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Bill Garey
Director of Acquisitions, Taurus Investment Holdings
Age: 29
Industry experience: 10 years
As the youngest partner in Taurus Investment Holdings’ history, Bill Garey has wasted little time putting investors’ money to work acquiring over $3.5 billion in multifamily housing, office and industrial properties across the U.S. Since joining the Boston-based real estate investment firm in 2017, Garey has led its expansion into new markets in the Midwest, launched Taurus’ first internal debt group and helped expand its carbon-neutral environmental initiative updating utility systems at commercial and residential properties.
Q: What are you identifying as the best multifamily investment opportunities post-COVID?
A: Our three primary sectors are office, multifamily and industrial, and last fall, with the disarray in the senior housing market, we started a senior housing platform in October. We have a mix of multifamily funds and Taurus has a variety of global investors in the Middle East and Europe and South America that we’ve been transacting with for over 40 years. A lot of them, we end up financing on a deal-by-deal basis, and we have separate accounts we layer in.
We were looking for a handful of years with the population trending toward an older demographic. In certain markets such as Boston, it’s hard to get new well-located projects close to where people want to live and where their families are. We were presented with a unique opportunity, and the market was paused, so we jumped in and ended up recapitalizing a portfolio along with Northbridge Cos., a local operator that we know. We’ve bought 500 units around Boston and are looking to expand that as well.
From a multifamily perspective, we’re mostly focused on certain regions where we feel there’s good opportunities for population growth. We’re buying a lot in Orlando and Atlanta, and we’re watching the demographic trends and how everybody has been reacting to COVID, with a focus on the Sunbelt. And obviously Boston is our backyard so we’re always focusing around here. Boston has a lot of strong things that will keep people in the city.
Q: What criteria do you use to evaluate acquisitions in the industrial sector?
A: Industrial is where I’ve spent most of my time in the past year because we’re so active. We’ve had this class B last-mile strategy for the past 10 years, where construction is being forced further from the urban core. Certain tenants need that space for last-mile delivery, as everybody moves to one-day delivery and there’s more growth in e-commerce. We ended up buying $300 million to $400 million of industrial last year, which turned out to be great. In hindsight, the markets were in disarray because the liquidity dried up in the debt markets. We were fortunate in that we have 90 percent [rent] collections and our occupancy rate was 96 percent. Once we got our arms around it, we went out and were buying a lot off-market. We pay attention to the demographics, like multifamily. Where it’s different is we also pay attention to transportation arteries. The Southeast is the hub of all distribution. We’re looking at proximity to transportation and interstates and railroads, and also the population centers and the story with land.
Q: You were responsible for founding Taurus’ first internal debt group in late 2019, structuring over $350 million for investors and generating $1 million in profits since then. What’s the typical example of how those deals work for investors?
A: We realized last year we were doing so many deals off-market. We’re so transactional and we have a finger on the pulse of the debt markets. In a lot of cases, we have eight of nine relationships on the debt side and through our investors if they want to do a refinance or acquisition, we’ll line up the debt. It’s a lot cheaper that way for investors, and more efficient. If you end up canvassing the market for debt to 50 lenders, 95 percent of the time you’re coming back to the same six or seven relationships with prior experience. It was better for our investors to get better debt deals.
Q: How does Taurus’ renewable energy initiative help owners of older office and multifamily properties?
A: We have two groups, one which does geothermal and are retrofitting buildings to make them more efficient. That’s better for the tenants. They’re saving money and we’re saving money. Boston is an old city and there’s a lot of well-located office and multifamily and even industrial that are deficient with energy [systems]. Our subsidiary does a whole analysis of how to retrofit it. We have our pilot we did at South Winds apartments in Fall River. We’re looking at the office building we bought last year at 300 Baker St. in Concord.
Garey’s Five Favorite Sandwiches in Downtown Boston
- Sam Lagrassa’s – Chipotle Pastrami
- Monica’s Mercato – Italian Steak Tip
- Pita Tyme – Chicken Shawarma Roll-up
- Figaro’s – Sonny Corleone
- Al’s – Steak Bellino
