Inside George Smith Partners’ Lofty Goals for 2020

George Smith Partners has big plans in 2020 as the firm continues its strategic growth and expansion goals. The firm had a record year in 2019, and it is executing strategic initiatives to double its current volume.

“We had a record year in 2019 and are extremely excited about the firm’s goals for the 2020s,” Malcolm Davies, principal and managing director at George Smith Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. “The firm and its predecessor have been in business since 1979, meaning we have just entered our 6th decade. You can expect us to push our boundaries of both fee and volume production. You will also see more strategic initiatives in our branding, marketing message and positioning which will help us double our current volume.”

As the firm continues to grow, it has promoted new managing directors, including Davies, to oversee day-to-day operations, and in doing so, it has promoted others into team leadership roles. These new leaders will help carry the firm through its next phase of growth. “Each year, we help grow new advisors into greater leadership positions. Simply put, we create new teams that can service more clients,” says Davies. “We’ve recently promoted four advisors into their own team and created leadership for them to achieve their continued goal of directly managing new client relationships. You will continue to see the growth of these teams; it is the ethos of our firm. We believe this helps us service more clients directly with more advisors, which provides better execution of their financing objectives and for a greater overall experience throughout the process.”

Thankfully, the strong economic market is also helping to drive growth at the firm—or at least won’t dampen plans this year. “As the commercial real estate market has been on a nicely sustained run during recent years—and it looks like it will continue to do so for a few more—we are a firm that prides itself on its structural skills to provide value to our clients,” says Davies. “We will be cognizant of market dynamics and be there for our clients to structure their deals in any changing market dynamic, it’s important to be strong in all markets, not just good ones.”

However, even if the market did take a turn, Davies says the firm is experienced in guiding clients through a downturn. “As many of our clients know, we are entrepreneurs,” he says. “I have been an entrepreneur for over 20 years, in good times and in bad. Having personally survived a very difficult period of time as a young real estate developer in 2008 & 2009 where I was involved in various bankruptcies and worked through them. I believe this gives our clients the assurance that we will always be there for them in all markets. It’s that ability to be persistent, persuasive and passionate that will always get our clients financings through.”