Marshall Davidson has joined Christopher Gill Cos. as president. In this role, he will oversee day-to-day operations and work with lenders dealing with troubled real estate assets. Davidson was previously director at Cushman & Wakefield and will apply the model of using specialist teams from his experience there. He briefly worked at Cross & Co. but left after a lawsuit alleging he was removed from his position without cause. Davidson is looking forward to helping Christopher Gill Cos. grow using the skills he developed at Cushman & Wakefield.

1. By Amy Wolff Sorter
May 13, 2009
Reprinted with permission.
DavidsonApplies C&W ModelTo New Job
SAN ANTONIO,TX-Marshall V.
Davidson Jr.has joined Christopher
Gill Cos. as president. In that role,
Davidson will be handling day-to-
day operations, as well as working
with lenders and other
institutions that have troubled
assets on their books.
Davidson, who was born and
raised in San Antonio, steps into the company's leadership
role while Christopher Gill, the former president, will retain
his title as chairman of the family-owned and operated
company, which deals with real estate management,
developments and brokerage. "Marshall's going to run the
business, that's his baby now," Gill tells GlobeSt.com.
"What I bring to this is an insight how to constructively
resolve problems."
The problems these days focus on institutions with assets
they neither want nor desire, but were forced to take due to
foreclosure or receivership. Gill remarks, and Davidson
agrees, that Christopher Gill Cos.' structure is flexible
enough to take on this particular market, and hopefully add
some value to the assets.
"This will be the primary focus of ours right now, trying to
help lenders with properties that come back to them for no
other reason than the developer can't service the debt,"
Davidson tells GlobeSt.com. "Once we can get an
acknowledgement of the new pricing, and get those assets
turned around, we can improve the value. There's nothing
intrinsically wrong with those assets."
Davidson points out he's using a model that worked well for
former employer Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc., were
he was director.That model, he comments, involves teams of
specialists who deal with specific assignments and products
that are complementary to their skill sets. "There are a heck
of a lot of people at Cushman & Wakefield who are great
specialists," he comments. "You're a lot stronger when you
can bring in people who know their product. All of that
wasn't lost on me."
But Davidson didn't take a direct path from Cushman &
Wakefield's Houston office to Christopher Gills Co. He'd
departed C&W in late 2008 to join Cross & Co. in San
Antonio as the company's president. Part of his job there,
according to releases sent out by Cross & Co. in early 2009,
was to bring Cross & Co. into the Cushman & Wakefield
alliance, which was done by February 2009.
However, according an early April 2009 lawsuit filed by
Davidson against Cross & Co. for fraud inducement, Davidson
was allegedly told he was being removed from his job as
president, and stripped of his salary and partnership interest
for no apparent reason.The suit also alleges that Davidson's
"duties and compensation" would be those of a "regular
broker" rather than an executive. Davidson ultimately left the
company. Calls and e-mails to Cross & Co. were not returned
by deadline and Davidson didn't wish to elaborate further
about the lawsuit or his brief experience with Cross.
Davidson did say he's looking forward to using skills obtained
through years of working with C&W to help Christopher Gill
Cos.' growth. He says the terrific thing about the C&W model
in which he had operated for close to a decade works in both
boom and bust cycles.
"The goal here is to focus on primarily what we know and
where we are," he remarks."Since we're in centralTexas,that's
a good place to start; working with companies in central
Texas." Furthermore, he continues, his familiarity is with
industrial and office product, and he's not planning to deviate
from that course.
"We actually want to know the product we're trying to
manage and/or purchase," Davidson comments. "I think when
you're so divorced from the product and actually don't know
the real estate you're working with, you're in trouble."
Davidson
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