Orange County has a new commercial real estate player in town.
Eric Paulsen, formerly a managing principal of Cushman & Wakefield and executive managing director of the commercial division of online platform Ten-X, and former WindWater Real Estate executive Rob Rader have teamed up to launch Topside Real Estate.
The Newport Beach-based firm will act as a brokerage, property manager and potential investment source for future acquisitions.
“We both have experience on the broker and owner side of real estate, and we want to take a holistic approach to dealmaking,” said Paulsen, who said he wanted to start a commercial real estate company of his own after working for other firms for more than three decades.
Paulsen, a former exec at LNR Property Corp. who has been involved in more than $10 billion in real estate transactions throughout his career, paired up in March with Rader, who got his career start in 2002 with Newmark Knight Frank.
The two decided to “create a new opportunity for those around us to be successful,” Paulsen said.
“We want to put our clients and employees first.”
The company is still in the fledgling stage, but recently closed its first deal, representing the buyer in an office acquisition in South Orange County. The duo say they have future tenant and landlord clients lined up.
Business Structure
The pandemic, while proving not a great time for commercial dealmaking, represented an opportunity for Paulsen and Rader to formulate their plan.
“It was a market reset,” Paulsen said. “We thought there was no better time than now to start fresh, as everyone else sits on the sidelines.”
The company has three primary focal points: clients, employees and acquisitions.
It plans to handle the first point by providing brokerage and property management services on behalf of tenants and landlords; for the second, it wants to recruit and retain top real estate professionals in the county by offering competitive pay structures and branding packages.
On the acquisition front, Topside is looking to partner with investment sources to make deals of its own, providing another source of capital for the business.
Initially, Topside expects property management to be the primary business driver, in which it will “maximize value for owners that don’t want to handle the day to day operations.”
“Problem solving is what we do,” Paulsen said.
The company currently has four employees, with plans to employ 10 to 20.
Topside said they’re eyeing markets outside OC for potential expansion.
COVID-19 Activity
Market activity, which hit a standstill between March and May, has picked up somewhat in recent weeks.
Still, recent price adjustments have kept sellers from fully returning to the market, Paulsen notes.
“If you’re selling right now, you’re selling for a reason,” said Paulsen, who has been publishing his thoughts on the market on LinkedIn in recent months.
“There’s so much money on the sidelines, that there is still a demand for certain asset types,” like multifamily and industrial, Paulsen notes.
