Industry Transition - Thoughts from CCIM Development Panel

I was fortunate to be invited to speak on the CCIM panel a couple weeks ago in Indianapolis. An interesting discussion between the office, retail, multi-family and lending industries, and the shake-up that has taken place within the overall real estate community. As soon as the program started, and I looked out across the audience recognizing a host of people with far more experience than I, and who I knew as the market makers, and somewhat was curious why I was sitting on that stage. It immediately made me think about the incredible transition in our industry that has taken place through the last 36 months. I do not believe that anyone on the 5 person panel, or the coordinator who put it together, was currently employed or working with the same company that they had been 24 – 36 months ago. In addition, as I looked across the crowd, it was incredible as in my head I began to immediately tick off how many people I recognized that had changed firms, or even roles in the industry that were in attendance. I have found this transition of information and people to all different places an incredible event over the past few years, and likely a reason why you are seeing so many of the big players struggle and the number of new companies emerge. I believe and hope that this is good for the real estate industry, and I am hopeful that some of these transitions as well as the tumultuous market that has taken place over the last few years helps people realize that real estate is more than a commodity, creation of neighborhoods in their developments is a strong value creator, and that we need to be more conscious in our design and development than just spreadsheet/production commodities builders. It is truly an incredible time and there are opportunities that keep their nose to the grindstone, stick to their fundamentals, and make it out the other end. For those that do this, significant wealth and social impact will be made over the next 10 – 20 years.

Moderator: Pete Anderson, Vice President for Cassidy Turley
Medical Office Panelist: Taggart Birge, Executive Vice President for Cornerstone Companies, Inc.
Retail Panelist: Ashlee S. Boyd, Senior Vice President for Thompson Thrift Development, Inc.
Finance Panelist: Greg Buckhout, Senior CRE Relationship Manager for First Financial Bank
Multi-family Panelist: Tadd Miller, CEO of Milhaus Development, LLC