically adapt to constantly changing conditions.” Investment sales involve long lead times and high risk, but also freedom and rewards, he said. Swan and partner Geoff Baukol were walking through an office building filled with people in cubicles recently when, “We looked at each other in the same moment, and I said to him, ‘You’re walking in the real world again.’ And he said, ‘I know. It’s scary.’” Swan said. “It’s a great feeling when you take on a challenging assignment for a longtime client and execute well for them. This is a great business, but it’s a very hard business, and to really as an investment sales broker achieve the type of pricing that sellers are looking for is no walk in the park.” He added that, “People need to know they can do business with you on handshake. If over time they feel that way and you can develop that trust, then the value of your relationships becomes very enjoyable and there will be repeat business as a result.” Swan’s biggest critic may live outside the commercial real estate world. An avid fly-fisherman and upland bird hunter, Swan has a Labrador named Piper, who accompanies him on outings. “I’ve never been more embarrassed about losing a fish off a hook than by losing one in front of my dog, who gave me a look that would kill.” Swan and his wife, Kitty, energetic 11- and 13-year-old daughters Sophie and Kathryn, and Piper, live in Lowry. Looking out his office window at construction equipment moving around the Union Station site, Swan’s enthusiasm for the future of his industry in Denver is without question. “I think the next 10 to 15 years here are going to be fantastic. I’d rather be here than any other market,” he said.