Once again, three of NMHC’s Emerging Leaders battled each other in the 10th Annual Young Guns Pitch to Senior Executives session at NMHC’s Annual Meeting. This year, three brokers pitched themselves and their firms as the superior choice to sell a (mock) asset to an actual senior team at Bell Partners.
The property at issue: a 2021 vintage, 220-unit property located in Southern California. Since the property was new construction, competitors were not given existing financials or a detailed rent roll. Instead, they were expected to use their own resources to develop a proforma.
The three challengers—Alex Caniglia, Senior Director, Investment Sales, Walker & Dunlop; Jonathan Merhaut, Senior Vice President, Eastdil Secured; and Kalli R. Knight, Senior Associate, Colliers—did just that and each gave a detailed proposal outlining their suggested pricing, timing and market strategy based on their analytics.
In a twist, this year’s judges all came from the same firm—Lili Dunn, CEO & President, Bell Partners, John Tomlinson, CFO, Bell Partners and Nickolay Bochilo, EVP, Investments, Bell Partners—with the goal of having a group of judges who not only are used to making important investment decisions together but also own an asset in the submarket and know the area well.
Our judges put the competitors through some serious questioning before naming Jonathan Merhaut the 2023 Young Guns champion. The judges were impressed by his analysis and underwriting, the data used to support his pricing and the reasoning behind his framing of the asset as a core-plus property. Perhaps most importantly, they appreciated his suggestion that they hold the property another 12-24 months to let the market improve if the ownership didn’t require a near-term sale.
Our thanks to program organizers Chris Goldsmith, Courtney Crowder, Brian Kelly and Peter Herbst. The competitors’ slide presentations are available here.