By Mike Sunnucks | Rose Law Group Reporter
Gary Linhart is the owner of WestHawk Capital, which he recently founded after 16+ years at ViaWest Group, where he was a Founding Partner.
WestHawk Capital is focused on investing in scalable real estate investment strategies across property types. Through WestHawk, Gary is leveraging his experience building a successful real estate investment and operating platform by identifying up-and-coming real estate developers and operators who can accelerate their business plan by partnering with an established real estate entrepreneur with access to capital, investor relationships, institutional-quality reporting expertise, and experience managing through the real estate cycle.
5:30am – Wake-up
6:00am – Walk the dog. My dog Jessie – my first dog – is almost 13 years old. Every walk matters.
6:30am – Workout at the Village on Camelback. I usually swim in the outside pool, but today I did cardio inside.
7:30am – Morning visit with wife Julie and son Matthew, before he heads off to school – he’s a junior in high school.
8:00am – Meet good friend Josh Simon at Nektar – Superfood Acai Bowl. Josh is working on a potentially large opportunity and he wanted to run some ideas by me. The Phoenix real estate community has great camaraderie. I often seek the counsel of my peers, and I love being a resource for my friends as well. My inner circle isn’t keeping score. It all works out.
9-11:00am – Back to the new office at Serendipity Labs on Camelback. Two things to focus on while in the office today: 1) Closing my first deal with WestHawk; and, 2) preparing for a 2-day strategy session with my first partners in the new venture, who are coming to town tomorrow from Dallas. This is with one of my mentees and former interns, who has a great strategy and deal flow in the triple-net sector. I will be partnering with him and his best friend to help them launch their business.
11:00am-12pm – Meet with another friend / peer, Mark Mascia, at my office to discuss industrial real estate investment and development. Mark is a go-getter real estate deal-maker with a new capital partner, and like all of us is figuring out what to do in an increasingly pricey real estate market.
12:00—3pm – Giants – Indians Spring Training game: Enterprise Bank was kind enough to invite me to their client event in the Charro Lodge at Scottsdale Stadium. I’ve been to a lot of spring training games, but this was the first time I’ve been to the Charro Lodge. I took one of my mentors – Michael Feiner — as my guest. A day with Michael is like a semester in school. Apparently there was a baseball game going on while we caught up on my new venture and strategy. (I ran into Jason Rose in the Charro Lodge. That guy is like Visa – everywhere you want to be!)
3-6pm – Back in the office preparing for the strategy sessions tomorrow and Saturday (and writing this “day in the life” journal entry).
6-7pm – Pick up Sushiholic on way home for Julie, Matthew and me. Their chicken fried rice is shockingly good, and they serve mackerel sushi, which I love and not enough sushi restaurants carry.
7-10pm – My sister and her husband, who live in New York, are in town. They are joining my wife and me as we go to The Tempe Improv tonight to watch Ali Macofsky, the up-and-coming comedienne (who usually opens for Joe Rogan), who is also the soon-to-be sister-in-law to Josh Simon.
Spring Training weekday game isn’t typical for me, but for a day with a lot of running around, had quite a bit of productive meetings, closed a deal, and prepared for good things to come. Plus, I love comedy, so all-in-all a pretty good day.
