Brookwood|Starboard serves as a strategic advisor to and on behalf of clients and partners. This role can occur in conjunction with a proposed transaction, or on a stand-alone basis. In either case, this advisory roleis fundamental to the mission of the Partnership between Brookwood Group and Starboard Commercial Real Estate.
The Partnership’s ability to provide strategic advisory services is reliant upon the experiences and insights of Brookwood|Starboard’s industry veterans as well as other dedicated team members at all levels of the organization. Early engagement of Brookwood|Starboard results in the most valuable possible contributions to project planning and execution, as well as potential real estate transactions.
Brookwood|Starboard’s team of experienced executives provides conceptual and early stage advice to real estate owners and investors, as well as senior managers of corporations and institutions that are contemplating new capital investments in improved or unimproved properties.
Brookwood|Starboard's consulting services include Strategic Real Estate and Facilities Planning as well as other forms of long and near term planning. Brookwood has provided such services to businesses including Turner Broadcasting, Salesforce and The Coca-Cola Company. In the public sector, Brookwood has provided these services to colleges, universities and local governments such as Cal Poly and the Medical College of Georgia, as well as local governments, including many counties and municipalities across the United States.
Brookwood|Starboard recommends that this planning be undertaken by a small group made up of key people in the client organization, teaming with the appropriate planners/managers. Brookwood|Starboard’s professionals have extensive experience in real estate development, transactions (including purchases, sales and leaseholds), development economics, finance, site and facility analyses, space planning, programming, facilities management, site evaluations, site planning, land planning, architecture and interior design.
Brookwood|Starboard can provide comprehensive guidance in anticipating, assessing, and advising clients on opportunities and challenges when planning for and managing design and construction programs. Of particular value is the early conceptual advice that Brookwood|Starboard senior managers can provide. Understanding the unique position of the client within the current marketplace and procurement environment is essential.
Brookwood|Starboard’s leaders have unparalleled track records, not only in developing and employing innovative risk mitigation techniques, but also in helping clients and partners optimize value from project opportunities.
The careers of Brookwood|Starboard’s executives include experiences as private sector investors, owners, brokers and developers. Some of these individuals have been entrepreneurs throughout their careers. Others have served within major institutional investment and/or development companies. Some have had years of service as government employees with design and construction procurement responsibilities for groups such as local school districts, state agencies or the U.S. Armed Forces.
These diverse experiences across broad ranges of project types, career positions, and professional disciplines are of significant value to clients, particularly at the earliest phases of projects.
Brookwood|Starboard can assist or act on behalf of clients in protecting their interests in Public/Private Partnerships. Brookwood|Starboard also can serve as a Principal in a Public/Private Partnership. In either case, services should start early in the planning of the entity and continue through completion of the project(s). Services typically include development of a clear statement of project objectives (including marketing goals), project financing plan, management of the design and construction, commissioning, and setting up a facilities management program. Specific professional services typically include construction program planning and management, interface with project financing, and design consultant services.
In recent years, there have been some changes in the public sector’s ability to fund projects intended to serve the overall public good. Many agencies, colleges, universities, and institutions are seeking alternative funding sources to deliver projects rather than relying upon traditional capital budgeting or the bond markets for these projects.
In a traditional Public Private Partnership, a public entity or institution may transfer land to the developer and/or commit to specific subsidies at the early stages of a project. Concomitantly, they also make every effort to transfer most of the risk (and potential for financial success) of the project to the team developing the project. This may have the unintended consequence of fostering an adversarial relationship between the entities, as the goals of the two parties are not aligned.
In some situations, a preferred alternative mightbe an equitable three-way Collaborative Public Private Partnership (CP3), that reduces overall risksof the project with the primary risk benefit accruing to the capital partner.The notion is to establish a fair risk-adjusted return to the development and capital partners. A CP3 assures that the public entity achieves its strategic objectives by participating fully in the planning, design, and quality of the product to the degree it wishes. Further, with the CP3 approach, the public entity participates in the timing for the development and participates in the potential financial upside of the project.
Brookwood|Starboard is at the forefront in advancing and participating as the development entity in the CP3 form of public-private partnership.
Brookwood|Starboard team members have provided extensive due diligence services and feasibility analyses to clients, including investors who may be considering an acquisition of an operating property or a new development. Typically, services include analyzing rent rolls, existing conditions, operating expenses, useful life of building systems, anticipated capital improvement schedules, restrictive covenants, environmental issues, governmental constraints, and many other considerations. Generally, research and observations focus on existing conditions and proposed improvements at a site or multiple alternative sites.
For new or proposed facilities, services may include market analysis, verification of the scope and program of requirements or outlining a probable program of requirements, developing a conceptual plan for the development of the site, graphic or written illustration of one feasible design solution, development of a total project budget including all design, construction, interior fit-up, furnishing, commissioning, project management, development management, financing and contingency costs, and a master schedule covering design, owner/user reviews, agency planning approval and necessary permit processing, construction, fitting out, furnishing and move in times.
Due diligence and/or feasibility studies also include real estate economic and demographic analysis; market analysis & marketability study; financial feasibility & funding strategy.
Brookwood provided development management services to the Jefferson Union High School District, developing and preparing a Request for Qualifications and a Request for Proposal for Design-Build services (utilizing the Bridging method) for 122 apartments for faculty & staff. The apartments will be available for occupancy in early 2022. The Jefferson Union High School District, as with many school districts and community college districts in the San Francisco Bay Area, faces tremendous challenges in recruiting and retaining faculty and staff due to the high cost of housing in the region. The solution was to develop and provide high quality workforce rental housing that serves its faculty and staff by offering below-market rents.