Waterton / Women's Leadership Workshops / Technology and Real Estate / CRE Tech Intersect / Moving to Asheville, NC

Every so often, I get an email asking if I’m ok or someone approaches me at an industry event and says, ‘I haven’t seen your column in a while. Did I drop off the list?’

Yes, I’m okay – thanks for asking!  Yes, I haven’t written in a while (call it ‘Writers Block’ perhaps) and – No, no one ever drops off the distribution list (unless you choose to).

With a new commercial real estate blog seemingly launched every couple of weeks and all the postings on LinkedIn, I didn’t want to become part of the ‘noise.’  If we thought we were suffering from information overload a few years ago, I believe information and opinion on the web has been taken to a drastic extreme.  However, I’ve been encouraged by a number of friends and loyal readers to continue publishing.  So here I go again….

Waterton

My partner Liz Weiner and I attended the 20^th anniversary celebration of Waterton in Chicago last week.  It was a great party, which also launched their new brand, “Waterton” (vs. 3 separate names for different divisions). 

Many of the ‘Who’s Who?’ in Chicago commercial real estate were there.  The venue was very special – the actual stage at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park! The only downer for Chicagoans that night was watching the Mets beat the Cubs!!

Congratulations once again to David Schwartz, Pete Vilim and their 2,000 colleagues at Waterton!

Commercial Real Estate Women’s Leadership Workshops

Liz and I have now conducted 10 open-enrollment Women’s Leadership Workshops.  Women from 51 different firms have attended these programs - exclusively for women in the commercial / institutional real estate industry. 

We have been so fortunate that firms have donated conference rooms for these workshops – in support of women’s leadership.  It’s with great thanks that I acknowledge those ‘sponsors’ here:

• goulston & storrs
• Hunt Realty Investments
• Hunton & Williams
• Kirkland & Ellis
• Newmark Grubb Knight Frank
• Paladin Realty Partners
• Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler
• PM Realty Group
• Zeller Realty Group

At the suggestion of a number of workshop participants, we will be launching a co-ed workshop series designed to help men in the industry better understand some of the challenges that face women when looking to get invited to ‘The Big Boy Table.’ Just this term itself reminds us of the male domination at senior levels in the commercial real estate industry!

Technology and Real Estate

Andy Herz, of the law firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, has written a great piece, which he presented at a recent meeting of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.  Here are some of my takeaways:

Changes Desired in Space Requirements of Progressive Companies:

• Open Work Areas
• Flexible Layouts
• Roofs and Terraces
• Amenities (i.e. ping pong & pool tables, gyms, yoga studios)
• Bicycles being brought into office buildings
• Excluding Competitors from buildings (to avoid poaching of employees)
• Business Continuity Systems and Plans
• Informal Use of Premises by collaborators, partners, vendors and outsource providers

Andy also writes about how ‘Self-driving Vehicles May Change the Entire Equation’.

• Commuter cars could function as offices – since no one has to watch the road or drive
• Parking lots would be unnecessary because after the passenger(s) has disembarked, the car would drive itself home or to an out of the way storage area – until summoned for the return trip
• Larger driverless vehicles could serve as a modified form of mass transportation

There’s a lot more interesting information in this article.  If you’d like a copy, please email me and I’ll arrange to have one delivered to you (in a self-driving vehicle of course!)

CRE Tech Intersect

This week I attended the CRE Tech Intersect event in New York City. 400 people flocked to a raw office floor at 1633 Broadway donated by one of the event sponsors, The Paramount Group. 

While there were many companies offering ways of managing data more efficiently and effectively, I was particularly intrigued by several companies with very creative missions:

• Chessiecap – the first real estate technology investment bank
• OppSites – matchmaking for cities and developers
• LiquidSpace – turn extra space into extra cash flow
• Managed by Q – cleaning service platform
• RealConnex - a platform to connect the entire real estate ecosystem.

CRE Tech Intersect founder, Pierce Nienken, has done a great job in bringing together today’s generation of commercial real estate technology providers and users.  It’s a far cry from the very first Commercial Real Estate Technology Conference held in NYC in 1997.  That one, organized by the industry’s first blogger, Peter Pike, had six exhibitors (including the start-up I was with) and about 40 attendees. It’s terrific to see the commercial real estate industry finally embracing technology – in a big way!

Moving to Asheville, NC

I’ve flown almost 3 million miles in my life - the vast majority of it for business.  While it’s wonderful to get on a plane and magically land in a different place, there’s nothing like getting in the car and driving.  Over the summer I drove the entire Skyline Drive – which runs 105 miles North-South along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. The views are wonderful!

Then, just last week, I drove a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway – starting in North Carolina and getting off in Virginia.  The fall foliage and vistas were both breathtaking and spectacular.

The first trip, in August, was for the Felix Family Reunion in Asheville, NC.  It included my two sons and their families (4 grandchildren), my brother and his son and family (two more kids).  It was great! And, as at every Felix get-together (are all families the same as us?), there was virtually continuous eating, talking about eating, or making plans to eat! The Myron Violation* in all its glory!

Shortly after returning from the second trip to Asheville I decided to move there! I’ve since signed a lease on an apartment and am relocating from New York City in just a few weeks! Whenever I mention Asheville, I hear such positive responses – either people have been there and liked it, or know people who say great things about it.  While I’m not excited about the packing, I’m really looking forward to the move. Stay tuned!

*The Myron Violation:  named many years ago after my late uncle Myron Silverman.  Let’s say you’re eating a meal and someone starts talking about another meal they had in the past – instead of simply enjoying the present.  That’s a MYRON VIOLATION! 

On the Road…

Oct. 26-27:  NAREIM Executive Officers’ Meeting, Chicago, IL 

Nov. 9: Steve’s Almost Annual Pre-Holiday Pizza/Drink Thing at Joe G’s, 254 W. 56^th St. (bet. B’way and 8^th Ave). Downstairs from the DaVinci Hotel).  5:30 – 8:30pm.  Join your industry friends. No RSVP necessary.

Nov. 10-11:  PERE Summit, New York City (I’m moderating a panel on entity investing) 

Dec. 2-3:  NAREIM Capital Raising and Investor Relations, Chicago, IL 

Jan. 2016: Felix / Weiner Women’s Leadership Workshop, Laguna Beach, CA

Jan. 20-22:  IMN’s 13th AnnualWinter Forum on Real Estate Opportunity and Private Fund Investing, Laguna Beach, CA 

Jan. 26-27: NAREIM Acquisitions and Dispositions, Beverly Hills, CA 

Jan. 2016:  Felix / Weiner Women’s Leadership Workshop, San Francisco

Feb. 2016:  Felix / Weiner Women’s Leadership Workshop, Dallas

Feb. 2016:  Felix / Weiner Women’s Leadership Workshop, Houston

Feb. 16-17: NAREIM Research and Investment Management, Chicago, IL 

Apr. 6-7: NAREIM Asset and Portfolio Management, Atlanta, GA 

Apr. 8, 2016:  Felix / Weiner Women’s Leadership Workshop, Atlanta

Apr. 13-14:  PERE Global Investor Forum, Los Angeles

Disclaimer 

All content in this blog is created for informational purposes only. Content, which includes all text, photos, video and graphics is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company or individual.  Steve Felix makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or other information as a result of following any featured link to or from this site.  The intention of this blog is to do no harm in regards to injury, defamation or libel. What is written or shown is not to be taken as fact or absolute.  Steve Felix will hold himself harmless for any errors or omissions in this blog’s information; including but not limited to external link information, translation or interpretation of content or incorrect grammar or punctuation. 

25th Anniversary of the ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act)

My good friend Peter Slatin is founder of Slatin Group.  They focus on providing education and training to improve communication and interaction with special-needs customers in any business environment.  Many of their clients are major hotel chains.

Last Tuesday, in celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, Peter was the keynote speaker at an NYC & Company Talks: ADA - Beyond Compliance to Service.  There was a wonderful handout provided (which I believe Peter is going to add to his website).  I’ve typed up the content and wanted to share it with you. 

Slatin Group

Ask
Listen
Respond
Follow Through

Universals

It’s a unique experience with a common thread

People first language

Don’t apologize

If you’re inspired, don’t say so

Be courteous, not curious

Vision

Provide explicit directions

Don't touch person, cane or dog harness

Offer your elbow

Don’t say “over there”

Introduce yourself simply

Announce doors and stairs

Hearing

Don’t shout

Speak directly

Suggest texting

Don't say:  “never mind”

Mobility

Don’t lean on or push wheelchair

Make sure spaces and places that claim accessibility are accessible

Make sure that bathroom aids are as specified

Leave room furniture in place

Service dogs

When they are in harness, they are at work

Ask permission to pet or address

Respect owner’s response

Never offer food

In 1990, the company I worked for had the grand opening of a factory outlet mall in the Midwest.  We were very excited and I was there representing management.  Shortly after the doors opened to a rush of people at 10am, a person in a wheelchair approached me.  “The doors are too hard for a person in a wheelchair to open.”  I thanked them, said that we hadn’t realized it and would take care of it immediately.  We asked the wheelchair bound person to go with one of our engineers to make certain that the right adjustments were made. This was a number of months before the ADA was adopted.  It was something I’ve always remembered.

 

Father's Day 2015

Perspective is a powerful thing. So is hindsight, although I’m not sure it’s actually 20/20.  Looking back, do we always see things more clearly than we saw them in the first place?  When we’re in the moment, evaluating a decision, we do the best we can at that point in time.  But some time later – could be days, weeks, months or years – would we have chosen to take the same road?

I’ve spent a considerable part of my life alone in hotel rooms in the U.S. and Europe. I first started traveling for work before my sons were born. It was part of my job. It’s how I made money to support my family and our lifestyle…modest as it was.  I must admit, I enjoyed the travel - and still do - seeing new places and meeting new people, some that have become long-time industry and/or personal friends. As the years went on, depending on the position I held, I continued to travel… I was on the road sometimes much of the time, sometimes less. 

The births of our sons - Brian and Kevin - were two of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had in my life.  And I made a vow that no matter what I was doing, and where I was, I would always be home on the weekends – a promise I kept virtually 100% of the time.  But in hindsight, that wasn’t either fair or enough. It wasn’t fair to Sharon, my first wife and the mother of my sons, leaving her with all that responsibility, and just not being home enough. Our cost of living allowed her to be a full-time mom, something that has become more and more difficult nowadays as prices of housing, schooling and, well, everything have risen to stratospheric heights. I have always loved being a dad and as I look back I wish I had been around more as I missed so much and I’m pretty sure my wife and children missed me being there too. But when I was there – I was fully present.

My encouragement of the boys’ sports and music endeavors and Sharon’s artistic talent helped, in some ways, shape who they became:  Brian is a performing musician and assistant professor of music at the University of North Carolina – Asheville and Kevin is a producer on some high profile reality TV shows such as the current hit, Impractical Jokers.

Both Brian and Kevin now have children of their own and while I’ve always been proud of them as individuals, I’m so impressed with them as fathers. They both love being dads and are doing a great job at it.  And they each have jobs that allow them to be home most every night – it makes a difference.

As I look back on how my parents ‘parented’ me, I wish they had done some things differently.  It took me a long time, but I finally understood that they were doing the best they could. Sharon and I both wished our parents had done some things differently to help shape what we became.  We made a conscious decision to follow a different path than our parents in many ways – to not make what we believed were mistakes, and we had always felt that we did the right thing. Thinking in hindsight again, I wish I had made some different choices. Perhaps it resembles the ‘lessons learned’ talked about regarding real estate investment cycles.   “We won’t do that again.”  But we sometimes do…

Today is a much different time to be raising children than when we raised Brian and Kevin.  Life was simpler then; the world was less complicated.  Today, there are so many more distractions – technology being just one of them – I’m not sure how I would deal with those if I had young children today. 

The other night, after Brian and his family arrived from out of town, I spent the evening with my sons and their families. It was an incredible feeling – to participate and play, and also to simply observe my four grandchildren – Sean (6), his brother Gavin (3), and the twins, Edie and Ben (3).  It brought tears to my eyes every once in a while because I was reminded about what a lucky guy ‘Grandpa’ really is.

On Sunday, Father’s Day, we’ll all be doing some things together.  Due to logistics, this doesn’t happen very often.  And I am so looking forward to it.  It’s another incredible thing in my life to watch what a great job my sons and daughters-in-law are doing raising their kids.  Just like Sharon and me, the next generation has incorporated things that went well from their own upbringing, and are making adjustments where areas could be improved from the past.

For those of you who have frequent travel as part of your job, I encourage you to make decisions about whether a trip is absolutely necessary if it means you’ll miss a music recital or a sporting event that your child (or grandchild!) is participating in.  Sure, technology allows you to have some degree of those experiences from wherever you are in the world.  But, there is no substitute for being there in person – for you and for your child.  Think about it now – not 30 years from now – when you say to yourself, ‘I wish I had done it differently’ as I sometimes do.

‘Grandpa’ is a title that means a lot to me. It reflects life itself…the next generation and the one after that.  For all of you who are dads or grandpas, I know you know what I’m talking about. 

Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers (and grandfathers) and especially to my sons, Brian and Kevin. 

Kevin (blue shirt); Brian (red shirt)

NAREIM Executive Officers Meeting / PREA Spring Conference

NAREIM Executive Officers Meeting

In Miami, Florida on March 16-17, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers (NAREIM) held it’s semi-annual Executive Officers (EO) meeting.  This one focused on leadership.  In attendance were approximately 60 senior executives from investment management and private equity real estate firms. The CEOs that I spoke with told me something that I’ve heard about each the EO meetings – it’s the openness with which peers share challenges, and thoughts on solutions, that makes this meeting special. 

Here are some notes I took during the meeting that I offer for your consideration:

• What does it take to be a leader today?
• Inspirational
• Lead by example
• Mentor
• Get people to follow them
• Establish and maintain credibility
• Consistent
• Walk the talk
• Cheerleader
• How they define success
• Don’t answer questions / ask questions
• Leadership has become disappointing:  A survey by Inc. magazine showed 65% would rather take a new boss vs. a pay raise
• Only 7% of employees have trust and confidence in their senior leaders
• Did you leave your organization in better shape than you found it?

Commercial real estate is an industry whose foundation is ‘the deal.’  Leading an organization requires a senior manager to dedicate a significant amount of time to managing / developing / inspiring their team vs. making deals.  For some, it’s a challenge – as I know from my own career, making a real estate deal is seductive and adds to our accomplishment history.  But from the discussions at the NAREIM EO meeting, it’s clear that there is more focus than ever on the importance of being an effective leader – on attracting and retaining top talent and creating a stimulating environment. 

Some people say that leaders are born and not made.  I’m not sure I agree.  In many ways it’s a matter of having a true desire to lead and developing the tools to be a leader.  If you are a senior officer at your firm, and you’re not already a NAREIM member, I encourage you to check it out.  Getting away from your desk for a few days a year to interact with other industry leaders may be one of the most valuable investments you can make – in your firm and in yourself. 

PREA Conference

The Pension Real Estate Association Spring Conference took place last week in Washington, DC. A number of the conversations I had were with capital raisers, marketing and investor relations professionals.  The energy level at the PREA event was high…we’re riding a wave of prosperity – companies are hiring – compensation is up and everyone seems happy.  But, with hundreds of funds in the market, raising capital has never been more challenging.  It’s also not easy to invest  – as there is so much money chasing the same deals.  One of my friends, whose firm has sold 10,000 apartment units, told me, “It’s difficult to turn down a deal at a 5% cap rate.”  It continues to amaze me – how the appetite for real estate continues to drive cap rates down to historic lows.  While many institutional investors are focused on income – getting a nice check quarterly – there may be surprises when the properties are sold and there hasn’t been any appreciation – no ‘pop’ at the end of the hold period. 

I joined the New Members/First time attendee breakfast, as did a few other PREA veterans.  There I sat with some mostly younger folks whose companies had recently joined PREA or they were attending their first event.  Attending any industry event for the first time can be daunting – I can remember the days when I didn’t know anyone…it’s not easy and it’s one reason that I will approach people standing by themselves during networking breaks or cocktail receptions and strike up a conversation.  Some long-standing industry friendships have developed from those simple interactions. 

During the event, I learned about the PREA Industry Leader interview series.  They run up to 15 minutes, are very well done and offer some great insight from a diverse group of industry leaders.  Take a look!

Monetarex

Olga Koroleva, founder and CEO of Monetarex, and I were introduced at the CRE Tech Intersect conference in New York City by Larry Sousa, a long-time industry friend and advisor to Monetarex. Olga recently gave me a demo of their service. 

While Monetarex slips into the realm of some other commercial real estate data providers and services, there are some unique aspects that make it worth exploring.

Olga described the steady progress she is making, getting companies to check out Monetarex and then deciding if it’s a tool that can help them.  From their promotional material:

• The Monetarex platform comprises a network, investment marketplace, and private firm data. 
• Delivers comprehensive business intelligence on over 1,000 private real estate firms, their investment activity, regulatory filings, and key personnel - all in real-time with up to 100 data points per firm. 
• Provides tools and analytics for the private CRE market to streamline deal sourcing, due diligence, market research, and communication.

Having been involved with an early entry into commercial real estate technology, I can appreciate the challenges that Olga and other start-up entrepreneurs face today. There are some groups gathering friends and family money and others aggregating funds through crowd-sourcing mechanisms to invest, not just in hard assets, but in technology start-ups. 

These are exciting times for our industry, which I’ve always believed has been the slowest to adopt technology.  And while this may be commercial real estate’s own ‘tech bubble’ those left standing will have contributed to taking the industry to the next level of recognizing how adopting new technologies can make collecting and managing of data, and other functions, easier and more robust.

Congratulations

Charlie Nolfi recently joined Calare Properties as Director of Marketing and Investor Relations

   

On the Road...

April 2:  Commercial / Institutional Real Estate Women's Leadership Workshop, New York City. Learn more and register here

May 5:  Commercial / Institutional Real Estate Women's Leadership Workshop, Chicago, IL. Learn more and register here

May 6 - 7:  NAREIM Accounting and IT Meeting, Chicago, IL.  Learn more and register here

May 14:  Annual meeting of The Hoyt Fellows, North Palm Beach, FL

June 15 - 16:  IMN US Real Estate Opportunity and Private Fund Investing Forum, New York, NY.  Learn more and register here

Disclaimer 

All content in this blog is created for informational purposes only. Content, which includes all text, photos, video and graphics is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company or individual.  Steve Felix makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or other information as a result of following any featured link to or from this site.  The intention of this blog is to do no harm in regards to injury, defamation or libel. What is written or shown is not to be taken as fact or absolute.  Steve Felix will hold himself harmless for any errors or omissions in this blog’s information; including but not limited to external link information, translation or interpretation of content or incorrect grammar or punctuation.