This sporting life

Nathan North, ‘Eurobuild CEE’: How did you start out in the business?

Eugene Golub, the founder and chairman of the board of Golub & Company: It was just serendipitous that I became involved in real estate. When I was in my early 20s a school friend and I would talk about starting a business together. From high school on I had always been involved with sales and I had jobs selling everything from women’s shoes, working in a menswear store and then on to being a car salesman. My friend and I decided that we should try working in the real estate industry. At the time the State of Illinois required a broker’s licence in order for someone to sell real estate. I went to night school and was successful in qualifying for the broker’s licence. From then on my partner and I became somewhat successful in the commercial brokerage and management business. As the timing in the 60s seemed right, we decided to start a development business along with our leasing and management activities. The first project that we started out with was a very large project in Chicago. It was a 300-unit, 30-storey high-rise. We did not really have a lot of experience, but we figured it out and successfully completed the building.

You were one of the first US property investors to come to Poland and the CEE region. What prompted you to do that?
Our company had been active in Europe in the early 70s. We were the first US real estate company to provide opportunities for European pension funds to invest in US real estate. We had an office in Zurich and were successful, made some money and concluded a number of significant transactions. Soon there- after numerous other larger financial investment firms came into the market and at that time I did not feel we had the infrastructure to compete, so we exited from that operation. In retrospect that was a mistake as we should have continued to compete in the European market. This was a lesson learned as it related to our subsequent entry into the Central European market in 1989. In Chicago we had a relationship with Epstein International, which is an architectural and engineering firm with offices in London, Paris, Tel Aviv and Warsaw. In 1988 there was not a lot of development business going on in the US. In a conversation with the president of Epstein, he suggested that we look at the office development possibilities in Warsaw and urged me to meet with Maciej Raczkiewicz, who at that time was running the Epstein office in Warsaw. I met Mac in Chicago and he convinced us to come to Poland because he knew that there were opportunities to develop first class office buildings in Warsaw. This, of course, was in 1988, when Warsaw was a lot different than it is today. There were no quality western-style office buildings and most international companies, law firms and financial service groups were officing in makeshift apartments. The opportunities were obvious and as Golub & Company and Epstein International certainly had the experience, technology and financial capability, we decided to form a venture between Golub, Epstein and Mac Raczkiewicz to build a western-style office building in Warsaw. We then proceeded to enter into a venture with a Polish engineering company, who had rights to the land, and built the Warsaw Corporate Center. Mac, Epstein and Golub then proceeded to build the Warsaw Financial Center. Golub & Company then continued on to enter other cities, including Prague and St Petersburg. This time our company committed to the market and has been operating in Central Europe for almost 25 years. Our development company in Poland is now Golub GetHouse and we have been in a partnership with Czarek Jarząbek for the past five years. Our new Golub GetHouse development is the Prime Corporate Center on ul. Grzybowska.

What does family mean to you?
Well, my family is very, very important to me. I was always hoping that I would be able to have a family business that would continue on, which it has. I am very fortunate to have my son, a daughter, and Michael Newman, my son-in-law, who is the president of the company. Just recently my oldest granddaughter representing the third generation entered the business. However, these days there are a lot of rules about family members coming to work in a company that relate to their education and their experience working for other companies. There are many different rules that the first generation did not have, but I am hopeful that more of my grandchildren will eventually join the company and work with us. All I did was create the infrastructure for them to do this. I fully realised that there are limitations on what I can do to continue the family business as the family has to want to work and be together. So a number of years ago I basically semi-retired and the company is now owned by my children. I am very fortunate that they all are responsible and capable and have done a much better job than I could have furthering our business. It is very gratifying.

How did it feel to work in Poland in the first years after the political transition?
Well, it wasn’t planned – it just happened. And I enjoyed every minute of it. I have spent a lot of time here, almost 25 years now. Not only here, but also throughout the region and all over Europe. It was the best part of my life because I was not really needed in Chicago. I realised when I came here to do business that grey hair counted. It was then – and is now – a very young business and it has become that way in Poland as well. Everyone in the business here is young, which is why we partnered with Czarek Jarząbek, who is a really terrific young man. When I started our Central Europe operations here I was not young – I was already in my 60s, so it really was an exciting time for me. I was adding value here, whereas basically in the United States they really did not need me.

What do you do to relax? I’ve heard that you are a keen golfer.
I’ve always been active in sports. Even when we recruited people for the company, I always looked for people who were active in sports and were competitive. I have been lucky enough to continue playing golf, working out and trying to stay fit. I have skied for over 50 years and recently stopped. I have been fortunate enough to never really hurt myself skiing and I did not want it to happen now. But I really miss it. In Colorado, in the Aspen area, we developed a very large high-end mountain residential development at the same time we were building the Warsaw Financial Center. So the aspect of developing a high-end residential development in the mountains at the same time as a high-rise building in Warsaw was a lot of fun.

So what are your plans for the company?
Fortunately I am still involved in our activities here in Poland. I say fortunately because it gives me something to do as well. I understand the markets and I understand what it takes to conduct business here. We have been successful in Poland and are continuing this with our Golub GetHouse venture. We met Czarek in Chicago while he was working on his master’s degree at Kellogg. Czarek spent a good deal of time working in our Chicago office, familiarising himself with our development systems.

And you’ve recently started a new project on the Polish market.
We have not built a new building for a while in Warsaw. We were very excited when Czarek brought along the opportunity to develop the Prime Corporate Center. I have enjoyed working with the team here in developing the concept, the architecture, the planning and the marketing of the project. It is a lot of fun to be doing this again. It is a serious endeavour and I believe it will be different in terms of the architecture and the kind of presence that it will add to enhance the existing wonderful Warsaw skyline. I am looking forward to seeing this building completed.

How does it feel to be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award?
This is a real surprise. It is wonderful to be acknowledged and I really appreciate the fact that ‘Eurobuild CEE’ has chosen me for this Lifetime Achievement Award. Unfortunately I cannot be in Warsaw to receive the award because of previous commitments, but Czarek has said he would be happy to accept it for me – and I cannot think of a better person to do so. I again want to thank ‘Eurobuild CEE’ for presenting me with this very distinctive honour.