Frisco-based Pond, Robinson & Associates—a leading provider of engineering, architectural, and construction consulting services—is leveraging its 92% growth in new client projects in 2024 to appoint two new co-presidents. Their charge: to lead PR&A’s next phase of growth and expand its Asset Management Support (AMS) offerings.
Recognizing a gap in the market, PR&A says it now provides expanded services to clients “throughout their property ownership cycle.”
PR&A co-presidents Michael Raybon and Justin Lia told Dallas Innovates the company is responding to shifting industry demands by expanding its portfolio of non-transactional services. These include the Facility Condition Assessment (FCA) product line and Asset Data Collection (ADC) service, alongside specialized offerings like technical troubleshooting, repair services, and building analytics.
“We’re pushing to become a bigger presence in the due diligence arena,” Raybon said, noting that PR&A’s clients rank among the most sophisticated investor-owners in the commercial real estate market. He added that maintaining the client-focused traditions established by founders Alan Pond and Mark Robinson will be essential as the company expands its consulting services to new markets.
Lia said that that constant engagement with top institutional players is key to uncovering the opportunities in the current market.
“Distress is a big transactional driver for properties that need a capital infusion and repositioning,” he said. “With distress comes risk, and that’s where we can help our clients the most—we are experts in understanding what our clients need when it comes to transactional due diligence and bracketing the risk.”
He also sees PR&A’s commitment to quality as a key differentiator. Unlike some competitors that may deploy less experienced teams and spend less time analyzing building systems, While some competitors may rely on less experienced teams or limited analysis, Lia said PR&A sets itself apart with the depth and precision of its service and reporting. That commitment to quality is a “big part of why I joined the PR&A team,” he added.
PR&A advised on over $9B in assessments in 2024
PR&A had a standout year in 2024, advising on over $9 billion in property condition assessments (PCAs), including the acquisition of a 19-property student housing portfolio by KKR and Blackstone. The firm also reported advising on more than $17 billion in development projects in 2023.
PR&A is a portfolio company of DFW-based Coltala Holdings and poised for further growth, according to Edward Crawford, co-founder of Coltala, who credited the company’s “talented and visionary leadership team” for driving its next phase of expansion.
Ralph Manning, another Coltala co-founder, noted Raybon’s 25-year tenure, which has fostered a culture of technical engineering excellence, and Lia’s expertise in transaction and asset management. “Their combined leadership and commitment to excellence have been pivotal in serving our clients,” he said, “and will play an even greater role as we expand our service offerings and reach.”
Championing technology in commercial real estate
Helping commercial real estate clients integrate the latest technology into their buildings is a key focus for PR&A.
“Commercial real estate and construction have always been industries that somewhat lag other businesses when integrating technology,” Lia said. “We still see buildings that have just been completed and don’t have an accurate digital list of all the equipment they contain. We see the need for building owners to have a much better understanding of the equipment in their buildings, how that equipment is performing, and when they should expect to replace it.”
Lia explained that PR&A’s Asset Management Support service line is designed to help owners optimize capital expenditure planning while providing unbiased, high-level technical advice for renovation projects.
Raybon underlined the value of leveraging technology effectively. “The world is getting smaller and smaller with the sharing of technology,” he said. “The key is to use technology to your advantage as opposed to just implementing something new that doesn’t make an improvement to a process.” “
Where PR&A really shines, he said, is in understanding these new technologies and sharing the ones that can make the greatest impact for clients—whether it’s reducing utility costs or minimizing environmental impact.
Why a one-size-fits-all methodology ‘doesn’t work’
Raybon emphasized that no two real estate assets are alike, making a one-size-fits-all approach ineffective in today’s market. He pointed to risk assessments as a key example, noting that while broad risks may initially be flagged, a deeper examination of a specific property often reveals that many concerns are already addressed or irrelevant.
“We can assist clients in making the decisions that are needed to help preserve their assets from many different impacts,” he said.
Lia emphasized resiliency—especially in natural disasters—as something that’s been gaining attention in recent years.
Raybon noted PR&A’s involvement, both as a firm and individually, in shaping the ASTM E3429-24 Standard Guide for Property Resilience Assessments (PRAs). The guide offers a framework for evaluating how properties and communities perform during natural disasters, aligning closely with PR&A’s expertise in assessing physical risk in commercial real estate.
“For us, big data reports are a useful starting point, but the differentiator is what happens when we combine that information with our deep dive into a project, evaluating and understanding how the building is functioning and how we expect it to function during a natural disaster,” he said.
Addressing challenges and risks in CRE
With PR&A advising on billions of dollars of projects annually, the company has to stay on top of emerging challenges in commercial real estate in order to position itself to address them. And that goes beyond things like championing technology, Raybon said.
“Even with all the technological advances and tools available to us today, the challenges we face are still the same,” Raybon told us. “What may impact one property may not be an issue on a very similar type of property due to the construction process, building materials utilized, geographic location, maintenance process, etc.”
Raybon explained that PR&A’s primary goal is to identify and quantify the risks clients face when acquiring or developing commercial properties. With what he described as the most experienced team in the industry, the firm is equipped to assist clients across all asset types and locations nationwide.
“We’re going one step further now by offering our AMS services, which will allow us to take our initial recommendations to our clients and help implement them at their property,” he said.
That includes helping clients deal with unwanted “surprises,” Lia noted.
Flagging risks in the ‘grey areas’
Lia noted that in the current commercial real estate cycle, many properties are trading below replacement value and often carry hidden risks.
“We see new clients come to us right after they do a deal where they encounter some bad capital expenditure ‘surprises,'” he said. Lia explained that distress-driven transactions, such as those involving high vacancies or properties struggling with mortgage payments due to elevated interest rates, often leave unresolved issues.
“These sellers generally don’t fix anything on the way down,” he added. “PR&A flags risk in the grey areas, to make sure our clients can make effective business decisions with their eyes wide open.”
On new construction projects, the key is oversight,” according to Lia, who cautioned against the financial risks of “value engineering” decisions that lead to premature capital expenditure events. Such missteps, he explained, can severely undermine the financial returns of a real estate project.
“We’re all for efficiency and pride ourselves on being pragmatic when it comes to development work,” he said. “What we don’t want to see is work that takes little to no additional funds to do right, done wrong—[resulting in] in business interruption and unforeseen repair work.” One example, Lia explained, is inadequate waterproofing in building facades. While properly constructed facades can last 20 to 40 years, “a poorly constructed façade might need replacement in as little as 3 years,” he said. “A mistake like this can make it impossible to make a profit on a deal.”
Weighing risks in big deals for confidential clients
Raybon and Lia kept things close to their vests when identifying key recent clients.
Much of PR&A’s work is confidential, given that its equity-level and institutional clients are often acquiring properties from sellers. “Time and time again, we assist these clients in understanding the potential pitfalls and issues that could financially impact this transaction in a negative way,” Raybon explained. He pointed to examples such as determining whether a failing roof system or a significant building code deficiency poses a major problem.
But just as important, he added, “is to determine how it impacts our client financially. As long as we clearly identify the potential issues, our clients can then make informed decisions with our assistance.”
Without naming names, Lia pointed to a recent PR&A case study involving “one of the largest U.S. banks.”
“One example is a new, core plus, market-rate multifamily property that was part of a ‘built to sell’ investment strategy,” Lia said. “Over 400 units, wonderful amenities, great market, occupancy has just stabilized, but as we know, ‘new’ doesn’t mean ‘good.'” “We were able to find, quantify, and budget building façade deficiencies, roof deficiencies, and egress issues which were negotiated to an acceptable solution,” he added. “Small problems were fixed for small dollars before they escalated. The deal closed, the buyer is happy, and the seller—one of the most respected developers in the U.S.—is happy.” Moving forward for PR&A as co-presidents, Raybon and Lia aim to keep clients feeling exactly that same way.
PR&A’s national reach
Pond, Robinson & Associates provides engineering, architectural, and construction consulting services for investors, lenders, and facility managers throughout the U.S. and across all asset types, the company says, adding that PR&A “has completed over 10,000 assessments and provided oversight for 1,500 construction projects across 50 states.”
Along with PR&A’s Frisco-based headquarters, the company has regional offices in Texas, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, Colorado, Tennessee, Minnesota, and New York.
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