As President and CEO of Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners, Mr. Lynch assumes primary responsibility for firm management and project coordination, with a commitment to developing a quality product and superior service. That commitment has produced distinctive urban mixed-use projects for investors and a distinguished list of public, private and non-profit clients.

Mr. Lynch has over twenty years’ experience in public and private real estate as an investor and advisor, including projects in Silicon Valley, CA and Washington, DC. He founded Jair Lynch in 1998 and has completed more than 65 projects totaling almost 4.3 million square feet of development in DC, with an additional 1.7 million square feet in his development pipeline. He is a driving force for urban regeneration, working to create walkable urban places to empower people, develop place and create prosperity.

Jair grew up in Washington, DC and attended Sidwell Friends where he was an excellent student and became a world class gymnast. He subsequently attended Stanford University and became Captain of their Gymnastics team. While there he competed in the 1992 Olympic Games. After graduation from Stanford he joined Silicon Graphics in their real estate department and trained for the 1996 Olympics where he earned a Silver Medal in the parallel bars event. He subsequently returned to Washington DC to begin his company.

• Jair Lynch Company- Less than 10MM s.f., so he is involved with portfolio often, but most of his time is with strategic planning. (3:20)
• Has CEO perspective now (4:40)
• Pandemic influences on business- Shaken everyone to their core (5:30)
  • Affected people first
  • Team has been resilient enough to execute on plans from 2019
  • Able to keep all projects moving forward and accelerate business

• Parents are immigrants and met at Johns Hopkins Center of International Studies in an academic environment (7:30)
  • Father is a Professor at Howard University
  • Mother is an academic and with the Organization of American States)
  • Grew up in Washington DC and parents opened him up to museums (8:50)
  • U Street history
  • 3 Levels- Local, Federal and International perspectives of Washington DC (10:30)

• Sidwell Friends– Value structure aligned with parents (12:00)
  • Connections gained helped even beyond high school as an alumnus
  • It shaped his world view (13:10)
• Gymnastics career
  • YMCA was origin of sports (13:40)
  • He was always there and most interested in gymnastics consistently (14:15)
• Stanford
  • As a gymnastics star, he had only a few choices and Stanford was his best choice and was recruiting from the East Coast (16:00)
  • National Champion- Tim Ryan was attractive (17:15)
  • Only West Coast and Big Ten were choices
  • Grounding leadership skills (18:30)
  • Need to work hard both athletically and academically (19:00)
  • Rules Committees (19:30)
    • Risk, Originality, and Virtuosity were ranking variables (20:00)
  • His academics were “associated” with his athletic performance (21:30)
  • Captain of Gymnastics team
  • Honors student (23:15)
  • Expand knowledge and ability to think…looking to leverage that into his future (23:30)
• Olympic experience (24:00)
  • 1992 Olympics- he was 20 yrs. old and was not as “mature” (24:30)
  • 1996 Olympics- gained considerable experience and maturity and had a different perspective (25:15)
    • Reference to Muhammed Ali (26:30)
    • Inspirations- Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Jackie Robinson (27:00)
  • Benefit of sitting on USOC board in 2004-2012 and learned the business of sports (28:20)
  • Dream of getting on a Wheaties box in 1980s and 90s (29:20)
  • Athletes are more aware now and more mature (avg. age now 28) (30:00)
  • Transition of sports to business has improved dramatically (31:30)
  • 1992 was first year that professionals were allowed to participate- The Dream Team (31:50)
• Engineering and Urban Design were the inspiration for his real estate career (32:50)
  • Engineering- Micro and Urban Design- Macro

• Silicon Graphics– first employment (34:40)
  • Still training for the Olympics when started there
  • Ken Coleman
  • Helped them with a campus relocation (35:50)
  • Part of a team (Don Young was boss)
  • Google’s campus was one of his projects (Silicon Graphics at the time) (36:15)
  • Was looked upon to provide perspective for incoming employees’ environments (36:45)
• Felt compelled to come back to Washington, DC and create new environments (38:30)
• Started company to serve demographic changes in real estate opportunities and deliver great projects (39:30)
• Rebuild neighborhood assets that shown disinvestment over years (40:30)
• Worked on public infrastructure on a fee basis- parks, libraries, recreational facilities (41:00)
• 2001- Dept. of Parks and Recreation contract for new opportunities to build…creating “place” (41:40)
  • Pulling demographics & show what makes sense in that location (42:40)
  • Example of swimming pool where there were good swimmers (43:00)
  • Providing clarity of the “customer” experience and needs (43:30)
• Capital generated from other developers in partnership to look at business (44:30)
  • Ernie Marcus and Donald Tucker (45:00)
  • Eventually led to institutional relationships (45:30)
• 2005- Went to Harvard for a year to learn about management and gained perspective about private equity (45:45)
  • Found MacFarlane Partners to help him grow his business via an entity level investment for $120MM (47:15)
    • Victor MacFarlane & John Green
    • Was deployed in 2010-2011
    • Sales of the projects since then
  • Catapulted company’s growth
• Committed to long term ownership as well as development
  • Formed a venture with Nuveen to grow portfolio of existing properties (49:15)
• Thread for acquisition criteria (50:00)
  • Philosophical approach- Place based strategy about building or buying looking at the place and use a customer needs approach over time. (50:40)
  • Example of Woodbridge project- connection with mass transit (VRE) (51:25)
  • Green Line opening in late 90s influenced his interest in that area (52:00)
• Balances of owned and fee based projects (53:00)
  • Fee business is the “give back” to the community- providing “intellectual capital” to the community (53:40)
  • Saw this in underperforming neighborhoods when he returned to DC
• Projects (54:45)
  • 600 block of H St. NW was a “hub” for corridor- Anthology project (55:00)
    • Addressed the Gallaudet University community with a Starbucks for deaf people (55:50)
  • Martin Luther King Library- commitment from Mayor Bowser to reimagine the property (59:00)
    • Jair Lynch Co. has redeveloped it to include many more amenities than just a library
    • Hope is that 3,000-5,000 people per day go there
    • Chief Librarian Ginny Cooper came up with visions for library renovations with a bold course (1:01:25)
  • Inspired by Chris Leinberger (1:02:00)
    • Developers of the past were “race car drivers” -drive fast and turn left
    • Now they are more like “fighter pilots”- with diversity of product and vision (1:02:50)
  • Retail needs to be reconsidered (1:05:00)

• Post Pandemic strategy (1:05:15)
  • Integrated thinking to customizing projects to markets (1:05:45)
  • Unheard of to change covers of magazines, newspapers, and other situations historically (1:06:15)
  • Anticipate change for inflection points (1:07:00)
  • Looks forward to reimagining office and residential uses (1:07:30)
  • Now looks outside DC for opportunities that have the walkable urban spaces (1:07:45)
• Unfortunate that we are having a “K” shaped recovery (1:09:00)
  • Real estate community needs to address this (1:09:20)
  • Government may need to provide incentives to private sector (1:09:45)
  • Planning needs to be more responsive to what’s happening on the ground (1:10:00)
  • Addressing affordable housing in a public/private lens (1:10:30)
  • Subsidies toward housing not enough (1:10:50)
• Nimbyism and Gentrification (1:11:30)
  • Paralyzed Comp Plans- woefully behind in production (1:13:20)
  • What is the public will? (1:13:55)
  • Passing on generational wealth (1:14:20)
  • Rent is too expensive to justify development for affordable or workforce residents (1:15:10)
  • Hiring teachers at just above AMI limits for “affordable” housing opportunities (1:16:00)
  • Education toward the community (1:16:45)
  • Distinction of homeowners and renters for growth (1:18:00)
• Trends of people moving out of urban areas and suburban growth (1:18:50)
  • Demographics will have impact
  • Urban areas will come back
  • Innovation will address pulling people back into the pre-pandemic environment (1:20:50)
• Hiring criteria (1:22:00)
  • Four pillars- Leadership potential, specific skillsets, work well in a team, and diversity of thought
  • Expect that employees will protect the team in the house (1:22:30)
  • Layered approach to hiring (1:23:00)
• Mission Statement and Core Values with a North Star (1:23:40)
  • Relies on this to retain employees (15+ year employees) (1:24:00)
• 25 Yr. Old Self- Balance between Independence and Interdependence (1:24:30)
  • Cultivate relationships (1:25:15)
  • Need multilayered team to help (1:25:40)
  • Remain curious (1:26:00)
  • Keeping risk, originality and virtuosity as his mantra (1:26:30)
• Billboard response- “Shared Responsibility” (1:26:45)

• Martin Luther King Library Project
• Nimbyism- “Not in my backyard”
  • Bird nesting analogy
• Jair’s Olympic performance
  • Study about winners of medals- “Silver Medal winners more unhappy than Bronze Medal winners”
  • Perspective of competition
  • Comparison is a difficult
  • Appreciate accomplishment

John Green & Joe Carrol Part 1 & Part 2

Mike Bush

As the Government Services Administration’s Public Building Services Commissioner, he manages the nationwide asset management, design, construction, leasing, building management and disposal of approximately 371 million square feet of government-owned and leased space across the United States and six territories.

Prior to joining GSA, Mathews served as the Republican Staff Director of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management. This committee has jurisdiction over federal buildings and courthouses, the General Services Administration, the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center, the National Gallery of Art, and numerous other federal facilities. 

Prior to serving on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Mathews worked for the House Rules Committee and several California Members of Congress.

Mathews holds a bachelor’s in government and philosophy from Georgetown University.

• GSA formed in 1949 (4:00)
• Real Property & Personal Property (4:15)
• 370MM s.f.
• 5,500 employees
• 30,000 contractors
• $12.5B per year of expenditures
• U.S. and U.S. territories
• United Nations (5:45)

• Born in Naples, Italy and the son of a U.S. Navy pilot who traveled around the world (6:30)
• Grew up as a Navy “brat”
• Influences of traveling- flexibility and amazing exposure to other locations (10:00)
• Inspired by the outdoors
• Mother was a nurse and infused the idea of “duty” on him (11:00)
• Colorblindness eliminated his ability to fly (11:30)

• Falls Church H.S.
• Earliest memories of outdoors- camping in Mt. Baker in the State of Washington (13:00)
• Passion is rock climbing
• Went initially to the University of Colorado Boulder (14:00)
  • Studied engineering (14:30)
  • Internship on Capitol Hill (15:00)
  • Decided to transfer to Georgetown (16:00)
• Georgetown for his Junior & Senior years for Government studies (16:10)
  • Thought about ROTC and his father convinced him not to do it (16:50)
  • Philosophy & Government studies influenced him (18:15)
  • Loved Aristotle’s concept of “Ideas into Action” through government (18:35)
• Discusses origins of U.S. government- perspective of how the country’s government was formed by the Founding Fathers (19:40)
• Education in Philosophy is the most important part of his learnings to understand complex structures in government- one of his greatest strengths (22:00)

• First job in Congress was secured by canvassing every Republican house member and he secured his first job with a Congressman (23:30)
• Congress is an “entrepreneurial” environment (26:25)
• Capitol Hill is like a fire station- a rush to get things done and then quiet for a long time in between (28:15)
• After his boss at Congress lost his re-election, he went to work for his brother in a furniture business in North Carolina and learned about real estate leasing there (29:00)
• Came back to Washington to Congress again subsequently who then led the Public Building subcommittee where he learned about government real estate (31:15)
  • Congressional committee is like the “Board of Directors” for GSA on its function (33:40)
  • 22 yrs. on this subcommittee to understand the workings of GSA
• When interviewed he was asked what he’d do on the job: (35:30)
  • Save $5B through leasing
  • Restructure ownership portfolio
  • Public private partnerships
• Was brought on to PBS head role to accomplish the goals he stated (36:20)
  • Overachieved goals he set (37:00)
  • Complex situation due to multiple parties’ objectives (37:45)
  • Perspective from so much time in Congress helped him understand his role (38:30)
• Fortunate to have a good team that understood what needed to be done to reach his goals (40:15)
• Biggest surprise was that GSA was replacing 42% of leases with long term solutions, 58% were “short term” issues (41:45)
  • Paying a premium for short term leases (42:30)
  • Avg. actual lease term is over 26.9 yrs. (43:30)
  • New lease average is 5 yrs. and needs to be lengthened (44:00)
• Congress provided a model that requires GSA to stand on its own regarding revenue generation (45:00)
  • GSA has authority to commit the government to obligations of up to 20 yrs. with only one year of lease amount allocated (46:00)
  • Federal Building Fund was allocated for future lease obligations (47:40)
• Why lease space? (49:00)
  • Federal space requirements change, so needs flexibility for leasing (49:45)
  • Procurement makes owning buildings more expensive (51:00)
  • Costs to build are such that leasing may be more cost effective (51:15)
  • Yet, with special purpose uses owned buildings make more sense (52:10)
• Future
  • Office use currently is between 10-30% overall, with exceptions (54:00)
  • Remote office use is more efficient for many which will have an impact (54:50)
• Trump International Hotel (Old Post Office) (58:15)
  • Public Private Partnership was a win/win deal for the government and private sector (59:30)
  • Took a $6MM loss to a $3MM gain for GSA (59:50)
• Older buildings in SW & SE Washington (1:00:10)
  • Questions about these buildings coming (1:01:00)
• Public Private Partnership has limitations- relating to FBI SFO structure (1:01:30)
  • Not enough value in the FBI site to equate for the exchange for the new site (1:04:40)
  • Another exchange case- Volpe Center in Cambridge, MA where the real estate was worth enough for the exchange (1:06:00)
• Leasing mechanics (1:08:00)
  • Agency with a requirement (expiring lease or new requirement) (1:08:40)
  • Translate mission requirement into a real estate requirement (1:09:00)
  • Federally owned space checked first (1:09:20)
  • Then, a lease alternative is chosen (1:09: 40)
  • If over $3.2MM lease obligation per yr., then Congress must approve it (1:10:00)
  • OMB plays a big role in lease prospectus prior to presentation to Congress for approval (1:10:20)
  • GSA puts out prospectus in advance of Congressional approval (1:11:00)
  • The right way to handle procurement is to do it in advance with OMB, Congress and GSA working together in advance of final approval (1:12:00)
  • Congressional approval is the final step for the lease execution (1:13:20)
  • GSA must execute based on terms of the lease and keep the agency in line (1:13:50)
  • Occupancy agreement between GSA and agencies (1:15:00)
  • GSA has to backfill space that vacates, so GSA acts as a master lessee (1:17:00)
  • SEC lease case where they obligated for space where they didn’t have authority to occupy the space (1:17:30)
  • Rate to agency- 5% or 7% fee for rental obligations applied to agency costs for occupancy to GSA (1:19:00)
    • Incentivized to keep vacancy low (1:20:00)
• Simplified leases compared to standard lease form (1:22:30)
  • Smaller leases are typically “simplified leases” (1:23:00)
  • Several large leases have statutory language is embedded in form leases (1:23:30)
• As an incoming Commissioner of GSA you need to pick 3 priorities to address (1:24:30)
  • Lease cost approach (1:25:30)
  • Went from 42% of long term obligations to over 70% long term obligations (1:25:40)
  • Lease cost relative to market measured to make sure that the lease is at market or lower (1:26:20)
    • More long term leases helps value creation for portfolio (1:27:00)
• Financing advantages for long term leases are significant with the credit offering considerable leverage for lower cost capital applied to lease rates (1:28:20)
• Exceeded goals and earned a B+/A- overall, but for leasing an A. On owned portfolio he has been frustrated to accomplish goals from Federal Building Fund to address building deterioration (1:30:45)

• Next position he would like to bring his experience to oversee a large portfolio or perhaps advocate based on his knowledge to keep the momentum going from what he accomplished (1:33:45)
  • Changes from pandemic will have impact going forward (1:35:30)
• Leadership lessons (1:37:00)
  • Have good ideas and articulate them
  • Good value proposition
  • Concentrate energy on objectives
  • Create conditions for organization to be successful
  • Measure the right things- the most valuable leases were most important
  • Aligning and visibility
• Challenge with Government is dealing with other people’s money (1:41:00)
  • Tenants often don’t understand that it’s not “their money” and they need to understand that wants are not needs (1:41:40)
• Life priorities (1:44:30)
  • “School, God, Friends”- From Georgetown (1:44:45)
  • Work
  • Family
  • Charity- Leukemia/Lymphoma work
• Advice to 25 yr. old self- “Put more time into relationships” (1:46:30)
• Billboard- Understand and pursue the “good” (1:48:00)

• Tom Amos asks about GSA lease at Constitution Center SEC lease (1:50:00)
  • Story about property being sold subject to the broken lease
• GAO published that the leases exceeded the market by 10% between 2010 to 2014 whereas GSA was able to reduce lease exposure to 14% below market (1:52:30)

• Steve Lustgarten
• Doug Firstenberg
• Matt Kelly

In addition to his writing and speaking, Len Forkas is the founder and President of Milestone Communications, a Reston, Virginia-based owner and developer of wireless towers in the Mid-Atlantic. Milestone has invested over $50 million in the development of wireless infrastructure in six states, creating thousands of jobs in construction, engineering and manufacturing in the USA.

In 2014 Len published his book What Spins the Wheel: Life and Leadership Lessons from the Race for Hope. Profits from the sale of the book are donated to support Hopecam’s work connecting children with cancer with their friends at school. Over 10,000 copies of the books are in print. 

Len has appeared on CNN Anderson Cooper, Fox and Friends, Wharton Sirius XMRadio and Baltimore/Washington DC affiliates of ABC, FOX and NBC.

Len also serves as Chairman of the Board of Hopecam, the charity he founded in 2003 to use technology to overcome the social isolation of children in treatment for cancer.

Hopecam has connected over 1,800 children with cancer to 35,000 classmates in 47 states. It has formed partnerships with over 50 hospitals. Ninety percent of Hopecam children attend title one schools and 1/2 are treated at St Jude’s hospital. 

• Day job- Founder of Milestone Communications- Partners with government entities to build towers on public land to lease to wireless carriers (4:00)
  • Company has facilities from Delaware to Florida
• Founded Hopecam due to his son’s leukemia having a video link to his classroom (5:30)
  • Financed 3,000 children’s connections
• Chair of Fairfax County Public School Foundation (7:30)
  • Serve 60,000 children a day during the pandemic
  • 2,000 homeless children

• Grew up in suburban Cleveland, OH (9:30)
• Dad was self employed salesman- always his hero (9:45)
• Mom worked in assisted living community and raised him and his three siblings (10:00)
• Loved sports and was active as a child growing up
• Went to Ball State University in Muncie, IN studying landscape architecture (10:45)
• Joined EDAW, a landscape architecture firm located in Alexandria, VA in 1982 (11:15)
  • Met John Forstman, a developer who influenced him to get into the real estate business (12:10)
• Attended American University to get an MBA with Real Estate major (12:40)
• Joined Oxford Development– story about his interview with Bernie Lubcher (worked with Tom Bozzuto, John Slidell, etc.) (13:15)
• Joined Winchester Homes and learned the land development business (14:50)
  • Worked for Rick DiBella there
• Joined South Charles Realty during crisis time (16:00)
  • Began working on the Milestone Community in Germantown, MD
• Joined ULI in 1991 (16:50)
• Transition from employee at South Charles into a consulting agreement (17:45)
• First deal to build his company was during this time (1996) with Peter Melmed (18:20)
• Late 1990s he met Tam Murray who introduced him to the cell tower business how the numbers work and the relationships (20:15)
• Started his communications business and approached Montgomery and Fairfax Counties to build cell towers on school and park sites (21:15)
• Model to have government property land deals to eventually build towers on ground leased land (22:00)
• Attempted to lease land on shopping center sites but it wasn’t feasible at the time (24:10)
• Now partnering with utilities in Florida and South Carolina (25:20)
• Signed a partnership with WashREIT for first private sector tenancy (26:00)
• Challenges (27:00)
  • Science is doubted by people about potential risks from cell towers
  • Fighting negative views of the sector is difficult
  • Negativity actually helps “narrow the field” of competition (28:10)
  • Overcoming these challenges makes his business unique (28:30)
• Opportunities (29:30)
  • New generations of mobile communications create the dynamics of change in the industry providing growth
  • Competitive advantage is that the relationship with the land owner is a partnership with a base rent and upside sharing (31:20)
• Deal structure (32:30)
  • Debt raised to supplement equity to pay for land and construction and installation of towers
• Transition to 5G technology (35:00)
  • In this technology it changes every 6 months (36:00)
  • Four carriers now- Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and Dish (36:30)
  • Three elements (37:00)
    • High Band (37:20)
    • Low Band (37:30)
    • Mid Band- Most used (37:50)
  • 10 times faster and much less power (1/10th) usage (39:00)
  • Compatibility with hundreds of devices currently and in the future (39:30)
  • Designed for 100x of devices today (40:00)
  • Low latency and low power usage
  • Applications have not yet been created (40:50)
  • “Building the Audubon for wireless technology” (42:00)
  • 4G is not done yet (42:30)
  • Always changing
• More competition now so service becomes more important (43:30)
• 300+ towers (44:15)
• 4,000 sites for potential towers (44:30)
• His son Matt is now at Milestone (45:00)
• Finds real estate community to be very inspiring (45:20)
• Hopecam (47:00)
  • First fundraiser was a 50 mile race he ran (did it seven times thereafter) (47:30)
  • When his son was sick he exercised more and more (48:20)
  • He was able to do phenomenal physical feats to raise money (49:00)
  • Signed up for RAAM by qualifying and set a goal to raise $150,000. (49:45)
    • Crew and wrote his book “What Spins the Wheel” about this event and his son’s illness (51:15)
    • Book is platform for leadership (52:00)
  • Earned over $1MM in speaking fees- spoke to over 100 companies (52:30)
  • Decided to do RAAM again in 2017 and raised over $1MM in succeeding (53:00)
  • Helping over 500 children annually nationally (53:30)
  • Organization has four full time people now (54:20)
• Wants to run a marathon in every state and dedicates the race for a child that has cancer (55:05)
• Climbed Mt. Vinson in Antarctica (55:45)
  • Writing a book about his experience in climbing an ice mountain (56:45)
• Mountain climbing is his new challenge (57:00)
• “The mind is way more powerful than the body as long as one prepares” (58:45)
• Purposely uncomfortable but not life threatening in athletic accomplishment (59:45)
• Tell 100 people that he was doing RAAM and verbalize goals to others and resolve to do it (1:00:15)
• “Did you feel like quitting?” (1:01:00)
• Extremely motivated and does not pause to go (1:02:00)
• “Never doubt oneself–Don’t think too much” (1:02:30)
• Cannot explain why he was here today due to an incident in Colorado when he fell asleep on his bike during RAAM (1:04:00)
• Set a big goal and train (1:04:45)
• Practice faith through actions (1:05:30)
• “Have the opportunity to help people every day” (1:06:30)
• People (1:08:30)
  • Parents were huge influence
  • Omar Farouk- Professor at Ball State
• Key is the balance in life (1:09:50)
• Husband and Father is the first priority
• Hold children accountable in their lives (1:10:45)
• Rob Lowe- Stories I Only Told My Friends (1:11:15)
• “Work is what you create and accomplish” (1:13:30)
• Where are the opportunities today during COVID? (1:14:15)
  • Trust your people (1:15:00)
  • Future of real estate is future of collaboration (1:15:45)
  • Collaborating in person is so much more fluid and personal (1:16:15)
  • Equivalent to “Industrial Revolution” to work (1:16:40)
  • Have to adapt or die (1:17:00)
• Advice to 25 yr. old- “Keep getting skills” (1:18:00)
• “Don’t be afraid to fail” (1:18:45)
• Ask questions after a failure that is pragmatic with no finger pointing (1:19:15)
  • Get the answers
• Learn as much as possible
• Give without expecting anything in return (1:21:00)
• Billboard- “Be fearless” (1:22:00)

• Tom Amos introduces the concept of accountability (1:24:00)
• Pioneer of “remote learning” (1:28:00)
• Gap of remote learning is large

Wendy White is the Chair of the Real Estate Transactions group in Goulston & Storrs’ Washington D.C. office. She counsels clients on joint ventures, development, acquisitions, dispositions and financings of commercial properties.

Her practice includes transactions related to single and multiple sites involving office, hotel, retail, multifamily and mixed use properties.

Wendy’s clients include public and private real estate investment trusts, local, national and international companies with investments in the U.S., as well as nonprofits.

I’ve known Wendy since 1985 when I joined the B.F. Saul Company and she was a young associate at Shaw, Pittman, Potts and Trowbridge, a well known local real estate oriented firm at the time (it is now Pillsbury). She represented two of our correspondent lenders at the time with transactional legal work and was very thorough. Although I had indirect dealings with her I have always respected her abilities and savvy in responding to client needs.

As you will learn, she is a horsewoman, a learned poet and literary scholar, as well as a gifted real estate counsel. She has represented many leading real estate firms and institutional investors both in sale and financing transactions in a wide variety of real estate types. We discuss her family, educational experiences, her career arc and her philosophy which she has customized as her own, which she calls “E3- excellence, engagement and empathy.” She brings all those qualities and more to her work and life.

• Role at Goulston & Storrs- Real Estate transactions attorney. Sales and financings. 50% of firm is real estate (5:00)
• Working on Girl Scouts to sell property in Prince Georges County (5:45)
• Working on a school site in DC (6:00)
• Senior facility in Maryland (6:20)
• Workouts earlier in July

• Grew up in Miami (7:30)
• Mother went to Law School (7:45)
  • She met her husband, her Father, at law school
• Had 5 brothers (she was #2) (8:30)
  • Very competitive with her brothers (8:50)
  • Stories of sports
  • Different rules for her than her brothers (9:30)
  • Story about “diary” violation by her brother (10:45)
• Public Schools in Miami
  • HS class was bigger than entire college (11:45)
• Attended Sweet Briar College (13:45)
  • Had Horseback Riding facility that attracted her (14:15)
  • Learned “who she wasn’t, not who she was” (14:50)
  • She had grown up riding horses in Miami (15:30)
  • Riding empowers girls to convey power and confidence to horses and it is a life skill that translates (16:15)
  • Find out “who bites and who kicks” translates to relationships with people (18:00)
  • Board of college voted to close it 5 yrs. ago, but alumni came in and replaced the board and hired a new President who’s great (19:45)
  • She believes the school is a “privileged” place (20:30)
  • She transferred to UVA as a Junior to be in a larger college environment (21:00)
  • Then transferred back to Sweetbriar for her Senior Yr. (21:50)
• After Sweetbriar she became a secretary to the Dean of the UVA Law School- Didn’t like it (22:20)
• Then went to UC Irvine to get a Masters in Fine Arts (23:00)
  • Learned critical thinking and writing skills
  • Poetry is a specialized aspect of writing- being economical with words
• Went to University of Miami Law School instead of getting a Doctorate in Fine Arts (27:20)
  • Fred Klein, her Miami Law classmate influenced her to come to DC and practice
  • Story about a loan with Chevy Chase Bank and Bob Cocker (30:30)
  • Never could finish all the work in law school
  • Called on and admitted she was unprepared (32:50)
  • Enjoyed her time in law school (34:40)
  • She says that the “top” law schools “chew people up” (35:45)

• Joined Shaw Pittman after law school
• First boss was Shelly Weisel, who led the department (36:20)
  • Story about a mistake she made about replacing the name of a bank in error (37:20)
  • He was a great mentor to her (38:20)
  • She met her husband through Shelly (38:45)
• Discussed colleagues at Shaw Pittman (40:00)
  • Jay Epstien, Fred Klein, Jeff Keitelman, Anne Planning, Debbie Spartin, Diane Richer
  • Learned about principles (41:50)
• Merger with Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro (42:00)
  • Elevated her to lead the real estate practice in DC of the merged firm (42:50)
  • Firm shrank as lawyers left for other firms (43:20)
• She joined Morris, Manning to be with more women and real estate focused firm (43:30)
  • She grew to 10 lawyers in one year (45:00)
  • Learned how to build a practice at a new firm
  • Decided to leave to find better values
• Joined Goulston & Storrs (46:00)
  • Developed a philosophy (46:30)
    • E3–
      • Excellence in work product (47:20)
      • Engagement- Need to connect and do well via engagement (47:30)
      • Empathy– Need to be empathetic to be engaged to understand where people are coming from (48:00)
  • Believes Goulston brings these characteristics
  • Cites a story about a former partner passing away and how the partners recited testimonies about this deceased partner that were reverent and it reinforced her willingness to join the firm (49:00)

• Lawyers are conservative by nature and are introverted typically (51:30)
  • Should be a “supporting role” in helping clients (51:50)
  • Litigation was a “different animal” (52:45)
  • Migrated to real estate law and liked it immediately as it is problem solving (53:15)
• Characteristics of good lawyers
  • Collegiality with other attorneys on both sides (54:15)
  • Get deals done (54:30)
  • Works hard to find common goals with adverse counsel (56:30)
  • Clients want to make deals
  • Cites a case in Texas about a portfolio deal in Houston with Crescent Realty (57:30)
    • Contract to purchase company (not real estate) that became successful, but her being the only woman in the room (59:00)
    • Reference to A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe
• Business development (1:05:00)
  • Once fired a client due to the client’s treatment of her associate (1:06:30)
  • Doing transactions at Goulston with a wider range of clients (1:07:50)
  • People behave better in a mixed crowd (1:09:30)
• Relationships are critical- Advice to young attorneys (1:10:30)
  • Make relationships (1:10:50)
  • Wine Down Society (Linda Rabbit, Janet Davis) (1:11:10)
    • Group of women that help each other (1:11:50)
    • Includes 16 women- Linda Rabbitt, Debbie Ratner Salzberg, Anne Planning, Diane Hoskins, Jodie McLean, Sharon Oliver, Becky Owen, Sadhvi Submaranian (1:12:00)
    • Wendy inspired Sadhvi to be President of CREW (1:14:00)
• Cites story with partner Tim Watkins at Ritz Carlton Hotel in Houston (1:16:30)
  • Danced after working too hard at a bar
• Met Jodie McLean on the CityVista deal in Columbia, SC and their attorney where she stepped into the negotiations to close the deal (1:14:30)
  • Discusses Jodie’s framework (1:20:30)
• Reference to Ray Ritchey (1:22:45)
  • When Wendy had her twins in 1990, Shaw Pittman didn’t have business for her to do, so Ray hired her to step in at BXP to do the real estate legal work (1:23:50)
• She considered working in house with a real estate company, but wanted the flexibility of focus and at partner level she wouldn’t have found employment outside a firm (1:25:30)
• She believes that legal practice business will change such that less space will be used and a lot more remote working; however, there will be meetings (1:26:00)
• Can’t invest in real estate through firm clients (1:32:00)

• CREW involvement- Introduced when she was a young lawyer by Geraldine Pilzer (1:33:00)
• Got into other organizations to “grow”
• Washington Real Estate Investment Trust Board Member (1:36:00)
  • Ed Cronin, CEO of WRIT asked her to be on the board
  • Growth experience on the board
  • Enjoyed the mechanics of board leadership and business issues
  • Left Board when Paul McDermott came in and joined Goulston & Storrs
  • Sara Grootwasink Lewis (Former CFO of WRIT) (1:38:00)
• Board of Economic Club of Washington (1:39:00)
  • David Rubenstein was a lawyer at Shaw Pittman when she started there (1:39:50)
    • He did some research for her father who hired Shaw Pittman to do some work and David showed her his work and she marked it up (1:40:30)
    • David asks questions like a girl (1:42:00)
• ESG issues- she recognizes that the law is set in many of the tactics (1:43:40)
  • She is a supporter of “women supporting women” (1:44:00)
  • People are comfortable with “sameness” and realize that change needs to be made (1:46:00)
  • Need to be intentional with change both racially and gender based (1:46:45)
  • Women tend to be more “relationship driven” (1:47:40)
  • Story about Indira Nooyi (CEO of Pepsi) who wrote letters to young employees’ parents to report about their children’s performance (1:47:50)
• Family is first and relationships in work and giving back is very important (1:50:20)
  • Boys & Girls Club
  • Girl Scouts (1:51:00)
    • Diane Tipton
    • Can address “less affluent” families to help growth with the young girls
    • Camp CEO
    • She is doing two “pro bono” transactions for them (1:53:30)
• Advice for her 25 yr. old self- “Set goals earlier and be bolder” (1:55:50)
  • Make relationships (1:56:45)
  • Prioritize early in life (1:57:00)
  • Boys In the Boat
• Billboard- E3 (1:58:00)

• Tom Amos cites the quote about “women” (1:59:00)
• CREW discussion (2:00:00)
• Discussed Icons Webinar (2:02:00)
  • Personal touch of leadership from the webinar
  • Each speaker personalized the pandemic impacts
  • Compassion by each speaker were poignant
  • Overwhelming demand when people are comfortable to return to retail engagement
  • Real estate industry resiliency is key
• Potential membership for podcast listeners

• Kathy Bonnafe
• Sharon Oliver
• Jodie McLean

Kirk Mettam is an Executive Vice President and Senior Principal with Silman Associates. He has been active in the design profession and a leader in the structural engineering industry for nearly four decades. In 1998, Kirk established our Washington, DC, office and has served as its managing partner since.

Kirk’s project experience has included government facilities, corporate headquarters, high-rise office buildings, retail and mixed-use developments, hotels, airports, bridges, and sports facilities. He also has special knowledge and experience in the structural engineering of historic structures ranging from heritage buildings of unique archaic construction, to Mid-Century Modern architectural landmarks.

He has propelled the firm’s growth through participation in federal design excellence programs and by expanding service offerings to include seismic engineering, building envelope/façade design, and blast design.

Kirk has maintained an active participation in the industry through lectures and involvement with national committees that cover subject matters such as structural condition assessments and the evaluation of building envelopes. In the academic realm, he has taught courses in structural engineering and architectural technology.

• Silman Engineering- Wider variety of services…primarily structural engineers (4:10)
• Structural engineering is a subset of Civil engineering (4:45)

• Grew up in Montgomery County, MD (5:40)
• Remembrances of growing up in Washington DC (6:15)
• Mother was active Washington Gourmet Club and foreign dignitaries would come to their home when he was a child (8:00)
  • Gave him a perspective of international perspectives
• Father was an aeronautical engineer with Booz Allen and was a visionary (9:10)
• Inspirations from parents- design and passion for engineering (10:30)
• Pivotal moment- took a course at American University in the summer during high school- story about building a model (11:50)
  • Teacher gave him a couple books about “Architectural Engineering”

• Pratt Institute- NY Architectural school and enjoyed it but ran out of money (13:30)
• Attended University of Maryland- Engineering focus (14:30)
• Science and math comes natural to him (16:00)
• Went to Cornell for Engineering graduate school after three intern level jobs and because of the job market challenges (16:40)
  • Advises people to get a Masters in Engineering because the depth of information learned allows one to become a specialist (18:00)
  • Communications is the most important task in engineering (19:30)
• Internships
  • Bureau of Standards- Metallurgy division- enjoyed it but didn’t like government (20:20)
  • Nuclear Regulatory Commission- computer junkie (20:50)
  • Small firm in Rockville and actually designed buildings and loved it (21:20)

• Joined Skidmore Owings & Merrill after getting 11 job offers after receiving a Masters at Cornell (22:20)
  • Grew structural engineering group to 36 until the early 1990s when it was reduced to 6 people and he became the leader (24:00)
  • Moved over to Federal projects after private sector slowed
  • Transitional housing
  • Great mentorship and support- David Childs & Marilyn Taylor (Leaders there) (26:40)
• Then joined Thornton Tomasetti– engineering firm (Charlie Thornton)
  • Won the two largest buildings in the world in Kuala Lampur, Indonesia (29:00)
  • Found that the firm became too political yet had respect for Charlie Thornton
• Subsequently joined HLW, an architectural firm where he led the structural engineering work and was involved in the entertainment industry (29:30)
  • Job of his dreams as a partner leading the engineering activities
  • Turning point was living in NYC and struggling financially with a small child (31:30)
  • Teaching at Columbia University and met Bob Silman there who hired him (32:00)
• Silman was an innovator in “green design” and was early on in the LEED efforts (33:00)
  • Bob Silman was a “magical” leader- a phenomenal listener to clients’ needs
  • Comparison between Charlie Thornton and Bob Silman
  • Silman is counterintuitive to most other structural engineering firms (34:50)
  • Quirky strategy (35:15)
    • “Find joy and the money will follow” (35:40)
    • “Do things we find joy doing”
    • Career development is the critical element- don’t create verticals in specialties- “no silos” (36:25)
    • Pool of well versed engineers who “think” and adapt to the project and customize (38:00)
    • From outside, Silman created its own market and takes on projects others wouldn’t (39:15)
    • Industry is evolving to a multidisciplinary role (40:00)
    • Expand dialogue to collaborate on decision making among design and construction teams (41:20)
    • Collaborative achievement award (41:40)
    • Design could be non visual (42:40)
    • Heroic design (43:05)
  • ESG- Disproportionate interest in environmental issues and educate clients (44:00)
    • Optimization of the use of cement- use material minimizing due to its impact (46:15)
    • Mass timber is a new methodology (47:00)
    • Stick on podium projects (47:30)
    • Measuring carbon use of structural elements (47:45)
    • Net Zero home project at Harvard (48:00)
    • American Geophysical Union- demonstration project (48:45)
    • Issue with “setting the bar too high” and cannot afford the implementation costs (49:45)
    • 3D printing to reconstruct early wrought iron canopies which is a practical application potentially (50:30)
    • Pushing the “bleeding edge” technologies (51:50)
    • Working with Lafarge in high tech cement manufacturing (52:00)
    • Using carbon fiber to reinforce concrete (52:40)

• Citing Chamath quote about architecture1 (53:30)
  • Carbon emitted in cities is much lower than outside of cities (54:40)
  • May need to not preserve older buildings (55:20)
  • Also a member of preservation committee and believes in standards of preservation (55:40)
  • Owe it to reinterpret standards of preservation to adapt to more clean energy approaches (56:45)
  • Ask “what should we do with what is there?” (57:15)
  • Architecture defines the culture (58:00)
• Form and Function (58:45)
  • Lincoln Memorial- Meant to be an object of “contemplation” yet Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke there and changed perspective (59:30)
    • Silman is doing work on the property underneath the memorial (1:01:15)
    • Every building evolves over time and needs to be interpreted (1:01:50)
  • Smithsonian Castle- was turned into an office building and is now being restored as a museum building (1:03:50)
    • Earthquake brought out the seismic risk that needed addressing (1:04:50)
  • Wrote a paper about recycling nature into buildings (1:05:50)
• Pandemic influence (1:07:40)
  • Focus on work/life balance (1:08:00)
  • Adapted without “skipping a beat” on business (1:09:00)
  • Personal connection is important (1:09:45)
  • More geographic diversity (1:10:00)
• Artificial Intelligence (1:11:00)
  • Strong commitment to digital design (1:11:20)
  • How to model form architect wants to produce? (1:11:50)
  • AI tools are showing up with apps and software almost daily (1:12:00)
  • “Reality capture” helping processing data (1:12:30)
  • Open field for innovation (1:13:00)
  • Laser scanning and 3D printing
  • Open dialogue between daily practitioners and technology (1:13:20)
  • Some aspects of projects cannot be automated (1:15:00)
  • Recognize the limits of programming (1:15:45)
  • Use the brain to find where the commodity line is drawn
  • Made the investment in new technology (1:18:15)
• Reflections on “Taste for Makers” (1:19:00)
  • Came at architecture from technology approach (1:20:00)
  • Respect for modernism (1:20:15)
  • Cites his wife’s propensity for “classic” architecture (1:21:00)
  • Taste is personal yet contextual (1:22:00)
  • Context is critical both physically and socially (1:22:30)
  • Sweet spot of design- Adding onto a building in its context (1:22:50)
  • Enjoys challenge of the “evolution of buildings” (1:23:30)
  • Cites Mark Twain on the Shortness takes more Time (1:24:40)
  • Non-visible part of building (1:26:00)
  • Cites story about White House renovating the older HVAC registers (1:26:20)
  • Cites character in lighting (1:27:20)
  • Thinks broadly about project and it brings in “taste” (1:28:00)

• Business pursuits require “selling” services (1:29:00)
  • Advocates business development (1:29:30)
  • Marketing in engineering used to be “illegal” (1:30:00)
  • Believer that his firm has “something to offer” (1:30:30)
  • Fortunate to attract “top talent” (1:30:50)
  • Attract engineers that had thought about being architects at one point (1:31:00)
  • Drive and passion for design (1:31:30)
  • Engineering is either a blessing or a curse (1:32:20)
• Reputation is that Silman does not let people go during a recession (1:33:50)
  • Diversity in business activity (1:34:15)
  • Wide range of work (1:34:40)
• Wins- Firm had some Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, several historic buildings and “iconic” public buldings (1:35:25)
  • Reputation as restoration engineers (1:36:20)
  • 50th Anniversary of firm opened up three major museums at the same year (1:36:45)
    • African American Museum
    • Whitney Museum
    • Fogg Art Museum
  • Arts and Industries Building (1:37:50)
  • Michigan Central Station story- Resuscitation (1:38:00)
• Life Philosophy (1:41:40)
  • Giving back through mentoring and teaching (1:41:50)
  • Refers to Bob Silman as an inspiration (1:42:00)
  • Taught at Cornell, Columbia and Hopkins (1:42:30)
  • Advocate for sharing with the community (1:42:45)
  • Discuss the Philosophy of Design (1:43:45)
    • Design in engineering world- “specific answer” based on mathematics and physics (1:44:00)
    • Design in architecture does not have a specific answer as aesthetics and sensitivities vary too much to be certain (1:44:45)
• Advice to 25 Yr. old self and counseling to young people
  • Find your own way (1:47:00)
  • Wouldn’t say much but “be humble” (1:47:40)
• Billboard statement- “It All Happens Here” (referring to Washington DC) (1:48:00)

Quote from Chamath 1

“I think that architecture will unfortunately have a lot less value in the future, because of climate change. Now, what does that mean? Well, for example, if you look at some of the most progressive countries in the world, Europe, on the climate issue. You look, and again, start to go back to first principles, where’s the carbon emitted? Where are the greenhouse gases emitted? Well, it’s overwhelmingly in cities.  Then you start to look at, okay, well, what are some of the things that we could do to electrify or decarbonize them? One thing that you get to is, you have all this incredibly beautiful architecture, but it’s completely dated. The amount of carbon that these heating systems, these water systems generate, getting stuff into these very intricate, beautiful…You walk by these piazzas, you think, “God, these things have been around for 500 years.” On the one hand, you’re like, “It’s amazing.” But on the other hand you’re like, “This is going to be really tough for the city of Paris, or Milan, or Amsterdam, to defend historic architecture in the face of also wanting to be carbon neutral.” I think, in the United States, it’s also going to have some direct implications as well.  So, if architecturally, we unfortunately have to replace some of this old, beautiful stuff with more simple, modern stuff, we’ll have a more utilitarian landscape.

• Tom Amos relates well with Kirk’s presentation
• Sustainability (1:50:50)
  • 5,000 Net Zero Homes
  • DC has 317 Net Zero Homes
• AGU Building (1:52:00)
  • “Science Experiment”
  • Roger Frechette was project engineer
  • 20 innovative technologies
  • Not economical building
• Energy Conservation Project (1:55:00)
  • Measuring efforts over time
• Organic construction hypothetical

• David Kitchens
• Mike Balaban