Click here for Part I, Part II & Part III

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: How did your partnership with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank evolve?

STEPHEN GLEASON: I have been working with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and their predecessor company, Smith Mack, since 1997. When we acquired the Wanamaker Building at Amerimar, we met with all the leasing brokers in town, and we decided to hire Sid Smith to be our leasing agent, and Sid continues to lease that building for the current owner; and that was my first time working with him and that relationship has just grown and flourished.

When I started Kairos, it was a natural that we would look to team up with Newmark in the suburbs. We have worked with several of their leasing teams and Newmark also does all of our property management. We decided at Kairos, it is just two of us currently, and we decided that rather than build a property management platform from scratch, we would work with the experts at Newmark and they really do a great job. They have a lot of the same philosophies that we do, in terms of taking pride of ownership and making tenant satisfaction their top priority, and so it has been a great working relationship.

Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn

Sponsored by:

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

Connect on LinkedIn