11/6/2007

Five Questions with Colliers International's Joe Montgomery

by

Mr. Montgomery

Joe Montgomery is a senior vice president and director of retail sales with Colliers International's Atlanta office. He spent ten years as a commercial mortgage banker with Shoptaw-James and was a consultant with Confederation Life Insurance Company. Last month, he was involved in the sale of the Cooper Oaks Crossing ($11.7M), Plantation Heights ($11.8M) and a 54,508 square foot shopping center in Sebastian, Fla. ($10.2M). He is a graduate of Georgia Tech.

CREF: How did you get into the real estate business?
JM: Because of my dad - a private investor. I admired the independence he enjoyed. As a Georgia Tech student, I got excited about Atlanta's growth and wanted to participate.

CREF: What notable deals have you worked on?
JM: After 200 capital market transactions over 23 years the deals blur, but it's the people and the places along the way you remember. We recently partnered with our Colliers Investment Services Group peers in Florida and Texas to sell three grocery-anchored centers for $30 million for a European client. We recently sold a mixed-use asset in Buckhead [Ga.] that was instructive. Grocery-anchored assets continue to make up the bulk of our team's transactions.

CREF: Why the specialization in retail commercial real estate?
JM: I specialize in shopping center investment sales in the southeast because I don't know anybody who is a good shot with a blunderbuss.

CREF: How has the industry changed since you've been involved?
JM: I have witnessed incredible changes and I think all for the better. Information, construction and communication technology are pushing transactions toward warp speed but we do have an inherently inefficient supply chain, so every component still requires advocacy at each step in the process. Capital Market advances have been amazing, opening a wide range of financing options and ultimately serve to buffer the extreme value swings, which plagued commercial real estate through prior decades.

CREF: How does the market look over the next 12 months?
JM: VERY different than the past 24 - when liquidity expanded to unsustainable levels. I anticipate a CMBS recovery by mid 2008 but investment sale transaction volume may be down by half. A buy window will open for some and long-term sunbelt fundamentals are too compelling to ignore.

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