After an exceptional 35-year career representing seniors housing owners and operators, our good friend Allen McMurtry has finally decided to retire and enjoy life in North Carolina, where he has been biking and hiking for years. Most recently he was head of seniors housing investment sales at Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, but had been passing the torch to Dave Kliewer and Jay Jordan for the past several years. Hmm, sound familiar? He also spent time at Cushman & Wakefield (13 years) and CLW Realty Group (17 years).
I first got to know Allen in the late 1980s when we competed against him to represent Barnett Banks of Florida in the sale of two retirement communities in default in Florida (back when we had a brokerage business). One was outside Tampa and the other in Orlando. They couldn’t decide who to hire, so Allen got the Tampa building and we got the Orlando community. I suppose we got “home-towned,” because the Orlando community was going to have a new highway go right through the dining room. It had to be sold for what a buyer thought they could get in an eminent domain case. Let’s just say, we never sold it, but Allen sold his.
I was so impressed by his professionalism and friendly nature that I asked him if he would be willing to head up a Florida region for us. He politely declined, and the rest is history. We soon after ended our brokerage business and he did quite well without us. But it would have been a great team.
While I can’t pinpoint the year, at some point Allen started to focus on CCRCs, both for-profit and not-for-profit, and gained quite a reputation with investors in failed tax-exempt bond issues as the guy to go to for help in selling a distressed asset. And help he did. He did not sugar-coat the valuations, which I am sure was appreciated, and would basically lay out how the sale would go, who the likely buyers were, and how long it would take. He was not exclusive to distress, however, and was hired on many performing CCRCs and retirement communities.
I, for one, will miss seeing him as we both grew up in the industry together, but ended up taking different paths. We wish him well in retirement and know he will enjoy it!
-Steve
