The Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation is an SEC Registered Investment Adviser that manages private equity real estate investments and provides integrated real estate services for domestic and international clients. The firm was established in Boston in 1959 as a construction firm by Petros Palandjian, an Armenian immigrant. Intercontinental has acquired, developed, managed, and owned over US $12 Billion of real estate assets of all property types. Petros Palandjian died in 1996 of gastric cancer, and today the firm is headed up by his son, Peter Palandjian.
Peter attended Phillips Academy (Andover) before studying at Harvard University for his undergraduate degree. Throughout his schooling, he built a name for himself by climbing the ranks as a championship tennis player, playing #1 and serving as 2-time Captain of the Harvard team then going on to compete professionally upon finishing college. Palandjian retired from Tennis in 1989 with 6 professional doubles titles to his credit and a world ranking of 175, and went to work for Bain & Company as a consultant for two years. In the early 90s, he took a job as the Assistant to the CEO of Staples, Tom Stemberg, then went back to Harvard to get his MBA. In 1993 Palandjian became the CEO of the firm created by his father, Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation, where he continues to lead a team of more than 95 associates while managing more than $6 billion in assets for its clients, which includes more than 300 institutions, public pensions, and endowments. The Intercontinental portfolio is diversified both by property mix and by geography.
Be it tennis, real estate, investments, business, or life, Palandjian knows how to win. Here are his 3 simple strategies to serving up success:
Extend Your Baseline: In tennis, a baseline is the line at each end of the court which marks the end of the playing area. In tennis, you can’t extend the baseline, but in business you can. In fact, extending the playing area is exactly what Peter Palandjian did when he joined Intercontinental Real Estate in 1993. The firm was originally started by his father as a construction firm in the 1950s with a primary focus on contracting and engineering work for private and public construction projects. By the 1980s Intercontinental had expanded into development and construction management, property management, mortgage financing, brokerage, and real estate advisory services. When Peter joined in the 1990s, he evolved the core business from construction development and investment partnerships to a private equity real estate firm structured around fund based investment and advisory services. He launched the first two private equity funds in 1996 and 1998, and Intercontinental registered with the SEC in 1999. Since this time, Intercontinental has launched additional private equity structured funds, including its first open ended multi-strat vehicle launched in 2007. To keep up with the demand of institutional clients, Intercontinental began buying up assets across the country and opened offices in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, and Los Angeles. Peter says that in business, there’s always the opportunity to add customers and generate profits, but there’s also the opportunity to extend your baseline, to create an entirely new playing field for your business, which is what Palandjian did by going from real estate construction, development, and partnership to private equity fund manager. In fact, Palandjian is about to extend the baseline for Intercontinental once again by launching in 2017 a fund that will be comprised of a very different investor base – Defined Contribution oriented investors such as 401k retirement funds and customized target date funds -- giving companies a unique opportunity to invest employee 401K monies into alternative assets that generate income in an income starved investment climate -- namely via Intercontinental’s open-ended fund, U.S. Real Estate Investment Fund (“US REIF”) which operates over 100 diverse high quality real estate holdings around the country. Palandjian says he’s excited about this new fund because historically “mainstreet” has had very limited access to real estate, except for private REITs which are traditionally high fee and low transparency or in the case of 401Ks, though public REITs which tend to correlate more directly to small cap stocks. He says that this new fund will also put Intercontinental into hyper-growth mode for the coming decade as they seek to expand their asset holdings in office and apartment buildings across the country from mostly Defined Benefit investors also to Defined Contribution investors.
The Biorhythm of Work: Peter says that when it comes to finding the perfect career fit, it’s important to understand that each company and each career has a biorhythm, and that certain personalities work better within certain biorhythms. For example, for someone that prefers more stable, day in and day out workload, a corporate position tends to work better. Peter says that he is an athlete and has enjoyed competing in tennis, hockey, and other sports since he can remember. He says that he has always been used to the biorhythm of training hard day-in and day-out, then competing, winning or losing, then “picking up your sticks” and pointing to the next tournament. It is for this reason he feels that he thrives as a CEO at Intercontinental where there is a constant dance of chasing deals, winning or losing deals, and closing deals, with a little bit of rest in between. Peter says that if you want to thrive in business and life, find a career, charitable opportunities, and people who fit within rhythms that match your character and style.
Find Your Power Network: I asked Palandjian if he has any advice for others who are reaching for massive dreams, and he says the best advice he can offer is to find good mentors and strong power networks. Further, he says that it has been his experience that the easiest way to find and build that power network is through volunteering. Peter has been actively involved in several charities through board membership, charitable giving, and volunteering, including the United Way, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boys and Girls Club of Boston, all his children’s’ schools and the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He says that not only is this type of work just good for your soul, you also tend to meet the movers and shakers of the business community with whom you can build relationships and potentially do business. Palandjian says that some of his most important friendships and business relationships stemmed from his own need to feed his soul by contributing time, talent, and treasure to non-profits he is passionate about.
Game, Set, Match, is a pronouncement used in tennis that means you’ve won. Palandjian has perfected his serve both in tennis and life, creating a winning formula for success. His blueprint is simple yet effective; extend your baseline, understand your biorhythm, and find your power network. He’s Peter Palandjian, CEO of Intercontinental Real Estate, Inc, and he has built a career around serving up success.