Former Grubb & Ellis broker Michael Dee will spearhead Staubach Retail

Shopping Centers Today
By Curt Hazlett

When Michael Dee moved two miles down the road to his new job at Staubach Retail Services, in Dallas, it fulfilled a longtime desire. “I’m thrilled to be here, and I’m not just saying that,” said Dee, Staubach Retail’s new executive vice president of business development. “Here in Dallas, Staubach Retail is really renowned. Over the years it’s been something of a dream to work here.”

With the dream will come big challenges for the 51-year-old, who joined Staubach Retail from the Dallas office of Grubb & Ellis, where he was senior vice president and national director of retail. With retailers scaling back expansion plans and the credit crisis crimping developers, Staubach Retail and other brokerages are finding a changed retail landscape that is forcing them to rethink their approaches to the business.

Dee’s task will be to make the most out of every client opportunity. “The main responsibility I have will be working with our national retail brokers and managers to expand the relationships and the amount of business we do with existing retail clients and to generate new business from retail clients we don’t have right now,” he said.

Staubach Retail has an office in just about every major U.S. city already, and in those areas where it does not operate an office, it does have a network of brokers in place, says Dee. “The goal for the company is to continue to grow, and I’m sure that will include opening additional offices and expanding the number of brokerage professionals we have,” he said.

The Staubach Co., the office and industrial brokerage that legendary Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach founded in 1977, made headlines in June when Jones Lang LaSalle acquired it for $613 million. Staubach Retail, which is independently owned and has a licensing agreement with Staubach through 2019, was not included in the deal.

Even without new ownership, Staubach Retail is making changes as it pursues aggressive plans to get bigger. Long known for its tenant-only approach, it is moving toward becoming a full-service firm that represents landlords as well.

Though the stumbling economy has made it harder to find retailers with firm expansion plans, Dee sees at least one bright spot in the current troubles. “It’s creating a lot of opportunity for folks like us, because retailers are re-evaluating their store portfolios and in some cases going through dispositions of stores or downsizing, and they need the expertise of someone like us,” he said.

Helping to take advantage of that opportunity will be one of Dee’s jobs. “Staubach Retail is considered a national player within our industry, and the goal here is to expand that even more — to leverage the brand, the client base and the reputation as much as we can,” he said. “My responsibility will be national, supporting all the offices.” This platinum-level American Airlines customer expects to hit the road twice a month or so in pursuit of that goal.

“We have so many solid retail professionals around the country who have excellent relationships with retailers, but a lot of times their focus with that retailer is in that particular market or region, and they may not have the time or expertise to expand that to other parts of the country or other uses,” Dee said. “That’s where I’m going to come in.”
Dee will be generating ideas for broader solutions. “As I become more of an expert on Staubach Retail and what we offer, I’ll help train them on what services they can provide,” he said. “But most important, I’ll be a resource to help them when they don’t have the time or knowledge to do it.”

And that is a function for which Dee says he is well suited. “You could classify me as a people person,” he said. “I love to be around people, and I feel like I have the ability to get along with anybody. I think that’s conducive to this business.”

In announcing Dee’s hiring in June, Staubach Retail President Clay Smith cited his broad background in retail as well as his experience with large national brokerages. Dee was a salesman for Xerox Corp. in his native Southern California in the 1980s when a friend encouraged him to look into the brokerage business. This friend had connections at Coldwell Banker Commercial, where Dee soon began work as a retail broker.

Dee was immediately attracted to the business. “I liked the very entrepreneurial nature of the brokerage business,” Dee said. “I liked the fact that as a broker you pretty much ran your own business based on your clients’ expectations, and that was intriguing to me. The caliber of people in the business was another big attraction — they were really high-quality people, very knowledgeable, very high energy. It was fun to be around that kind of environment.”

And then there were the financial benefits. “There was no cap on income. It was based on how hard you worked and what type of clients you were able to get. I didn’t’t’t have that working for Xerox, as good a company as that was.”

Dee worked for Coldwell Banker Commercial for seven years before heading to Dallas and a different kind of real estate challenge at Payless ShoeSource. “It was the first time I was involved on the corporate retail side,” Dee said. “I was one of the real estate managers based in Dallas, doing new stores, store relocations and lease renewals for about five states.”

From Payless his career path took him to Starbucks, Blockbuster Video and Cottonwood Financial before he joined Grubb & Ellis in 2005. He was responsible there for developing new clients, recruiting brokers for the company and helping with training and development.
Outside the office, Dee relishes family life and sports. He is married and has daughters who are 14, 11 and 8, and whose athletic teams he coaches. “The school and family life is very, very active. I love it,” he said.

Dee holds a bachelor’s from Santa Clara University, in California, and an MBA from San Diego State University. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and says he will always consider California his home. Not that he has disliked the 15 years he has spent in Dallas. “People are extremely friendly, and it’s one of the best business cities, without a doubt,” Dee said.

Still, there are elements of the West Coast lifestyle he surely misses. “I used to surf when I lived in California, but I can’t do much surfing in Dallas.”