Marcus & Millichap to Assist Universities with Real Estate Monetization Efforts

Tampa, Fla.–Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services has announced that Dorothy Jackman and Travis Prince were selected by The Growth Group, a consulting organization for higher education institutions, to participate in The Higher Education Monetization Consortium (HEMC). The consortium is a collection of higher education leaders and finance experts that will assist universities with real estate monetization strategies.

The HEMC provides a collaborative approach to universities by offering the interdisciplinary expertise of several specialized individuals and firms to ensure their debt structuring strategies yield optimal outcomes. The advisory firm groups–an investment bank, a credit-rating company, an educational facility planning firm and three national law firms—perform services related to a potential transaction.

Jackman, a vice president of investments, and Prince, a senior associate, both  in Marcus & Millichap’s Tampa office, have been engaged to provide assistance with the real estate investment transaction itself, and will identify other investment specialists in the company to assist universities with underwriting strategies, acquisitions, dispositions, and sale lease-backs.

”Many private universities are seeing their endowments going down, and have been hurt by the economic downturn, so they are looking at methods to monetize their assets, such as student housing,” Jackman says.

These types of transactions can particularly benefit student housing. “There is a lot of pent-up equity, and a lot of appetite for this type of investment,” Jackman says, predicting that interest should be keen among experienced student housing owner-operators, as well as firms experienced in other real estate sectors. Many times, new owners will upgrade a property when they purchase it, thus benefitting students, and some agreements mandate that the student housing property revert back to university ownership after an agreed-to number of years, Jackman says.

Student housing specialists Jackman, Prince and Peter Katz, senior vice president-investments, in the Phoenix office, will work directly with the The HEMC. The three have more than 30 years of commercial real estate investment experience. Katz will provide consultative services on a case-by-case basis.