2024 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
Owen Rouse
Senior Vice President
MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services, LLC
Owen will begin his 41st year in commercial real estate, covering many cycles with time spent in the various disciplines of investment real estate: acquisition, disposition, lending, construction and development dynamics, raising and deploying capital as well as straight-up investment sales.
In 1984, alerted by a real estate pal that the team on the next floor up was hiring, Owen joined Alex. Brown Realty Advisors on Redwood Street as one of their early hires. ABRA was “building the plane on the runway” and in 1984 was one of the few pension fund advisory firms dedicated solely to real estate. With two clients, the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, ABRA proceeded to carve out a strong, national position in the industry. Owen navigated his role from analyst to acquisitions, including stints in portfolio and asset management. One of his first major assignments involved the venture with Trammell Crow’s Dirk Mosis in the 7 St. Paul Street asset.
ABRA grew via merger and acquisitions and ultimately became one of the largest in the country as ABKB with British capital partner Kleinwort Benson in tow. One final deal was on the horizon as ABKB sold itself to LaSalle Partners – now JLL – with LaSalle Investment Management operating here today.
From LaSalle, Owen left to join Manekin – recruited to unwind the firm’s institutional joint ventures and ultimately grafting that experience into a boutique investment sale platform inside the brokerage arm. Subsequently, Owen was tasked to run brokerage – 25 agents, five staff, and four offices and spent the next nine years in that role. Next, the firm needed additional capital to continue development and Owen was instrumental in pairing the firm with its next three capital partners – AEW Capital Management, Blue Vista, and Northwestern Mutual.
But the 25-year run at Manekin was about to take a turn when Brendan Gill suggested Owen join the MacKenzie platform and reprise his role in investment sales. As a Senior Vice President with Mackenzie Owen is charged with transacting investment sales on behalf of the Firm’s clients, grafting institutional transactional experience with a fiduciary mindset. He is connected and respected, with a superior understanding of commercial real estate paired with expert marketing and negotiating skills, and is often called on for more difficult assignments.
Rouse is active with national and international real estate trade groups (NAIOP, ULI) as well as local nonprofits including Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake (25 years). Additional time is shared with the President’s Advisory Council for Stevenson University and the U.S. Federal Reserve Fifth District Business Roundtable. Prior nonprofit time was spent with Saint Joseph’s Medical Center Foundation and Johns Hopkins Bayview Patient Safety Advisory Board.
Education:
Bachelor’s Degree from McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College)
Masters in Business Administration, Sellinger School of Business at Loyola University in Maryland
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