Matt Ledom, CCIM with MMG

In this week’s MWM Broker Spotlight, Matt Ledom, CCIM, senior associate director with MMG Real Estate Advisors, shares his experience, passion and drive since his start in the Kansas City CRE environment.

Ledom began his career in the investment sales industry in the summer of 2013 working as a seller representative for Block Real Estate Services. In 2021, Ledom joined MMG Real Estate Advisors with a focus on multifamily investment sales and advising clients in a way that maximizes their investment returns through strategic planning and execution.

MWM: What initially sparked your interest in becoming a commercial real estate broker?

Ledom: My father is in the commercial real estate business (developer and owner) and helped push me in the brokerage direction – the best way to learn the business early on is through brokerage. I also enjoy the competitive environment and the mentality of being in charge of your future. I appreciate that it’s a high-risk, high-reward industry.

MWM: What do you enjoy most about being a broker?

Ledom: We take a lot of pride in representing our clients in the marketplace. They trust and believe we will execute at an extremely high level. We consistently close at, or above, the top end of our valuations!

I love the fast-paced nature of the business. At times, we uncover opportunities and only have a day or two to assemble our thoughts and valuations together. There’s an adrenaline rush to start, followed by satisfaction when our team turns around detailed information so quickly and effectively.

My favorite part is having a pulse on what’s going on around the city in real-time, as well as being part of bringing in new capital that plays a role in upgrading the landscape of our marketplace.

MWM: Can you share a highlight of your goals? Where do you see yourself in the next 5­-10 years?

Ledom: We are building something special at MMG. We have an extremely team-centric approach and a combination of local, regional and national reach that allows us to efficiently and effectively assist our clients in moving their capital all around the country. We want to grow our team and increase our production levels individually and as a whole company.

My personal goals are aligned with our team goals at MMG. Excellence in our executions for clients, combined with consistent company growth and continued improvement through hard work and perseverance.

MWM: Can you offer any tips on how you stay on track with your goals and how to be a successful broker?

Ledom: I am fortunate to have been around some very successful commercial real estate executives throughout my career. Some of my mentors include my Father, Mark Ledom; Michael Sullivan with MMG; Alex Blagojevich with MMG; Bucky Brooks with Copaken-Brooks; Lindsay Olsen with MITC; Ken Block with BRES; and Aaron Mesmer-BRES.

Setting goals is extremely important. Having a plan to execute on those goals is equally important. When I look back over my career to date, focusing on what you CAN do, not what you CAN’T do, and utilizing your best skillsets to accomplish pre-set goals can take you a long way.

Ledom graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2013 with a double-major in Real Estate and Operations Management. He also played on the golf team on a scholarship while attending college.

To reach Matt Ledom, you may email him at matt.ledom@mmgrea.com.

To nominate a MWM Broker Spotlight candidate, please email lisa@metrowiremedia.com.

Multifamily brokers form new venture: MMG

Multifamily property owners have a new team of experts - and a new firm - to turn to when considering a sale.

Alex Blagojevich and Michael Sullivan will lead Mid-Markets Group Real Estate Advisors (MMG) as founding partners and executive managing directors, leveraging their multi-market approach to ensure clients receive maximum exposure from interested and qualified buyers.

The duo, along with four others on the MMG team, brings more than 50 years of collective brokering experience and a vast, nationwide network to its new venture that plans to assist owners of multifamily properties in determining the best strategy for their holdings.

Recognizing the long-standing brokerage framework centered on siloed markets is growing increasingly obsolete, MMG leaders seek to establish a new type of multifamily firm built with the client at the center of the business.

“As part of the industry’s recovery from the recession, a growing number of investors are turning to the multifamily sector for more consistent, predictable yields. In turn, fund advisors are forced to expand their search for properties outside of their historical market focus, and MMG is poised to execute on this well,” said Blagojevich.

Its advisors aim to maximize value for multifamily property owners by providing a fully integrated advisory platform from acquisition to disposition. The team has extensive experience with all subsets of multifamily properties, including student, affordable and senior housing and land services.

Owners benefit from MMG’s national reach, access and expertise. Though the team rose to prominence in the industry selling across the Midwest, South and Southeast, they have continued to expand their market coverage into a national focus.

Collectively, the MMG team have closed nearly 500 multifamily transactions across 110 unique markets in 31 states for a total of more than 100,000 units and $6 billion in gross sales, building a knowledge-base of similar markets and an expansive network of qualified buyer prospects.

“MMG’s diverse relationships allow us to explore opportunities among private and institutional investors. That combination gives MMG the advantage of quickly generating interest from multiple qualified buyers by accessing capital unavailable to other brokers,” said Sullivan.

The team prides themselves on taking a detailed, strategic approach to every assignment and creating the highest-quality marketing materials tailored to each property and market.

“We’ve put together a talented team that delivers exceptional service to our clients, and that’s just one of the secrets to our success. We have the knowledge and resources to support clients every step of the way,” Blagojevich said.

“We don’t believe in one-size-fits all solutions. Rather, every client, every asset and the ultimate objective for each listing is unique. By customizing each solution so that it is aligned with the client’s objectives, we’ve successfully helped hundreds of property owners meet or exceed their goals.”

Prior to launching MMG, Sullivan and Blagojevich led the Berkadia Mid Markets brokerage team to notable success in 2020. By leveraging an aggressive approach despite difficult market conditions, they closed more than $935 million in gross sales.

“Coming off of a challenging year has only ignited our passion for amplifying our ability to deliver outstanding client service. We look forward to maintaining and increasing our momentum in 2021, leveraging our one-of-a-kind, full-service approach to consistently exceed clients’ expectations and deliver profitable outcomes,” Sullivan said.

Berkadia sweeps $214 million in Midwest property run

In just the past eight weeks, Berkadia’s Midwest brokerage team has closed on $214.75 million in combined sales of fourteen properties.

“While overall activity in the multifamily investment sales space was down over 50 percent year-over-year, our Mid-Markets Group has remained busy with gross sales through the end of September of more than $725 million. We have taken an aggressive approach to assist those clients who needed to transact despite the difficult market conditions,” said Michael Sullivan, managing director of Berkadia’s Mid-Markets Group.

The properties include Oak Tree Square Apartments, Lakeside Village, Cold Storage Lofts, Citadel Suites and Apartments and Ames 6 Portfolio.

“The fourteen deals we’ve closed over the last eight weeks represent the last of those deals that we listed prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Alex Blagojevich, senior managing director at Berkadia.

“When the full magnitude of the pandemic hit the U.S. in March, it reshuffled the market fundamentals of the entire multifamily sector, resulting in a disconnect between buyer and seller expectations. Overcoming this disconnect was our greatest hurdle to getting these deals closed, but we kept both sides communicating, and in the end, the average difference across all of those transactions between the final sales price and the price we quoted the seller was in the two-percent range,” Blagojevich said.

Transactions recently closed by the Berkadia Mid-Markets Group include:

·       Oak Tree Square Apartments, located at 12800 14th St. in Grandview, Mo. The 189-unit garden-style multifamily property was a Section 42 LIHTC affordable deal sold by Missouri-based Worcester Investments. Managing director John Schorgl of Berkadia’s Kansas City office secured financing for the acquisition on behalf of the buyer, a private syndicator out of Texas. The 10-year Freddie Mac loan includes three years of interest-only payments, and the deal closed on August 18, 2020.

·       Lakeside Village, a 75‐unit, garden‐style apartment community located in North Kansas City, Mo., was sold by Kansas-based Eighteen Capital Group to a private syndicator new to the Kansas City market. This off-market, direct sale was completed in just 45 days, as the buyer was rushed to complete this final piece of a larger 1031 exchange. Senior managing director Chris Blechschmidt and director Emily Stang of Berkadia’s Chicago office secured the acquisition financing. The deal closed on August 19, 2020.

·       Cold Storage Lofts is located at 500 E 3rd St. in the River Market area of Downtown Kansas City, Mo. Sold by a locally-based Kansas City firm, Maxus Properties, this 224-unit, adaptive reuse, midrise apartment property was ultimately purchased by a New York-based investor. After launching in late March, just weeks after the start of the shutdown, the Mid-Markets Group utilized the power of their extensive network and virtual touring to show the deal to more than 150 buyer groups. After receiving 10+ formal offers, they were able to get the deal across the finish line on September 23, 2020 at the agreed upon contract price, equating to a trailing 12-month cap rate in the low four percent range.

·       Citadel Suites and Apartments, located at 5113 N Brookline Ave. in Oklahoma City, Okla., was sold by a private family trust. The 114-unit garden-style multifamily property was purchased by a local, Kansas City-area firm after beating out more than 18 formal offers on the property, many of which had non-refundable money at execution of PSA. The deal closed on August 10, 2020.

·       Ames 6 Portfolio features six multifamily properties totaling 296-units, all located in Ames, Iowa. After launching the deal in early January, the Berkadia sales team pushed more than 150 interested buyer groups into the data room despite the oncoming pandemic and huge amount of uncertainty surrounding the student housing market. The portfolio was sold by Iowa-based Professional Property Management to a private, Chicago-based firm who closed the deal on September 7, 2020 at an in-place cap rate in the mid five percent range. Properties in the portfolio include: Colleen Crest, Delores Apartments, Gateway Hills, Maple Glen, Phoenix Apartments and River Burch.

The Berkadia Mid-Markets Group is led by Sullivan, Blagojevich and managing director, Ralph DePasquale. The team also includes senior directors Patrick Jordan and Chris Bruzas, directors Parker Stewart, Chris Gentry and Brett Meinzer and associate directors Dominic Martinez and Alex Malzone, who completed the sales on behalf of their respective sellers.

Separately, Berkadia’s Mid-Markets Group also recently completed the sale of Steeplechase on Maple, a 314-unit garden-style multifamily property located in Omaha, Neb., financed by Berkadia’s Blechschmidt and Stang; and the Wichita 5 Portfolio, a portfolio comprised of five multifamily properties throughout the Wichita, Kan. metro area.

Berkadia team remains positive, embraces new norm in midwest

As members of Berkadia’s Mid-Markets Group, we have seen first-hand the effects of COVID-19 across apartment markets in the Midwest. We have been fortunate to experience far fewer confirmed cases and deaths than the larger coastal metro-areas; however, the effects of the pandemic on the Midwest’s economy have still been significant.

“Stay-at-home” orders have saved lives, but they have also stunted local economic growth—particularly as these policies have shuttered small and mid-sized businesses throughout the region. The commercial real estate market is facing new challenges, but opportunities exist for those who have confidence in the long-term strength of the post-coronavirus apartment market.

Multifamily Industry Impacted, Opportunities Remain

At the beginning of this year, we were very confident we could match, if not exceed, our transaction activity from 2019. But now any attempt to accurately predict what the remainder of 2020 might hold for either our team or our industry is difficult.

Overall, property types are performing roughly as we might anticipate. Industrial and multifamily have fared well so far, while leisure, hospitality, and retail are struggling. What we have seen so far with April collections has exceeded our expectations, but the multifamily industry’s ability to continue to collect rents into May and beyond will be imperative to the industry’s long-term success.

While we are maintaining optimism and thinking the bulk of the damage will be to this quarter’s numbers, we wouldn’t bet against those who believe this could carry well into Q3 or even beyond. We do see long-term positive indicators for multifamily and are hopeful for this downturn to be brief with momentum reestablishing next quarter.

While the current market may seem to be a no-go, transactions are still occurring. From an advisory standpoint, we are providing clients with real time information, asking questions, giving feedback, and offering words of encouragement to help them make the best decisions for their business and their partners.

Working In the New Normal

The shift to working from home has certainly been an adjustment, but a smooth process overall. We are not complaining about the occasional poolside conference call. But in all seriousness, it can be challenging to create new routines and work toward new daily goals. One definite upside? Communication with teams is even stronger than when we were all in the office.

Our Mid Markets Team—made up of investment sales, mortgage banking and servicing specialists throughout the Midwest—has become even more collaborative during this time. We are doing more to stay connected, keep a pulse on the market, and share valuable data real-time so that we can most effectively counsel our clients.

The time we used to spend commuting is now time we are spending virtually connecting with coworkers, clients, friends, and family. We are learning more about the people in our lives every day and it is comforting to know that we are all going through this together.

Where We Go Now

All-in-all we need to listen—sometimes without providing answers—and make peace with the fact that there are many factors we cannot control. We can take solace in knowing that this too shall pass.

We should also explore how to give back to the communities around us. Those of us who are fortunate enough to still have our jobs and our health simply cannot take it for granted. We can all find meaningful ways to help and we should act on them immediately. Soon enough, we’ll be back in the “norm,” but for now, it’s important to embrace the “new.”