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  • Overview of Services
  • Strategy Level
  • Portfolio Level
  • Property Level
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  • Company Profile
  • History & Background
  • Personnel
  • Careers
  • Locations
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  • Dedicated Research
  • Databases
  • Specialists
  • Articles
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  • Manager Data Submission
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History and Background

The Townsend Group is an employee-owned private company that was founded in 1983 by Terry Ahern and Kevin Lynch and earned its first retainer client in 1986. Since that time, our exclusive focus has been providing best-in-class institutional real estate consulting services. We recognized early on that real estate as an accepted institutional investment asset class would grow not only in size but also in complexity. As a result, we structured our company to be prepared for the coming changes.

We began by establishing a dedicated research initiative which has been under the direction of our current Director of Research since 1989. We further broadened the breadth and depth of our team by adding the founders of two other institutional real estate consulting groups, and complementing the team with other key individuals with experience in law, finance, accounting, banking, real estate development, asset management, property management, research and academia.

As a result, Townsend has the most experienced and multi-disciplined staff in the industry. Today, we have 31 Principals and Consultants dedicated to servicing the needs of our clients. Our senior staff is supported by an experienced group of individuals working in the research, performance measurement, technology, legal, and administrative areas. These additional resources free our client consultants to focus their work on the respective needs of our clients.

The quality, stability and depth of our team, our commitment to the development of the finest resources, our capabilities in investment manager and product selection, and zealous client advocacy resulted in our consulting model being favored by the institutional plan sponsor community.

In addition to the depth, stability and experience of our professional staff noted above, we offer other areas of expertise and experience relevant to our clients. First is our extensive knowledge of and familiarity with providing consulting services to public pension funds. We currently provide real estate consulting services to more than 85 sovereign wealth funds, foundations, endowments and Taft-Hartley Clients. As a result, we are familiar with the issues facing larger public plan investors in real estate, including designing and implementing strategies across multiple sectors in the private and public markets, investing in wholly-owned properties through separate accounts, and developing investment guidelines and procedures. Townsend provides unmatched insight into industry events and coming trends.

Importantly, we bring our Clients unbiased and uncompromised advice. Since 1986, Townsend has derived all of its revenue from real estate consulting. No compensation, in any form, has been received from industry managers or third parties. We firmly believe that investment counsel must be without bias or compromise with your interests. Our independence leaves us with the freedom to pursue the best opportunities to ensure that our Clients meet their objectives.