Jim Merkel is the Founder and CEO of Rockbridge, a private investment firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio that has been focused on the hospitality industry since 1999. Rockbridge has made more than 260 real estate and hospitality investments in 38 states, worth over $8.5 Billion in total capitalization. In 2011, Jim also founded RBHD, a leading hotel development and construction business that has done over $1.4 billion in renovation and ground-up construction of hotels.

Laurie Dotter has served in executive leadership roles in several investment companies that delivered attractive investment returns on commercial real estate operating companies, development and management companies, and portfolios requiring repositioning to enhance value. From 2010 to 2016, she served as President of Transwestern Investment Group, and then in addition as the founding partner of Corporate Properties Trust I, II and III, large scale commercial real estate investment vehicles with combined capitalization exceeding $2 billion, from 2016 to 2017. Ms. Dotter also worked as an executive senior investment officer at Hunt Realty Investments under the umbrella of Hunt Oil Company, a petroleum exploration and production company, from 1998 until 2010. Ms. Dotter was the director of Real Estate Investments at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, from 1993 to 1998; and was a director of Financial Consulting Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers, from 1989 to 1993. Ms. Dotter currently serves as an Advisor and Board member at Dottid, a company focused on developing comprehensive work flow technology to maximize revenue generation for commercial real estate . She also recently advised the Investment Committee of the Board of Children's Health System of Texas, providing interim investment portfolio oversight and a slate of recommendations regarding the System's investment governance framework.

Ms. Dotter is currently an investment advisory board member at Employee Retirement System of Texas ( since 2019) and Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company ( since 2009).

In early 2020, the global pandemic sent millions of employees to work from home, boosted eCommerce as crowded storefronts became less safe, and caused supply chain issues that continue to this day. Now that there is hope inspired by a vaccine rollout and a possible end in sight, what does the future of commercial real estate look like?

This period of immense change has brought many questions. Will companies need more office space to accommodate social distancing, or less space due to preferences for a permanent work from home economy? Will demand for warehouse space continue to grow to account for uncertain inventory demands, or will businesses return to just-in-time efficiencies? Which areas of retail will regain their footing, and which will never recover?

Panelists include Yaromir Steiner, CEO, Steiner & Associates; Matt Wersel, Managing Partner, Mohr Partners; Carl Deluca, Head of Real Estate, Americas, DHL.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created the most difficult situation in memory for hotel owners and operators. What is the path forward from here? Will occupancies return to their prior numbers, and if so, when?

In this episode of Appreciating Real Estate, Mary Beth talks with Kevin Mallory, Senior Managing Director and Global Head for Hotels at CBRE, Noah Silverman, Chief Development Officer at North America Full Service Hotels for Marriott International Inc., Jim Merkel, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Rockbridge, and Barry Bloom, Ph.D., President and Chief Operating Officer at Xenia Hotels & Resorts, Inc..

In this episode of Appreciating Real Estate, listen to our recent Economic Outlook Webinar. Professor Itzhak (“Zahi”) Ben-David, the Neil Klatskin Chair in Finance and Real Estate at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, was joined by Dr. Gene Amromin, Vice President and Director of Financial Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, for a discussion on the post-election economy.

In this episode of Appreciating Real Estate, Mary Beth talks with Fred Gould, Founder, a Director and Chairman of the Board Emeritus of Georgetown Partners, Inc., the Managing General Partner of Gould Investors L.P.

Fred discusses how he got his start in real estate, the types of investments he started with and the investments Gould Investors is involved in now.

Fred also talks about where he sees opportunity right now, what traits have helped him be successful, mistakes he has made in his career, what he is most proud of, and advice to students.

The intersection of Healthcare and Housing is an exciting and growing space in both the healthcare sector and the multifamily housing industry. In this episode of Appreciating Real Estate, listen to Aaron Pechota, the NRP Group; Amy Riegel, CareSource; Angela Mingo, Nationwide Children's; and Sheldon Johnson, Community Building Partners, as they discuss how health and housing are connected and share how their organizations are developing, financing, and working with communities to develop housing that can help make communities healthier, both in Columbus and across Ohio.

In this episode, Mary Beth talks with Renee Csuhran, Executive Managing Director of Commercial Real Estate and Community Development Lending and Investment at Huntington National Bank.

They discuss the details of Renee's job at Huntington, how she got into commercial real estate, and what traits she possesses that have helped her succeed.

They also discuss the state of the market right now, outlook on the future of urban environments, lessons learned from past recession, and how long she thinks this downturn will last.

They finish with Renee's advice to current students and recent graduates.

For this iteration of the Center's View From the C-Suite series, Mary Beth was joined by David Adelman, CEO of Campus Apartments.

Mary Beth and David discuss topics including: his history in the real estate field, how he was able to grow Campus Apartments to its current size, and how he developed a strong company culture. David also discusses how COVID-19 has affected the student housing market and the most difficult aspects of being a CEO. David finishes by giving his best advice to students and graduates wanting to succeed in the world of real estate.

In this episode of Appreciating Real Estate, Mary Beth talks with Huber Bongolan, Director of Capital Markets at StackSource.

Huber talks about the company he works for StackSource, as well as the individual work he does. He also discusses the ups and downs of working for a startup. Huber gives insights into how he got started in his career, and the traits that have helped him succeed along the way. Lastly, Huber finishes by giving his advice to current students.