The owners of CT Realty—Carter B. Ewing, Dominic Petrucci and James “Watty” Watson—have been in business together for more than three decades.
“With that much time under our belts, we recognize each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” Ewing told the Business Journal. “We’ve always had a friendship first and business relationship second. We’ve been able to keep it going because we’ve always wanted to keep it together.”
The three partners, who spoke individually to the Business Journal, each said how much fun they have working with each other.
Last year, the threesome secured one of the nation’s biggest development projects—a 5-million-square-foot complex in Ohio for Costa Mesa-based Anduril Industries. When completed, it will cost more than $2 billion.
About 15 years ago, the company began focusing exclusively on industrial spaces to capture the growing importance of companies like Amazon, which is now a key client. They converted a former cement factory in the Inland Empire into a 3.6-million-square-foot complex called Agua Mansa Commerce Park, where more than 2.2 million square feet has already been leased.
Altogether, they have built more than 35 million square feet of both build-to-suit and spec industrial buildings in the most highly sought-after Tier 1 markets nationwide.
The real estate investment, development and management company is actively developing 20 million square feet of industrial properties across the U.S.
For all these reasons, the three partners are Business Journal winners of the Businesspersons of the Year in the real estate sector.
“We’re exceptionally humbled by the award,” Petrucci said. “We’re blessed beyond our wildest imaginations.”
The Koll Connections
Ewing, who was born at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, was raised in Newport Beach, where his father was a stockbroker.
“All his wealthy friends were in real estate and were not stockbrokers,” Ewing recalled. “It impressed on me in early age that real estate was both creative and lucrative at the same time.”
Watson, who was born and raised in Glendale, spent his summers in Newport Beach. He started his career by selling IBM mainframes for three years before shifting to real estate development. Along the way, he met Donald Koll, who became well known in Orange County for developing or acquiring more than 75 million square feet of office, industrial and retail properties.
Watson said Koll “dispatched” him to Mexico City, where he lived for four years while developing industrial, office and retail projects; Koll also built a golf course in Cabo San Lucas.
“There was a perception that the border would be wide open for the flow of goods,” Watson said.
Petrucci, who was raised “on the wrong side of the tracks” in New Jersey, arrived in California in 1986. Although trained as a CPA, he jumped at the chance to work for The Koll Company in 1990.
“Koll had an incredible reputation for being one of the best-run commercial real estate companies on the West Coast,” Petrucci said. “What I learned to be the most successful in this business is you have to understand the other person’s motivation in transacting or not transacting.”
Watson rose to president of Koll while Ewing was the managing regional partner in charge of Koll’s Denver office from 1996-2001, having overseen 3 million square feet of institutional developments in the Rocky Mountain region on behalf of several investors, including Prudential, UBS and Bank of America. Petrucci served in senior executive and partner positions at Koll as well as running his own firm for a couple of years.
Koll passed away in 2011.
“I loved Don Koll,” Watson said. “He was a mentor, a great friend. He was a unique legend in our business. One of the most positive guys—never saw any boundaries. I learned a lot from his company and applied many of the same thoughts at CT.”
The CT Story
Watson was an outside investor in CT Realty when he was asked to step in as CEO in 2009, the year co-founder Bob Campbell was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. Watson asked Ewing and Petrucci to join him and they eventually bought out the other owners.
At the time Watson took over CT, it managed 13 funds that owned 6,000 multifamily units, office buildings, industrial parks, self-storage facilities and other real estate holdings.
The CT Realty executives decided to focus exclusively on developing industrial projects as they foresaw the growth of e-commerce companies and their need for storage facilities. At that time, about 5% to 10% of sales were enacted electronically; it’s now over 20%, with more than 40% possible, Watson estimated.
Their foresight led them to build several facilities for Amazon.
“We have great deal of business with Amazon,” Watson said. “They are an incredible company.”
The company builds its facilities in what it calls Tier 1 markets where there are growing populations and have nearby infrastructure like rail yards and airports.
Its investors are well known in business circles, including Carlyle, Harvard Management Co., Diamond Realty Investments, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp., and PGIM, which has about $1.4 trillion in assets under management as the global investment management business of Prudential Financial Inc.
Its projects have included the 3.2-million-square-feet Florida Gateway Logistics Park in Jacksonville, Florida, and the 3.5-million-square-feet Palmetto Logistics Park in Fairburn, Georgia.
Ewing oversees all investment activities for CT, responsible for sourcing, evaluating and closing all investment opportunities while Watson leads strategic direction and Petrucci manages tactical execution of all operational and financial components.
“Our skillsets are exceptionally complimentary,” Petrucci said. “I bring more financial and operating discipline. Watty is the ultimate optimist, and he believes there’s no challenge that we cannot overcome with tenacity. Carter is very level-headed, super steady and exceptional with people.
“We solve problems every day,” Petrucci added. “We collectively are a great group of critical thinkers and problem solvers.”
Anduril
In 2016, CT Realty, under the direction of Partner Rob Huthnance, steadily bought land around Columbus’ Rickenbacker International Airport and now has about 900 acres in total.
It owns the 382-acre Rickenbacker Logistics Park, which already has 4.5 million square feet of Class A Logistics buildings.
When Anduril announced it was looking for a site, CT Realty threw its hat in the ring.
“Anduril was initially looking at 50 to 75 sites with developers across the country,” Ewing said.
CT Realty’s advantages included owning 500 acres already entitled and located next to a major airport with two 12,000-foot runways.
Ewing said the key to CT Realty’s winning bid came down to two factors.
First, the state of Ohio “really came onboard” with a bunch of incentives at state and local levels, Ewing said. The state has approved $452 million in tax breaks over 30 years for the facility. The state also plans to spend $70 million on a taxiway and other improvements at the airport.
Secondly, CT Realty was well aware of the potential of Anduril, widely considered the hottest defense startup in the nation, with a valuation topping $30 billion.
“Watty spent a year bird dogging it and was relentless,” Ewing said.
“I give a lot of credit to Watty. He was like a dog with a bone. It was really Watty working his magic.”
The project, called Arsenal-1, was announced last January. It is the largest new project in Ohio’s history by number of employees, creating over 4,000 jobs, the state said.
CT says it will put up 10 new buildings to reach the 5-million-square-foot goal. The development will also include roads and other infrastructure.
The first phase of Arsenal-1 is a 775,000-square-foot building where the shell is already completed. CT is planning to complete about 2 million square feet for 2026.
Arsenal-1 is designed to produce tens of thousands of weapons each year, eventually. Anduril says its edge is the use of AI and off-the-shelf components to build less expensive weapons guided by the company’s signature Lattice software platform.
“It’s the largest and most exciting project that I’ve ever seen in the industrial space in my career,” said Watson, who has been a developer for more than 45 years.
The Other Projects
Nowadays, it’s completing the Agua Mansa Commerce Project, $1.2 billion complex in Jurupa Valley, about five miles north of Riverside. It’s working on a 1.7-million-square-foot project in New Jersey and land entitlement phase on several hundred acres in Northern California’s Central Valley.
“We’ve moved from a little boutique Southern California shop to a national developer,” Ewing said. “We did it methodically. Ultimately, it’s allowed us to grow into this national development company that can compete with anybody.”
Petrucci, who calls himself a “recovering CPA,” said the commercial real estate business is inspiring.
“Many days, we’re creating something where nothing existed before,” Petrucci said. “When driving by a building, you can say, ‘I built that.’”
It’s also an industry where people seem to be having fun.
“It’s a very social type of business where some of the best transactions come from interacting with someone. You’re convincing someone.
“We sell the vision.”
Watson emphasized the fun part.
“We’ve built a lot of buildings, bought a lot and had a lot of fun,” he said. “I love this company. I love my partners. We’ve built it into something significant.”
