Craig Henig’s real estate career is a storied tale that started taking shape when he was growing up in Fort Lee, New Jersey, home of the George Washington Bridge. As a youngster he tagged along with his father, Ralph Henig, a commercial real estate mogul, visiting the commercial buildings he owned and the projects he was developing. They also attended zoning meetings together and discussed real estate business around the dinner table — all which helped him understand the real estate market, tenant occupancy and how buildings are constructed from the ground up.
When Henig was a junior in high school he worked for his father’s company as a laborer on construction projects. He worked inside cleaning up during the cold New Jersey winters, and in the hot, humid summers he worked alongside other laborers digging ditches with a shovel and carrying sheet rock up flights of stairs. A project he never forgot was digging a two-feet-deep-by-three-feet-wide trench around the perimeter of a six story building so it could be water proofed.
“My dad’s company could have used a backhoe to dig that trench, but my dad wanted me to learn about hard work the hard way,” said Henig, senior managing director CB Richard Ellis. “I considered that job a special opportunity, and did it willingly, because I didn’t want to embarrass my dad, his partners or myself while I worked for their company. They were the largest developer and investor in the state of New Jersey at the time and they still are.”
Henig’s career in commercial real estate kicked off in 1987 after he graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and business. Although he originally planned to attend law school after college, like his father, the young graduate changed his mind and got right down to business. His first job was with Cushman and Wakefield in the research department. After that he worked in the office leasing division and then industrial leasing and sales. Two years later, Henig’s father decided to retire, move from New Jersey to Tucson and buy property in Phoenix. “My father the deal junkie couldn’t sit still once he got to Tucson, so he started acquiring properties in Metro Phoenix,” Henig said. “He acquired 600,000 square feet and then he asked me and another gentleman to open up The Mack Company office in Scottsdale.”
Henig accepted his father’s offer in 1990 and became vice president of The Mack Company. In that role he assisted in the leasing, management, acquisition and development of more than 8 million square feet of industrial and office properties valued in excess of $400 million. He also assisted in the due diligence and operating a $500 million portfolio acquisition from the Resolution Trust Corporation for Mack Company’s affiliate, Patriot American Corporation. Henig said working for The Mack Company was a great experience, but working for his father got very stressful at times because he demanded results by the hour.
“I admit to being a hard task master when my son was growing up, but I had to make sure he learned the industry from the bottom up,” said Henig senior, who today is still a partner in The Mack Company. “Craig learned his work ethic from me and the art of the deal, which is very important in this industry. He can sit on either side of the table and understand the issues and the people and that’s critical for success. You have to make both the buyer and seller happy in this business and Craig knows how to do that.”
After working for his father for seven years, Henig left The Mack Company in 1997 to become senior vice president of Mack-Cali Realty, a real estate investment trust (REIT), which now includes many of the properties that were acquired and developed while Ralph Henig was based in New Jersey at The Mack Company headquarters. Today, Mack-Cali is run by long-time Mack partner and close friend, Mitchell Hersh. Henig established and supervised Mack-Cali’s Arizona office and managed a portfolio of over 3.5 million square feet of commercial space in Arizona, Texas and Colorado. Three years into the job, the Mack-Cali partners asked Henig to move from Arizona to Colorado, or back to New Jersey. Although he declined both offers, he did have second thoughts about moving back to his home state, which has over 250 million square feet of office product and over a billion square feet of industrial.
“My father was recognized in 1985 as one of the men who built New Jersey,” Henig said. “So I thought it might be kind of cool to go back there because of my dad’s legacy. But I didn’t want to give up the quality of life I had in Arizona, or move far away from my dad who along with my wife is my best friend.”
Henig’s decision to stay in Arizona gave him the freedom to pursue new employment opportunities. In August 2000 he joined Insignia ESG as executive managing director and designated broker for the Arizona region. Under his leadership the Arizona office climbed from fourth to second in all lines of business and increased its brokers from 30 to 50. Three years later CBRE bought Insignia and Henig went to work for Trammell Crow Company. As principal and area director of Trammell Crow’s Phoenix office, he grew the company’s revenue by 282 percent in three years and increased the company’s managed portfolio from 2 million to in excess of 11 million square feet. The company’s ranking also rose from near the bottom of the top 10 to second among the Valley’s full-service commercial real estate firms. Trammell Crow was purchased by CBRE in late 2006. Although Henig had multiple offers from other firms in the industry, he decided to stay on at CBRE and work for the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm. Initially he co-managed CBRE’s brokerage with Pete Bolton and Greg Coxon, but by mid 2008 he was single handedly running CBRE’s Phoenix and Tucson operations, including all their business lines, and overseeing more than 500 employees.
“After Greg and Pete left, the market showed signs of deterioration, so I had to do some expense management and redefine our lines of business,” Henig said. “The company rewarded me with the 2008 President’s Performance Award, which really shocked me. It takes many years at our company to win that award and they had confidence in me to run this alone. But I couldn’t have done it without my top-of-the-line business line leaders. They are my partners and that’s how I run my business. Everyone’s involved and everyone has a say. Commercial real estate touches almost every single business out there and I enjoy being part of a dynamic and challenging industry.”
David Krumwiede, executive vice president of Lincoln Property Company in Phoenix, met Henig 24 years ago when he worked at Cushman and Wakefield. They have remained friends and business associates since then. “Craig is a transformer,” said Krumwiede. “He started in the brokerage business, and then went into acquisition and asset management and then brokerage management. He is always the guy that lands on his feet and is successful. Of course that’s because he is outgoing, personable, willing to learn, willing to share, easy to talk to, a good listener and he always has a smile on his face.”
Henig spends his free time with wife Dayna and their three sons: David, 10, Joshua, 8, and Sammy, 6. The family enjoys hanging out together at home, trips to Lake Powell during the summer and nights out for Mexican cuisine and a movie. Outside of his family, Henig enjoys hot yoga, running, bike riding, cars and music. The senior managing director has seen Van Halen 26 times and Bon Jovi 19 times.
