CCIM Feature
Thrive Together
This year’s CCIM conference provides fresh networking opportunities.
By Rich Rosfelder |
On March
4, Michael Anderson, CCIM, chairman and founder of RealSource in Salt Lake
City, walked into the RealShare Apartments East conference in Miami proudly
wearing his CCIM pin. He left that day with the seeds of a $100 million merger
and acquisition transaction that was facilitated by a fellow CCIM attendee.
For
Anderson, there are two key factors to sustain a successful real estate career:
what you know and who you know. As he explained in a recent CCIM Q&A (CIRE,
July/August 2014): “Who you know comes from only one source — networking.”
This
year, the CCIM Institute strengthened its partnership with ALM Real Estate
Media Group to promote the CCIM designation and give members new platforms for
connecting with influential industry professionals. In addition to GlobeSt.com
and Real Estate Forum magazine, ALM owns the RealShare Conference Series, which
includes local and national events that attract top commercial real estate
practitioners. The Institute has also enlisted the team behind RealShare to
help reimagine its own conference, CCIM Thrive.
A New
Network
What
sets the RealShare Conference Series apart? Its panels and attendees are
primarily comprised of senior- and executive-level decision makers. This
audience hires CCIMs.
To raise
the profile of the CCIM designation among these decision makers, the Institute
has identified exemplary CCIMs to participate in these events.
“The
RealShare Conference Series gives us opportunities to showcase CCIM designees
who are working at the highest levels of the commercial real estate industry,”
says 2013 CCIM Institute President Wayne D’Amico, CCIM. “The Institute had
better representation than most of the companies at RealShare National
Investment and Finance, with more than a dozen CCIM Institute members in
attendance and five CCIMs on panels. Attendees took notice.”
Members
are taking notice too. “The RealShare conferences are attended by a significant
number of the real players in commercial real estate in a given market,” says
Elizabeth Braman, CCIM, chief production officer at Realty Mogul in Los
Angeles, who joined two RealShare panels earlier this year. “By participating
in these conferences, CCIM Institute is showing its members a commitment to be
a part of what’s current and relevant.”
And
what’s especially relevant today is the expansion of investors and real estate
capital into secondary and tertiary markets where CCIMs are the major players.
This current trend only increases the value of promoting the designation to
senior executives from large investment and real estate firms. They often hail
from primary markets, but, like many major market investors, today they’re
moving into secondary and tertiary markets in search of better returns.
This
issue’s cover story on p. 26 documents this migration in the industrial sector.
But the trend is prevalent across other property types as well. In the
multifamily market, “Investors seeking higher yields have more aggressively
targeted assets in secondary and tertiary markets where the recovery potential
has not yet been fully priced into deals,” reports Marcus & Millichap. And
the office sector is seeing “increased capital targeting CBD assets in
secondary markets.”
But
D’Amico notes that even CCIMs working in smaller markets can benefit from
big-city knowledge gained at RealShare events. “At a minimum, every CCIM should
be able to articulate the trends in the primary markets and be able to
translate that to their market of influence, be it as comparison or for
identifying opportunity,” he explains.
CCIM
Institute First Vice President Steven W. Moreira, CCIM, served on the
Opportunities in Debt and Equity panel at RealShare National Investment and
Finance alongside some of the top investment professionals in the country. “The
CCIM panelists and volunteers made it clear to these and other investors in
attendance why they should be seeking out CCIM designees for assistance, especially
in secondary and tertiary markets,” he explains. “It was a great venue for
designation promotion.”
Relationships
First
One way
to capitalize on this designation promotion is to simply attend a
CCIM-sponsored RealShare event. But designees should keep their expectations in
check. “I think people go to these types of events saying to themselves, If I
walk away without a deal, it was a failed event,” says David P. Wilson, CCIM,
executive vice president with Lockard Development in Cedar Falls, Iowa. “That
is not true. Deals will happen, but they may take some time.”
Last
December Wilson met a fellow CCIM at RealShare Healthcare Real Estate, where
Wilson served as a panel moderator. They’re now working on a “very big deal,”
he says. “People do business with people who they know, like, and trust, and
when you see CCIM, it brings instant credibility to the deal.”
Gary M.
Ralston, CCIM, CPM, SIOR, a CCIM Institute senior instructor and managing
partner of Coldwell Banker Commercial Saunders Ralston Dantzler Realty LLC in
Lakeland, Fla., reconnected with almost a dozen industry leaders at RealShare
Net Lease in April. “I was able to generate an offer for a 1031 replacement
property through one of my reconnections,” he says.
But it’s
not just deals surfacing as a result of these events. “My current job came out
of RealShare conference,” notes Braman, who met fellow panelist Jilliene
Helman, chief executive officer of Realty Mogul, at RealShare Los Angeles. “The
CCIM and Realty Mogul booths happened to be next to each other, so we started
talking about crowdfunding, which combines my passion for real estate and
technology. One thing led to another, and I’m now chief production officer at
Realty Mogul.”
The
RealShare conferences are designed to facilitate such happy accidents. Most of
the events focus on a particular property type or local market, which attracts
the most relevant pool of potential connections. “Too often, industry
conferences try to be all things to all people,” Wilson says. “At RealShare
Healthcare Real Estate, I saw great interaction among all of the attendees.”
And the
national RealShare events provide not only national connections, but also
national insights. “The participants were from across the country so I had
access to best practices from markets that are outside of New York,” says
Alfonso L. Holloman, CCIM, senior managing director/principal with Lee &
Associates BQLI in New York, who represented the Institute at RealShare Net
Lease. “I think this feature was a benefit for all of our members in
attendance.”
Time to
Thrive
The
Institute’s partnership with RealShare will also bring these best practices to
CCIMs’ own conference, CCIM Thrive, Oct. 21–22 at the Westin Bonaventure in Los
Angeles.
“This
reinvented conference format is about raising the bar,” explains D’Amico, this
year’s conference chairman. “Whether you practice at the highest level of your
field or are striving to get there, CCIM has the education, tools, and
relationships that can help you realize your greater aspirations in your career
or business model. This conference is a launching pad for doing more, thriving
through the second half of 2014 and beyond.”
Up Your Conference
ROI
CCIMs
offer tips for capitalizing on CCIM Thrive and RealShare events.
Pin up
.
“Wear your CCIM pin proudly,” says Gary M. Ralston, CCIM, CPM, SIOR, managing
partner of Coldwell Banker Commercial Saunders Ralston Dantzler Realty LLC in
Lakeland, Fla. “And make an earnest effort to network with other CCIMs in
attendance.”
Show up
.
“The most important factor is attending,” says Alfonso L. Holloman, CCIM,
senior managing director/principal with Lee & Associates BQLI in New York.
“These events are no-nonsense and you have an opportunity to get in front of
real deal makers.”
Meet up
.
“Get out of your comfort zone and connect with someone new,” says David P.
Wilson, CCIM, executive vice president with Lockard Development in Cedar Falls,
Iowa. “It could pay dividends.”
Follow
up
. “Getting the introduction is the easy part,” says J.R. Chantengco, CCIM,
managing director with HKS Capital Partners in New York. “The next, crucial
steps must be: follow up, follow up, follow up!”
|
To
ensure that attendees come away with a new perspective, the Institute and
RealShare have assembled panels featuring some of the top commercial real
estate professionals in the country. Day one includes Jonathan Hipp, president
and chief executive officer of Calkain Cos.; Bill Hoffman, chairman of the
board and chief executive officer of Trigild; and Ken McCarthy, research
director at Cushman & Wakefield, among many others. Day two features
Michael Weil, president of RCS Capital; CCIM Senior Instructor Gene Trowbridge,
CCIM; Shelley Magoffin, senior vice president at Grandbridge Real Estate
Capital; Curt Johnson, CCIM, vice chairman of First American Title Insurance
Co.; and more. Anderson, Braman, and Wilson will also participate as panelists.
“The
content being presented by these senior industry participants will translate to
each and every market,” D’Amico notes. Panel topics include the economic
outlook, crowdfunding, redevelopment, and emerging niche property sectors.
In
addition, a special marketing analytics session will highlight recent upgrades
to CCIM members’ technology tools, including Esri’s BAO 4.0 product.
CCIM
members will also benefit from the local audience of commercial real estate
professionals attracted by the RealShare connection and the strength of the
panels. “This year’s conference is being structured to take advantage of being
located in Los Angeles, one of the largest commercial real estate markets in
the world,” says CCIM President Elect Mark Macek, CCIM. “It will give our
Institute an opportunity to showcase our organization and members to a major
segment of the industry.”
And as
with many of the RealShare events, CCIM Thrive will be a great place to connect
with primary market investors searching for secondary and tertiary market
opportunities. “Los Angeles is a large and very well diversified international
market,” says Wolf Baschung, CCIM, director at KW Commercial in L.A. “Toward
market cycle tops, there is often an outflux of capital toward secondary U.S.
markets, as local agents seek higher yield out-of-state investments. Everyone
should plan to attend.”
In addition
to a wealth of informal networking opportunities, attendees can mingle at the
Oct. 21 cocktail reception and the Oct. 22 networking breakfast, which features
tables segmented by business specialty.
Los
Angeles is also a fantastic place to visit, Braman adds. It’s within driving
distance of the ocean, desert, and mountains; you can fly into three different
airports; and now Uber, the ride-sharing service, makes it easy to get around.
But
while some members from colder climes may flock to the beach — and who could
blame them? — most attendees will be looking to boost their business. And
that’s exactly what CCIM Thrive will deliver, according to Macek. “The major
goal of redesigning this event is to present industry experts and networking
opportunities that will help us be more successful,” he explains. “CCIM members
who attend this conference will truly have a competitive advantage when they go
back to their local markets.”
Rich
Rosfelder is integrated marketing manager for the CCIM Institute.