Roy March Discusses Eastdil Secured Origins

Roy March was on the first day of his internship at Eastdil Realty in April 1978 when he walked out of the restroom and had a fortuitous run-in with company founder Ben Lambert.

Lambert, who was pioneering an innovative vision for how commercial brokerage should work, shared some prophetic words of wisdom.

“Remember two things: One, Eastdil Realty has the God-given right to every piece of business in the universe. Now go earn it,” Lambert said. “And number two, never leave a meeting without asking for the order.”

Almost 47 years later, March is CEO of the company Lambert founded (since renamed Eastdil Secured) and an icon in the industry. He shared some of the backstory about his legacy in a January podcast interview with Park Madison Partners.

His path to Eastdil and CRE involved a bit of serendipity. The Southern California native was studying economics at UC Davis in the 1970s when he went to read up on an investment bank he was considering for an internship.

He came across a brochure for Eastdil Realty, which he described as uniquely shaped with a design that caught his eye.

“This is where the branding has had a big impact on me,” March, 68, said. “[There were] a lot of young people, photographs in Central Park with big buildings around it. So it appealed to my aesthetic and it looked like something I wanted to at least pursue and get one more notch on my belt relative to my resume and having an internship in real estate investment banking.”

His college’s work center didn’t have an internship associated with Eastdil, but March inquired with the company and got the gig.

By then, Eastdil had already built a reputation as different from a typical brokerage: a real estate investment bank. Lambert founded the company in 1969 and instilled a company culture based on collaboration. Unlike other shops where brokers work on commission, Eastdil paid people salaries plus bonuses the way Wall Street banks do — a key part of its business to this day.

They also focused on being long-term advisors, rather than churning out one deal after another.

March described Lambert — who died in 2021 at the age of 82 — as an elegant and gregarious man with a big smile who “filled the room with his personality before you even knew him and he opened his mouth.”

Upon that hallway meeting the first day, March wiped his sweaty hand clean and introduced himself. Lambert asked the intern if he had made more money for the company than he had in his wallet.

“I don’t know that I’ve made more money for the firm than I have in my pocket. But I can guarantee I’ve made more money for the firm than I’m actually being paid… I’m working for free,” March recalled, describing his cheeky response as a bit of “nervous irreverence.”

“I like you, kid,” Lambert replied and at the end of his internship March was hired full-time.

During the nearly hour-long podcast interview, March mentioned the deal that helped him transform from a mere dealmaker to a leader.

He had been asked by an Eastdil higher-up to pitch a piece of business in Santa Monica for a developer named Bill Tooley. It was a deal that no one expected the company to get — something March likened to catching a lion in Africa by tying a goat to a stake.

His competition was the head of Morgan Stanley’s West Coast office, who had been Tooley’s roommate at college and had a longstanding relationship with him.

Everyone thought they had no chance, but March impressed Tooley with his understanding of the building and its market.

“It is all about relationships in the end, but it’s about relationships and competency and expertise,” he said.

The deal turned out to be the first $300-per-square-foot office deal in the country.

Discussing the impact of that moment, the Eastdil CEO said he’s always felt insecure about his IQ and worked to develop his EQ. March, who has something of a hippie-in-a-suit vibe, said the next step was to work his SQ.

“Soul quotient,” he explained. “It’s a little deeper than EQ.”

Today, Eastdil is ready for its next chapter. The company is seeking investors at a valuation upwards of $2 billion — five times what the company was worth when March oversaw a management-led buyout in 2019.

March said that for his 50th birthday in 2006 he decided to give up several of his vices and climb Mount Kilimanjaro. He’s gotten into trekking, and spent 33 days walking across Spain.

“I’m a Bohemian at the end of the day,” he said.