Surreal Estate

HOW A 2008 COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE STARTUP WEATHERED THE RECESSION
TO BECOME A MARKET LEADER WITH AN “ONLY BROOKLYN” MANTRA

BY AMANDA McCOY • PHOTOS BY JON GORDON

“Come this way for a minute,” Ofer Cohen, founder and CEO of Brooklyn-based commercial brokerage and advisory firm TerraCRG, requests when asked if the city’s most populous borough has reached the peak of the supersonic trajectory it’s seen over the past decade—and whether its approaching absurdity to think a market this dynamic can support such growth for much longer. (To put things in perspective, $1 billion worth of transactions closed in Brooklyn in 2010. Last year, the number was $6 billion.)

Standing by the window, he points to the fast-changing hubbub unfolding outside of his Prospect Heights office. Somewhere in the groan of cranes and rythmyic clamoring of jackhammers, there’s something…if not poetic, at the very least hopeful. After all, at least 10 of the buildings in the immediate viewshed did not exist just six short years ago.

“We’re not at the end of the transformation in Brooklyn,” he answered with a grin. “We’re in the middle of it.”

With 50,000 residents a year relocating to the borough, its frenetic revitalization during the second decade of the 21st century has made Brooklyn one of the most coveted places to live, eat, and shop in the world. The multifarious fusion of urban contemporary and old world authenticity gives its real estate a personality as distinct as Staten Island’s is from The Bronx. Our unique footprint on the marketplace is what intrigued the rising entrepreneur back when he started the firm in 2008, and served as the inspiration behind TerraCRG’s mantra “Only Brooklyn.”

“If this borough stood alone, it would be the fourth largest city in the country,” Cohen observed. “I never thought Brooklyn was undervalued, but I felt it was underdeveloped and under-serviced. It was important to me to find a market where I felt we could be a true leader, and there are very few areas in the world with as much potential as ours.”

Upon relocating to New York from Israel 20 years ago, Cohen got into the business of starting businesses, and it took failure to ultimately nurture success. After a pair of ventures, he dove into real estate when the rezoning ordinances of the early 2000s opened up unprecedented commercial and residential opportunities in neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Downtown.

The future looked bright for a region boasting the slogan “Believe the Hype,” and in the first quarter of 2008, Cohen and his partner opened the doors of TerraCRG.
Then came the biggest economic nosedive in 80 years, but where many saw fear and retrenchment, the new CEO saw opportunity.

“When we started the business, we were immediately faced with one of the worst real estate markets this country knew since the Great Depression. But it’s that experience that shaped our business. We were small, nimble, and did what we had to do to survive,” Cohen recalled, with a map of the borough behind him adorned with thumbtacks of all the transactions the firm has closed—from Bushwick to Sunset Park.

In the early days after the economic shakeout, stagnation was high as credit markets tightened, so Cohen and team worked diligently with local investors and developers to help stimulate growth and recovery between 2008-2010—working primarily with distressed transactions and helping stalled developments get moving again. By 2011, the company started to see the breadth of its achievements. Things were changing, and fast.

Nearly eight years after its inception, Cohen’s small business startup is closing more than 75 transactions per year and recently placed second in the Top 10 Brooklyn Commercial Brokerage Firm Ranking by Co-Star. The distressed transactions that helped TerraCRG get its start simply don’t exist now, however, so the firm’s president and his 25 employees focus on multifamily and mixed-use asset sales, development site sales, retail leasing, and industrial dispositions. Involved in the marketing of hundreds of properties, it has closed more development site transactions than any other firm in the borough.

Living, working, and spending much of his limited free time in Brooklyn along with his wife and two twin girls, Cohen is reminded every day of his pivotal role in this community’s transformation.

“It’s inspiring to drive through the cranes, development sites, and buildings…now occupied. Things are happening and we say ‘Wow! We were and are a part of this,’” he said. “A lot of the most active and influential developers started around the same time we started. Everyone grew together with the market.”

During late summer of this year, the firm moved to a new three-story office space. Sitting in one of two bright conference rooms, Cohen emanated pride when referencing this recent change in address. After two previous locations in Sunset Park and Downtown, the symbolism of this new Prospect Heights space—in a once-moribund neighborhood now so quickly gentrifying—has resonance for him.

“Sitting here, it makes me very proud of the journey. It reminds me of where we’ve been, just how far we’ve come, and where we’re going,” he offered with a smile.