Success Story - CIM Group

Challenge

Cobalt was approached by CIM, a real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender and developer to find them their next VP, Property Management in Atlanta.

It was a new role, with centralization and a major lease-up (The Mitchell) at the heart of it. For the lease-up, they had a partnership with Centennial Yards, ultimately to make the surrounding area an eat-live-play location and execute on the plans already developed. To realize this, they needed someone who had lease-up experience and that could help ensure operations ran smoothly to reach that expected date.

The challenge was finding someone who had experience with centralization and saw positive effects from its use. It’s been a hot topic in the industry with companies trying to implement this to make teams/systems more efficient. The individual would also need to be skilled in budget management, maximizing portfolio profitability, team development, and capital improvement oversight.

Solution

Atlanta isn’t a market that CIM has traditionally worked in; it was a unique role that required a specific experience/skill-set those candidates needed to have, so it narrowed certain the talent pool we could search within.

We regularly held meetings with our contact from CIM to highlight what VPs at that level are making in the ATL market, before agreeing broadly on a salary range for the would-be employee, and then started our targeting.

We targeted senior-level candidates who showcased their skill sets within the centralization and lease-up spaces. In addition to our existing network of candidates, we broadened our search through our premium-level LinkedIn licenses to target candidates that met the multiple requirements CIM had.

We created a longlist of candidates who, from a resume standpoint, fit what CIM was looking for. From there, we held initial phone calls followed by Teams video calls to get an in-depth brief on what the candidates do and how they’d fit into CIM, both from a work execution and work culture perspective. If they were suited after those multiple touchpoints, we would then send them over to CIM for their review, and they’d ultimately get taken through the interview process. After each round, we’d follow up with both the candidates and the client to get feedback and determine next steps.

The Results

The first of the two leading candidates made it to the 2nd stage, where ultimately, they put a pause on his interview process as they were unsure about culture fit. The second candidate however, went through the multiple stages, going on to receive and accept the offer!

The candidate is an extremely charismatic individual who goes above and beyond for his team, residents, and company overall. The fact that many of his colleagues said they’d join him at any company he joined highlights the positive impact he’s had on them and the industry, and will continue to have in his new venture.