Recent Alumni Bio: Ashley Heggie

Work History
A 2005 grad, Ashley is the Managing Director for Development in the South Atlantic region for Greystar. Ashley interned with Hines while at Kellogg and then returned full time in 2005.  In May of 2007, he relocated to Charleston, SC, to join Greystar and head up a variety of non-multifamily development deals in the investment group's pipeline.   In January 2008, Ashley transitioned from an Asset Management position in the Investments Group to become the Managing Director for Development across the South Atlantic region.  His primary focus is to ensure successful execution of the existing Carolinas-based development pipeline while expanding the footprint of Greystar's multifamily development business to cover coastal states from Maryland to Florida.  

Challenging project experience
Ashley and a fellow colleague worked on a very tough, and ultimately unsuccessful, zoning battle involving a 500-acre, mixed use, master-planned community.  The local zoning code was dated and did not include a Planned Unit Development (PUD) ordinance that would allow a mix of residential and commercial uses.   After about 12 months of outreach and public hearings, Ashley's team managed to get the PUD ordinance approved but ultimately a no-growth member was elected to the Town Council prior to a vote on the project.   The rezoning was not approved, and the site will likely be developed by right, which will not allow the property to achieve its highest and best use as a high quality, smart growth in-fill development.

Thoughts on current market opportunities
The rental multifamily sector is in as good of shape as any asset class.  Two major aspects of this industry will keep the wheels turning: the GSLs (Fannie May and Freddie Mac) continue to lend and renter demand is fundamentally sound as echo boomers enter the market and the credit tightening has made it difficult for would be homeowners to secure a mortgage.  It's far from perfect though; lenders are not as aggressive and fundamentals are dampened by shadow space from broken condos and single family homes entering the rental pool.

Advice for current students
Career: Pick a place you want to live, be an optimist and then drill down to find out where opportunity exists.  Developing a local network is so important in real estate, so get entrenched in the market you want to be in.  There is still plenty of capital wanting to get into real estate so deals are occurring and overall deal flow will pick up.  Fund management, asset management and acquisitions are likely to be the most readily available; development will likely be harder to come by at this point in the cycle. 

While at Kellogg, I wish I would have:
We've all heard it, and Ashley echoed it . . . leadership and management is really key.  Virtually anyone entering the real estate sector from a leading b-school will be sufficiently adept at financial modeling, marketing and so forth but interviewing and picking team members can be very challenging.  Going forward, you have to learn how to encourage and motivate your team because you can't do it all yourself.  If you don't learn to delegate, you'll never be able to get out there and find deals.