Inside Eastdil's 50th birthday party

On a bitterly cold February evening, for New York’s heavyweight property fraternity, Eastdil Secured’s 50th birthday party is one event worth facing the chill for. Nearly 700 of the Big Apple’s great and the good swarm into Cipriani on 42nd, plucking bellinis from the silver trays ready to celebrate an institution they consider to be central to the success of New York real estate. It is clear that, tonight anyway, this is the hottest ticket in town.

The crowd teems in from the street ready to pay tribute in particular to the group’s 76 year-old founder and chairman Ben Lambert who established the firm and the concept of real estate investment banking in 1967 as a new arm of investment bankers and brokers Eastman Dillon. Guests are there too for its chief executive Roy March, who joined as an intern 40 years ago. And as everyone clamours to get to the often dubbed father and son-style duo, back-slapping, finger guns and belly laughs ripple through the gathering.

Unlike similar festivities in London, things are kicking off early; before the end of the normal working day, at 5pm. And there’s a reason. Despite the illustrious setting and bountifully stocked bar, first and foremost this is business and the attendees are here to learn and be educated. They are here to digest Eastdil’s pearls of wisdom for an hour at 5:30pm before the party kicks off in earnest.

March struts back and forth on the stage like a peacock surrounded by the 65 feet marble walls of the basilica-esque former Bowery Savings Bank and cracks jokes with clients in the audience, drawing them in from behind the old tills.

He has an air of Willy Wonka about him but his engagement with the crowd is warm and spontaneous and they go soft at the knees and giggle like delighted children when he pays them attention.

Once the masses have taken their seats the crowd are welcomed to what is “a very special day for us” which kicks off with an interview with Ted Eliopoulos, the chief investment officer of CalPERS, the $300bn pension fund and “the nearest thing we have to a sovereign wealth fund”.

It’s a way of reminding clients of the type of circles Eastdil moves within and of its status but, as with everything the company obsesses over, it’s also about presenting an opportunity. “We very much wanted to increase our exposure to New York City but it’s a tough market to get access to,” Eliopoulos says. “Anyone here want to give access to this guy?” March only half jokes.

Once Eliopoulos exits stage left the Eastdil corporate machine really starts to click into gear when delivering its market update.

President of the firm Mike Van Konynenburg, or “VK” as he is known by clients and colleagues, proposes a positive thesis that gets the crowd in good spirits. Whilst experienced property professionals are used to a cycle of five good years and two barren years, perhaps we are in for a positive “double header”, that the last 18 months of chaos with Chinese capital controls, oil volatility, a disrupted CMBS market, Brexit and the US election was the downswing, and that the market is soon to transfer to a growth phase. It’s certainly a nice theory.

Presentations follow from across the globe with an emphasis on macroeconomic influences, in part a reflection the investment banking style outlook of Eastdil. In Duabi “investors have become more cautious and the benchmark for investments has gone higher”, in Hong Kong “the amount of capital from Asia that is being allocated to alternatives is growing 25% each year translating to $40bn of buying power” and back in New York “the $2,000 per sq ft barrier is going to get shattered”. A presentation on Europe is conspicuous by its absence and perhaps a reflection of the lack of depth of interest in crossing the Atlantic from both sides from all but the very biggest investors.

With the formalities over the crowd get what they have really been waiting for – a tribute to the elder statesman of the firm.

March is back, recalling how he was asked on his first day by Lambert whether he had made more money for the firm than he had in his pocket, replying he didn’t know but as an unpaid intern he’d certainly made the company more than he’d received. “We joke about the father and son relationship, and maybe in more recent years I’ve become the father sometimes,” he says with a lump in his throat” of a man with “incredible grace, humility and generosity”.

A slideshow reels through pictures of Lambert and March embracing, a New York Times cutting on the company’s foundation in 1967 and a picture of Lambert sat next to the most famous developer of them all, Donald Trump.

You can feel the audience going gooey. There is a sense of affinity amongst clients who have seen and lived the relationship.

A quite astonishing 10 minute video is then played featuring clients including Starwood Capital’s Barry Sternlicht, Blackstone’s Jon Gray, Tishman Speyer’s Jerry Speyer, Equity Group Investments’ Sam Zell and Brookfield’s Ric Clark in which they recall, many in hysterics, their adventures on the road doing deals with Eastdil. Would any other adviser have a list of high calibre clients put together a public video together joking about their favourite memories of doing deals together? It’s hard to imagine.

It seems that in the US Eastdil’s clients do not see the firm as a property adviser that is a cut above the others but as a company that offers them something fundamentally different, acting only on the sell side and truly becoming part of their team. “I can’t think of any important strategic decision we’ve made in the past 20 years where we haven’t consulted Eastdil,” says one.

“Our founder, our chairman, our friend we love you,” March swoons and a reluctant Lambert has no choice but to enter proceedings for a swift, two minute speech.

“We were able to make real estate investment banking not just a concept, but as Sam Zell was kind enough to say, take a different approach to this business,” Lambert says.

The adoring crowd rises in applause as he leaves the stage and close clients, staff and alumni gather at the front in a huddle.

The party isn’t particularly outrageous or chaotic, as is often the case in New York there is a sense of formality far greater than in London, but there are huge queues for people to show Lambert and March their appreciation.

Rivals often ask, what’s so different about Eastdil? For an emotional March, tonight at least, it’s not the debt expertise, the Wells Fargo connection or the contact list.

At the front of the queue he says, “Do you get it now? The secret ingredient is family.”