REAL ESTATE: Staff of 50 Handling 60 projects, Assets of $2B-Plus

By SYLVIA TIERSTEN

Business is booming for receivers — now that commercial real estate defaults are on the rise. California Receivers Forum, a 550-member trade association, has added 250 members since 2007.

Many real estate firms are Johnny-come-latelies to the business of receiverships and distressed commercial properties. That’s not the case with privately held Douglas Wilson Cos. in San Diego, whose founder and CEO Doug Wilson has a 20-year track record in the field.

“Everybody today has a card they carry around that says they are a workout specialist,” said Wilson. “Up until recently, workout meant going to the gym.”

In the 1980s, real-life experience and a contrarian mindset changed the course of Wilson’s career. As a thirtysomething entrepreneur in Denver, he witnessed the oil shale bust that devastated Colorado’s local economies for two decades. From there, he went to San Diego to develop Symphony Towers and some other downtown properties. He launched his own company in 1989 — just as the nation’s savings and loan crisis was coming to a boil.

Economic cycles are inevitable, Wilson decided, and a countercyclical business model is the best way for developers to prosper in difficult times. His bottom-feeding experience has made him the go-to guy for lenders and law firms grappling with troubled assets.

“If you’re the lender foreclosing ultimately on a project, you need someone in there managing the assets, so it doesn’t go down the drain before you get your hands on it,” said Louis Eatman, a real estate attorney with Proskauer Rose in Los Angeles, who has worked with Wilson on a number of projects. “That’s largely the role Doug plays.

Specialized Services

Douglas Wilson Cos. provides a wide range of specialized business and real estate services to law firms, state and federal courts, corporations, partnerships, pension funds, real estate investment trusts, financial institutions and property owners nationwide. “The good news is that we’re a known quantity nationwide,” said Robert Richley, president of the company and a veteran of the banking industry.

Wilson’s company currently has 60 projects with a total asset balance in excess of $2 billion. In the past two years, its core staff has expanded from 35 to 50 employees, with 40 of them in the San Diego office. The company also maintains branch offices in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Miami, Orlando, Fla., and San Francisco, and is poised to open a seventh location in Washington, D.C.

“Most people in San Diego think of me as a developer, when distressed properties and crisis management is my more significant business by far,” said Wilson. “Even in good times, bad things happen. Enron happened in the best of times.”

The underlying problem in today’s marketplace is the lack of financial liquidity. If a loan on a commercial property matures, it is difficult to negotiate an extension. Alternatively, a property — such as a luxury hotel — may have an underlying cash flow problem — and can no longer afford to service its debt. “Unless there is growth in rents and renewed stability in some of these markets, it will take awhile to correct,” said Wilson.

Meanwhile, Wilson and his staff face the multidimensional task of “managing the managers” and bringing in teams of problem-solving specialists — from accountants to hotel managers to leasing agents.