Bio
Charles (Charlie) K. Nulsen, III established Washington Property Company in 2005 after serving as Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Realty Companies of Vienna, VA for thirteen years. He has 40 years’ experience in commercial real estate and has been responsible for the acquisition and development of eight million square feet of commercial space in the Washington Metropolitan Area.
Charlie’s expertise and focus is on development, acquisitions, sales, joint ventures and equity capital. He provides primary oversight to numerous development and redevelopment projects throughout VA and MD, and works closely with the mortgage community in construction and permanent loan placement.
Currently Charlie serves on the Board of Children’s Hospital Foundation and past Board Member of Episcopal High School of Alexandria, VA. He is the co-founder of The New Community Foundation Scholarship Program which provides gap college funding for children in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington D.C. He also sits on the American University Real Estate Council which includes lecture and mentoring grad students in the R.E. program. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute and serves on the Advisory Council. He is the founding member and past chairman of the Downtown Silver Spring Alliance and has been an active member with the MD and Northern VA chapters of National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP).
Charlie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Babson College and a Master of Science degree in real estate and urban development from the Kogod College of Business Administration of The American University. He and his family reside in Bethesda, MD and Clarke County, VA.
Shownotes
My guest for Episode #5, Charlie Nulsen, draws from the discipline of his father’s and grandfather’s military careers and applies it to his life in a way that guides his business thinking. Contrasting this “matter of fact” discipline is his kind nature with people and generosity in the industry and with the community through his many philanthropic pursuits. I met Charlie in the mid 1990s when he and his partners at the time were leading Atlantic Realty. He has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and determination. This comes out in our discussion about his transitions from his first development position at Centennial Development Company to starting both Atlantic Realty and subsequently, Washington Property Company. He aligned his intuition, good fortune, confidence and focus in building a very strong enterprise and legacy while maintaining a stellar reputation among his peers and colleagues. Here are a few highlights of our conversation:
- As a result of his father and grandfather career military and West Point graduates, Charlie had discipline instilled in him genetically, but “when people told me what to do and where to go, I avoided it” so he had an independence that resisted conforming to military life (5:30)
- Started his career in advertising with the Washington Business Journal after majoring in marketing at Babson College (7:50)
- One of his ad clients, Spaulding and Slye, hired him to be a leasing agent. He perceived them as an MBA and “Ivy League” oriented environment, which didn’t quite suit him. (8:10)
- He joined Centennial Companies, a “go-go” office development company located in Reston, VA in 1982 as a leasing agent and one of the original 15 employees (9:45)
- Right after starting he was given the opportunity to meet an architect and go through the entire pitch and make decisions about layout and design (10:45)
- After success leasing for a a couple years he decided to become a project manager and take a salary cut and learn development having a “fundamental thirst for knowledge” (11:30)
- Pete Scamardo was the founder and leader of Centennial and he gave Charlie the opportunity to learn and grow very quickly as the company developed 24 office buildings from 1982 until 1988. While at Centennial, he saw the company grow from 15 to 95 employees in 1988 and then when the “crash” hit in 1990, the company then reduced back to 15 employees again with massive layoffs. 23 of the 24 buildings were given back to their lenders from 1990 to 1992. (12:35)
- In 1992 during the crisis Charlie had to decide whether to go to work for a lender in managing the foreclosed assets or start a company. His associate, David Ross, whom he had known for 10 years at Centennial, and he decided to start a company called Atlantic Realty in 1993. (18:00)
- Story about first acquisition at Atlantic in 1993 where Charlie needed to use his wife’s Microsoft stock as collateral for the financing to acquire an office condominium project at a significant discount (19:15)
- Over a 14 year period while at Atlantic the company acquired and developed approximately 60 properties usually with recourse financing, if necessary, to be nimble and for the best price. Risk management was key, such that the leverage was not too high. All services for properties were kept “in house.” (21:45)
- Story about acquisition of Tycon Courthouse, a 440,000+ s.f. office building with Walton Street in Tysons Corner where their assumptions for leasing and operations came up short; however, the capital markets bailed him out with a drop in interest rates and sale cap rates. Lease up to FBI and sold well. Conclusion is that Charlie is lucky!! (27:00)
- Lessons learned from Pete Scamardo of Centennial (29:30)
- Origin of Washington Property Company to take about 1/3 of assets from Atlantic Realty (31:30)
- Philosophy change at Washington Property to do multifamily (34:15)
- Set aside about $40MM in capital to invest from split from Atlantic to begin investing (36:05)
- “I’m a big planner” in regard to looking at the future with generation skipping trusts that own properties and company stock (38:00)
- About $500MM in development pipeline for Washington Property Co. now.
- Likes the “family office” setup with a rule that children cannot work at WPC until working elsewhere for 5 years (40:10)
- Two lessons for young people: 1) “Don’t sweat it too much.” and 2) Try different things and learn as much as possible.
- Philanthropic motivation: “We aren’t put here to help ourselves only”
- His wife thinks his deal making ability comes from his father’s influence of military service (44:15)
- Story about 210,000 s.f. build to suit deal at Centennial where he flew to Boston and convinced the decision maker to go with their site than competition. Conclusion that his leasing and development capabilities gave him an edge (46:45)
- Story about unit owner who was doing surreptitious activity and living in an office condo unit (49:30)
- “I am a total optimist” (51:40)
- Message to young professionals: “You can do it (entrepreneurial real estate)! and “Stick to it!” Every situation creates change and opportunity. (56:20)
- Two stories- the first is about converting an office building (4 Research Court, Rockville, MD) to a self storage property success and an opportunistic land purchase in Loudoun County, VA and rezoning to a very successful outcome. (1:00:45)
Links
More information about Washington Property Company and Charlie:
Company Website: www.washproperty.com
LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wpc-management-llc/
Email: Through Charlie’s assistant, Jessica Hockman: jhockman@washproperty.com
