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Online EXCLUSIVE: Schonbraun Sees Alliance as "Win-Win-Win"

"Banks are looking for greater liquidity and real estate is one of the great ways for financial institutions to do that."

By Paul Bubny | Updated on May 02, 2008

Over the 35 years since managing partner Bruce Schonbraun founded the Schonbraun McCann Group, the consulting firm has expanded its reach along with its practice. In recent years, SMG has advised on transactions that include SL Green Realty Corp.’s $6-billion acquisition of Reckson Associates Realty Corp.; Beacon Capital Partners on its $6.4-billion acquisition of office properties in Seattle and Washington, DC; Broadway Partners on its $4.7-billion acquisition of 14 office properties; Gale International on its $30-billion master development of Songdo City, South Korea; Mack-Cali on its $600-million acquisition of the Bellemeade portfolio; and several recent REIT IPOs including Douglas Emmett, Northstar Realty and Gramercy Capital. Last month, SMG was a party to another acquisition, as FTI Consulting Inc. acquired the firm for $125 million. Schonbraun, who has joined FTI as a senior managing director and group leader of its real estate practice, provides Real Estate New York with the particulars on the alliance and what it means for both SMG and for current and future clients.

RENY: What led you to align with FTI? How did this fit in with SMG’s growth plans?

Schonbraun: We’ve been giving our future a lot of thought. We’ve grown a firm organically that has become the largest dedicated real estate consulting firm in the country. As we’ve continued to grow, our clients also have grown, and are now all over the country and the world. It became clearer to us that to grow our platform and provide better service to our clients—public real estate companies, hedge funds, opportunity funds and, increasingly, sovereign funds—we would be best served by aligning ourselves with an organization that really had a national and international footprint.

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