Buffington Capital Holdings, LLC

Austin, Texas

Richard Roberts:
I spent three months at Buffington Capital Holdings and it was definitely a good way of getting exposure to a small entrepreneurial company in the land development space. I spent my time on a number of projects ranging from pro forma modeling of a number of projects, gathering due diligence information on potential acquisitions, developing term sheets for the capital restructuring of current projects and participating in a Private Equity raise for a new homebuilding startup in Austin. I also did some analysis on the various contractual obligations the firm was engaged in for the purpose of assessing exposure to market shifts due to the sub-prime crisis. I spent a great deal of time with the principles of the firm and gained insight into their approach on managing their portfolio of projects during a volatile time in the land development and homebuilding market.

 

Catellus - a ProLogis Company

Austin, Texas

Cody Allen:
Employer Information:
Catellus Development Group specializes in large-scale development projects involving residential, retail and office facilities at brownfield sites, military bases, former airports and other locations suited for mixed-use. Catellus expertise covers all aspects of mixed-use master development, including planning and entitlement, infrastructure, public financing, environmental remediation and sustainable design. Catellus also has extensive experience developing retail centers with local and national retail customers. Catellus is a business unit of ProLogis (NYSE: PLD), a global developer of industrial distribution facilities who is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

Summer Experience:
My experience this summer with the Catellus-Austin office on the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport Redevelopment (Mueller) project was crucial to my professional and educational development. The project is a public-private partnership between Catellus and the City of Austin and the goal is to create an urban village on the 711-acre site of the former airport. Upon completion, Mueller will be home to 10,000 residents and 10,000 jobs and will include significant open space and public facilities.

During my internship I worked primarily on three types of projects. First, I was responsible for a corporate project where I researched rent achievement and retail tenant mix at mixed-use developments throughout Texas. This project required site visits, meetings with leasing representatives and brokers, and market analysis of primary and secondary trade areas. I then used this research to make recommendations for a proposed town center development at Mueller. At the close of the summer I presented my findings to the ProLogis executive board at their Intern Summit in Denver, Colorado. This project provided me an acute understanding of the complexities of developing mixed-use town centers and the exposure to the ProLogis and Catellus executives was invaluable.

My second area of work consisted of raising capital for the projects at Mueller. My efforts here were primarily in the creation of Investment Memorandums which required both financial and market analysis. In this role I worked on a variety of projects including infrastructure and land development, a ground lease, and a speculative office building. This experience was key in understanding how projects are financed and how publicly traded REIT’s approach investment opportunities. Finally, I was responsible for performing due diligence activities on potential land acquisitions. My activities in this role included site visits, financial analysis, and market research. This work provided hands-on exposure to the wide array of issues (physical and financial) developers face when acquiring a parcel of land.

Overall, I felt my internship was an overwhelming success and working with Catellus on the Mueller Redevelopment provided me with experience and knowledge that I will use throughout my career.

 

Catellus - a ProLogis Company

Denver, Colorado

Ted Egner:
My summer internship was spent with ProLogis, where I worked with the Catellus Development Group. Catellus was acquired by ProLogis in 2005, and has since become the mixed-use development arm of the company. Catellus focuses on master planned mixed-use sites, with an emphasis on developing and holding retail assets. We sought out opportunties that would enable us to capture value by making substantial improvements to the land. The improvements come in the form of entitlements, infrastructure, and environmental remediation. Therefore, the deals we bid for were typically urban-infill sites that were ideal for retail development, former military or brownfield sites that required extensive clean-up, or public-private partnerships to reposition municipal assets. The Mueller airport redevelopment here in Austin is a signature Catellus project.

There were nine interns for ProLogis in all, and two of us worked with Catellus. I was placed in ProLogis's headquarters based in Denver, Colorado. My internship lasted about 11 weeks and was structured so that I had day-to-day tasks as well as a specified summer project. My project was to examine the current housing market and subprime crisis and determine what effects it had on mixed-use assets, and what acquisitiion opportunities it created for Catellus. Every intern must present their findings to the executive management team in Denver at the end of the summer. I supported two members of the acquistion and business development team on a daily basis. This mainly consisted of performing initial demographic analyis and preliminary underwriting on various sites across the country. I also coordinated meetings to network with consultants and potential partners to market and strategically grow the business.

Overall it was a great experience. ProLogis is a globally recognized firm, has an incredible management team, and is the leader in industrial product. Catellus is basically a start-up, in a very dynamic product type, with access to a large pool of capital. While most ProLogis internships are very structured, an internship with Catellus does force you to take more initiative. Often times the acquisition team is out of the office looking at potential deals, and you miss out on the daily interactions and guidance where you learn the most. With only that small downside, I would highly recommend an internship with ProLogis. If mixed-use product and an acquisitions role are attractive to you, then Catellus is an ideal place to work.

 

Goldman Sachs

New York, New York

Andrew Lusk:
Employer Information:
Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of services worldwide to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high net-worth individuals.

Founded in 1869, it is one of the oldest and largest investment banking firms. The firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other major financial centers around the world.

Summer Experience:

• Worked on various public markets advisory mandates for clients in the Real Estate, Lodging & Gaming industries.
• Built a ground-up LBO model, public-to-public merger models and performed implied net asset value and implied cap rate analyses.
• Coordinated due diligence for the privatization of a large-cap REIT.
• Produced strategic advisory books and pitch books for presentation to clients as well as commitment memos for presentation to Goldman’s internal capital committees.

 

Hillwood Investments

Dallas, Texas

Luis Castellanos:
Employer Information:
Hillwood, a Perot company, is one of the few, if not the only, real estate companies with development expertise and experience that encompass such a diverse product type, including arenas, high-rise condominiums, offices, single-family residential communities, distribution centers, regional malls, mixed-use urban development, call centers, multi-family, hotels, golf courses, airports, intermodal rail yards, corporate campuses and major air facilities, including hangars.

Best known for its development of the $420-million American Airlines Center and Victory near downtown Dallas and the 17,000-acre AllianceTexas development located 15 miles northwest of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Hillwood also has developed and made strategic investments in a wide array of projects across the country.

Summer Experience
I spent the summer with Hillwood’s Investment Group. Throughout the internship, I worked with ex-investment bankers and real estate professionals to value potential real estate acquisitions and work on deals in progress. I was given access to top executives and individuals who have spent their whole careers in real estate working as developers and investors. Specifically, I created financial models, primarily using excel, and I conducted due diligence, which entails looking at all the characteristics of a piece of property to ensure that you are valuing it correctly. This includes examining legal documents, working with inspectors, talking to property managers, and visiting properties to meet with all parties involved. Unique to this internship is that Hillwood is a small, tightly knit organization owned by one of the most powerful businessmen in the country, Ross Perot Jr. Because of that, I was given some very nice opportunities to visit world class developments in several different locations throughout the United States. The company had never hired an intern for the summer, which was a positive and a negative. The positive is that I was able to dive in and take on as much responsibility as I could handle. The negative is that I had to be aggressive in communicating my goals for the summer and demonstrate that I could quickly add value to the organization. In addition, securing an internship with Hillwood was challenging and required persistence and determination. My experience was excellent and more than I could have hoped for in an internship. I learned a tremendous amount of information about the real estate industry and was able to develop and hone valuable and practical skills for my future career. Finally, I was exposed to all the different product types, including hotels, office/technology space and even international, mixed-use developments. A final piece of advice; If possible, figure out exactly what you want to do in real estate and then be selective when choosing a company to work for. This will make your experience both mutually beneficial and very rewarding.

 

JPMorgan

New York, New York

Erik Johnson:
Employer Information:
JPMorgan’s Real Estate & Lodging Investment Banking Group is a global, one-stop platform, focused on providing advisory and capital market solutions to the world’s most significant real estate, gaming, lodging, and homebuilding companies as well as select private real estate owners/developers and real estate-focused financial sponsors and real estate-related companies. The group has 70 dedicated professionals in seven offices worldwide – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Sydney.

Summer Experience:
During the 10-weeks I was a Summer Associate, my work included building models, developing presentations, coordinating with JPMorgan product groups, performing due diligence, communicating with clients, and attending pitches. Additionally, I was able to participate in the many training programs and social activities organized by the JPMorgan Summer Associate Program.

I was primarily staffed on M&A transactions – both pitches and live deals. The live deals were all sell-side transactions at various stages, thus enabling me to see many aspects of the sell-side process. Unfortunately, the credit crunch stalled many of these transactions just prior to the end of my internship.

Overall, I had a great experience working at JPMorgan. I learned a lot about real estate banking and was given immediate responsibility and the opportunity to work with many bankers on different types of transactions. I look forward to returning to REALIB as a full-time Associate.

 

Macfarlan Capital Partners

Dallas, Texas

Amy Sta. Maria:
Employer Information:
Macfarlan Capital Partners, L.P. is a private real estate fund sponsor committed to serving institutional investors, family offices, wealth management advisors and individuals. They target discounted special situations that arise from distress, market dislocation, undercapitalized assets, and asset recapitalization. Macfarlan focuses primarily on office & industrial opportunities in the Sunbelt markets.

Summer Experience:
I had a well-rounded experience in the world of a real estate investment and management company. My time at Macfarlan, was divided between capital markets, acquisitions, and marketing. The first part of the summer, I acclimated myself to our product and its market position among other alternatives and real estate funds to carry-out capital market campaigns that involved raising money from wealth advisors and private wealth management institutions such as large banks. The latter half of my internship was dedicated to acquisitions and marketing. I was involved in the due diligence and underwriting of office, industrial, and residential developments. My most important projects include the re-launching of a new company website and creating marketing material for a new fund. I helped finalize the content and managed our production partners to execute by the deadline. My summer experience not only gave me exposure to a value-oriented real estate investment fund, but also insight into the strategic growth plan of a great company.

 

ProLogis

Monterrey, Mexico

Harper Gully:
Employer Information:
ProLogis, based in Denver, Colorado, is the world’s largest industrial REIT, with over 440 million square feet of industrial space in 105 markets across North America, Asia and Europe. ProLogis leases industrial space to manufacturers, retailers, transportation companies, third-party logistics providers and other enterprises with large-scale distribution needs.

Summer Experience:
The ProLogis internship is somewhat of an informal self-guided rotational program. I spent the summer in Monterrey, Mexico, working with a great team that consisted of regional directors, market officers, asset managers, project managers and property managers. My internship experience consisted of a variety of responsibilities including the following:

• Development, property management, marketing, and strategic asset management
• Due diligence on project attractiveness, including value assessment and projected cash flow of potential building acquisitions, dispositions, build-to-suit projects and leases
• Drafted a client presentation that pitched a teacher retirement fund’s proposed $75M investment in ProLogis Mexico Industrial Fund I
• Procured estimates for tenant improvement and make-ready projects

In addition to the day to day responsibilities, each intern is assigned a project to work on throughout the summer. At the conclusion of the summer, each intern has to present their findings to senior management in Denver.

In order to propose market penetration and expansion strategies for ProLogis in Mexico, I assembled a report investigating the emerging Mexican middle class and their subsequent effect on the domestic distribution and logistics industries. I also analyzed the effect of US west coast port saturation on Mexico and highlighted current trends in the manufacturing sectors of Mexico. Overall, the internship experience was exactly what I was looking for and couldn’t have asked for anything better.

 

USAA Real Estate Company

San Antonio, Texas

Rob Curulla:
Employer Information:
With more than $3.4 billion in assets under management, USAA Real Estate Company provides acquisition, build-to-suit and development services for corporate and institutional investors. Specializing in office, medical office, industrial, public sector, retail, land and hotel properties, USAA offers outstanding opportunities to invest, sell or lease commercial properties in major national markets. The company manages a few co-mingled investment funds that target industrial and government-occupied properties.

Summer Experience:
Historically, USAA has hired two interns each summer that split time between the Acquisitions and Asset Management teams. Beginning with the summer of 2006, the company has hired a third intern to work with the Development group. I interned with the Development group.

My internship provided me with excellent functional training, exposure to senior executives at the company, and the opportunity to learn about different facets of the real estate business. I gained excellent financial modeling experience by analyzing a number of prospective deals in Excel and ARGUS. I also authored portions of investment briefs that were submitted to the company’s investment committee. Similar to some other real estate companies, I researched a topic over the summer and presented my findings to 30 senior executives and managers at the end of the summer. Despite the established nature of the company, the Development internship was pretty unstructured. I learned I needed to pipe up and request work frequently. Because USAA Real Estate Co is a highly centralized organization, I had the opportunity to learn about a number of departments outside the Development group: acquisitions, asset management, private equity, etc.

Overall, I recommend the internship. I finished the summer with excellent functional experience and a well recognized name on my resume.

Last Updated Tuesday, November 06, 2007
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