Colorado Real Estate Journal - April 2, 2014

Cushman continues real estate heritage

If there ever were someone destined for a career in commercial real estate, it would be Peter Cushman.

Cushman, 34, a partner in Denver-based and low-profile Oakwood Real Estate Partners, is the seventh generation in his family to find his calling in real estate.

His great-grandfather, Clyde Cushman, and his great-uncle, Bernard Wakefield, founded Cushman & Wakefield in 1917 in New York City.

His father, the legendary John C. Cushman III, founded Cushman Realty, sold it to Cushman & Wakefield and now is the co-chairman of C&W.

The Cushman family has a rich history in the U.S., which actually predates even the 13 colonies, let alone in representing tenants or developing mixed-use communities.

In 1619, Robert Cushman helped to secure permission from the king of England to establish a colony in what is now the U.S.

He chartered two ships: the Mayflower, which everyone has heard of, and the Speedwell, which no one heard of, as it sprang a leak and didn’t make the voyage. His family was supposed to have been on the Speedwell.

Although Cushman and his family were offered a berth on the Mayflower, he declined and arrived in the New World later.

But a young girl, Mary Allerton, was on the Mayflower and would later marry Robert Cushman’s son, Thomas.

“We are 13th generation Mayflower descendants,” John Cushman III told the New York Times in 2001.

“Our children are 14th generation,” he added.

That, of course, would include Peter, who grew up in Pasadena, Calif., but now calls Denver home.

He graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder with a political science degree and received an executive MBA from the University of Denver.

He was introduced to real estate at a very early age.

“Real estate was the dialogue around the kitchen table between my father, his colleagues and my three older brothers,” Peter Cushman recalled.

“Real estate was always a very big part of the family discussions,” he said.

When he was 16, he served as a “gopher” for Cushman Realty, driving back and forth between office buildings in places like Burbank, Calif.

He decided brokerage wasn’t for him.

“I was much more interested in construction, development and finance,” Cushman said.

Sherman Miller, executive director of the University of Colorado Real Estate Center, and who formerly headed the C&W office in Denver, can’t speak highly enough of Cushman.

He said much of the success of last month’s CU Real Estate Center Forum, which included Sam Zell and panels on residential real estate and hospitality, is due to Cushman’s input.

“Peter wouldn’t let me thank him publicly,” Miller said. “But we actually owe a great deal of the success of the forum to his hard work.” Miller said Cushman has all of the skills and drive to make it in what is in effect a family business, even though he is not part of C&W.

“He is a very bright, analytical young man and he was very generous with his time,” Miller added.

Cushman decided to get his degree at CU instead of one of the many schools in California for lifestyle reasons.

“Our family for years has been fortunate in going to the Tetons,” he said. “We have a place in Idaho and at a young age I fell in love with the mountains. I am more interested in fly-fishing and horseback riding than I am in surfing and the beach life. CU was a very good fit.” He also is an avid skier and golfer and was an Eagle Scout.

From 2004 to 2006, his father was president of the Boy Scouts of America.

“The Boy Scouts is a big thing in our family,” Cushman said. “My brothers and I have long been involved with the Scouts. That is another thing than has drawn me to the outdoors.” He also met his wife, Julie, at CU. They now live in Littleton and have two young children.

“We were on the same dorm floor,” he said. “We met at Farrand Hall. Julie is the love of my life.” After graduating from CU, his first job was as an analyst and acquisition manager with Louis Dreyfus Property Group in New York.

“My first day in work in New York City was Sept. 10, 2001,” Cushman said.

He didn’t have to say that the next day the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center took place.Fortunately, his office, in the MetLife building at Grand Central Station, was many miles from the Twin Towers.

Still, in addition to starting a new job in a new city, he had all of the additional psychological and emotional stress of an event that shook the world.

However, he enjoyed his time in the Big Apple and made a number of friends there.

“I was only in New York for about 16 months,” he said.

He wanted to return to California and become involved in the hospitality area. The company’s hospitality division was based in San Diego.

In 2005, he had the opportunity to return to Colorado.

He joined Bancroft Capital as a senior vice president to develop the $150 million mixed-use Peloton development in Boulder.

Unfortunately, he lost his investment in the Peloton.

“Clearly, it was a very difficult time in the real estate cycle,” Cushman said. “As unfortunate as it was, it was not a good time for doing urban, for-sale product.

We missed the timing for that kind of product.” At the same time, it provided a great learning experience.

“I learned a lot from doing the Peloton,” Cushman said. “It was a great learning experience. I had a great deal of responsibility on what I still believe is a great project, at a relatively young age.” He agrees with many experts that one can learn as much, if not more, from failures as from successes.

He decided to continue his formal education and enrolled at DU to get his MBA.

After graduation, a friend of his, Kevin Graff, recruited him to join Oakwood Real Estate Partners, a commercial real estate private equity firm that has acquired more than $1 billion in real estate in more than 60 investments through a sister company, Parkwood Real Estate Partners.

Graff is the chief financial officer of Oakwood Real Estate and a partner.

Oakwood Real Estate is headed by Tuck and Bart Spaulding, the chairman and managing partner, respectively.

“Tuck and Bart have become great mentors to us,” Cushman said.

Before launching Parkwood, or PREP, in 2004, Tuck Spaulding was with Trammell Crow Co.

and Bart was a managing partner of Greystar West in Denver.

PREP has done a number of joint ventures with other groups, including Denver-based Cadence Capital, headed by Bill Rothacker, and Inverness Properties.

Last month, Oakwood Real Estate raised $30 million from wealthy families for an investment fund. Leveraged, the $30 million fund probably will invest in about $100 million in properties, said Cushman, who is responsible for underwriting new investments as well as management activities at Oakwood Residential. Cushman also is an employee of at PREP.

“We pursue investments that are smaller than institutionallevel properties,” Cushman said.

Deals typically range from $1 million to $10 million in equity, with the median size about $3.5 million.

PREP has invested in about 65 deals across the U.S.

Oakwood will follow an investment model similar to PREP’s.

“Typically, we are not the only equity in our deals,” he said, as it will team up with other investors.

It will look at a wide variety of asset classes, including industrial, office, retail, multifamily and assisted living.

It is not a group that expects to invest in core or core-plus properties.

“We are more of a value-add or opportunity investor,” Cushman said.

He expects a typical hold period to be three to five years.

One thing that likely will never change is that when he gets together with his family, they talk about real estate.

In addition to his father, one of his brothers works for GE Financial Services in New York, another is with Cushman & Wakefield in San Jose, and the other is with Integrated Capital in California.
“Needless to say, in our family the conversation is always going to turn to real estate. It is what we do and who we are. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”