Noel Hutcheson is about a week into his new job as Avison Young's Dallas market leader, a role aimed at supporting and expanding the firm in North Texas. He may have just found where the notepads are kept in the Avison Young office, but he's not an industry newbie.
Hutcheson joins Avison Young with nearly 30 years of experience, completing more than 14 million square feet of deals — including negotiations with eight Fortune 100 companies. He's helped clients, such as Microsoft, U.S. Bank and Celanese, with their real estate moves that can get complicated at times.
His hardest deal landed recently, involving three parties and a possible consolidation that the clients couldn't get to materialize over a few years. Instead, the transaction closed with three separate office leases, a solution that left all parties pleased with their respective relocation or renewal, he said, showing the value of looking for more than just one answer to a problem.
"A good life lesson I learned early on is that the client is not always right, but the client should be treated like they are always right," Hutcheson said.
He also wishes he knew the importance of meeting people and communicating with different personality types when he got started in the industry. CEOs can communicate in a way that reflects their desire to make quick decisions, a manner that can differ from executives in other roles that may be more deliberative, he said.
Hutcheson joins the Toronto-based firm as a principal after 19 years with Colliers International, in the capacity of senior vice president representing companies that lease or own their real estate across all property types, often in big deals with city or state incentives tied to them. It was a role he continued after he spent eight years doing corporate tenant representation work for Cushman & Wakefield. At both firms, he said he thought he'd never leave, Hutcheson told CoStar News.
"There are a lot of good friends" at Avison Young "that I've known in the business for a really, really long time," he said. That includes the firm's former market leader Greg Langston, who was in that job in Dallas for 13 years, but will continue his work at Avison Young as a principal and broker as a corporate rep.
As the new market leader of Avison Young's Dallas office, a market where Avison Young wants to expand, Hutcheson now oversees about 25 brokers and about 15 employees in support roles for a total of 40 workers.
"I haven't been this invigorated about real estate in probably 15 years," he said. "I've been getting up at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. People may wonder what keeps me up at night, but, for me, it’s the opportunity that gets me out of bed in the morning."
Hutcheson sat down with CoStar News to discuss his new role. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity:
What leads someone to leave a firm after 19 years, as you did with Colliers to join Avison Young?
I wasn't looking. I was happy at Colliers doing corporate tenant representation. I found out what my buddy Greg and Avison Young wanted to do with the direction to take Dallas, and that's what led to the opportunities really for both of us. I will continue to do what I've always done, which is corporate tenant representation to some degree and help elevate everybody at the office.
Part of my decision was on where I think we're headed. [Avison Young] is in a position financially for growth and recruitment to help us get to where we need to take the company. I think the opportunity is going to be very powerful.
How much potential does Avison Young see in the Dallas commercial real estate market?
Avison Young wants to grow in Dallas in a big way. We have a great group here already, and so supplementing them is something that we would be doing. And I think we have the room to grow by around 10 brokers. We've got enough seats in our office for another 25 people right now, if that tells you anything about what we hope to fill. Within 90 days, I'll probably have better numbers nailed down.
As Avison Young looks to retain and recruit talent, how does the artificial intelligence boom fit into that conversation?
The AI revolution is tremendous and it's really happening, but I think the face-to-face brokerage interaction will never be replaced. I know it's hard to say the word never, but it's going to be extremely hard to replace. Street knowledge is something that I think is irreplaceable and can only be done face-to-face. That's not something that AI can do. At the end of the day, people crave human interaction.
There are a lot of financial firms moving into Uptown Dallas, making folks call it Y'all Street as a play on Wall Street. It's the part of Dallas where Avison Young has its office. What do you think about the neighborhood's future?
Back when Colliers first moved into Uptown Dallas, I remember the starting rental rates were roughly $28 per square foot, triple net with the triple-net operating expenses being $10 to $12 per square foot. Since that time, the rents have tripled and the operating expenses have doubled. So, the growth in real estate is triple the cost. What's driving that cost is that Uptown Dallas is the financial heartbeat of the city. The money center is right here.