The way Geoff McGregor talks about commercial real estate investments is akin to the way Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart must have talked about classical music or Pablo Picasso about neoclassical art—he’s extremely passionate. As the president and CEO of McGregor Interests, Inc., McGregor has continued to grow a successful family business that started in 1978 with his father, LeGrande McGregor.
But for the ordinary layman, he might as well be speaking a foreign language. Thankfully, McGregor has so much experience that he’s able to effortlessly summarize exactly what McGregor Interests does.
“We structure partnerships and raise capital from private investors to invest in commercial real estate,” McGregor explained. “Then we provide a return to those partners. We manage the property and provide a return to them.”
He continued, “We only do it for accredited investors, which basically means people that have a net worth above a million dollars, or income above $200,000 a year. It’s for high net worth individuals who want to diversify into commercial real estate but don’t necessarily want to buy their own property.”
An Eagle Scout and graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, McGregor seemed destined to step into his father’s shoes.
“I started mowing lawns for the properties that my dad had put together back when I was in high school at Burke, and then continued that into college, and then moved over to some of the property maintenance and management things in college,” he said. “I realized after doing some underwriting on properties, I’m like, ‘Oh, this looks like a really interesting line of work.’ I really developed a passion for it in college in the underwriting standpoint of it. Luckily, I was blessed to have a dad who could say, ‘here’s exactly how to do it.’”
While completing his degree in business administration—real estate land use economics, McGregor expanded the company’s business to include the acquisition and remodeling of single family homes while obtaining his certified commercial investment member (CCIM) designation. With broker’s licenses in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, he’s able to use his expertise in real estate syndications, partnerships, lease negotiations, construction management, and investment analysis across the Midwest. It’s work McGregor says he finds “really fascinating.”
He continued, “I love seeing it through to the very end. Sometimes it takes 15 years or 22 years to get there, and so it’s just interesting to stick with it.”
Subsequently, the business has witnessed significant growth since he officially took the reins as president of the company in 2017. What makes McGregor Interests more attractive to potential commercial real estate owners is the low financial risk involved.
“The beauty of investing with us is you get to be diversified in commercial real estate for a minimal amount of money,” he said. “Usually our minimum investment size is around $100,000. And the good news is that’s all you can lose.
“Let’s say everything went south, the most you would lose is $100,000. Whereas if you went and did an investment on your own, you’re usually having to utilize leverage or borrow money from a bank, and if the real estate investment went south, you might have a loan for several million dollars that you’re still liable for.”
One of McGregor Interests’ main focuses is its Lockbox Storage expansion; there are dozens in its portfolio.
“When I started, I gravitated toward self-storage,” he said. “My dad always had one or two self-storage properties throughout his career but never more than two at any given time. I really liked it and we watched how those assets held up during the recession in 2008. It was our best performing asset type that year.”
He continued, “When the housing market crashed, I thought it seemed like a really fun investment, really stable and easy to predict cash flows. I could wrap my mind around how to predict the cash flows for it.”
In 2011, McGregor Interests saw the highest sales per square foot of any storage facility in Nebraska with the sale of Cornerstone Storage, which was sold for approximately $40 per square foot.
“I said, ‘Well, that was fun,’” he said with a laugh. “‘We should buy another one!’ So I found one in Blue Springs, Missouri. It was a mismanaged property called Lockbox Storage and we bought it. Everybody told us we should change the name because it had such a stigma for being mismanaged, but we really liked the name. We decided we’d keep it and just change the management. It was, like, 40 percent occupied when we bought it. We increased rents and added on to the facility and got it in the upper 90s for occupancy, which is stabilized.”
With that kind of success, McGregor kept adding more to the company’s portfolio and now, Lockbox Storage makes up a good chunk of business. In fact, the company surpassed its 2011 state record in 2016 with the multimillion dollar sale of Storage Mart at $76 per square foot—the new state record.
McGregor’s father, who suffered a brain bleed shortly before his retirement, is now 80 and in good health. McGregor still turns to him for advice, and has committed a few words of wisdom from his father to memory.
“There’re a couple things I always remember my dad saying,” he said. “Sooner is better than later, more is better than less, and always take the least worst alternative. Every business decision runs through that checkbook.”
In terms of the future, McGregor envisions nothing but promise.
“I see continued growth in our Lockbox Storage portfolio, as well as continued growth in our multi-tenant industrial and retail portfolio,” he said confidently. “There are 28 people on staff and I think that will also continue to grow. If somebody’s interested in investing in commercial real estate, we’re a really great local source to do that with.”
Visit mcgregorint.com for more information.
This article originally appeared in the February/March 2025 issue of B2B Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
