Former Staubach prez to head new CRESA capital markets group.

CRESA Partners announced an agreement with former Staubach Company President and COO Jim Leslie to serve as advisor to the CRESA Partners Board of Directors and to help lead the firm's newly launched CRESA Partners Capital Markets group. The new CRESA Partners Capital Markets team is based in Dallas, Texas and is directed by Leslie and two of his colleagues previously from The Staubach Company, Brant Bryan and Cathy Sweeney. With the addition of the Capital Markets group, the firm now provides a complete portfolio of fully integrated corporate real estate services exclusively for space users.

According to CRESA Partners president and CEO Michael Dow, Leslie has been serving the firm in an advisory role since spring 2002. "In this capacity, he has and continues to work with the board on initiatives to further strengthen the company's position as one of the foremost corporate real estate firms exclusively serving space users," says Dow. "The launch of the new capital markets service serves as evidence that our decision to bring Leslie and his team on board was indeed a good one."

Having been with The Staubach Company for nearly 20 years, Leslie was a founding member who helped establish the company's initial strategy and organizational structure, including the formation of a capital markets service group.

"I recognized CRESA Partners as a rapidly emerging tenant-rep and corporate services industry leader made up of talented professionals who are dedicated to the same goal--providing a better approach to corporate real estate for the corporate space user," says Leslie. "Its evolution through merger with reputable regional tenant-rep firms is evidence of that."

Since CRESA Partners' inception in 1998, it has grown to more than five times its original size and formed an international alliance to gain market coverage in 32 countries. With the addition of a Chicago-based lease administration team last spring and the continued expansion of its project managers across the country, capital markets represented the final gap in the firm's service capabilities.

According to Dow, the completion of the integrated service model was not the only reason for the new service launch. Many of CRESA Partners' corporate clients await the mid-December decision from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) regarding off-balance sheet financing. "Those companies with synthetic leases will likely be facing some significant changes," says Dow. "Having an experienced capital markets team allows CRESA Partners to provide financial strategies that reduce occupancy costs and improve financial benefits for our clients."

"With backgrounds trenched in the real estate and capital markets industries, the CRESA Partners Capital Markets team offers a tremendous advantage to CRESA Partners' corporate clients," adds Leslie.

Brant Bryan, a 17-year Staubach veteran, formerly led Staubach's financial and capital markets group, which completed over $6B of client financings over the last decade. Cathy Sweeney, with nearly 10 years at The Staubach Company, oversaw the financial side of the company as Chief Financial Officer and helped manage the structuring of several hundred million dollars of client financings each year.

CRESA Partners Capital Markets services include the evaluation and implementation of a wide array of financial alternatives for corporate real estate holdings, including sale leasebacks, synthetic leases, structured financings, traditional mortgages, asset monetizations, as well as other creative financial structurings.