Jon Bell
Jon Bell , President, Bell Partners
Credit: Darron R. Silva
AGE: 38
FIRST PROFESSIONAL JOB: Investment analyst for Faison & Associates in Atlanta
BEST BUSINESS DECISION: “Moving back home to work with my father at age 29.”
FAVORITE QUOTE: “To whomever much is given, of him will much be required.” —Luke 12:48
GREATEST BUSINESS CHALLENGE: “Letting go. I’m getting better at it!”
BEST ADVICE EVER RECEIVED: “Work hard, play hard.” —My father
LAST BOOK READ: Night, by Elie Wiesel (1999, Steck-Vaughn)
PLAYING ON HIS iPOD: Kanye West, Jay-Z, Sugarland, The Band Perry, John Denver
But Bell’s management team can work within those confines. When the economy was tanking in September 2008, Ditto created a “menu” of options (called the Bell Assurance Program) for owners to offer their residents—including job interruption rent relief; reduction in hours rent relief; the ability to downgrade their apartment; the option to double up; roommate matching; and rent deferral programs that would prorate missed months.
“We acted quickly,” Slater says. “The Bell Assurance Program consisted of resident retention ideas that owners could choose from. Each owner chose as they saw fit.”
As the market turned this year, Ditto focused on pushing higher rents, cutting expenses, and pushing for tax refunds. Clients were impressed by this quick thinking. “They’re not complacent,” says Adam Breen, director of acquisitions for DRA. “They are thinking ahead, whether it’s about new technology or pricing models or different ways of doing things to maximize rents.”
Charting a Course Ahead
When Bell was evaluating where it wanted to go after the UDR transaction, the company, which also has retail, commercial, and senior housing assets, also needed to decide which asset category it wanted to specialize in. “We concluded that it’s tough to be great at one thing, much less different things,” Jon says.
Out of all of its asset classes, multifamily certainly stood out. Jon liked it the best, and apartment fundamentals looked good for the future. So Bell began to move out of its other commercial holdings, selling off two assets in 2009 and four assets in 2010. Though not a fire sale, the firm does plan to continue to wind that portfolio down. “The larger investor will diversify their capital into regions and real estate sectors for themselves,” Jon says.
What does stand out going forward, however, is the implications of the team Bell has assembled. The industry is ripe with rumors—from colleagues to Wall Street analysts—that an IPO could be in the cards. “I wouldn’t sell them short on anything,” says Michael D. Berman, president and CEO of Needham, Mass.–based CWCapital, which has been a lender for Bell. “When you bring in the kind of talent that they’re bringing in, they’re obviously looking to grow.”
But Dunn says Bell just wants to find the most efficient sources of capital. “We want to broaden our access to cost-effective capital so that we can be more efficient,” she says. “You can do that by being public or by partnering with large institutions and/or pension funds. At the same time, we value and appreciate our high-net-worth investor base. That’s a big part of what made us successful.”
What’s more, Steven investigated the possibility of going public in the early ’90s but wasn’t in a position where he had to have capital from the public markets. Now, nearly 20 years later, Jon echoes his father, saying that he’s not plotting to take Bell public. But he won’t discount the possibility, either.
“I want to build a great company,” Jon Bell says. “I’m 38. We can do that by either accessing private capital or public capital. How we get there remains to be seen.”
