Click here for Part I, Part III & Part IV

Kairos Real Estate Partners founder Stephen J. Gleason says he took a long time before taking the plunge into entrepreneurship. But once he got in there’s never been looking back.

His regional real estate company scours the commercial, residential, cultural and institutional markets for value. After buying up the right kind of assets, notably in the suburbs, it redevelops them through leasing, hands-on asset and property management, and repositions the property to maximize value.

“That’s kind of our recipe,” Gleason told citybizlist’s Edwin Warfield in an interview. “We’ve completed two (properties), and we’re well on our way with the third property.”

A cum laude graduate of Harvard College, Gleason received an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He then spent 18 long years at Amerimar Enterprises, overseeing their portfolio of office buildings, before embarking on Kairos – which, incidentally, is Greek for an opportune time. Before business school, he had stints with LaSalle Partners in New York, and Laventhol & Horwath in Philadelphia.

In the interview, Gleason recounts the timing of his entrepreneurial journey, the fortuitous partnership with a senior professional, the philosophy that drives Kairos and the art of the deal.

EDWIN WARFIELD: Your focus to date has been on the suburban office market? Do you have plans for Center City?

STEPHEN GLEASON: It’s funny, about a month after I started Kairos and we had closed on Triad, there were a few articles in the Wall Street Journal and other places saying the suburbs are dead. It was obviously a contrarian play that Artemis and Kairos took to buy Triad.

We believe that good properties, no matter if they’re well located and have the proper amenities will lease, whether they’re in the suburbs where we try to bring some downtown feel and amenities to them or same thing with the city property, we can try to take the best in the suburbs and bring it to the city. We’ve looked at probably a dozen properties in Center City, Philadelphia, that have traded within the last three years. Unfortunately, we haven’t been the high bidder on all of them, but we’re going to keep looking and we’ve loved our presence in Center City.

EDWIN WARFIELD: Does Kairos Real Estate Partners have expansion plans out of the region?

STEPHEN GLEASON: The capital side of real estates has been globalized; and by that, I mean that lenders and equity partners can invest around the world, but really for an operating partner like ourselves, it’s still a very local business. I can fly out to Chicago or up to Boston or down to D.C. and try to educate myself on a market, but when I am competing with people who spend their entire careers there, if I end up being the high bidder on a property in one of those cities, its probably because I’m missing something.

We do look at properties in other markets, but the only way that we would expand into one of those markets is by hiring someone local to be our boots on the ground, (somebody) who spent their entire career in that market. We just think it’s a smart way to go and our partners really want that local expertise.

Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn

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ABOUT NEWMARK GRUBB KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NGKF's 14,100 professionals operate from more than 400 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NGKF's strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NGKF's full-service platform comprises BGC's real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

NGKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC's common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer  Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit http://www.bgcpartners.com/.

Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

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