Morgan Stanley banker to retire after $850B in real estate deals

Morgan Stanley’s Guy Metcalfe, who helped build out the bank’s real estate banking business, will retire after 33 years at the firm.

Metcalfe, 56, had been chairman of the unit and was involved in transactions totaling more than $850 billion, according to an internal memo disclosing his departure. His presence in the business grew at a time when the real estate sector was moving more toward corporate ownership and involved an increasing number of institutional investors.

“He’s liked and trusted by everybody in real estate,” Blackstone Inc. President Jon Gray said Tuesday in a phone interview. “Guy played a leading role in some of the largest dispositions and sales of public companies. He carved out a successful niche in that area.”

Gray, who previously led Blackstone’s real estate business as it grew into one of the largest operators of commercial properties, said he had been involved in countless deals with Metcalfe. That included Blackstone’s $39 billion purchase of Sam Zell’s Equity Office Properties Trust in 2007 — the largest leveraged buyout at the time.

Metcalfe started at New York-based Morgan Stanley in 1990 and was promoted to managing director in 2002. He also played a key role in critical real estate deals for the bank itself, including the sale of Canary Wharf Group, the disposition of the firm’s original European headquarters, as well as helping Morgan Stanley get out of Revel Casino in Atlantic City in the wake of 2008 financial crisis.