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call, he’d scream and yell at me a little and hang up.” Walsh let the tongue lashing roll off his sturdy back. “That went on for about two years. Then, one day, he picked up the phone and was nice to me.”
However, Walsh, who rang up 300,000 square feet in leasing space last year, wasn’t about to let his guard down. “I still had to play hardball with him.” After all, some people like the challenge of dealing with others who play hard to get. In any event, Walsh’s approach paid dividends. “At the end of the day, we made the deal and shook hands. He’s become a good friend of mine,” says Walsh, who is based in Rye Brook.
Ultimately, he believes his way of working with cli- ents hits pay dirt because he’s doing nothing more than
“My mindset is to think like both parties.”
Clifford Simon appreciates detective novels as much as the next gumshoe. And, like any good sleuth, he has a knack for unearthing the hidden value in the most seemingly innocu- ous details. In the process, he saves his clients time, aggravation, and, of course, money.
“I love being a detective, especially when it
comes to discovering difficult-to-find informa-
tion that helps put deals over the edge—what-
ever kind of research that might be required by a
tenant or landlord,” says Simon, president of Rye Brook- based CNS Real Estate.
Simon, who favors author James Patterson and a character he features in many of his novels, Detective Alex Cross, thrives on dismantling details as a mechanic does a finicky engine. There’s just about no hood Simon wouldn’t pop if it meant making himself an indispensable member of a transaction team. “I find that I prove my value at transaction. I stay with my deals, from reading leases on. I’m all over the details.”
Case in point: Burlington Coat Factory, one of his primary clients. “I have a strong relationship with them. I make sure that information is flowing and that I’m there to answer questions or run down details, whatever’s needed to make a deal happen.”
“I have a lot of patience for doing the right thing and a lot of impatience for the wrong things.”
being himself—and clients notice. “It’s just who I am,” he says, nonchalantly.
At the same time, customers appreciate the fact that Walsh devotes as much time as needed to deals. “They can always find me. I’m not going to sleep until a deal’s done. Saturday, Sunday, or the holidays, they know they can call me.”
They also know—or should—that Walsh almost never calls a deal dead. “My associates and I have found deals that were dead and brought them back to life just because we were able to go the extra mile. You have to have the diligence to find out what’s killing a deal and why and then fix it.”
Geminis...
Simon, who characterizes himself as simultaneously serious and outgoing, says he’s instinctively driven to maintain peace and harmony for all involved. “My mind- set is to think like both parties and to bridge any possible gaps between them," he says. “I try to help one side see the other’s position and find solutions.”
Simon, who leased more than 785,000 square feet of retail space last year, says his personality and approach have given him a lift in many deals, including one particu- larly important to Burlington. That, of course, dramati- cally heightened the stakes, and Simon delivered. “We’d known each other for about twenty years, but had no real relationship to speak of,” Simon says of Burlington’s landlord group. But, by the time the deal was done, “we were great friends.”
Lou Klein is nothing if not empathetic. “I can relate to every single tenant I talk to,” says Klein, a retail specialist with NAI Friedland in Yonkers. “I’ve dealt with every type of person.”
One thing that’s aided Klein’s success is that he takes the peaks and valleys in stride, a mark of his even, unflap- pable disposition. He’s not easily impressed, either. “Say, hypothetically, that I get a call from CBS,” says Klein, who leased about 75,000 square feet of retail space last year. “Well, you don’t fall over yourself [just because they’re a major television network.] You work with them just like you do anyone else. Otherwise, they might sense your eagerness and try to take advantage of it.” By the same token, he says, you might hear from another client “who isn’t exactly the flavor of the month, but you have to give them the same time and respect you would the, quote-
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Photo this Page by Ray Karaman Photography
Q1 2013
CLIFFORD
SIMON
President
CNS Real Estate