Dave Woodward

CompassRock Real Estate

By Leah Etling on Jun 14, 2012 in People

From his high-rise office in downtown Denver, Dave Woodward has a great view of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains just beyond the Mile High City. He’s also taking the long view with his new company, CompassRock Real Estate.

Formerly the CEO of the Laramar Group for 12 years and prior to that a senior vice president at Archstone, UC Berkeley grad Woodward has spent his career as a property management executive. He’s now using those years of experience in a new firm that focuses on properties from special servicers, lenders and other institutional owners.

“One of the things that’s really exciting for me is that CompassRock isn’t just a multifamily company, we are providing property management and other services to all real estate product types.”  Dave told us.

“CW Capital is my initial financial partner, with six other clients also signed up. They will help by contributing some of the management assignments in their portfolio.”

The initial portfolio will be comprised of distressed assets, mostly taken back through foreclosures. In some cases, CompassRock will also be stepping in as court-appointed receiver while the properties work their way through the foreclosure process.  Generally a two to four year window to maximize values, clean up the assets and position the properties for sale is common.

“Our plan is to manage a lot of these properties and then retain management when possible upon sale.  In addition, we’ll be managing for longer-term owners as well.”  Dave explained.

His business model at CompassRock will maximize efficiency with two key best practices he’s identified over the years for cutting down costs:

-A shared services system for back office human resources, accounting, information technology and risk management will streamline those functions across all management categories.

-Outsourcing some lower-level services, such as monthly property balance sheet reports, to the most competitive, high-quality bidder. “We don’t care if that work is happening in Denver or Dallas as somewhere else, as long as it is accurate and on time,” Dave noted.

“I think we’re going to break the mold and chart a new path for other companies in our industry.  You will no longer see all functions being handled in-house.  We’re creating a better model.”

CompassRock will also be making some property investments of its own, he said. The company will service inventory in 25 major markets across the country.

Out of the office, it’s also an exciting time for Dave and his wife Jill, an event planner. They married last year and are expecting a baby this September. Congratulations!