Real Finds Podcast: Commercial Real Estate Unfiltered

Welcome to episode 100 of the Real Finds Podcast. To mark the milestone, Gordon Lamphere sits down with Whitaker Irvin Jr., CEO of Q Hydrogen, the company commercializing a breakthrough hydrogen production technology and preparing to open one of the world's first economically viable renewable hydrogen power plants in Groveton, New Hampshire.

The most common refrain across 100 episodes has been simple: we don't talk about energy and energy access enough. This conversation answers that directly. Whit walks through how hydrogen factors into the data center power crisis, why five-to-seven-year grid interconnect queues are reshaping site selection, and what plentiful behind-the-meter clean energy could mean for industrial development, co-located users, and the global economy.

If you're in energy, data centers, industrial site selection, or capital markets touching infrastructure, this is a must-listen.

Timestamps

00:00 — Intro: 100 episodes and the energy access problem

01:33 — Whit's path from aerospace and finance into the family business

02:23 — Why hydrogen, and the accidental 2008 discovery behind Q Hydrogen

04:17 — What makes hydrogen valuable: mobility, chemicals, and power

06:21 — Hydrogen and the data center boom

08:29 — Infrastructure needed to run hydrogen as a power source

10:30 — Behind-the-meter power in Groveton, NH

12:48 — Storage and volatility: why conventional hydrogen is expensive

15:26 — Grid interconnect queues and how hydrogen reshapes site selection

18:21 — Repurposing idle assets, including old coal plants

20:23 — How Wall Street and London see hydrogen

22:00 — Green, blue, and the financial math of incentives

24:38 — What we're not talking about enough

27:22 — AI, the trades, and the human aspect of the next economy

27:56 — What a positive energy future looks like in 10 years

30:02 — Career advice: don't be so quick to judge

32:38 — Next guest: Gabe Tishman

33:07 — How to reach Whit

Connect with Whitaker Irvin Jr.

Email: [email protected]

Company: Q Hydrogen — https://qhydrogen.com

About the Real Finds Podcast

The Real Finds Podcast features real conversations with the entrepreneurs, activists, and researchers shaping the real estate industry and the world around it. Hosted by Gordon Lamphere of Van Vlissingen and Co., Chicagoland's oldest private commercial real estate brokerage. Subscribe, like, and review — your feedback helps us bring on more guests of this caliber.

Learn more about Van Vlissingen and Co.: https://vvco.com

Have a site selection, industrial, or investment question? Call us at 847-846-6902.

#RealFindsPodcast #Hydrogen #QHydrogen #CleanEnergy #DataCenters #EnergyTransition #IndustrialRealEstate #SiteSelection #BehindTheMeter #GridInterconnect #RenewableEnergy #CommercialRealEstate #VanVlissingen

On this episode of the Real Finds Podcast, Gordon Lamphere sits down with Kurt and Stewart Jensen, SIORs and industrial brokers at Kessinger Hunter & Company in Kansas City. Two thirds of the legendary Jensen team, Kurt and Stewart bring a practitioner's view of the Midwest industrial market and the case for regional expertise in a globalized brokerage world.

We dig into what's actually happening on the ground in Kansas City industrial: where demand is strongest in the 20,000 to 100,000 square foot bracket, why tenant improvement allowances have ballooned from a buck or two per foot to as much as ten, and how manufacturing, fabrication, and data center adjacent occupiers are driving real space needs. The Jensens also walk through Kansas City's unique cold storage dynamic with its subgrade limestone cave inventory, why power is the new sexy utility, and how IOS plays out differently in KC than in Chicagoland.

We close on liquidity, lender optimism, the geopolitical drag on deal pace, and the question every broker is asking: what does the next ten years look like with AI in the mix.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Cold open

00:41 Intro

01:42 The Jensen family business and getting into industrial

02:55 Regional brokers vs national flags and the SIOR network

08:27 Kansas City industrial market overview

11:47 Tenant optionality and lease term dynamics

15:27 Who is leasing right now: manufacturers, fabricators, data center adjacent

18:52 Power demand and the new value of heavy power buildings

24:11 Cold storage and Kansas City's limestone cave inventory

31:32 IOS in Kansas City vs Chicagoland

36:00 Capital, liquidity, and lender sentiment

42:12 Concessions, free rent, and the optionality premium

48:06 Ten years out: AI, relationships, and the future of brokerage

53:22 Advice for brokers under 30

58:21 Who Gordon should have on next

1:00:31 How to reach Kurt and Stewart

CONNECT WITH KURT AND STEWART JENSEN

Kessinger Hunter & Company, Kansas City

Kurt Jensen: [email protected]

Stewart Jensen: [email protected]

Their podcast: On Air with Kessinger Hunter

CONNECT WITH GORDON LAMPHERE AND VAN VLISSINGEN AND CO.

Van Vlissingen and Co. is Chicagoland's oldest private commercial real estate brokerage, serving the Greater Chicago and Midwest industrial and commercial markets.

Website: https://vvco.com

Phone: 847-846-6902

If you enjoyed this episode, please like, follow, and leave a five star review. Your comments, interactions, and subscriptions help us continue to bring on quality guests. Find the Real Finds Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

#RealFindsPodcast #CommercialRealEstate #IndustrialRealEstate #KansasCity #CRE #SIOR #MidwestIndustrial #IndustrialBrokerage #ColdStorage #DataCenters #IOS #VanVlissingen #Chicagoland #RealEstateInvesting

Brownfields, abandoned industrial and commercial properties sitting idle across America's cities and suburbs represent some of the most undervalued opportunities in commercial real estate. But unlocking that value requires navigating a maze of environmental due diligence, contamination risk, and government incentive programs that most investors don't fully understand.

On this episode of the Real Finds Podcast, Gordon Lamphere sits down with Sam Haydock, Principal and Director of Business Development at BL Companies, to break down how developers and investors can turn contaminated, overlooked properties into productive, tax-generating assets. With over 35 years of experience in environmental and land-use consulting, Sam walks us through what actually qualifies as a brownfield, how to structure due diligence on a contaminated site, the hidden costs of PCBs and asbestos in older buildings, and why public grant programs in Connecticut and across the U.S. have generated $23 in private investment for every $1 spent.

They also dig into the emerging debate over whether brownfields should be converted to residential use or preserved for the industrial and manufacturing jobs that communities still need.

Topics Covered:

- What qualifies as a brownfield vs. a grayfield

- Environmental due diligence: soil, groundwater, asbestos, lead, and PCBs

- Industrial-to-multifamily and office-to-residential conversions

- Federal and state funding sources

- Why some brownfields sit idle for decades (and how to fix that)

- The future of brownfield redevelopment and AI's role in CRE

Connect with Sam Haydock:

Email: [email protected]

Cell: 203-314-7369

Connect with Van Vlissingen and Co.:

Website: https://www.vvco.com

Phone: 847-846-6902

If you found this episode valuable, please leave us a five-star rating and review it helps us keep bringing on guests like Sam. Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Looking for your next redevelopment opportunity? Van Vlissingen and Co.'s is a Chicago Metro Area leader in identifying and sourcing industrial and commercial sites across Chicagoland and the Midwest including brownfield and value-add properties with redevelopment potential. Reach out at vvco.com or call 847-846-6902.

#BrownfieldDevelopment #CommercialRealEstate #RealEstate #RealFindsRealEstate #CRE #RealEstateInvesting #EnvironmentalConsulting #RealFindsPodcast

What separates top dealmakers from everyone else? The answer isn't market knowledge or leverage...it's persuasion.

Josh Bandoch, persuasion expert, TEDx speaker, policy advocate, and author of How to Get What You Want: Mastering the Art and Science of Persuasion, joins Gordon Lamphere to break down the neuroscience behind every negotiation, landlord-tenant dispute, and community approval process in commercial real estate.

Josh spent a decade developing an applied neuroscience-based persuasion framework across high-stakes policy environments. In this episode, he translates that framework directly into the language of deals, leases, zoning boards, and long-term client relationships.

What we cover:

- Why persuasion is shared action, not winning, convincing, or conquering

- The "persuader's mindset" and why putting the other side first closes more deals

- How to identify barriers before pushing forward on any negotiation

- Why the human brain feels before it reasons and what that means for every pitch you make

- The single question that unlocks honest, useful answers from any counterpart

- How to handle defensive prospects, problem tenants, and heated community meetings

- Why your long-term reputation in a market is your most valuable negotiating asset

Timestamps:

00:00 — What persuasion actually is (and what it isn't)

03:32 — Persuasion vs. manipulation

07:27 — The persuader's mindset

11:40 — Listening as a power move

13:51 — Three techniques to reduce defensiveness

16:16 — Why the brain feels before it reasons

30:35 — Working with community boards and overcoming fear

37:00 — Landlord-tenant negotiations and emotional intelligence

42:25 — The #1 practical takeaway for getting more out of negotiations

Connect with Josh Bandoch:

Website: joshuabandoch.com

LinkedIn: Josh Bandoch

Book: How to Get What You Want — available on Amazon and wherever books are sold

Connect with Van Vlissingen and Co.:

Website: vvco.com

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (847) 846-6902

If you found value in this episode, please leave us a five-star rating and review. It helps us keep bringing on guests like Josh.

Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Looking to buy, sell, or lease commercial real estate in Chicagoland? Van Vlissingen and Co. is the Midwest's oldest private commercial real estate brokerage — reach us at vvco.com or call (847) 846-6902.

#CommercialRealEstate #Persuasion #Negotiation #RealEstatePodcast #RealFindsPodcast #CRE #Mindset #Dealmaking #ChicagoRealEstate #JoshBandoch

Chicagoland Commercial Real Estate Q1 2026: The Market Stopped Waiting Eighteen months ago, this market was in a holding pattern. That phase is over. Not because the uncertainty resolved — it didn't. But the deals that are getting done right now are being priced for a world that is permanently more expensive to build in, permanently more selective about where institutional capital goes, and permanently more bifurcated between the assets that matter and the ones that don't.

Four asset classes. Four different markets. The cap rate spread alone tells the story. In this Q1 2026 Chicagoland market update, Gordon Lamphere walks through what the aggregated data from the RFP Chicagoland Commercial Real Estate Index (rfp.vvco.com) is actually showing — and what it means for investors, occupiers, and developers making real decisions right now.

What's covered:

00:00 — The frame: why the market stopped waiting

01:45 — How the RFP Index aggregates Chicagoland CRE data across every major source

05:00 — Capital markets: debt availability, tariffs, immigration, and the permanent shift in construction economics

08:30 — Office: the CBD supply squeeze, the 2026 lease expiry wave, and what AI tenancy actually looks like

16:00 — Industrial: Class A vs. commodity, reshoring demand, and power as the dividing line

22:30 — Multifamily: the tightest new-delivery pipeline since 2012 and why institutional capital is returning

28:30 — Retail: tested by tariffs, still standing

32:30 — Data centers: the 343-acre signal and the MEP labor constraint affecting every other project

36:30 — Land and redevelopment: what Lincoln Yards taught us about calibration vs. ambition

43:00 — Five things worth knowing for the next 12–18 months

Key data points referenced:

- Chicago CBD office vacancy ~26.5%, cap rates near 8%

- O'Hare/Elk Grove industrial vacancy under 2%

- Chicagoland multifamily vacancy 4.7%, only ~9,300 units under construction

- Retail vacancy under 5% with stable rent growth

- CBD office leasing volume up 7% YoY to ~6.3M SF — strongest since 2019

Access the data:

The RFP Chicagoland Commercial Real Estate Index is free and public at rfp.vvco.com. Updated live. Pulls from every major Chicagoland CRE report so you can see the market in aggregate rather than through any single firm's lens.

About Van Vlissingen & Co.

Van Vlissingen & Co. is a fourth-generation commercial real estate brokerage and property management firm founded in 1879, serving Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin across industrial, office, retail, and investment property segments.

vvco.com | 847-634-2300

If something in this episode is directly relevant to a deal or decision you're working through, reach out. We're happy to help.

Aaron Shavel is a professional engineer who built his career in heavy civil construction, including years on MTA subway projects in New York, and now advises on battery energy storage facilities being deployed across the Northeast. He writes on construction, infrastructure policy, and urbanism on Substack and has become one of the sharper voices connecting how things actually get built to how communities actually function.

In this episode, Aaron breaks down the battery energy storage boom and why the developer arbitrage window may be shorter than people think, what New York is getting right with the Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 and the Interborough Express, and why sidewalks and pedestrian-scaled infrastructure are the most underrated investment any community can make. He and Gordon then look ahead at autonomous vehicles, the return of the downtown Main Street, and why small-format retail may win out over big-box footprints in walkable corridors.

What we cover:

- Front-of-meter vs. behind-the-meter battery storage and how developers play the price-arbitrage game

- Why the battery arbitrage window has a negative network effect built into it - What makes a great battery storage site (hint: it's not just cheap land)

- How public-private partnerships are actually structured on energy projects in New York - Why the "war on cars" framing kills transit investment before it starts

- The pragmatism gap on megaprojects and how the MTA cut millions off Second Avenue Subway Phase 2

- Why sidewalks, crosswalks, and bus stops are the highest-ROI infrastructure most communities ignore

- Storefront sizing, small-format retail, and the return of the downtown Main Street

- How autonomous vehicles will reshape parking mandates and the built environment

- Career advice for young professionals entering real estate, construction, and design

About The Real Finds Podcast Hosted by Gordon Lamphere, The Real Finds Podcast features conversations with operators, investors, developers, policy thinkers, and business leaders shaping commercial real estate and the built world. The show focuses on practical insights, market trends, and the ideas changing how people invest, build, and use space.

🔔 Subscribe to Real Finds Podcast for weekly conversations with operators, investors, and developers at the frontier of commercial real estate.

🔗 Connect with Aaron Shavel on LinkedIn and Substack

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronshavel/

Substack: https://aaronshavel.substack.com/about

Frank Forte started his career mopping up bank failures at the U.S. Treasury, worked the largest commercial real estate default in U.S. history at Fortress/CW Capital (the $5.4B Peter Cooper Village-Stuyvesant Town deal), and placed $2B/year in debt and equity at Berkadia before going out on his own at 27. A decade later, Lucerne Capital has done $400M in volume, raised $100M in equity, and generated north of 30% IRR on many of its industrial investments.

In this episode, Frank breaks down the full playbook: why he abandoned multifamily for small/multi-tenant industrial, how he sources deals that have been off-market for two-plus years, and why he's now looking hard at Chicago and the DMV alongside his core Charlotte and New Jersey markets.

What we cover:

- The "density or growth" thesis and why you rarely get both

- Why small bay is structurally hard to overbuild (and why that moat matters)

- Frank's value-add framework: buy right, do the capex, sell to the next guy as core-plus

- Tenant profiles: from $180K/month auto body shops to Fortune 500 anchor tenants

- How Lucerne uses AI and automation to run lean lease abstracts, weekly financials, and agentic workflows

- The LinkedIn guru problem and what newcomers consistently get wrong

- Why blue-state industrial is more durable than most investors think

- The new trade-off for young talent entering the industry

About The Real Finds Podcast

Hosted by Gordon Lamphere, The Real Finds Podcast features conversations with operators, investors, developers, policy thinkers, and business leaders shaping commercial real estate and the built world. The show focuses on practical insights, market trends, and the ideas changing how people invest, build, and use space.

🔔 Subscribe to Real Finds Podcast for weekly conversations with operators, investors, and developers at the frontier of commercial real estate.

🔗 Learn more about Frank Forte and Lucerne Capital: lucernecapital.com

What if your building could think?

In this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, Gordon Lamphere sits down with Honghao Deng, co-founder and CEO of Butlr, to break down how AI, sensors, and real-time data are transforming the way we design, operate, and invest in physical space.

From MIT’s City Science Lab to deploying millions of sensors globally, Honghao explains why buildings are the largest interface humans interact with daily and why they’ve historically been operating “blind.”

This conversation goes deep into the gap between how offices are perceived vs. how they’re actually used, and what that means for landlords, occupiers, and investors trying to make decisions in a rapidly changing market. Honghao is transforming the commercial real estate industry.

🔑 Key Topics Covered

- Why buildings consume ~40% of global energy and how better data can unlock massive efficiency gains

- The difference between badge swipe data vs. real spatial intelligence

- Why most conference rooms are overestimated and underutilized

- How AI can automatically redesign office layouts based on real usage data

- The concept of “autonomous buildings” and what that means for CRE

- How sensor data can help predict future rent rolls and tenant behavior

- Why return-to-office policies are failing and what actually works

- The role of privacy-first sensing (no cameras, only thermal data) in workplace analytics

- Why is creativity not productivity the future of the office

- The growing importance of data centers and senior housing as asset classes

🧠 Big Idea From

This Episode Buildings today are still operating like analog systems—heating, cooling, and maintaining space without understanding if anyone is actually using it.

But that’s changing.

Honghao introduces the idea of “spatial intelligence”—a layer of real-world data that allows buildings to respond dynamically to human behavior, much like software responds to users.

The future isn’t just smart buildings—it’s self-aware buildings that optimize for energy, experience, and performance in real time.

📊 Why This Matters for CRE

If you’re an investor, operator, or developer, this episode reframes a critical question:

👉 Are you underwriting space based on assumptions… or actual behavior?

With better data:

- Landlords can predict vacancy before it happens

- Tenants can right-size space and reduce costs

- Owners can increase retention through better design

- Buildings can shift from static assets → adaptive platforms

- 🎯 About The Real Finds Podcast

Hosted by Gordon Lamphere, The Real Finds Podcast features conversations with operators, investors, and innovators shaping the future of commercial real estate and the built world.

Our audience includes 50,000+ real estate professionals, entrepreneurs, and investors across YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and LinkedIn

🔗 Connect with the Guest

🌐 Butlr: https://www.butlr.io

📧 Email: [email protected]

💼 LinkedIn: Honghao Deng

📌 Subscribe for More

If you’re interested in:

- Office evolution

- Industrial & logistics trends

- Proptech & AI in real estate

- Investment strategy

👉 Subscribe and turn on notifications for weekly insights from the front lines of commercial real estate.

#CommercialRealEstate #PropTech #OfficeSpace #AI #RealEstateInvesting #SmartBuildings #WorkplaceStrategy

How much of the data center boom is really about real estate — and how much of it is about power?

In this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, Gordon Lamphere sits down with Britt Burt of Industrial Info Resources to unpack one of the most important forces shaping commercial real estate, industrial development, and infrastructure investment today: the growing electricity demand.

Britt brings nearly four decades of experience covering the power industry, including generation, transmission, distribution, and the infrastructure behind large-scale industrial development. The conversation focuses on what is really driving data center growth, how site selection works in practice, and why the future value of many properties may be tied less to traditional location dynamics and more to access to power, interconnection, and infrastructure.

Gordon and Britt also discuss why so many announced projects never get built, the biggest mistakes site selectors and investors make when underwriting data center opportunities, and why “speed to power” may be one of the most important concepts in real estate going forward. They also get into common public misconceptions around data centers, including concerns around water use, grid strain, and local opposition, while explaining how developers are adapting through behind-the-meter power, infrastructure investment, and long-term energy strategies.

This is a valuable conversation for investors, developers, occupiers, industrial users, and anyone trying to understand the second- and third-order effects of AI infrastructure on real estate.

Topics discussed include:

- What is driving the rapid increase in power demand

- Why data centers are the biggest force behind new electricity demand

- Where data centers are being built across the United States

- Why Texas, Arizona, Virginia, and the Gulf Coast continue to attract development

- The biggest misconceptions people have about data centers

- How behind-the-meter power is changing the economics of development

- Why stranded power and interconnection agreements matter so much

- The most common mistakes made in data center site selection

- Why speed to power can matter more than permitting timelines

- The supply chain, turbine, labor, and pipeline constraints slowing development

- How to tell whether a proposed project is likely to actually get built

- Why older data centers may need major modernization for AI workloads

- How access to power may increasingly determine real estate value

About The Real Finds Podcast

Hosted by Gordon Lamphere, The Real Finds Podcast features conversations with operators, investors, developers, policy thinkers, and business leaders shaping commercial real estate and the built world. The show focuses on practical insights, market trends, and the ideas changing how people invest, build, and use space.

Guest Info

Britt Burt Industrial Info

Resources Email: [email protected]

Subscribe to The Real Finds Podcast

For more conversations on commercial real estate, investing, infrastructure, and the future of the built environment, subscribe on your favorite platform and follow along for upcoming episodes.

I can also make this a little more aggressive and click-driven for YouTube while keeping the same Real Finds structure.

The future of work isn’t coming...it’s already here, and it’s moving faster than most businesses are prepared for.

In this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, Gordon Lamphere sits down with futurist Elatia Abate to break down how artificial intelligence is reshaping the workforce, eliminating traditional career ladders, and forcing companies to rethink everything from hiring to strategy. From disappearing entry-level roles to the rise of “stackable” teams powered by AI, this conversation goes deep into what’s actually changing—and what it means for business owners, operators, and real estate investors.

If you’re making decisions about office space, hiring, or long-term strategy, this episode will challenge how you think about the next 5–10 years.

Topics Covered:

- Why thinking “incrementally” is the biggest risk in an exponential world

- How AI is compressing middle management and entry-level roles

- The concept of the “stackable factory” and what it means for office space

- Why some companies are cutting teams while others are scaling faster than ever

- The disappearance of traditional career pipelines and what replaces them

- Offshoring vs AI: why entire labor models are being rewritten

- The rise of “regenerative resilience” as a critical business skill

- How to plan for 2030–2035 when assumptions are breaking down

- Multi-generational workforces and the growing AI skill gap

- Where real estate fits into the future of work transformation

About Elatia Abate

Elatia Abate is a futurist and strategist focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence, leadership, and the future of work. She previously led global recruiting for major organizations including Anheuser-Busch InBev and Dow Jones, and now advises companies on navigating exponential change.

About The Real Finds Podcast

Hosted by Gordon Lamphere, The Real Finds Podcast explores the people, ideas, and forces shaping commercial real estate and the built world. From industrial and office to supply chain, AI, and development strategy, the show features conversations with operators, investors, and experts driving change across industries. With a growing audience of 50,000+ real estate professionals, entrepreneurs, and investors, the podcast is designed to simplify complex ideas and uncover actionable insights.

Connect with Elatia:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elatiaabate/

Website: https://www.elatiaabate.com

Connect with Gordon Lamphere

Website: https://www.vvco.com

Phone: 847-634-2300

Subscribe for More: If you’re interested in commercial real estate, AI, and where the world of work is heading, make sure to subscribe for weekly conversations with industry leaders.