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Client: Charles Schwab
Making The Team Profile On Patrick Walt, CCIM Director of Corporate Real Estate, Charles Schwab By: Maggie Harryman CCIM Patrick Walt possesses a unique quality of barely contained energy—bubbling just below the surface—that makes dynamic people sorely intolerant of boredom. His enthusiasm for his chosen career crackles through the phone lines. Perhaps that's why it's a bit refreshing to hear that Walt wasn't always so thrilled about real estate. Currently the Director of Commercial Real Estate at Charles Schwab, Walt began his real estate career selling retail product at Coldwell Banker in San Francisco and eventually moved to CB's Fremont office to pursue industrial opportunities. Walt admits that his first few years were bumpy. “I spent my first three or four years in the business trying to get a clue about real estate. I eventually met John Shaw, CCIM, who has been a very important mentor to me and then hooked up with Mike Mullinix, CCIM.” Already well on their way to the top in commercial real estate--both Shaw and Mullinix began working the Silicon Valley commercial markets in the early 70s—the two helped Walt successfully navigate his first few years in the business. Another fateful connection in Walt's early years was a chance introduction to Luis Belmonte by Doug Norton of CB. “At the time Luis was a partner at Lincoln Properties and the highest flying industrial developer in the U.S. We sold him a large building with some residual land, which was subsequently developed into a new warehouse.” Walt eventually joined Belmonte's group and soon moved to the development staff where he managed, leased and developed industrial product from Richmond through Fremont, further broadening his experience. Walt learned more than a few valuable lessons under the wing of Belmonte, not the least of which was how a pro handles success. “As successful as he was, Luis rarely missed an opportunity to stop what he was doing, pat us on the back and ask how things were going. I know people who would walk into hell for him.” When the commercial markets dried up in the late 80s, Walt went corporate, making the move to Pacific Bell where land sales and residual property leasing gave him a first-hand perspective on the ins and outs of corporate America. It was then too that Walt took the steps necessary to pursue one of his long time goals--the CCIM designation. “I felt there were a number of tools that I lacked but could gain from the rigorous coursework necessary to acquire the designation. In the absence of having an MBA, I wanted to be able to talk to bankers and financial professionals. The designation was a wonderful compliment for me because it helped me optimize experience from commercial brokerage with development experience from the corporate side.” Last year, Walt was presented with the enviable opportunity of joining Charles Schwab, and he jumped at the chance. As Schwab's Director of Corporate Real Estate, Walt is responsible for large office and telemarketing operations throughout the Untied States. Homegrown in San Francisco, Schwab now finds itself with one of the most expensive zip codes in the world. With real estate in and around the city prohibitively expensive, Schwab recently went looking for an opportunity to house growth components for all of its business enterprise groups outside of the City. Locating an area where employees might find affordable housing and still be close to the mother ship was high on the list of priorities for Walt, and his team eventually took their search nationwide, studying cities like Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte and Denver. In the end a 550,000 sf site in Pleasanton best met the company's needs. On the 680 corridor, Pleasanton offered deep labor pools, an educated work force and access to major transportation arteries. Walt attributes his team's success to the intensive demographic studies they conducted as part of their search. “The magic is that my boss, Meredith Fondahl, understands that you must have an absolute cross section of all demographic factors. For example, there's what we call the ‘latte factor,’ which means that when a company is thinking of establishing a new office in an ‘outlying’ area, employees won't develop culture shock as a result of venturing into a cultural abyss. Possibly most important, a company must be able to draw from a deep labor pool. In Pleasanton you pull from the east bay and the south bay and employees have access to public transportation as well as the 680 corridor.” Walt is very clear on the fact that his success in this endeavor resulted from a team effort. “Meredith Fondahl has really opened my eyes to incredibly creative ways to control property and stretch the creative boundaries. Together with her boss, Senior VP of RE, Matt Pearson, they have created a dynamic team to handle the heavy volume we take on.” Walt also recognizes the contributions of Chris Lovell, a broker from Julien Studley. According to Walt Lovell represents the kind of broker Schwab values highly because he brings such a wide array of important services to the table, and has a firm grasp of the process. Walt is quick to add Schwab’s Associate General Consul, Jim Russell, to the mix. Russell pulls together the incredibly complex leases that serve as the backbone for Schwab’s real estate endeavors. “As you can see,” says Walt, “I'm only one small piece of a very impressive real estate team.”
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