Broker Gus Dossett dreamed of owning an NFL team while growing up. Instead of owning, he now works behind the scenes helping teams find new homes.
Dossett, a vice president in JLL's Atlanta office, represents tenants in search of office space, including healthcare, banking and technology companies. But he says it's his work for professional sports franchises looking to relocate that gets his juices flowing.
While Dossett acknowledges that he's highly unlikely to fulfill his dream of owning the Dallas Cowboys because he's not a billionaire, his work often lands him on the field and close to the action.
Dossett knows the field. He played football at Jesuit College Preparatory School in his hometown of Dallas. His team was good, but Dossett said he didn’t have the talent to play in college. Still, he got hooked on the energy and camaraderie of organized sports.
"Team morale and positivity, there are a lot of lessons I learned in youth sports that I apply" now in working with pro sports franchises, the 29-year-old Dossett told CoStar News.
Dossett's path to commercial real estate is typical of many brokers. While a business major at the University of Georgia, Dossett attended a conference hosted by Commercial Real Estate Women, or CREW, and dropped off his resume with CBRE. That led to a CBRE internship and, later, one with JLL.
While an intern at JLL, he helped work on a major corporate move when he collected demographic and economic data for Toyota's relocation of its North American headquarters to Plano, Texas. Later, during his first full-time real estate gig, Dossett spent hours on the phone as a tenant broker for Paladin Partners Commercial Real Estate Services in Dallas.
He left Paladin to join JLL in Atlanta.
“I had to generate my own opportunities by cold-calling businesses" across the Dallas-Fort Worth area, he said, estimating that he placed 50 to 75 calls a day. “Learning the hustle and drive to open up opportunities for yourself was invaluable.”
Atlanta Braves Project
That lesson helped later when Dossett found himself in the right place at the right time. He moved to JLL in 2017 as an analyst and, while in that role, nabbed assignments from David Demarest, leader of JLL’s Sports and Entertainment group.
At the time, JLL was in the process of wrapping up work for the Atlanta Braves on The Battery, a mixed-use development that surrounds a stadium in suburban Cobb County, Georgia. The development, anchored by Truist Park, has become a model for other pro sports franchises seeking to create lively food-and-entertainment districts adjacent to new stadiums.
Finding new fields for pro sports teams differs from helping corporations find new offices, Dossett said.
One difference is the huge amount of attention heaped upon professional sports teams' searches, especially if they seek public financial assistance for a new stadium, Dossett said.
"We're often working on a public-private partnership, and we need to help justify the amount of public funding we're requesting," he said.
As an outside real estate adviser, JLL builds financial operating models to help teams grasp how much revenue is needed to make the project pencil out, he said.
Surrounding a new stadium with restaurants, hotels, offices and apartments can help win the support of elected officials because there's extra commercial development the public can enjoy, Dossett said.
Each assignment has its own specific challenges, Dossett said.
Dossett and JLL advised the Oakland Raiders on the team's 2020 move to the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium near the Las Vegas Strip. The domed facility, one of the world's most expensive stadiums and the future host of the 2024 Super Bowl, was primarily financed by the team. But the Las Vegas move followed years of unsuccessful attempts by the Raiders to find a new home.
Oakland A's Struggle
Something similar is happening with the Oakland A’s, another JLL client. The team plays in the RingCentral Coliseum, a facility that routinely draws the fewest fans of any MLB team.
The team has struggled for years to gain approval for a new stadium in its hometown of Oakland, including the latest proposal for a $1 billion stadium on the Oakland waterfront.
The A's ownership wants taxpayer dollars to pay for a large portion of the new stadium. With it appearing unlikely the A's could stay in Oakland, the team hired JLL for help.
Dossett and his JLL colleagues have scouted dozens of sites in Las Vegas for a baseball stadium. The move could involve a partnership with a resort or casino, or the A’s might pursue a stand-alone ballpark, he said.
“We’ve looked at 30 sites around metro Las Vegas,” he said. “We’re down to four or five shortlisted sites around the Strip.”
This fall, it appeared that the Las Vegas option for the A’s was in jeopardy. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said in early November the state would not help pay for a new stadium.
But Sisolak lost in this year’s general election, and it's possible the incoming governor, Joe Lombardo, could back financial assistance for the A’s. Lombardo has not yet indicated his stance on a new stadium.
The pursuit of a new stadium can take years and is often a longer process than a search for tenant office space. It helps that one of Dossett's hobbies is running long-distance endurance events.
Triathlon events "don't require a lot of athletic ability," Dossett said, hearkening back to his days playing high school football when he didn't have the skills of some other players.
But long-distance endurance events do provide a way to help Dossett in the yearslong pursuit of new stadiums, he said.
"It's mind over matter," he said.