Real Perspectives Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Registry/Mighty Dot Media
Hello and welcome back to the Real Perspectives Podcast! I'm your host, Vladimir Bosanac, where we dive deep into the real estate stories, real estate experiences, and real estate viewpoints from some of the most intriguing figures in the industry. And speaking of intriguing, today's guest promises to deliver an episode you won't want to miss.
I'm thrilled to introduce Kelly Lovshin from BXP. For those not in the know, Kelly is the lead for the Pacific Northwest market for BXP, and she resides and works in Seattle.
The journey to success is never linear, and today, we'll uncover Kelly's path back to Seattle, and of course, those unique perspectives that have propelled her forward in the often challenging terrain of commercial real estate investment and ownership.
But beyond just her professional journey, we'll delve into Kelly's thoughts on current industry trends, her forecasts for the future, and those invaluable tidbits of advice for our listeners who might be on the brink of their next big venture.
So, whether you're a seasoned expert, a budding real estate entrepreneur, or simply curious about what makes the movers and shakers of our time tick, this episode promises insights, revelations, and perhaps that spark you've been waiting for.
Welcome to the podcast, Kelly Lovshin.
In today's installment, we delve into the remarkable journey and insights of Mike Forsum, the accomplished President and Chief Operating Officer of Landsea Homes. With over three decades of experience in the dynamic world of homebuilding, Forsum's expertise shines through his diverse roles – from his tenure at KB Homes, to his Division President role at Ryland Homes, and his contributions as West Region President at Taylor Woodrow/Morrison. Notably, Forsum's pivotal role as a private equity partner and co-founder of Starwood Land Ventures in 2008, marks one of several standout highlights in his distinguished career. Join us as we uncover his unique perspectives on the industry and tap into Forsum’s invaluable experience to make sense of the residential real estate landscape and the future of Landsea Homes.
In this episode, we are thrilled to introduce Gabrielle Bullock, a true luminary in the field. With an impressive array of accolades, Gabrielle's journey has been defined by her unwavering dedication to reshaping the landscape of architecture. Hailing from Harlem and the Bronx, she knew early on that architecture would be her life's purpose, fueled by a determination to uplift marginalized communities. As Principal and Director of Global Diversity at Perkins & Will in the firm’s Los Angeles office, Gabrielle has charted an extraordinary path, catalyzing change and shattering ceilings. Having emerged as the second black female graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design's architecture department, her impact spans over three decades, marked by iconic projects like the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences. Join us as we delve into her remarkable journey of melding design and social justice, pioneering a more inclusive future for all.
Hello! This is your host, Vladimir Bosanac and today’s episode is a bonus show from one of our recently hosted webinars. Today’s focus is the San Francisco commercial real estate market where we invited a number of brokers to talk about what they’re seeing there and how the first half of the year is shaping our understanding of the second half. I hope you’ll find these conversations informative and that you’ll pick up a nugget of information that may give you more insight into the dynamics of today’s market. Enjoy the show!
Today, we have the privilege of sitting down with Billy Meyer, an exceptional force at Columbia Pacific Advisors. Joining the firm in 2011, Billy's expertise has been instrumental in cultivating and overseeing the Real Estate Lending strategy, where he spearheads the business development team and excels in structuring and originating loans. Before his tenure at Columbia Pacific Advisors, Billy made a significant impact as an investment sales broker with the Tax Credit Group of Marcus & Millichap. There, he learned the ropes in the industry by selling affordable housing properties nationwide. Later, at Holland Partners, he skillfully represented equity for acquiring value-add apartments across the Northwest. Throughout his tenure, Billy participated in the sale or acquisition of over 7,000 units across the country and originated over $3 billion in bridge loans. Today, we delve into his journey, insights, and industry expertise that continue to reshape the landscape of real estate lending. Let's dive in!
Today’s episode is an extra show. We recently hosted a webinar focused on the Silicon Valley market. We invited several commercial brokers to talk about what they see there and how the first half of the year will help us understand the second half. I think you’ll find these conversations very informative, so enjoy the show as we hear from the top brokers how the industry is faring mid-way through 2023.
Welcome to the Real Perspectives podcast, where we delve into the world of commercial real estate and the leaders who shape its future. I'm your host, Vladimir Bosanac, and in today's episode, we have the privilege of speaking with Warren Wachsberger, the Chief Executive of AECOM Capital, a prominent division of AECOM, the world's leading infrastructure and design firm now with a very prominent investment arm, as well. With a wealth of experience in deal acquisition, transaction structuring, and investment execution, Warren has been a driving force behind the success of AECOM Capital since its inception in 2013. Join us as we explore his journey, from his early career at KPMG to his pivotal role in real estate investment and his contributions to the Executive Committee of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California, among other areas of activity. Stay tuned for valuable insights and captivating stories that will inspire you to learn more about this organization and its leader.
CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) Orange County, an organization dedicated to the advancement of women in commercial real estate, is hosting the 11th Annual SPIRE (Superior Performance in Real Estate) Awards on October 20, 2023, at the City National Grove of Anaheim. The deadline for nominations for the event’s awards is July 31st.
The SPIRE Awards is a black-tie gala honoring outstanding Orange County commercial real estate men, women and project teams, who have significantly impacted the commercial real estate industry. Award categories include women in commercial real estate; new construction/development; building renovations; tenant improvements; most valuable service partner; leasing; sales; philanthropy; and emerging leaders. Award judges include a diverse range of Orange County’s prominent commercial real estate leaders.
The 11th Annual SPIRE Awards promises to transport attendees to a modern, vintage metropolis, complete with an indulgent dining experience and exciting entertainment. Former SPIRE Top Woman in Commercial Real Estate award winner and President and CEO of Innovative Housing Opportunities Rochelle Mills is the keynote speaker.
To learn more about the 11th Annual SPIRE Awards and purchase tickets, please visit: https://www.crewocspireawards.com/.
Nominations will conclude Monday, July 31st. Nomination instructions, eligibility criteria and more may be found at https://www.crewocspireawards.com/nomination.
Those interested in becoming a sponsor should go to: https://www.crewocspireawards.com/sponsor-1.
Welcome to the Real Perspectives Podcast, where we explore the visionary minds shaping the future of the commercial real estate industry. I'm your host, Vladimir Bosanac, and today we have a special guest with us, Ryan Ware, the president and co-founder of Vantis.
Vantis is a leading company dedicated to the integration of offsite construction solutions. They understand the challenges faced in implementing practices that differ from conventional methods. At Vantis, they believe that the construction industry has remained within its comfort zone for far too long.
Ryan Ware and his team are on a mission to accelerate change within the construction industry by challenging conventional mindsets and creating a better-built environment for all. They are committed to improving construction through lean principles and the integration of innovative construction methods and technologies into project planning and execution.
And part of our conversation focuses on the improvement that the industry needs to consider way upstream, into how professionals are trained and educated about the design and built environments.
As a trained architect, Ryan has a unique perspective to share in this area, so naturally, our conversation takes us into ways that can help us break free from the status quo and build with engineering value in mind, rather than simply following what's comfortable. It's time to change, it's time to move forward.
So, without further ado, let's welcome Ryan Ware.
Welcome to the Real Perspectives Podcast, where we shine a light on trailblazers, visionaries, and disruptors shaping the commercial real estate landscape. I'm your host, Vladimir Bosanac, and today we have the privilege of diving into the extraordinary journey of one such influential figure. Joining us is Camille Renshaw, the CEO and Co-Founder of B+E.
Camille Renshaw is a true force to be reckoned with in the world of commercial real estate. As the leader and co-founder of B+E, an innovative brokerage and technology platform, Camille has redefined the way commercial properties are bought and sold.
Prior to B+E, Camille honed her expertise in real estate, finance, and technology through her remarkable career journey. She has worked with esteemed organizations such as Colliers, Ten-X, and Stan Johnson, amassing a wealth of knowledge and experience that sets her apart as a thought leader in the field.
Camille's relentless pursuit of innovation has been the driving force behind B+E's achievements. Under her leadership, the company has introduced cutting-edge technologies that streamline and simplify the buying and selling of commercial real estate, making it more accessible to investors and market participants worldwide.
So, get ready to be inspired and captivated as we embark on this journey with Camille Renshaw, the visionary CEO and Co-Founder of B+E.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Real Perspectives podcast, where we dive deep into the world of real estate and uncover the strategies, trends, and stories that shape the industry. I'm your host, Vladimir Bosanac, and today, we have a special guest with us who has made a significant impact in the realm of real estate investment.
Joining us today is Bill Shopoff, the visionary founder and CEO of Shopoff Realty Investments. With decades of experience, Bill has become a driving force in the real estate industry, consistently demonstrating his unwavering commitment to excellence and innovation.
Throughout his career, Bill has been at the forefront of transformative projects, from residential communities to commercial developments, hospitality ventures to land entitlements. His expertise spans multiple sectors, enabling him to adapt to changing market dynamics and deliver exceptional value.
In today's episode, we have the privilege of delving into Bill's insights, gaining valuable knowledge from his vast reservoir of experience.
So, without further ado, let's welcome Bill Shopoff to the show!
Today, I have the privilege of speaking with Jimmy Silverwood, the President of San Diego-based affordable housing developer Affirmed Housing.
Jimmy, as he’s known in the industry in order to be distinguished from his father, the founder the CEO James Silverwood, has grown up around real estate and from a very early age was exposed to the intricacies of the business.
Today, the company’s focus is on California and serving the communities around the major metropolitan centers. Our conversation will explore how this industry is faring today and how the new normal of our economy is impacting the business of affordable housing.
Welcome to the podcast, Jimmy.
Today’s podcast episode is a little different than usual. We recently held a Northern California Life Science Webinar, which I found to be interesting and informative about where the industry is today and how it’s shaping up in the near future. As you’ll see, our panel is comprised of investors, developers, brokers and construction companies whose daily work in this area gives them just the kind of exposure needed to really understand all the undercurrents impacting this very important sector of Northern California’s and the national economies.
Speakers include:
JAMES BENNETT
Vice Chairman
Life Science Practice
CBRE
FRED KNAPP
Managing Partner
TRANSWESTERN VENTURES
PAUL NOLAND
Executive Vice President
L&B REALTY ADVISORS
STEVE SMITH
Senior Project Manager
GIDEL & KOCAL CONSTRUCTION
GREGG WALKER
Senior Managing Director
Head of Business Development
DIVCOWEST
Today, I have the privilege of speaking with Tiffany Wright, the president of and chief energy officer - the name I invented for Tiffany by myself - of a Pacific Northwest-based brokerage, CPX.
Tiffany is somewhat unique in her role - a female leading a commercial brokerage firm - and also a keen strategist thinking of everything from motivating her team members to finding ways to grow the enterprise.
In our conversation, we’ll cover some of what the firm is doing, Tiffany’s perspective on the market and how CPX stands out from the rest of the crowd in this important industry.
Today, we have the honor of speaking with Virginia Maggiore, a principal at RDC. Since joining the firm in 2019, Virginia has built the firm’s practice focused on Retail Store Rollout and Planning, adding notable clients to the firm’s roster and garnering accolades for her work from colleagues and clients. Virginia is a licensed architect, responsible for developing the in-store experience and what the firm calls the customer journey. She’s focused on creative strategy, visual communication, and marketing integration for retail clients. One of her recent specialties, which we’ll cover in depth in this conversation, is with the cannabis industry.
Founded in 1979, RDC is a full-service architecture firm dedicated to making everyday places extraordinary. Headquartered in Long Beach, CA, the firm has a 160+ team with offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Washington D.C., Arkansas and Shanghai.
Welcome to the podcast Virginia.
Today’s guest is William Sankey, the founder and CEO of Northspyre, a company that was created from Sankey’s experience working on complex design and development projects and that has led him to apply AI and predictive analytics in order to de-risk those same developments and improve the overall project management workflow and significantly reduce costs.
This conversation takes us on a personal tour of Sankey’s background and how this company came to be, as well as a peek into the future of technology in commercial real estate development.
Welcome to the podcast William.
Today, we sit down with Zachary Streit, founder and managing partner of Los Angeles and Nashville-based Way Capital, where he has arranged and closed in excess of $2 billion and has underwritten in excess of $6 billion of debt and equity financings for a broad array of real estate transactions. Zachary has significant experience arranging and closing construction loans, CMBS loans and private/hard money loans across all commercial property types.
Today’s conversation takes us to the formation of the company, the drivers of the industry and an overview of commercial real estate lending from a person intimately familiar with it.
Welcome to the podcast, Zachary.
Our next guest is Kevin Donahey, who earlier this year was promoted form CEO of North American operations for Willow, a global technology company working within the real estate and infrastructure industries, with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Seattle, New York, London, Manila and Amersfoort, to its Vice Chair and Global Head of Corporate Development. Kevin’s background, like that of so many others whom we interviewed on this show, is unconventional and leads through Wall Street, various advisory roles, and one that finally landed him at Brookfield where he was tasked, amongst other things, to look for technology partners who can help the company scale into that area of expertise.
This led him to a leadership role at Willow, which we’ll explore now, as well as his perspective on the market, and where the tech space is taking hold in the commercial real estate world.
Welcome to the podcast, Kevin!
Ted Jung is the Chief Credit Officer with Parkview Financial, which is headquartered in Los Angeles and he lives and breathes lending across a broad spectrum of commercial real estate transactions. Ted’s background has prepared him well for this position, and he brings to his role 17 years of institutional life insurance and banking experience in the commercial real estate lending industry on a national platform where he has provided loan credit approvals in excess of $12 billion.
He has extensive knowledge of underwriting and originating large loans for all major asset types with institutional sponsors across both primary and secondary markets throughout the U.S. His experience across the capital stack includes senior perm mortgages, mezzanine debt, construction loans, CTL’s, and equity.
Let’s hear what he has to say about the state of the industry from his perspective.
Welcome to the podcast, Ted.
Today’s conversation is with Adir Levitas, the founder and CEO of Faropoint, an Israeli-founded company that identified a remarkable opprotunity in the last-mile space of the industrial sector. The company has emerged from its entry into the US market to be one of the fastest-growing industrial investors in the country.
Our conversation focuses on the inception of the company and how it evolved its technological capabilities to realize the opportunities in a space that was often overlooked by investors. We will also address the comapny’s plans to expand across the country and its efforts to leverage its status in the industry today to become a national player in this very important commercial real estate segment.
Since the start of COVID, the mortgage industry has been on a tear, once it picked up from a couple of months of relative quiet. But the tide may be turning now, and Thomas Yoon, the CEO of Excelerate Capital, will tell us how things are going in this very dynamic part of the industry.
Thomas is an entrepreneur, so he’s seen his share of ups and downs in this space, but it is his entrepreneurial spirit and outlook on life and business that is now taking him to invest in new companies while maintaining his focus on the industry in which he’s been successful so far.
Sustainability is close to my heart. I strive to live in a way that reduces energy consumption, I’m aware of my carbon footprint, and when I can, I try to bring the best of the sustainability in commercial real estate to light in order to motivate others and provide some inspiration for our industry and beyond.
Today’s guest will do exactly that. Joe Rozza has recently been hired by Ryan Companies as their new chief sustainability officer. He’s based in Atlanta and brings to commercial real estate over 25 years of deep and strategic experience committed to environmentalism and sustainability. Our conversation today focuses on the state of the sustainability industry across commercial real estate and what specifically he was brought to Ryan to accomplish. There’s a lot on his plate, but he is very hopeful about this industry and what it can do to help combat climate change in a meaningful way.
Sooner or later, analytics and artificial intelligence were going to make a splash in the real estate industry, and today’s guests, Archer Co-Founders Thomas Foley and Fred Canney, will tell us how their company is looking to accomplish that.
Thomas, who comes from the commercial real estate space, met Fred, who worked in gold mining and the two decided to mine data for their next venture and help identify properties and the right time to buy and sell them. It’s a new world out there, and Archer is helping lead the way in this exciting new transformation.
In the world of commercial construction, it is not often that we encounter a female CEO, but for Skyline Enterprises, this transformation is not new and Jessica Carps is not a usual candidate for a role like this. With its roots in the Bay Area, Skyline has now expanded to Washington, Texas, Illinois and Southern California, but its focus remains steadfast toward its clients, which is what has been driving that growth.
Today’s conversation takes us through the commercial construction industry and its drivers in a new, post COVID world. Skyline, which has successfully navigated the last two years is poised for exceptional growth, and Jessica’s here to tell us a little bit about how they are going to achieve that.
There has been a lot said about the impact we are making on our environment, and the commercial real estate industry is at times at the forefront of that. This is why we wanted to talk to someone who really understands the impact we’re having on our world and who can help us navigate these issues better.
Our guest today is Leslie Moulton-Post, the President and CEO of ESA - Environmental Science Associates. Her firm employs scientists, planners, historians, archaeologists, engineers, designers, and technical specialists to provide critical thinking in the areas of environmental and community planning, analysis and assessment, natural and cultural resources management, environmental restoration and design, and regulatory compliance, which helps guide successful policy development and project planning, and deliver enduring projects across the world. For over 50 years, ESA has led the charge on these things, and its finest work is likely just ahead of it.
If you work in commercial real estate, you will have heard of Prop Tech recently, and it is likely that either you or one of your friends has an idea of how to improve commercial real estate through an innovative product or service. RET Ventures will likely be the firm you’ll meet if this is your goal, because they are solely focused on Prop Tech and look for ways to bring these innovative companies to the mainstream.
Today’s conversation with Aaron Ru, a Vice President at RET, gives us a glimpse of his company’s activities, how the world of Prop Tech breaks down and what are some areas where there has been lots of activity. It’s a bright future for the industry!
Today’s conversation takes us to the back yard! Not necessarily my back yard, but a place where some cities across the country are allowing homeowners to build free-standing structures, accessory dwelling units, or more colloquially known as granny units or in-law units. The world of ADUs had grown over the last decade, and some big cities have enacted laws allowing for speedier development of these in order to curb a shortage of housing.
Our chat with Adam Stone, the CEO and co-founder of ADU OZ Fund, or ADU opportunity zone fund, is now looking to bring investment dollars into this opportunity and most importantly into areas known as opportunity zones. He’s looking to really put a booster on this business and help bring housing in areas where its perhaps needed the most. Here is our conversation about his business and the cottage industry of ADUs that’s quickly evolving.
Today’s conversation is with Steve Glenn, the founder and CEO of Plant Prefab, the first prefabricated home factory in the nation dedicated to sustainable construction, materials, processes, and operations. Plant manufactures custom and single/multifamily homes that are high-quality, healthy, and durable. With their patented building system, Plant delivers low cost homes in half the time and with less waste than traditional site-based contractors. Plant models are fully customizable and available to individuals, developers, and architects.
We talk to Steve about how his company is transforming the home and multifamily development business and how he sees the business progressing not just in the United States, but possibly globally, as well. These are not your typical prefab homes, and Steve is not your typical entrepreneur, either, and our conversation will reveal how his perspectives have shaped Plant and hopefully the process of building of the future.
The Swig Company is a privately owned real estate investor operator based in San Francisco with a venerable +80-year history of investment, development, partnership and management of commercial properties in major U.S. markets. Today’s conversation with its CEO Jim Carbone and President Connor Kidd takes us through a period that the firm experienced over the last two years and how those times have helped the company re-affirm its strategy and vision for the future.
Oh, and Jim announces that Connor will be taking over the company, which was hinted at by Connor’s latest promotion and now reaffirmed during our conversation.
Bryan McLaren is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zoned Properties, a strategic real estate development firm whose primary mission is to provide real estate and sustainability services for the regulated cannabis industry. Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., Bryan helps shape the industry across the country and brings an understanding of what cannabis can mean for the commercial real estate industry. In just a few years, this industry has expanded from farming to warehousing, manufacturing, retail, finance and transportation, in some places it is a significant player in the commercial real estate industry.
Today’s conversation takes us through some of the ins and outs of this industry and its impact on commercial real estate and beyond.
I have not worked in construction, but I can imagine the difficult task of having to redesign or reorient something during the design phase in order to meet new criteria or requests made by the development team. Finally, Alice Technologies has a solution that helps transform the industry through its generative construction simulation.
Our conversation today is with Rene Morkos, the founder and CEO of Alice, who takes us through the company’s offering, how he came up with the product and where technologies like these will take construction and design in the future.
Today, we head down to Southern California, where are met with Jodie Poirier and Amanda Spangler. Jodie is the executive managing director of Colliers’ Greater Los Angeles region - she essentially runs the show for Colliers there - and Amanda’s role as managing director of Orange County and Inland Empire extends the group’s coverage into these two important Southern California submarkets.
The commercial real estate market in this region has been impacted just like any other in the country. However, Southern California has two really big aces up its sleeve - it is the place where most of the stuff we buy from Asia enters the country, so its industrial market is one of the most important in the country. The second ace is the creation of content, which has exploded over the last two years as we’ve binged and spent time glued to our devices while waiting for COVID to end.
Our conversation today takes us across Southern California’s commercial real estate market as we try to assess the drivers of this industry and what it may bring in the near term.
Rebecca Rockey is an economist and the Global Head of Forecasting at commercial real estate brokerage and advisory firm Cushman & Wakefield. In her role, she studies how economies, demographics, financial markets and commercial real estate interact— both at the macro and micro level. Today’s conversation covers some of the recent changes the Biden Administration enacted with the first phase of the Build Back Better bill. Its impact on commercial real estate is not insignificant and it promises to bring positive change throughout the industry. Rebecca’s perspectives will help us understand the timing of this bill, how different categories of the bill will help impact the industry and we’ll even touch on the dreaded I-word: Inflation.
In 1986, Scott Knies and a few of his colleagues set out to create a business-oriented organization that would help raise awareness of downtown San Jose. Over the next few decades, the San Jose Downtown Association would come to symbolize not only great dynamism in California’s third-largest city but also help promote the good work the city and its corporate citizens were doing to enhance the life of downtown San Jose.
As is the case with many other cities, San Jose, too, is experiencing a bit of a setback, but this is all prelude to some remarkable changes coming there over the next year or so. We sit down with Scott to talk about those changes and how the city will help shape Silicon Valley of the future.
Mark Anderson is the founder and president of MGAC, a Washington, DC-based owner’s representation, and project and cost management consultancy that was born our Mark’s focus on three simple concepts: have fun, do interesting work, and make money doing it. Since 1996, the company has developed and delivered full life cycle solutions for its clients from site selection, program development, cost and schedule modeling, design management, procurement strategy and construction oversight, to name a few.
With additional offices in the US located in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Seattle, MGAC has expanded its work across the Atlantic Ocean with its recent acquisition of U.K. property and construction consultants, RLF. Founded in 1885, RLF has 100 employees across four U.K. offices in London, Brighton, Birmingham and Glasgow, now places where MGAC can expand its operations.
Here’s our conversation with Mark and his view on the industry.
In a recent webinar that we held online, we took a deep dive into the drivers of the construction industry across the Bay Area and how it is evolving in light of global challenges affecting every aspect of development.
I sat down with leaders at Clark Construction, Pankow Builders, Nibbi Brothers and Gidel & Kocal to ask how their businesses are doing, what challenges they’ve encountered over the past few years, and how the industry as a whole is adapting to the new normal of a post-COVID world affected by labor and supply chain challenges.
Here is our conversation!
Bill Galipeau is BKM Capital Partners’ new Chief Financial Officer. Joining the organization from his role as EVP and Head of Investment Operations at PIMCO, Bill brings 25 years of institutional-grade commercial real estate investment and operations experience that will help BKM in its new trajectory to be the leading industrial investment and operations platform in the Western United States.
The Newport Beach company is an active player in the industrial market on the West Coast, which has been one of the busiest ones in the country. Where the industry is heading can be anyone’s guess, but BKM and Galipeau will certainly be part of that evolution in the years to come.
The life science industry has been on everyone’s mind since the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic. We all became experts in epidemiology and have been anxiously awaiting vaccines to help us get back to some semblance of normalcy.
As a result, life sciences have been on a vertical trajectory, and the commercial real estate industry could not provide enough lab space for all the innovation and ideas percolating around.
Form4, an architecture firm based in San Francisco, has taken on this challenge and is helping developers and property owners to reimagine space, in some cases obsolete property, as centers of biotech innovation. James Tefend and Colin Mosher work on these projects every day, and their understanding of the industry is deep and broad.
Here’s what they have to say about life sciences and the journey ahead.
Today’s conversation takes us back to the hospitality industry, and I have the great pleasure of speaking with Greg Kennealey, the CEO of Denver-based Mission Hill Hospitality.
Greg’s tenure in the industry has taken him from managing groups of hotels for KSL, which helped him springboard into a partnership with this firm to form Mission Hill. The company today is looking to grow its portfolio in the select-service/extended-stay hotel industry, which, as we’ll hear has been doing pretty well since the global COVID-19 pandemic began and is on the target list of many institutional investment organizations.
Greg’s business is growing, and he’s joining us from his office in Denver to share how the industry is changing and how his company looks to build a differentiating advantage from the rest.
In mid-2020, as the global COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to make its way across the globe, the hotel industry was anticipated to be extinct in the near future. And it very nearly came to be!
However, just a year later, the swing has been one of the most remarkable in the commercial real estate industry, and today’s guest, Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, will tell us just how that came to be.
Alan has been one of the most prominent brokers in hospitality in California and has had the front seat to a remarkable industry that continues to break records even while the uncertainties linger and business as usual is anything but that.
Today’s guest is Vancouver, British Columbia-based Tom Rossiter, the president and CEO of RESAAS, a business network platform that real estate agents across the globe can utilize to communicate, exchange ideas and information and ideally close deals faster.
Tom’s company is well known within the residential brokerage community, however, the company recently discovered a group of commercial brokers also adopting the platform for their use, bringing Tom’s vision of expanding into other verticals more into focus.
Now, as RESAAS is looking to grow, it is also seeking ways through which it can become relevant within commercial real estate and how it can add value inside that communication value chain.
There are few people who understand better what makes the Bay Area tick than Jim Wunderman. He is the CEO of the Bay Area Council, an organization that is fully focused on making the region the most globally competitive and economically productive in the world! The Bay Area Council is a public policy and advocacy organization that was formed in 1945 in an effort to shape the future of the region and keep it as the most innovative, competitive and sustainable in the world.
But now that these goals have largely been achieved, the region is faced with a set of new challenges, in some cases challenges of riches, but nonetheless challenges that need to be addressed. In our conversation with Jim, we talk about those and provide a sense of the great opportunities that lie ahead, should these problems be resolved.
Ofer Avnery took a slightly different route to real estate. He created a technology company, sold it and then embarked on the path of easy life in real estate. Well, that’s what he hoped to achieve but quickly found himself trying to transform one of the biggest business innovation laggards by building intelligent software that allowed him to see development opportunities where others may not.
And, so Real Wave came to be, which today focuses on using some of that artificial intelligence to help him and his investors grow the business, expand into new markets and even create a development company for a new type of affordable housing.
In today’s conversation, we sit down with Jerry Zevenbergen and TR Hazelrigg, co-founders of Seattle-based Avatar Financial. As CEO and President, Jerry and TR, respectively, run an organization focused on bridge lending across the commercial real estate spectrum, and they give us a sense of where the industry is today and some of the challenges that their clients are facing. Bridge lending can be a life-savior in some cases, and their perspective on the market helps us understand how it will evolve over the next few years.
Understanding the state of the commercial real estate industry today requires a global perspective, and RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) is one place to get that. In today’s conversation, we sit down with Ann Gray, the Pasadena-based President-elect of this organization and also Principal of Gray Real Estate Advisors. Ann will lead the global organization in the fall of 2022, but today she tells us about their work and how it helps shape the world of commercial real estate across the globe. We also discuss the current state of the industry, which RICS evaluates quarterly through their Global Commercial Property Monitor, a sentiment study of occupiers and property owners.
Today’s conversation takes us outside of the office and toward art. The art that you usually see in front of buildings and airports and apartment complexes. Gordon Huether is a Napa, Calif.-based artist whose specialty is this type of art, and we talk about the need for more of it across the world. We also discuss his early days and how he got introduced to it, what got him to create and how like every other business today, his is also impacted by the logistics issues brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a world that is often laden with uncertainty, one company looks to make things simpler and a little more predictable. Reali is a company that is vertically integrating the home buying experience, trying to make the process as smooth as possible and frictionless to one of the parties under most stress - the home buyers. We sit down today with Reali’s CEO, Tyler Baldwin, to talk about how his company is doing that and what it hopes to make of the home buying experience in the future.
In today’s conversation, I sit down with Anthony Romano, the CEO of CREtelligent, a company that powers the commercial real estate space by providing an innovative approach to gather a number of due diligence data. Anthony’s prior experience in commercial real estate and technology prepared him well for this role, but it’s the opportunity to transform an industry not known for innovation that motivates him the most.
Today’s conversation takes us to Seattle, where we talk to Alison Beddard, the new Managing Principal of the Seattle and Bellevue offices, and the rest of the state of Washington for that matter, of Cushman & Wakefield. Alison’s path to leadership was not a straight line, and it often isn’t, but her story of self-confidence and ability to lead a successful organization stood out, and now it is paying dividends.
We talk in our conversation about the Puget Sound region, the changes that the industry has experienced since COVID, and how all those variables are making the business of commercial real estate brokerage new and better.
Few people have had an impact on the industry as deep and as broad as our next guest. Michael Casolo, who today serves as the Global Chief Revenue Officer for Unispace, has spent 25 years working in an industry that changed very little over that time. Today, however, it’s an industry ripe for change and disruption, the good kind, and he’s helping lead the charge of that evolution.
Jill Jago’s path to architecture and workplace strategy was not a straight line from one opportunity to the next, and it rarely is. Her understanding of the trends and what shapes a successful organization, however, has been deeply impacted by her experience and work throughout the engineering and architecture world that she has called home for years.
Today, she leads the Advance Strategy group at B+H in Seattle and helps organizations globally think about solutions that not always include a building. She also drives innovative thinking on sustainability and how post-pandemic, our world is likely going to change in ways that will transform the way we work, live and co-exist with others.
Today’s conversation is with Jim Clewlow, the Chief Investment Officer of CenterPoint, one of the nation’s largest and most influential industrial commercial real estate investors and developers. Jim’s road to CenterPoint was an improbable one. He started in the commercial real estate industry after graduating from the University of Illinois and taking a research job with CBRE. He wanted to become an office broker, but opportunities there were scant, so he went to the industrial side of the business and had to learn on his own the ins and outs of that industry. And it was not a very exciting part of the industry at that time, either.
Today, Jim and CenterPoint are helping define the industrial real estate market throughout the country, and Jim sees the industry’s constant change as one of its most appealing features.
Today’s conversation takes us to Los Angels where we talk to Hal Pohl, the Head of West Coast Acquisitions at Haven Capital. Hal has a long-standing experience in the industry, but Haven Capital is a newcomer to commercial real estate market, and they are trying to take a somewhat niche opportunity and bring it to the mainstream of the industry.
How Haven Capital is looking to do that is the subject of our conversation, as well as a perspective on the different food groups of an industry that seems to be recovering with great speed.
Today’s conversation is with Lauren Seaver, she is the President of Opportunity Housing Group, an entity that was founded out the Blake Griggs Properties enterprise and based in Danville, California.
Lauren recently helped launch Opportunity Housing Group as way to address much-needed middle-income housing across California, a niche segment of the vast multifamily real estate industry sector, but one that impacts nearly a third of residents in major metropolitan areas.
In her new role, she is responsible for all stages of the acquisition, due diligence, financing and asset management process. She brings to the organization over 8 years of experience in institutional multifamily and commercial development and acquisitions. During her career, Lauren has led the development, entitlement and acquisition of over $800 million in multifamily and commercial real estate.
Welcome to the podcast, Lauren!
We speak today with Wayne Berger, the Chief Executive Officer of the Americas for IWG - also known as International Workspace Group or the company that owns Regus and another dozen or so companies around the workspace environment. Wayne’s perspective on the workspace and occupier industry is unique but also broad. While IWG is based in Europe. Wayne’s organizations spans North and South America. He sees the world from a very different perspective.
Our conversation today takes us into the world of office use and the things that COVID has accelerated and changed perhaps forever. We discuss our perspectives on offices opening up and what companies will have to consider in the future. Finally, we take stock of the role shared workspace will play in that new world and the space IWG will ideally occupy.
Ashley Gidel’s involvement with a company her father and partner started began at an early age. A family business that grew out of a necessity for extra work, the two founders were teachers in need of extra cash in the summer, Gidel & Kocal today is a well-known construction business serving the greater Bay Area in a number of sectors. Ashley just became the company’s President and looks to change the face of construction across the industry and across the region.
Here is her story of how she came to the company and how an improbable time led to an improbable role, but one that will set an example for others in the industry.
Prior to co-founding Hamilton Zanze in 2001, Mark Hamilton sponsored the acquisition, ownership, and development of nearly 40 properties in the Bay Area. Mark’s main focus has always been locating value-add properties in changing urban neighborhoods and then re-working them into higher-quality buildings with higher incomes, improved tenant profiles, and higher resale values.
Mark has considerable experience in partnership formations and operations, project planning and implementation, asset management and management oversight, landlord-tenant and rent-control issues, risk management, and zoning and building department matters. Before forming his own commercial brokerage and investment business in 1994, Mark worked in the San Francisco office of Marcus & Millichap, subsequently co-founding Property Resource Group (real estate brokerage) and Quantum Land Company (development).
Retail veteran James Chung launched the econic company in 2021 with a singular goal in mind: to provide seamless, bespoke services to landlords and tenants alike in a landscape unlike any other in recent memory. To do that, he draws on a fierce work ethic, an innate knowledge of the commercial real estate landscape, and an uncanny ability to close deals in even the most challenging market conditions.
The way James sees it, a storefront is a “living organism” — from its impact on jobs, supply chains, and the community around it. He views his role as a connector and place-maker, and relishes the opportunity to curate some of the most unique, engaging retail environments in the country.
James brings more than 20 years of experience as one of the top retail brokers in the country to his role as Founder and Principal of Econic. Prior to launching the firm, he spent 18 years with global CRE brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, most recently in the position of Executive Managing Director and as the head of retail for the Western United States. He was consistently a top C&W producer and was named National Retail Broker of the Year firm-wide in 2014.
Cyrus Sanandaji is the founder and managing director of Presidio Bay Ventures, a commercial real estate investment and development firm focused on the design, construction and long-term operation of a diverse set of product types for private and public sector tenants across the United States.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Presidio Bay's primary expertise is in new construction and major renovation of complex, mid to large-scale office buildings, mixed-use urban infill multifamily communities, industrial distribution centers, and other special-use facilities.
On the show today, we have the honor to speak with Patrick MacLeamy, who led global architecture and engineering firm HOK from its San Francisco office. Patrick started at the firm as a junior designer and eventually became its CEO, witnessing the firm’s growth from a single midwestern office to 27 locations across the globe offering architecture, interiors, engineering, planning and more.
MacLeamy joined HOK St. Louis in 1967, then helped establish the firm’s San Francisco outpost in 1970, later becoming managing principal of that office and then the firm’s CEO in 2016. MacLeamy led many signature projects at HOK, including Moscone Center in San Francisco and King Khalid International Airport in Saudi Arabia. Over the years, he worked as a designer, project manager and even marketer at HOK, soaking up knowledge of all three disciplines. Trained as an architect, MacLeamy is a self-taught executive, who attributes his success to his ability to communicate clearly and his interest in “boring” things like financial metrics and digital standards, that architects often ignore.
You may not know this yet, but Kristina Lawson and Jennifer Martinez are the future of law. Not in a way that introduces some new legal theory or innovation in code, but in a way a law firm is run. Kristina Lawson recently became the managing partner of San Francisco-based Hanson Bridgett, and one of her initiatives was to task Jennifer Martinez with running the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the firm. And not just as a secondary role, but as a full-time employee focused on these issues.
Hanson Bridgett is trailblazing a path for others to follow, and its work is already receiving recognition throughout the industry. How they got there and what they plan to do at the firm is the subject of our conversation.
Paul Ferro is a co-founder, principal, and Chief Executive Officer at Form4 Architecture. Committed to creating architecture that is rational, empowering and dynamic, Paul’s expertise ranges from office shells and interiors, athletic facilities, mixed-use, churches, and residential. Paul maintains his dedication to clients and the success of projects through his direct involvement with the design and final implementation of every project he leads. His hands-on approach ensures that concepts and goals are carried through and ultimately realized.
James Shannon has a storied career as an entrepreneur and technology leader. He possesses a deep passion for applying his knowledge and experience to create innovative and inspiring products. His experience includes the development of large-scale cloud services, award-winning mobile apps, integrated smart devices and cutting-edge consumer hardware for leading global brands. James leads the vision and strategic direction of the essensys platform. With extensive experience in enterprise SaaS and product development, James plays a key role at essensys in enhancing the user experience for flexible workspace operators and occupiers alike.
Murphy McCullough is the regional manager for commercial development in Skanska’s Seattle office, where he has worked for the past decade. He’s delivered Skanska’s first development projects in the region, including the urban-inspired apartments at Alley 111 in Bellevue, the Brooks Sports headquarters and flagship store at Stone34 in Fremont, and Tommy Bahama’s headquarters at 400 Fairview in South Lake Union. But it was the company’s largest global investment ever that really gave McCullough an opportunity to make an impact on Seattle and the greater Puget Sound region - the 38-story 2+U tower in Seattle’s central business district.
McCullough sits down with us to talk about those initiatives and how Skanska’s global vision aligns with his efforts in the region, as well as to give us a preview of a couple of upcoming developments that he’s embarking on shortly.
On today’s podcast, we have the pleasure of talking with Chely Wright, Unispace’s recently minted first Chief Diversity Equity & Inclusion Officer. Chely brings a background that fuses advocacy, business, real estate and communications, and has worked with companies such as Procter & Gamble, Southeastern Grocers and Morgan Stanley to advance their DE&I programs, having established relationships with organizations such as GLSEN, GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, and Interfaith Alliance.
But, if you seem to know Chely’s name, it’s because before taking this role, she was a renowned country music artist and activist for LGBT rights but also working with military members and veterans, which she’ll reference in our conversation.
Welcome to the podcast, Chely!
When Matt Macko and I first met, he was just kicking off the formation of this business in San Francisco, which was going to focus on building more sustainable spaces and buildings. In a similar way, we were also trying to make a name for ourselves in an industry that over the last decade transformed the Bay Area commercial real estate market into one of the most important ones across the world.
Matt got a big break with Boston Properties who have put him and his team to work on what would become the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, and as the story usually goes, the rest is history. Stok today works with clients across the country and the globe, and Matt’s vision of creating radically better buildings is coming to full realization.
Julia Weatherspoon is an architectural designer at SmithGroup and current president of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects, (SF NOMA). With a mission to to create more inclusive spaces within design, her projects range from workplace commercial interiors, aviation, community and civic design, and now Higher Education. Julia holds a Bachelors of Architecture from the University of Arizona.
Hao Ko is a Managing Director, Principal and architect at Gensler’s San Francisco office. His internationally recognized projects include The Tower at PNC Plaza and NVIDIA Headquarters. He is an alumnus of UC Berkeley and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Lisa Cholmondeley is a Principal and architect at Gensler’s San Francisco office. Currently, she is the Project Manager and Senior Architect for the design and execution of Related’s 240-acre, 10+ million square foot mixed-use development in Santa Clara. Prior to joining the San Francisco office, Lisa’s career at Gensler included experience in London, Doha, and Abu Dhabi. Lisa is an alumnus of Cornell University, and holds a Master of Arts degree in History and Theory of Architecture from The Architectural Association.
Lisa and Hao are active leaders on Gensler’s regional and firm-wide Global Race & Diversity Committees.
On today’s show, we’re going to do a quick San Francisco commercial real estate market overview, and today, that is brought to you by Zac Monsees. Zac is a vice president at Transwestern in San Francisco, and his team advises on leasing and capital markets transactions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area on behalf on institutional landlords, family trusts and owner-occupiers.
Zac joins us today from his office in San Francisco to talk about what he’s seeing shaping the market today and how that may impact real estate in the near future!
Veronica Hinkley Reck is a licensed architect with over 25 years of experience designing award-winning affordable, market-rate and senior housing projects. Veronica brings a particular passion for creating beautiful, sustainable affordable housing that is specific to its context and population and that truly enhances the lives of its residents and their communities.
She founded and ran her own practice for 15 years, during which she helped transform several of the Bay Area's newest neighborhoods—including San Francisco's Shipyard, Mission Bay, Hayes Valley and Alameda's Site A. In 2019 she joined SERA Architects in Oakland, where she is a Design Principal and the Director of Housing for California. Current projects she is most excited about include the McEvoy Apartments in San Jose, which is a 365-unit affordable high rise, all electric, LEED Platinum, mass timber project near Diridon Station; and The Magnolias, a 66-unit affordable, all electric, LEED Platinum Modular project in Morgan Hill.
Jon Scholes was named President & CEO of Downtown Seattle Association in November of 2014, following six years as the organization’s Vice President of Advocacy & Economic Development. He believes the health of downtown Seattle is critical to a healthy city and region, and he’s led this organization during a time of explosive growth for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. This provided immense opportunities but also challenges for Downtown Seattle Association, and he is acutely aware of them both.
Jon’s passion for taking on big issues is reflected in his nearly 20 years of work in nonprofit advocacy, local government, regional policy and senior positions on political campaigns. At DSA, he leads a diverse team focused on creating a healthy, vibrant and inviting downtown, and he works closely with the city of Seattle officials to help revitalize a downtown that has been affected by the pandemic and other endemic issues associated with a large urban environment.
Mike Sroka is the co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Dealpath, a company that describes itself as a platform that enables smarter deal management in the commercial real estate world. Prior to Dealpath, Mike has spent over a decade growing venture-backed software companies including Fanhood (acq. by FOX), Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) and OneSeason (acq. by Cantor Fitzgerald). He co-founded Dealpath in 2014 in no small part due to the requests his colleagues made for ways to improve how things got done in the industry, and he’s built an enterprise that in 7 years counts Blackstone, Nasdaq and JLL as its investors and advisors.
Tom Deane serves as the CEO of Project Mark. He has spent 10 years in the Construction Industry working primarily in Cost & Risk Management. He's been involved on a multitude of different projects, from new healthcare facilities to major high-rise developments. He has a bachelor's degree in Quantity Surveying from Limerick Institute of Technology.
Noel Brady has taken on the role of Project Mark’s COO. Prior to co-founding Project Mark, Noel also spent 10 years as a construction manager in the industry. He previously worked for AECOM and AECOM Tishman on a range of projects across the Irish, UK and US markets. He has a Bachelors degree in Quantity Surveying and Masters in Construction, Business and Project Management. He is also a chartered project manager with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) and Association for Project Management (APM).
Both now live in San Francisco and are extremely excited about the Contech space.
Jonathan Needell is the president and chief investment officer of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.-based Kairos Investment Management, a commercial real estate investment firm focused on acquisition, asset management and development of a mix of property types that over time have invested over $1 billion in more than 12 million square feet of commercial space, including 11,000 multifamily units.
Jonathan is responsible for overseeing all those activities including business planning, sourcing and structuring of construction, mini-perm, permanent debt and joint venture financing, among other roles.
Jonathan’s experience spans over three decades across the industry, including roles as an Investment Director and Chief Financial Officer of Bellevue, Wash.-based Schnitzer West from 2003 to 2006 and a Director of the Corporate Finance Group in the Investment Banking Division of Merrill Lynch.
Randy Tsuda is the President and CEO of Palo Alto, California-based Alta Housing, an affordable housing development firm that has been active in Silicon Valley for over 50 years.
Randy joined Alta Housing in 2018 after serving as the Mountain View Community Development Director for over 10 years. His career includes experience in the non-profit, private, and public sectors, and spans real estate, city planning, affordable housing, and economic development.
Tony Gonzalez is the Chief Operating Officer of San Jose BioCube, a 37,000 square foot life science and biotech incubator in the heart of Silicon Valley. With a decade of lab facility expertise, Tony oversees all BioCube operations, which includes specialized co-working spaces and lab facilities for high-growth startups in this area of innovation. Prior to BioCube, Tony managed high-profile laboratory facility projects including the $43.5 million build-out for Roche Group, a top-2 global pharmaceutical company.
Jessica Musick is a Principal in the Oakland office of KTGY, an architecture firm she joined in 2003. Since her start at the firm, she developed a diverse portfolio and plays an integral role in establishing the design vision and carrying projects through design approvals. Focusing on urban-infill mixed-use projects, Jessica believes that architecture should be deeply rooted in the community where it sits, responsibly responding to client goals, community needs and the urban context. Having served as lead designer for residential and mixed-use developments, Jessica’s experiences have given her the insight that good design is the product of many factors and puts a priority on communication, process and understanding project economics.
David Greschler is the Co-Founder & CEO of Nomad Go, a company he founded in 2016 with an initial focus in the food-service and retail markets. Since then, Nomad Go's capabilities have spanned across verticals, serving customers in the commercial real estate, entertainment, hospitality and education markets.
Nomad Go's real-time data capture using computer vision, machine learning and edge processing offer a unique solution for customers looking for scalable, accurate and cost-effective spatial intelligence. We sat down with David to understand the business better and how he’s been helping the commercial real estate industry create smarter buildings and better-informed end-users.
Donna Clarkis a Senior Managing Director of the Northern California/Nevada Region for Kennedy Wilson. She is responsible for the operations, leasing, business development and asset management for more than 10 million square feet of office, industrial and retail properties throughout Northern California and Nevada. Her team includes construction managers, property managers, accountants and brokers.
Donna is also the 2020 President of the NAIOP Sacramento Valley Chapter.
Rhonda Diaz is an Executive Vice President in the Food & Beverage, Hospitality, Entertainment Retail in JLL’s San Francisco office. She is a native to the San Francisco Bay Area and has a deep understanding of retail, food and beverage urban hospitality-oriented environments, trends and psychographics. Some of her recent high-profile assignments include Chase Arena, Piers 1.5 to 5, the Historic Pier 70 and City Center Bishop Ranch. Mixed-use, retail, and hotel clients include W Hotels, Pebblebrook Hotel Group, Ritz Carlton and Kimpton Hotel Group, to name a few.
James Cook serves as the Americas Director of Retail Research at JLL, based out of Indianapolis, IN. He oversees the production of national retail research and also serves as the voice of retail research in the Midwest region. His focus includes the development and implementation of research strategy, methodology, platform deliverables and broad sector analyses for the retail property markets in the United States, Mexico and Canada. He creates industry-leading research and thought leadership for both owners and occupiers of retail developments.
Today’s guest on the pod is Henry D’Esposito. Henry is a senior research analyst with JLL in their National Construction and Project & Development Services group. He is based in the firm’s Washington, DC office, and he recently helped author a study that looked at the national trends impacting the construction market with a special emphasis on construction technology. We sat down with Henry recently to go over some those drivers of technology in an industry that is best known for its legacy methods and is not very quick to change. But this pandemic may be just the force needed to initiate such a transformation.
Jay Olshonsky has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of NAI Global since December 2012 when C-III Capital Partners LLC acquired the firm. Jay is responsible for the all operations of NAI Global, as well as an active leader on the NAI Global Capital Markets Group, which focuses on the disposition of individual assets, notes and portfolio sales in a number of property sectors including office, industrial, retail and hotel.
NAI Global is one of the largest commercial real estate firms worldwide and a top five global brand. The company has consistently generated over $20 billion in annual transaction volume, operates more than 375 offices, manages over 1.15 billion square feet of properties and facilities and has 6,000 + professionals in 41 countries.
Kay Sargent is a director of HOK’s global WorkPlace practice. With a passion for using design to transform how and where people work, she spends her days (and many nights) working with clients on workplace strategy and design.
Based in Washington, D.C., Kay leads project teams that solve clients’ business and organizational challenges related to real estate business process, strategic planning, workplace strategy and change management. She collaborates with organizations ranging from tech startups to Fortune 500 companies to optimize their real estate portfolios and create the most innovative work experiences.
Today, we talk to Brandi Susewitz, the founder and CEO of Clear Office. Brandi and her team are looking to transform the commercial office space industry by providing an easy to use platform where used office furniture, often just a few years old, can be sold and reused. This eliminates millions of cubic feet of waste and it helps companies find ways to repurpose a perfectly functional piece of furniture.
Brandi has been in the furniture industry for over 20 years, but it wasn’t until this year’s pandemic that she found herself in a situation to innovate out of necessity. To learn more about Clear Office, we welcome Brandi to the pod!
Today, we sit down with Mark Gilbreath, the CEO of LiquidSpace, which is the largest, real time network for office space serving individuals and teams from over 109,000 businesses in 2,700 cities.
The LiquidSpace Network transforms the entire commercial real estate process by connecting growing teams and professionals looking for space, directly with venue partners, space providers, real estate professionals and service providers. The company’s online tools simplify the discovery and transaction of office space, and their reimagined legal framework eliminates the cost and complexities of traditional leasing. Through LiquidSpace, office space can be yours with a click, and you can pay by the hour, day, month or longer. No lease, no hassle.
I am joined today again with my co-host Jack Seymour of Transwestern for our joint startup stories podcast. Today, we speak with OKCoin’s Bob Lehto, the International Head of People at the company.
OKCoin is on a mission to make crypto investing and trading more accessible to anyone around the world. Founded in 2013, OKCoin is a global exchange numbering 250 employees with its headquarters offices in San Francisco, and local offices in Malta, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan. The company is a collective of global citizens with a common passion to help decentralize finance and level the economic playing field for everyone around the world.
Building a co-living enterprise was a challenge even before the COVID pandemic, but Starcity founder and CEO Jon Dishotsky took the approach of building communities from his early days and family focus on communal living.
Today, Starcity is growing, it just acquired a competing operator Ollie, which gives it instant exposure on the East Coast, and the company is poised for further growth as it moves forward with plans to get to 3,000 units and more over the next few years.
We sit down with Jon to talk about how transformative co-living has been in major urban areas of the country and the world and where this industry will be heading in the future.
Robert Freed is the Chief Executive Officer of SummerHill Homes and SummerHill Apartment Communities, a privately owned home builder focusing on the unique needs of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Over the last 40 years, SummerHill has completed more than 70 developments representing over 5,000 single-family homes, condominiums, townhomes, and apartments.
Robert draws from a dynamic background in real estate, corporate finance, and accounting to overseeing SummerHill Housing Group. He joins us to talk about the changes with which the industry has been faced in 2020 and what it means for his company and other homebuilders across the country.
Tony Vargas is the Global Head of Workplace at sprinklr, a New York-based technology firm that is growing across the globe. Tony is making great strides in creating an environment for the company's distributed workplace to feel engaged and connected, as well as experience work in a brand new mode guided by the limitations imposed by COVID-19. He doesn't think the office will ever be the same again, and work performed there will likely be only purposeful and driven by a need to gather together physically a few times a week.
That implies that pre-COVID office utilization is an outdated model, and measuring employee efficacy needs a reinvented scale, as well.
We sit down today with Mark Whiting, the co-founder, chairman and CEO of San Francisco-based Drawbridge Realty. Drawbridge is a real estate investment and development company that targets commercial property investments in growth markets across the U.S. Its portfolio primarily consists of office properties leased long-term to large corporations with an emphasis on strategically important locations.
Mark Whiting and Mark Pearson formed Drawbridge Partners in 1999. In late 2011, Drawbridge Partners recapitalized the company with a major institutional investor, Almanac Realty Investors, and changed the name of the company to Drawbridge Realty Trust. During the next three years, Drawbridge tripled the size of its portfolio and generated steady growth in profitability and valuation. In December 2014, Drawbridge formed a partnership with international asset management firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., LP ("KKR") which made a significant investment in the Company to substantially grow the platform.
Peter Conte is a member of a Transwestern team that assists clients in every stage of the real estate process including real estate leasing or disposing of facility leases, providing strategic, long-term planning via portfolio analysis, site selection and employee location consulting.
Peter is the Bay Area head of Transwestern's BioTech Advisory Group, leading the company's efforts in life science and biotech office and laboratory disposition, having years of professional lab experience with the USDA and public/private cancer research departments before working in brokerage.
Bob Tiscareno is the founder and principal of Seattle-based Tiscareno Associates, an architecture firm focused on bringing design vision in mixed-use and multifamily developments across the greater Puget Sound region. Bob started the form in 2002 and built it into a mid-size, full-service architecture and planning firm.
Bob’s mantra is all about forgetting egos and forgoing habits and letting go of “the way we did it before.” The firm is focused rather on gathering around the same table for fresh, collective thinking that solves every problem with ingenuity and teamwork.
As the owner and sole proprietor of SECO Development, Michael has experience in real estate development that stretches over three decades. He has been purchasing and building real estate since 1980, but he formed SECO Development in 1989 and has been developing mixed-use projects in Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, and Renton.
As a principal in SECO, Michael is intimately involved in all aspects of development and is personally in charge of acquisitions and dispositions. He is involved in design, marketing, and financing while maintaining strong relationships with the cities in which he builds. SECO’s latest project is Southport on Lake Washington, which offers an impressive Hyatt Regency hotel on the shore of Lake Washington with another 730,000 square foot campus in its background. The development is surrounded by housing, retail and connections throughout the greater Puget Sound region.
Today, I sit down with Maddie Meyersieck and Jack Seymour, two younger members of the commercial real estate community in San Francisco to talk about their perspective on the market, and how today’s environment is shaping not just their industry but also their young careers.
Maddie is a Senior Associate and Jack is an Associate in agency leasing and tenant advisory with Transwestern in San Francisco. Both are still in their 20s, and working to grow their careers further themselves beyond what is happening across the industry today.
Jessica Grimes is the Chief Marketing Officer of Compass California, a division of Compass, formerly Pacific Union International.
A recognized leader in the industry, Grimes has led creative services, branding, advertising and marketing strategies and teams since 2012, guiding Pacific Union through its growth as a boutique luxury real estate brokerage to its current stage today as Compass California with sales volume of $14 billion inside of the dynamic Compass emerging global brand.
A son of an artist and cabinet maker, Mark Quattrocchi grew up surrounded by drawings and sawdust, influencing his decision to take drafting as his seventh-grade elective. From this early age, he knew he was going to be an architect. Paying for his architecture education by his carpentry work, he graduated equipped with a Master of Architecture degree and a keen understanding of construction, perfect for opening his own firm, Quattrocchi Architects, in 1986.
Soon after, Quattrocchi got the opportunity to design a new classroom building at Mendocino Community High School in Mendocino, CA. He was so moved by the passion of the teachers and school administrators that he completely immersed himself in the process of educational design. To this day, this ranks as one of his favorite projects because it inspired him to veer the firm to be educationally-focused. Later, Steve Kwok joined as partner in 1993, and together they built Quattrocchi Kwok Architects (QKA), a thriving K-12 and higher education firm with two office locations and a staff of more than 60 people.
Dafna Kaplan is the founding CEO of Cassette, a Los Angeles-based fully-integrated modular system provider. As a veteran of both consumer tech and construction industries, she observed the need for a tech-driven innovator committed to working through and with the people that make buildings happen.
Cassette sells its own systems within a wrap-around service model, and also offers these services independently of its own systems, for the benefit of the larger industry.
Today, we have an opportunity to sit down with Julie Faupel, the founder and CEO of REALM, a proprietary and patented platform made to bring real change in the way luxury real estate is transacted. REALM connects real estate professionals and their clientele to properties that fit their personalized needs and lifestyles, creating a bespoke experience that will take the guesswork out of the equation.
Julie does runs this organization, along with her own real estate business, from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where she is a recognized member of the real estate and business community.
Lisa Novak is the Head of HR and Talent at Austin-based data.world, a company focused on making it easy for everyone—not just the "data people"—to get clear, accurate, fast answers to any business question. Their cloud-native data catalog maps your siloed, distributed data to familiar and consistent business concepts, creating a unified body of knowledge anyone can find, understand, and use.
Lisa is tasked with helping the company grow and hire the right people to ensure it is successful today and also well into the future. Her challenges during a global pandemic are not unique, but her ability to help successfully navigate these hurdles is commendable, and the achievements of her efforts are on full display.
Julie Satterwhite
Chief Marketing Officer - PAE Engineers
As PAE’s Chief Marketing Officer, Julie is passionate about bringing clients the message of PAE’s caring and conscientious people who seek to help solve the world’s energy and water challenges through high performing building design. Julie helps to strengthen relationships with clients and industry partners while working with principals and project managers to help them achieve their business development goals. With over two decades of experience, she leads with emotional intelligence and acts as a catalyst for her team to do the same. Julie spearheads the Women in Leadership committee at PAE, which seeks to create pathways toward leadership for the women of the firm.
Today, we sit down with Matt Slepin, the founder of Terra Search Partners, a Bay Area-based executive search firm that specializes in the real estate industry. Matt is an old friend of ours and has collaborated with The Registry over the years.
Matt founded his firm around the concept that retained executive search has the power to help clients beyond the job placement. The Terra Search approach is to use search as a journey through which Matt’s firm and his clients are able to look deeply at the structure of a client’s organization, its place in the competitive landscape, and how strategic hiring can improve their business well into the future.
Matt is passionate about real estate and its role in our economy. Since 2017, Matt has been the host of the podcast series, “Leading Voices in Real Estate,” where he has had conversations with leaders from throughout the real estate industry about their career journeys and the businesses that they run. The series offers insights into pathways to success and the difference that the real estate industry can make in the way that we live, work and play.
Today, we sit down with Wendi Baker and Don Capobres of Harmonie Park, a Bay Area-based development company focused on creating thriving mixed-use communities. Don and Wendi started Harmonie after collaborating for years on Grosvenor’s North 40 development in Los Gatos, California. Don, then an executive with Grosvenor, and Wendi, who worked for SummerHill Homes, decided to take the plunge and form Harmonie, which today continues with their effort in Los Gatos and elsewhere across the region.
Don Capobres
Principal and CEO
Don has over 25 years of real estate development experience in both the private and public sectors, a rare combination that offers valuable insight and experience when collaborating with municipalities. Over the years, he has held responsibilities, as diverse as representing the U.S. real estate development interests of Grosvenor, an international property group, and managing projects for the City of San Francisco.
Wendi Baker
Principal and COO
In her two decades of experience in the San Francisco Bay Area real estate and planning industry, Wendi has overseen the development of multiple communities. Her expertise ranges from acquisition to sales for complex projects throughout Silicon Valley.
Phillip Raub is the chief executive officer of Oakland-based Model No., an innovative furniture design and manufacturing enterprise that is looking to turn this centuries-old business on its head with a 3-D printing business model. Bringing experiences as co-founder of the technology retailer b8ta and a leader at Nest, Toys “R” Us and Nintendo, to name a few, Phillip and his team are looking at innovation as a core tenet of the firm’s work. Something the retail industry needs today more than ever.
David Greensfelder is a managing principal at Greensfelder Real Estate Strategy and a founding advisor at a retail development e-commerce enterprise called TruLocal.
David works nationally with companies in providing strategic planning, market analytics and location intelligence, and real estate development services to occupiers, communities, financial institutions and investors nationally. Always focused on practical solutions and implementation, David pioneered the Retail Resilience, a quadruple bottom-line discipline for creating lasting retail vitality, and dynamic, flexible, and adaptable retail strategies and recommendations for communities, owners, and retailers.
We sit down with David to get a perspective on the industry and how the current environment will shape the real estate world in the years to come.
David Gull is the founder and chief executive officer at Outer Realm, a virtual realty startup whose mission is to help real estate companies fully sell and lease their projects before they are built.
David is an industry veteran who started in the business as an architect and worked with one of the world’s most renowned architecture firms, Skidmore Owings and Merrill. Following his love for innovation, he left SOM to join Floored, which was subsequently acquired by CBRE. But the corporate setting had a limited shelf-life for David, who then struck out on his own to launch Outer Realm and transform the vision of so many developers through a virtual world.
Julie Treppa is a partner in San Francisco-based Farella Braun + Martel. She is a versatile, highly experienced practitioner with expertise in a broad range of tax-related issues and controversies involving federal, state and other taxing authorities. Julie is particularly experienced in developing strategies to help investors, developers, businesses and non-profit organizations use tax incentives and tax credits to achieve their financial goals. Two areas in which she has special expertise are New Markets Tax Credits and Opportunity Zones, both of which are designed to induce investments in specified low-income communities.
We sit down with Julie to talk about Opportunity Zones, how they evolved and what the new normal means for this very important investment asset class.
Christopher Yip is a partner at RET Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on the property technology or PropTech space. He’s based in San Francisco and works with his colleagues who are all based out of Park City, UT, evaluating opportunities that will transform the real estate space in the future.
Prior to RET, Chris spent twelve years at the global private equity firm TPG, where he led growth investments in tech-enabled companies and partnered closely with CEOs and entrepreneurs. He began his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company.
You can find Chris flying between Park City and San Francisco, trailing the RET team on the snow, or driving anything with four wheels.
Cecilia Quezada is the president and Julia Campbell a partner in San Francisco-based Quezada Architecture, one of few women-owned and managed architecture firms in the Bay Area. Friends for many years and partners over the last year and a half, Cecilia and Julia share the same ambitious and pioneering spirit for design as they do for life.
Cecilia’s meandering way to San Francisco began in Argentina, where she was born, and continued through Pittsburg, PA where she grew up. She’s proud of taking a trek around the world in her twenties that helped open up her perspective on the role she’d like to play in life, which to this date shapes her architectural narrative.
Julia, on the other hand, hails from London where she spent some time perfecting her persistence and grit working the Petticoat Lane Market to pay her way through architecture school. Now, she rides a Vespa through the streets of San Francisco and hopes her son, currently at University in London will follow in her footsteps.
Like any other business in this day and age, Quezada Architecture is doing its best to keep the mill running and ideas flowing. It’s a time for creative thinking and hard work, two things its leaders have in spades.
Jeff Berkes is an executive vice president and western region president for Federal Realty, one of the nation’s largest commercial real estate REITs. He is responsible for leading Federal Realty’s West Coast leasing, development, asset management, and acquisitions teams; achieving corporate P&L goals; and growing Federal’s Western portfolio. Prior to his current role, Jeff served as chief investment officer for the organization. He also serves as a member of the company’s executive and investment committees. Jeff is based out of Federal Realty’s West Coast headquarters at Santana Row in San Jose, California.
Jordan Moss is the founder of Catalyst Housing Group, a Larkspur, California-based housing investor that focuses on building healthier communities throughout the state of California. Catalyst works in partnership with California Community Housing Agency (CalCHA) with which it has already invested over $550 million of premier multifamily rental communities throughout Northern California. These assets are converted to rent-restricted communities serving middle-income households and are eventually given to the underlying jurisdictions on a long-term basis. It’s an innovative model that drives Jordan and his organization.
Michael Harder is the Vice President and General Manager for Mortenson’s Seattle office. Michael joined Mortenson in 1994 on the Northridge Mall project. He then worked for a brief time in the Seattle office on the Federal Detention Center project before relocating to San Francisco to lead the seismic retrofit of the company’s Kaiser Permanente Hospital project. Michael returned to Seattle in 2000 to aid in operational oversight of the office and has since taken over the leadership of that office including responsibilities such as recruiting, training and mentorship.
We sit down with Michael to talk about the impact the most recent crisis has had on the firm, and why Mortenson is building so many soccer stadiums.
A3 Workplace Strategies is a Bay Area-based commercial office workplace solutions company focused on office design, process alignment, project implementation management, corporate facilities management and architecture. Robin Weckesser is its founder who after years of working in corporate real estate at Apple and running a workplace solutions practice for Cresa in Silicon Valley ventured on his own in 2015 to use the +35 years of industry experience to set his own path.
We speak with Robin about the challenges of workplace design in the Bay Area, and how the industry will be impacted by the changes occurring today.
Ken Lowney founded Lowney Architecture in the Bay Area in 2003 and is the President of the firm. Ken’s approach to architecture is rooted in his belief that architecture is more than simply buildings; and, if thoughtfully and responsibly done it can positively contribute to society and advance a community. We talk with Ken today about the process of forming his own business, the challenges with doing innovative work and the opportunities large disruptions like COVID-19 may bring to the industry in the future.
Keith Craw began his career in construction working for a custom home builder in California’s Central Valley. Since joining Blach Construction in 2006, he has made significant contributions to the operations team, working his way up from project manager to project executive and currently, as vice president, operations. In this role, Keith is immersed in strategic planning and staffing for all projects of the company as it enters its 50-year anniversary of building and making Northern California what it is today.
The Registry and Transwestern extend their partnership in telling startup stories from across the Bay Area and their impact on the real estate market in the region. This is the first podcast where we sit with Jack Seymour to talk to one such startup and try to understand the impact of the economic shifts on its business.
As the first U.S. employee at Talkdesk, Shauna Geraghty helped scale Talkdesk’s marketing team, infrastructure and activities from the ground-up. In 2016, she was tapped to build Talkdesk’s talent acquisition function and since then has helped scale Talkdesk to nearly 1,000 employees in seven offices globally. Geraghty has a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and has applied foundational knowledge from the field of psychology to help propel Talkdesk along its hyper-growth trajectory.
You should not be thinking about opening your office post-COVID before you speak with our next guest. A creative and innovative industry veteran, Laurie Sewell rose through the ranks at Servicon since she joined the company in 1988, working in payroll, supplies, inventory control and distribution, and appointed President of Servicon in 2008. She oversaw a management restructuring in 2014 that led to her further appointment as CEO in 2015.
The enterprise she leads is a commercial cleaning company based in Southern California with operations throughout the Western United States. As you can imagine, her business has been growing as of late, but it’s her approach to her workers and their culture that has helped the company achieve success.
Today, we sit down with Doug Demers, the managing principal of the Seattle office of B+H, a global architecture and design strategy firm. Doug is, first and foremost, an entrepreneur – in business, at play, and in life there is nothing he approaches without wondering how he could do things differently and improve the outcome. His entire Advance Strategy team, located in the Seattle studio he founded as B+H’s first US office, has enthusiastically embraced his unshakeable belief that there are no challenges that can’t be solved for the better.
Today, we are excited to talk to Nellie Hayat and Parin Ahmadi, co-founders of Workplaced, a brand new commercial real estate venture that connects industry experts with employers that want to build world–class employee & workplace experiences!
Nellie is a former workplace strategist at Stripe. She specializes in employee experience and advises companies on how to design and curate spaces to unlock employees' potential and keep them happy, engaged and healthy.
Before Workplaced, Parin was an owner's rep in commercial real estate. She worked in workplace project management for various firms such as JLL, Newmark Knight Frank, The CRE Group and Knotel delivering projects for Capital One, Stripe, Brex, Sonder and Sonos, among others. Parin's expertise in construction project management and passion about community fuels her ability to build beautiful spaces that spur end-user creativity and engagement, promote balance and drive growth.
Today, we have an opportunity to chat with one of The Registry’s oldest friends, the affable Paul Zeger. Paul has been instrumental in helping us get off the ground back in 2008 and served at one time on our Editorial Board. Paul is a partner in the San Francisco-based Polaris Pacific where for over 30 years, he’s helped lead his clients in identifying and capitalizing on residential-development opportunities across the western United States. Paul’s client relationships include some of the most successful real-estate-development firms on the West Coast—TMG Partners, Emerald Fund, Lennar Urban and Wilson Meany, to name a few.
Rob Zirkle is the founding principal at Brick, an Oakland, California-based architecture firm that describes itself as friendly, un-conventional, can-do architects. Rob brings a strong record of successful and recognized design excellence to a wide variety of project types in both architecture, interiors, and urban design.
Having studied under noted Pritzker prize-winning architect Glen Murcutt, Rob brings a sensitivity to the details of design that make memorable architecture transcend the everyday. Through the benefit of two prestigious traveling fellowships in architecture, Rob’s extensive travels bring a well-rounded, global perspective to how urban design and architecture shape our cities’ spaces of social and cultural exchange.
Rex Hime is the President & CEO of the California Business Properties Association. CBPA is the recognized voice of all aspects of the commercial retail industrial real estate industry in California — representing the largest commercial real estate consortium with over 10,000 industry members.
Established in 1972, CBPA proudly serves as the legislative and regulatory advocate for property owners, tenants, developers, retailers, contractors, land use attorneys, brokers, and other professionals in the industry by representing their interests at the California State Capitol in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C.
Shannon Loew, is the founder and CEO of Settle-based Hatchback Cottages. The company was created to increase housing options in Seattle while complementing the character of the neighborhoods people love. By generating the opportunity for supplemental income, Hatchback can help stabilize homeowners and create options for their future, which helps families and communities stay connected. The company encourages and empowers every owner to participate in the housing economy - using their backyard to positively shape equitable growth. Hatchback is driven by a team of committed designers, analysts, contractors, and advisors who share in the belief in backyard cottages as an innovative housing solution.
Alan Collenette is a great friend of The Registry and someone with whom we have been collaborating for many years in his capacity as a commercial real estate industry leader. Over the past decade, as a Managing Director of Colliers leading the firm’s efforts across Northern California, Alan created and led a rapid expansion strategy for Colliers' brokerage operations in San Francisco by recruiting top brokerage teams in the region. He added new service offerings including multi-family investment sales, institutional debt and equity capabilities, and high-end specialty urban retail services. Alan also helped launch an Asia Pacific Division dedicated to sourcing opportunities for foreign direct investment. As a result, revenues increased fifteen-fold over a ten year period.
Today, we sit down with Veronica Givone. She was recently hired by IA Interior Architects in their London office as Managing Director and head of the firm’s hospitality practice. Veronica will drive the firm’s global hospitality market efforts to develop and expand the practice and collaborate with the firm’s bank of talented design and architectural professionals.
Veronica brings deep expertise and a wealth of experience in the hospitality and residential sectors. Previously a design director at a large international firm, Veronica launched their hospitality group to much success, designing notable projects throughout Europe. Veronica specializes in the boutique, luxury hotel market, and has led substantial refurbishment hotel projects in London, including The Westminster Curio Collection by Hilton. Additional notable clients include JW Marriott Venice Resort, Hilton Barcelona Public Spaces, and The Lowry Hotel Riverside Suites, among many others.
John Pollock is Chief Executive Officer of Meridian and is responsible for the vision, growth and profitability of the company. John directs the company’s strategy and manages operations, including development, sales, marketing, asset management and finance. Prior to his appointment as CEO, John was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the company.
With more than 20 years of knowledge shaped by a wide range of experiences in commercial and residential real estate development, John has proven his ability to lead, develop and manage projects of any size. Prior to joining Meridian in 2006, John served as General Manager for national home builder Centex Homes where he was responsible for all land development, construction and sales in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
From 1997 to 2003, John served as Vice President of Bovis Lend Lease, a leading international project management and construction company operating in more than thirty countries. At Bovis John’s responsibilities included managing finance, project controls and risk management and he was involved in a wide range of transactions in size, scope and geography. Notable developments included: Santana Row in San Jose, CA, Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco, CA, Lincoln Square in Bellevue, WA and the Privatization of Fort Hood Family Housing in Killeen, TX.
John is a member of Urban Land Institute and sits on the ULI Health Care and Life Science Council. He is also a Certified Public Accountant and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from St. Mary’s College.
H. Pike Oliver is the sole proprietor of URBANEXUS through which he works on managing land and creating built environments. He is also an Affiliate Instructor for the Runstad Department of Real Estate in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.
Early in his career, Pike worked for public agencies, including the California Governor's Office of Planning and Research where he was a principal contributor to An Urban Strategy for California. For the next three decades, he worked on master-planned communities at the Irvine Ranch in Southern California and other properties in western North America and abroad.
Prior to relocating to Seattle in 2013, Pike taught real estate development at Cornell University and directed the undergraduate program in urban and regional studies. He is active in the Northwest District Council of the Urban Land Institute and is a founder and emeritus member of the California Planning Roundtable.
Pike is a graduate of the urban studies and planning program at San Francisco State University and holds a master’s degree in urban planning from UCLA.
Today, we sit down with Rene Olivo and Chris Henderson. Rene is the president of Skyline Construction in the Bay Area and Chris is the president of Unimark Construction in Seattle. Both are part of the larger, Skyline Enterprises organization and lead their companies in California and Washington.
We talk to them about what it’s like to run a construction and building organization in today’s environment and to hear stories directly from the work sites that their companies operate. While the craft of building will likely remain very similar in the future, the nature of the industry is bound to have profound change.
Today, we sit down Josh Santos, a Bay Area resident and current Northern California Division President for Landsea Homes, where he leads all aspects of the Northern California portfolio for the company. We talk to Josh about home building and home buying and the challenges this part of the industry is experiencing today. As you’ve probably heard, people want more single-family detached homes, and Landsea has been there to help. Josh’s work includes the sale of beautiful new homes across the companies communities, such as: Skylark at Sanctuary Village, Catalina in Santa Clara, and coming soon, Relevae in Orinda.
Jeremy Thornton is an executive vice president of Colliers International in San Francisco, and he has 20+ years of experience in the sourcing and structuring of debt and equity capital for commercial real estate transactions nationally and internationally with over $6.5 billion in successfully completed assignments in his career. His expertise encompasses a wide spectrum of transaction types including financing for new construction, acquisition, and recapitalization of all major commercial property types including office, retail, industrial, multifamily and hospitality.
Having served as a principal on the lending, ownership and brokerage sides of the commercial real estate industry during the course of his career, Mr. Thornton brings a wealth of knowledge and offers a unique 360-degree perspective to real estate capital markets transactions. He previously held positions with Deutsche Bank, Berkshire Mortgage Finance, Strategic Realty Capital and Palmer Capital Inc.
Mr. Thornton has extensive long-standing relationships with a diverse base of domestic and foreign capital sources including insurance companies, pension funds, commercial and investment banks, foreign banks, conduits, commercial mortgage REITs, opportunity funds and credit companies. He is focused on providing comprehensive and creative debt and equity solutions for private and institutional clients nationwide.
Amy Bradac founded Bradac Co. in 2011 as a full-service real estate construction management firm. As the CEO, she is responsible for the daily operations of the company, building new business relationships, and ensuring her team delivers high quality, high-value service to all of her firm's clients. Amy’s 20 years of experience as an architect and contractor give her the unique perspective of having viewed the industry from every angle, which makes her particularly adept at facilitating communication and moving projects forward on time and on budget.
Kim Snyder is responsible for all activities for Prologis’ West region, including development, acquisitions and operations. Key markets include San Francisco, Seattle, the Central Valley, Southern California, the Inland Empire, Las Vegas and Phoenix. He joined AMB Property Corporation in 2005, bringing extensive experience in real estate development and construction, acquisitions and industrial leadership.
As managing director and senior vice president during his tenure at AMB, Kim managed AMB's Airport Group, as well as Mexico and Brazil operations. Prior to AMB, he was president and CEO of Paragon Capital Corporation, and served as managing director for Insignia-ESG's Western region development operation before working at Paragon. Prior to Insignia, Kim was a partner with Investment Building Group based in Los Angeles.
Kim has a Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona State University, summa cum laude, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is a trustee for NAIOP and The Gooden School and is on the Advisory Board for the NAIOP-IE Chapter, the Technical Committee/Advisory Board of FIBRA Prologis (Mexico) and the Logistics Committee of the Southern California Leadership Council.
John Cumbelich is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of John Cumbelich & Associates. Headquartered in Walnut Creek, CA, the firm has been responsible for several of the highest-profile retail real estate transactions in Northern California since its inception in 2000.
John has more than 30 years of retail real estate experience and has personally been involved in transactions totaling in excess of $3.5 billion. He has successfully built one of the most respected retail real estate firms in the west and the leading independent retail firm in the San Francisco Bay Area. The firm focuses on the representation of premier retailers and restaurants; select high profile retail centers, High Street leasing, and investment sales in the Bay Area’s premium retail submarkets.
Mr. Cumbelich is perhaps best known for his role in sourcing several of the landmark ground-up developments of the past generation in the Bay Area. Some of the major new developments sourced and sold by John include The Corners in downtown Walnut Creek (Tiffany & Co, Apple, GAP), Plaza San Jose (19 acres, Target), Jones Ranch (27 acres, Lowe’s), East Washington Place (34 acres, Target), Sycamore Crossing (13 acres, Lewis Retail Centers) and Bayside Marketplace (17 acres, Wal Mart).
John has worked on behalf of many of the nation’s premier retailers, including: Bank of America, Cost Plus World Market, Dunkin’ Brands, El Pollo Loco, Jared Jewelry, Kroger, Lowes, Petco, Pier 1 Imports, Smart & Final and Sport Chalet.
When engaged on leasing assignments for owner and investor clients, Mr. Cumbelich has completed transactions with several of the most prized retailers in America, including: Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, BevMo, Dick’s Sporting Goods, GAP, Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, Orchard Supply Hardware, Paper Source, PetSmart, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Sprouts, Starbucks, Stein Mart, TD Ameritrade, Tommy Bahamas, Vineyard Vines, Walgreens, Walmart, Wells Fargo, Whole Foods and Z Gallerie.
Several of the most respected owners and investors in the industry have trusted Mr. Cumbelich and his firm in the representation of their Northern California assets, including: BlackRock, Browman Development Company, Cortese Investments, DDR, Essex Property Trust, Lewis Retail Centers, Regency Centers, UBS Realty Advisors and Urban Edge Properties.
John is a founder of X Team International, a partnership of 35 North American brokerage firms, and he served both as President of the organization and as a board member. He is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and has served as Chairman of the Northern California Conference on multiple occasions. Throughout his distinguished career, John has also served as an advisor to local municipalities and institutions alike, such as the City of Walnut Creek, the City of Hercules and Mills College of California. John has served as a speaker and commentator both at industry conferences and in both regional and national publications including The Registry, The San Francisco Business Times, Shopping Center Business, BISNOW and GlobeSt.com.
Today, we sit down with David Karol, Principal at Ridge Capital Investors and Dick Scott, Divisional Vice President of PS Business Parks. Dave is a chapter president of NAIOP San Francisco and Dick leads NAIOP Silicon Valley. Today, we speak with them as representatives of their local NAIOP chapters, where we discuss the impact of California Senate Bill 939 and its intended and unintended consequences on the commercial real estate market throughout the region. Here are their thoughts!
As the CEO of Grosvenor Americas, Steve O'Connell provides the strategic direction for the company's investment, development and financing activities. Steve O'Connell was appointed to the Grosvenor Americas Board in 2018 after joining in 2011. He became Chief Executive of Grosvenor Americas in 2019. Steve led Grosvenor’s Development team in San Francisco and successfully established its multifamily programme there before being appointed Managing Director, Investment in 2015 where he oversaw Investment and Co-Investment activities in North America.
He holds a B.Eng. degree from McGill University and an MBA from the UC Berkeley - Haas School of Business. Steve is an Executive Committee and Board member of UC Berkeley’s Fisher Center Policy Advisory Board, a member of the Bay Area Council Board of Directors and belongs to an Urban Land Institute (ULI) National Mixed-Use Development Council.
Julie Taylor is an executive vice president of Colliers International in its San Francisco office. She works exclusively to serve the needs of retail real estate property owners, investors, and retailers. Julie is highly active in the Downtown San Francisco trade area leasing flagship properties and representing luxury and urban retailers. She has leased almost 800,000 square feet totaling 70 transactions with an aggregate lease value of over $750 Million in the Union Square market. Her area of expertise spans the regional retail markets of the Bay Area and urban retail in San Francisco. Julie also leases the 100,000 square foot Salesforce Transit Center in Downtown San Francisco. She is known for her creative leasing strategies and her ability to communicate effectively with retailers. Julie has had extensive experience representing chain stores expanding throughout Northern California.
Pamela Anderson-Brulé is co-founder and president of Anderson Brulé Architects, the San Jose firm she started in 1984.
Working exclusively in the public realm, Pamela created a new architectural practice model through her development of Strategic Process Design. The process was developed and fine-tuned by ABA over the firm’s 35+ year history. ABA was nationally recognized specifically for the groundbreaking new service and operational models utilized in the development of the City of San Jose / San Jose State University, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Joint-Use Library.
Pamela was the first woman in Santa Clara County to be elevated to a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and was a past president of AIA Silicon Valley. A long-term advocate for women, rooted in her all-girls high school education, Pamela founded the AIASV’s Women in Architecture Committee and she has been an educator and lecturer at SJSU and Notre Dame High School. Pamela continues to be a community leader and mentor and has been a Rotary International member for over 20 years.
ABA is certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise and Woman-Owned Small Business, a legacy firm committed to transforming people, place, and practice through strategic design. Pamela is joined in her 30-person practice with principals Lee Salin and Mark Schoeman, each of whom practices in the firm’s core markets of Education, Community and Health & Wellness.
Ryan Grams & Eugene Gershman are two leaders of GIS International Group in Seattle, a real estate development and construction company serving the greater Puget Sound area. The company specializes in single-family and multi-unit projects, and it is known for its work on all types of terrain with a particular understanding of difficult building sites such as steep slopes and wetlands.
As a third-generation company, GIS has discovered ways to overcome the limitations of traditional building methods, and Ryan and Eugene continue to innovate and lead the enterprise into the next phase of their evolution.
Brad Hinthorne is a principal in the Seattle office of Perkins and Will. He was born in a Bavarian-themed town in Washington, spent his childhood in the Seattle suburbs, and his teenage years on the family’s cattle ranch prior to attending college and graduate school at the University of Washington. His three decades of professional experience is equally diverse, having practiced in Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Brad takes leadership roles on both public and private sector projects for a wonderfully diverse range of clients extending from healthcare to higher education, from mixed-use to multi-family, and from civic to commercial.
Brad owned his own architectural practice prior to joining Perkins and Will. His personal and professional ethos is grounded in an innate need to be in the lead, likely a combination of his DNA, upbringing, and athletic background.
Brad lives in Seattle with his wife and his dog and has two sons.
Today, we sit down with John Thatch, senior principal at the Dahlin Group in San Francisco. John oversees the design innovation and design quality control at the firm. As a leader and mentor, he places a special focus on staff education and professional development for the benefit of everyone at his firm. John often gains inspiration for design through travel and walking the great cities of the world—seizing and sharing experiences and the smallest details of a place.
John joins us today to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the design industry and how it stands to be transformed in the years to come.
Susan Boyd is the CEO of Bellwether Housing in Seattle. She was elected to her role in February of 2017 after 28 years of experience in direct social service, policy analysis, advocacy and law and as a respected voice on regional housing issues. Prior to her current role, Boyd had served as Bellwether’s Director of Real Estate Development, leading housing development strategy and tripling the number of units the organization has in production. Before Bellwether, Boyd was a partner at the law firm Kantor Taylor Nelson Boyd & Evatt, representing tax-exempt nonprofits, for-profits and public agencies throughout the West Coast in all aspects of the development and financing of affordable housing and community facilities.
Today we sit down with Tim Schoen, the President and CEO of BioMed Realty, the leading provider of real estate solutions for the life science and technology industries. Tim has been BioMed’s CEO since 2016, when he joined the company following its acquisition by Blackstone Group. Tim brought to BioMed years of commercial real estate experience from Healthpeak and Kilroy Realty Corporation. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Salk Institute in San Diego and is also the chair of Salk’s Conquering Cancer Initiative Advisory Committee.
Manny Fishman is a shareholder in the San Francisco office of Buchalter, where he focuses his practice on representing real estate developers and owners in the acquisition, sale and financing of commercial properties. In addition, he has an active leasing practice representing owners of several major office buildings in San Francisco, as well as tenants in lease and sublease transactions.
Manny also acts as outside general counsel to start-ups that seek to leverage some part of commercial real estate into a tech application.
Manny is well known in San Francisco where he serves as chair of the Building Owners and Managers Association of San Francisco’s Government Affairs and Policy Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and the Real Property Sections of the American Bar Association and the State Bar of California.
Most recently, Manny has been recognized as a 2020 Best Lawyer in America in Real Estate Law, an honor he has received since 2007.
Today, we are speaking with Jake McKinstry and Gabriel Grant. Both are principals with Seattle-based Spectrum Development Solutions. Founded in 2008, Spectrum is a mission-driven for-profit real estate development and advisory company. The company has a diverse, cross-sector focus spanning workforce housing, student housing, healthcare and civic-oriented projects. All of their projects have a strong community focus with an emphasis on transit-oriented and environmentally sustainable development.
Jake’s expertise spans complex land use issues, transit-oriented mixed-use development, healthcare and historic renovations. Jake began his career developing affordable housing projects in New York City and currently oversees a variety of projects and clients throughout the greater Seattle.
Gabriel brings a passion for creating great places, a deep commitment to civic affairs, and a strong multi-disciplinary approach to real estate. Gabe is currently leading a number of workforce and student housing development projects.
Eric Foster is the Chief Executive Officer of Swinerton, a San Francisco-based construction company that today is in 17 offices across 8 states. The company was founded in 1888, and Eric is the company’s only 11th CEO since its founding 132 years ago.
Eric joined Swinerton in 1982 as a Project Engineer for the San Francisco Structural division after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Civil Engineering, he has progressed through several roles from Project Manager to Division Manager, and most recently as the company’s President and Chief Operations Officer.
Cynthia Parker is President & CEO of BRIDGE Housing, a leading San Francisco-based nonprofit developer, owner and manager of affordable housing. Ms. Parker brings over 30 years of relevant experience to BRIDGE, including establishing the Housing Office of the City of Seattle and serving as the City’s Director of Housing under two separate mayors.
Under Ms. Parker’s leadership at BRIDGE Housing, the organization has doubled its production capacity and has added depth in its provision of resident services and community impact. BRIDGE has approximately 11,700 apartments in its portfolio, with another 7,000 homes ($3.8 billion in total development cost) in its pipeline.
Bill Condon & Matt McGregor lead the industrial leasing efforts at Colliers Seattle, where Bill is also the Managing Director of the office. The industrial market is poised to be one of the winners coming out of the economic collapse of early 2020, and Bill & Matt provide an insider's look into the drivers of this sector of commercial real estate.
Elizabeth Hart and Michael Saign are both Vice Chairman with Newmark Knight Frank's offices in San Francisco and San Jose, respectively. We sit down with these two industry leaders to get a close look into the transforming world of Bay Area commercial real estate at the start of 2020. Most importantly, we asked them to contrast the two submarkets and help us understand the drivers of the industry as we move into the second half of this year.
Reid Thomas is Executive Vice President and General Manager of San Jose's NES Financial’s Specialty Financial Administration, focusing on technology-enabled EB-5, 1031 and Opportunity Zone fund administration.
NES announced earlier this month that it had entered into an acquisition agreement with JTC, a UK-based provider of fund, corporate and private client services to institutional and private clients, this is JTC’s first foray into the US market as an acquirer.
In his 40 years in commercial real estate, Ed Del Beccaro, has seen it all. Today Ed is the East Bay Regional Manager for the TRI Commercial offices located in Walnut Creek and Oakland. The East Bay brokerage operation is full-service with office, industrial, retail, multi-family and investment sales. In addition to brokerage, Ed aims to grow East Bay property management to complement TRI's Sacramento enterprise with over 4 million square feet of commercial property under management.
Ed is a specialist in leasing and sales of office, medical and retail properties and commercial/residential mixed-use projects. He has vast experience with distressed properties, land sales, securing project entitlements, consultant advisory services, and real estate valuation.
We picked his brain about the changes he's seeing in the industry and the winners and losers this crisis will create.
We sit down with John McNellis, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based commercial real estate developer who made waves early in the coronavirus days by taking a compassionate approach for some of his smaller retail tenants. With the impact of the pandemic wreaking havoc across the globe, we wanted to see how his gesture was received, if it motivated other landlords to do the same and overall, how he has perceived the industry reacted during the early onslaught of the virus' expansion across the nation.