Phoenix Developer of the Year
Opus West Projects, Team Win Recognition

By Angela Gabriel

The real estate market can be tumultuous, even for industry leaders such as Opus West Corp. of Phoenix.

The company survived the 1980s real estate crash to become a respected player in the local and national business arenas. Even now, in a weakened economy, Opus West enjoys success and has won scores of awards, including this year's Phoenix Developer of the Year from Southwest Contractor magazine.

The company's landmark projects include the Camelback Esplanade, Collier Center, Discount Tire Co., Tempe Commerce Park, Chandler Pavilions, the ADOA and ADEQ building and Diocese Pastoral Center for the Roman Catholic Church.

One reason Opus West has thrived is its product diversification, said Tom Roberts, the company's president and CEO.

"We're always monitoring markets and changing our focus among our four product types (office, industrial, retail and multifamily)," he said. "Some developers are so focused on one product type that they live and die by that market."

The company provides in-house architecture, construction management, real estate development and property management services in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.

Roberts said the commercial market, especially office construction, has been the firm's biggest product type in the last two to four years, but now the "the market is somewhat overbuilt. What we've done to meet that challenge is we wandered into the multifamily development business to try to offset some of the negative side of the office market," he added.

Opus West has four apartment projects under construction and will break ground on three more residential jobs by year's end.

Roberts said geographic diversification is also important, and the company understands that each of its product types is on different cycles in different markets. For example, he said, Northern California was a huge market for Opus West a few years ago, but now is in the doldrums.

Jim Wentworth, senior managing director of Cushman & Wakefield's Phoenix office, agreed that product and geographic diversity are keys to Opus West's success. ‚
"They always seem to build the right project for the area and achieve top-market rents for that submarket," he said.

Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate company that helps clients buy, sell, finance, lease and manage their assets, has worked with Opus West on several projects.
"Opus is sort of the gold standard for development in Phoenix, and I think that's all a reflection of Tom (Roberts)," Wentworth said. "Tom is a very talented real estate developer."

Wentworth and Roberts both were once employed by The Koll Co. Wentworth was president and hired Roberts as vice president of real estate development. Wentworth said Roberts' best quality is his ability to assimilate enormous amounts of data in order to make major business decisions.

"Not only are they reached quickly but because of his ability to analyze the facts and the datas he's been presented, most of the time his decisions are right on," Wentworth added.

Roberts has been with Opus West during good and bad times. He started with the company in 1982,‚ just three years after the business opened. Although he eventually left for The Koll Co., he returned in 1990, when the real estate market was in serious trouble.

Roberts said Opus West, with only 13 employees, was considering shutting its office after it had gone from being active and having 55 employees in the 1980s.

But things turned around. The company went from one office to nine. Revenue increased from between $10 million to $20 million a year to between $300 million to $400 million a year. There are now more than 150 employees.

Since its inception, Opus West has developed more than 30 million sq. ft. of office, industrial and retail space throughout the West. One of Roberts' favorite projects is the Camelback Esplanade, a mixed-use development in Phoenix whose tenants include Washington Mutual, Charles Schwab and Opus West.

Opus West took over the project in the 1990s, after former Gov. Fife Symington developed the first two phases, with Opus West going on to develop three more office buildings and an AMC Theater.

"It has become kind of the premier project in the Camelback corridor, and has been referred to as the most successful commercial real estate project in Arizona history," Roberts said.

The Esplanade is a phenomenal project, agreed Pete Bolton, senior managing director of CB Richard Ellis, a Phoenix real estate services firm that has leased various parts of the Esplanade.

"The interesting part is the Esplanade, even in these economically challenging times, has been a good product to lease, and has leased quite well at rents that virtually nobody else in town is getting, and that's because of the product it is," Bolton said.

"When people sit down and say, 'Let's talk about the top developers in town,' usually there are four or five on everyone's lips, and Opus most definitely is in there."

One company that had Opus West high on its list of developer candidates is Discount Tire Co. in Scottsdale. The business selected Opus West to build its 150,000-sq.-ft. corporate headquarters, which allowed Discount Tire to consolidate five of its offices into one central campus. Bob Holman, executive vice president of Discount Tire, said one reason his company chose Opus West was its employees. Holman described them as friendly and sincere. He also cited their integrity and work ethic.

Roberts said Opus West's employees are important to the company's success. Many have been there for 10, 15, even 20 years. In order to retain employees, he said Opus West treats them as family and offers profit sharing and phantom stock ownership programs, which helps vest them in the company and makes them partners.

In the future, Roberts sees Opus West remaining active in all of its current markets, and opening additional locations. He also said he expects revenue to increase to between $400 million to $500 million.

And as the company continues its growth, accolades will keep pouring in. Those honors have included not only the Southwest Contractor award, but also the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties Developer of the Year award nine times in the past 11 years.

The firm has also won the recongition of the construction industry, with Opus West picking up several awards, including many from the American Subcontractors Association.

"Opus West really sets the trend for other developers," said Linda Tweten executive director of the ASA in Arizona.

"They exceed in the leadership and in their ability to work as a team, and it shows in their projects."

Roberts said he's happy to receive such recognition from industry groups. "Being recognized by your peer group is the highest form of flattery and something we're very proud of," he said.

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