Opus investment team bets on recovery

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By Mark Anderson
Dolan Media Newswires

Minneapolis — They’re back.

The Opus Properties investment team is firing up its money-raising engines, getting ready for an anticipated boom in real estate investment opportunities — and trying to forget some of the embarrassment the Opus name has endured during the past 15 months.

The Opus investment group, which operates separately from Opus’ development and management businesses, is moving most of its activities to a new company, Founders Properties LLC.  It recruited an influential new co-owner, Best Buy Co. founder Richard Schulze, who will share ownership with Opus founder Gerald Rauenhorst.

But it’s keeping intact the 16-member investment team that built up a portfolio of $2.6 billion in properties during the past 13 years.

The reorganization, money-raising and rebranding are all aimed at getting the company ready for a commercial real estate marketplace that should soon be serving up premier properties at discounted prices, said Andy Deckas, president of the new Founders operation and Opus Properties.

“We think there are unbelievable investment opportunities out there. We decided it’s time for us to get back on the offensive,” Deckas said.

One of its first steps in that campaign: persuading Schulze to take on a larger role in the new company. The Best Buy executive has been an investor in Opus Properties for the past 10 years, but Deckas said that adding his name to the company stationery was important.

“When Dick agreed to his new role, that brought in fresh capital, and it also brought his exceptional business acumen, his savvy and his credibility,” with other investors and sellers, Deckas said.

All that gives the investment business a fresh start as the real estate market starts climbing off the bottom of its cycle: “We’re in the early stages of recovery, but we’re definitely seeing improvement” in leasing and the capital markets, he said.

It also helps take people’s minds off the bankruptcies, layoffs and lawsuits that Opus Corp. and its development businesses have gone through during the past 15 months.

“Frankly, we do think that it’s important now that this business can get some distance from the development side at Opus,” Deckas said.

The company will build its new portfolio around office and industrial buys, but it will consider multifamily and retail deals, too. It will aim to buy properties outright, but will also buy notes on individual properties or invest in recapitalizing properties, with the goal of eventually obtaining ownership.

And it will target deals in the 40 top commercial markets around the country, Deckas said.

“When private equity buyers return, that’s where they’ll be looking, and that gives us better exit options.”