HOW THIS REAL ESTATE COMPANY DEMANDS RADICAL TRANSPARENCY
“HERE’S THE RULE: YOU CAN TELL ME NOW, OR IF I FIND OUT ABOUT IT AND YOU HAVEN’T TOLD ME, IT’S OVER.”
PARTNERSHIPS CAN BE both profitable and perilous— especially in the complicated, conglomerate-dominated real estate world. But Marcel Arsenault’s Real Capital Solutions has weathered boom and bust by investing in exactly the right companies.
Arsenault is a proponent of full disclosure: Show him your dirty laundry and he’ll do likewise, creating a basis of faith and full transparency. “I want to put it on the table,” he says. “What about you would surprise me? If you’ve gone broke, or had a fight with a contractor, or lawsuits—tell me.”
Such past sins might not scuttle a deal—but hiding them will. “Here’s the rule,” Arsenault adds. “You can tell me now, or if I find out about it and you haven’t told me, it’s over.”
Prospective RCS partners have to list all their previous deals and relationships, their banking ties, legal histories, and even personal information— such as whether they’ve been arrested for DUI or drug possession. “RCS is pretty much a hands-on operator,” says Bob Comstock, the head of homebuilder Comstock Homes, which has taken RCS financing. “It pays attention to everything— probably, from our perspective, a little too much.”
Arsenault fills out the same form. He’s already detailed his faults in an internal document that includes a section called “What Marcel Is Not Good At.” These include being overly “mathematical and dispassionate.” He pleads guilty: “I’m a pain in the ass.”
His long-term development partner, Peter Wells, wouldn’t use those exact words. That might be politic: Wells is the rare exception to Arsenault’s rule, never having filled out the form. Still, their relationship runs exactly as it’s meant to: “Marcel is a strong personality and some of his employees have a hard time voicing their opinion,” Wells says. “But as a partner, I’ve got no problem.”