Real Finds Podcast: Commercial Real Estate Unfiltered

Today’s guest: Joe Galvin, Chief Research Officer at Vistage (44,000+ members worldwide). A former Gartner analyst and sales leader, Joe now runs one of the country’s most data-driven windows into the mid-market CEO mindset. The Vistage CEO Confidence Index.

His data captures what business owners and leaders are actually seeing on the ground — what they fear, where they’re cutting or investing, and how they’re navigating the hybrid era without losing people or profit.

Why this matters now: CEO confidence is still hovering near historic lows, even as most leaders continue to project growth. That tension — optimism inside companies, pessimism about the economy — defines 2025. It’s driven by uncertainty around tariffs, interest rates, inflation, and labor shortages that aren’t about headcount but about skills. Add in AI-driven productivity shifts, and you get a market where leaders feel like they’re steering through fog with one hand tied behind their back.

Joe explains how small and mid-market CEOs — the real backbone of the U.S. economy — are adjusting to the “new normal”: running leaner operations, rewarding loyalty, and testing AI tools that cut time but raise new questions about value and engagement.

What You’ll Learn

- Hybrid Without the Hype — Why most SMBs have stabilized into predictable hybrid routines (three or four days in office), why big swings in policy erode trust, and how leaders define flexibility as a retention strategy — not a perk.

- Talent ≠ Headcount — Demand for workers has flattened, but skills haven’t kept up. Construction, manufacturing, and energy companies are scrambling for qualified people while white-collar teams learn to do more with fewer. The bar is higher everywhere.

- Tariffs & Margins — 43% of CEOs say they’ve raised prices in the past six months; 51% plan to raise again soon. Margins are under pressure, and companies are balancing passing costs along with keeping customers loyal in a slow growth environment.

- Productivity, Not Busyness — The meeting tax is real. Joe explains why the illusion of activity still haunts post-COVID workflows and how leaders are reclaiming time for deep work through “collaboration windows” on in-office days.

- AI’s Three Waves — First comes individual productivity (people cutting a four-hour task to thirty minutes), then team automation (removing friction in how groups work together), and finally organizational reinvention. Joe argues the office of the future must be more human, not less, built for trust, creativity, and relationship-building while machines handle the repetitive work.

- Culture That Sticks — Every organization has a culture — the question is whether it’s intentional. Joe unpacks why managers are the “apostles of culture,” how trust is built and lost, and why engagement depends on connecting individual work to purpose and outcomes.

If you’re a CEO, owner, or HR leader in the Midwest: I help teams match space strategy to how people actually work — hybrid cadence, collaboration zones, and time-to-productivity. DM me or visit vvco.com.

Subscribe for weekly conversations with the operators and analysts shaping the built world. ▶️ Listen, rate, and share if this helped your 2026 plan.

There’s a lot of noise about modular housing construction, and then there’s what actually pencils. Today, Rory Rubin, CEO of SI Container Builds, breaks down how steel-framed, factory-built homes and multifamily can be ~50% faster to deliver and ~10% less expensive (out the door) than traditional site-built, while still meeting code, appraising, and insuring like any other home.

We get into the realities behind the headlines: ICC code compliance since 2016, why “rusty boxes” are a myth, customization vs standardization, ADUs and Chicago’s slog, the missing-middle opportunity, and why developers care about time-to-revenue more than anything. We also dig into financing, comps, insurance, and how AI is already improving procurement and schedules on the factory floor.

What you’ll learn:

- How factory builds de-risk weather, sequence trades efficiently, and compress schedules

- Where the 10% cost and up to 50% schedule savings actually come from

- How municipalities view containerized housing (and how to educate past the myths)

- Why steel + cladding = neighborhood fit without “modular” stigma

- Financing/insurance realities: comps, steel vs timber, and who’s writing the policies

- The sweet spot: ADUs and missing-middle two-/three-flats that create generational wealth

Projects mentioned:

- Palatine, IL: 7,000 SF group home for trafficked girls (with HODC, Shelter Inc., DCFS)

- Navy Pier commercial bespoke build

- Multifamily stackable systems (containers are designed to stack 9-high; higher with structural steel)

Rory’s recs:

- Modular Building Institute (Tom Hardiman)

- Offsite Dirt (Audrey Grubesik)

- Gary Fleisher’s publications

Book: The Alchemist (for mindset and leadership)

Connect with Rory:

- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/roryrubin

- Email: [email protected]

Company: SI Container Builds: https://www.sicontainerbuilds.com/

About The Real Finds Podcast: Real operators. Real deals. Actionable playbooks for the built world. Subscribe for weekly conversations across development, logistics, AI, and the future of cities.

Contact Our Team Of Commercial Real Estate Agents: https://www.vvco.com/commercial-real-estate-agent-in-chicago/

There’s a lot of noise about modular housing construction, and then there’s what actually pencils. Today, Rory Rubin, CEO of SI Container Builds, breaks down how steel-framed, factory-built homes and multifamily can be ~50% faster to deliver and ~10% less expensive (out the door) than traditional site-built, while still meeting code, appraising, and insuring like any other home.

We get into the realities behind the headlines: ICC code compliance since 2016, why “rusty boxes” are a myth, customization vs standardization, ADUs and Chicago’s slog, the missing-middle opportunity, and why developers care about time-to-revenue more than anything. We also dig into financing, comps, insurance, and how AI is already improving procurement and schedules on the factory floor.

What you’ll learn:

- How factory builds de-risk weather, sequence trades efficiently, and compress schedules

- Where the 10% cost and up to 50% schedule savings actually come from

- How municipalities view containerized housing (and how to educate past the myths)

- Why steel + cladding = neighborhood fit without “modular” stigma

- Financing/insurance realities: comps, steel vs timber, and who’s writing the policies

- The sweet spot: ADUs and missing-middle two-/three-flats that create generational wealth Projects mentioned:

- Palatine, IL: 7,000 SF group home for trafficked girls (with HODC, Shelter Inc., DCFS)

- Navy Pier commercial bespoke build

- Multifamily stackable systems (containers are designed to stack 9-high; higher with structural steel)

Rory’s recs:

- Modular Building Institute (Tom Hardiman)

- Offsite Dirt (Audrey Grubesik)

- Gary Fleisher’s publications Book: The Alchemist (for mindset and leadership)

Connect with Rory:

- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/roryrubin

- Email: [email protected]

Company: SI Container Builds

About The Real Finds Podcast: Real operators. Real deals. Actionable playbooks for the built world. Subscribe for weekly conversations across development, logistics, AI, and the future of cities.

Contact Our Team Of Commercial Real Estate Agents

When you talk about the future of work meeting the reality of buildings, few voices are clearer than Bob Cicero. A technologist who fell in love with architecture, Bob has spent his career at the intersection of people, space, and technology—showing how platforms, sensors, and design can turn offices into AI-ready, data-driven workplaces that people actually want to use.

He’s helped flip the old A/E sequence on its head—user journey → tech → furniture/shape—and proven, with real data, that most teams collaborate in small groups. From trapezoid tables that give every participant “a face” on video, to low-voltage (PoE) ceilings that make lights, shades, and HVAC software-addressable, to Wi-Fi/BLE/UWB and video endpoints working as privacy-safe occupancy sensors, Bob’s approach turns buzzwords like “smart building” into an out-of-the-box operating model.

In this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, host Gordon Lamphere sits down with Bob to unpack:

- How a platform mindset replaces point-solution sprawl—and bakes in data hygiene from day one.

- Why the real utilization data says 3–4 seat rooms beat 12-person conference spaces (and how to right-size your floor).

- The design trick behind hybrid equity: camera angles + trapezoid tables so everyone has a face in the meeting.

- What a smart building actually looks like: PoE ceilings, sensors “in everything,” and portfolio intelligence via Cisco Spaces.

- How to use Wi-Fi/BLE/UWB + room video endpoints as sensors—deduping devices, zoning floors, and informing real estate decisions.

- The post-COVID mix that works: 70% “we” space / 30% “me” space plus measurable well-being (air quality, circadian light, acoustics).

- Why agentic AI needs years (not months) of clean data—and what “agents for workers, rooms, and ops” change next.

Bob’s philosophy isn’t just about gadgets; it’s about experience, evidence, and iteration—a build-measure-learn loop that keeps spaces aligned with how teams truly work.

If you’ve ever wondered how to move from pilots to a portfolio-wide smart workplace, or how to make your offices AI-ready without a Frankenstein stack, this is the playbook.

🔗 Watch the full episode on The Real Finds Podcast with Gordon Lamphere.

🎧 Available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

👤 Connect with Bob: linkedin.com/in/bobcicero/

Connect With Our Team Of Chicagoland Agents

When you talk about longevity and impact in American real estate, few names carry the weight of Ray Garfield. From flying jets for the U.S. Navy to restructuring billion-dollar companies and advising the Rockefellers, Ray’s six-decade career has crossed every frontier of commercial real estate, finance, syndication, capital markets, and public infrastructure.

He’s seen every cycle since the 1970s, from 18% mortgage rates to the birth of CMBS and the rise of public-private partnerships. He’s led billion-dollar restructurings, sold companies to Merrill Lynch and Syntex, and helped pioneer modern design-build and tax-exempt financing models that have reshaped how America builds courthouses, hotels, and convention centers.

In this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, host Gordon Lamphere sits down with Garfield to unpack:

- How a former naval aviator went from Dallas land syndications to underwriting the first commercial mortgage securities on Wall Street.

- The inside story of rescuing Vista Properties from bankruptcy and turning $1.5 billion in losses into strategic leverage.

- Why design-build-finance revolutionized how Turner Construction and other giants win public-sector deals.

- How Garfield Public Private became the quiet force behind hundreds of millions in city, county, and state projects nationwide.

- The future of public infrastructure, real estate finance, and AI in underwriting—from one of the few people who has successfully bridged Wall Street, Main Street, and City Hall.

Ray Garfield’s story isn’t just about success: it’s about resilience, reinvention, and the kind of decades-long excellence that defines what a real estate career can look like when purpose meets precision.

If you’ve ever wondered how great developers think, how billion-dollar public projects actually get financed, or how to build trust between the private and public sectors. This is the masterclass.

🔗 Watch the full episode on The Real Finds Podcast with Gordon Lamphere.

🎧 Available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

For more from our team of Chicago commercial real estate agents 🔗

Downtown office vacancy is stuck near record highs. O’Hare and Elk Grove industrial areas can’t build fast enough. Suburban landlords are dangling a year of free rent just to keep tenants, while industrial outdoor storage, basically fenced asphalt, is suddenly a $200 billion institutional asset class.

In this solo breakdown, Gordon Lamphere, broker of 100+ Chicagoland deals a year, unpacks the narratives that don’t line up and shows you where the real opportunities are hiding. From office conversions downtown to scarcity-driven industrial in Elk Grove to IOS and infill redevelopment, Gordon walks you through what’s really happening on the ground in Q3 2025.

But this isn’t just another market update. It’s a perspective grounded in the legacy and deal flow of Van Vlissingen & Co.

Reach Our Team of Commercial Real Estate Agents In Chicago: https://www.vvco.com/commercial-real-estate-agent-in-chicago/

Why listen to Gordon’s Team?

- 145 years of heritage. Founded in 1879, Van Vlissingen is one of America’s oldest continuously operating CRE firms. Longevity backed by execution.

- 100+ transactions a year. Gordon and his team aren’t speculating. They’re in the middle of the market daily, across office, industrial, land, and redevelopment.

- Boutique focus + broad reach. High-touch advisory paired with a proprietary marketing engine that reaches 50,000+ investors, developers, and occupiers.

- Actionable insights. On The Real Finds Podcast, Gordon brings clarity to complex deals, distilling market noise into investor-ready takeaways.

Key Topics This Episode Covers

- Office: CBD vacancy ~27% → LaSalle conversions (1,700+ units planned; 349 at 30 N. LaSalle) mean it’s a land play, not a rent recovery.

- O’Hare/Elk Grove industrial: Vacancy under 2%. Power infrastructure (ComEd’s 260 MW substation) + $8.5B O’Hare modernization = gold-plated stability.

- Suburban office: Oak Brook holds, North Suburbs slip. B/C stock is essentially covered land.

- Lake County: $1.78B investment since 2021, 4,000 new jobs → execution-friendly growth node.

- Multifamily: Pipeline cresting in ’25 → firmer rents into ’26/’27. - IOS: Now a $200B institutionalized niche. Scarce, sticky, premium-priced.

- Redevelopment: The real long-term value. From Allstate’s Glenview campus to LaSalle Street, less invasive, community-compatible plays win approvals and value.

The Takeaway

Chicago’s CRE market is splitting. Downtown commodity office is headed for conversion. O’Hare industrial is a scarcity fortress. Suburban office is bifurcated—winners like Oak Brook, losers facing redevelopment. Lake County is the quiet success story. IOS is institutional gold. And across all asset classes, the real upside is in infill redevelopment that municipalities will support.

That’s why investors, developers, and occupiers listen to Gordon Lamphere and Van Vlissingen & Co. They’re not chasing headlines. They’re closing the deals that will become tomorrow’s case studies.

Reach Our Team of Commercial Real Estate Agents In Chicago

What happens when a university’s classrooms, labs, and dorms sit half-empty, while its budget bleeds red?

On this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, host Gordon Lamphere sits down with Chris Morett, founder of Coheer Campus & Workplace and longtime higher-ed real estate strategist, to unpack one of the most overlooked corners of the built world: college campuses as real estate assets.

Chris spent a decade as Director of Scheduling and Space Management at Rutgers University before launching his consulting practice. Few people understand the messy realities of campus utilization or how much money is lost when academic buildings are misused. In this conversation, Gordon and Chris dive deep into:

• The utilization myth: Why classrooms and labs are chronically underused — and how centralized scheduling makes all the difference.
• Incentive structures: How universities owning their buildings warps efficiency compared to private companies leasing space.
• Leasing trends: Why some universities quietly lease space off campus, or even rent out their own space to startups and biotech partners.
• Urban vs. rural campuses: Why Northwestern and Rutgers operate differently than small regional colleges in Idaho or Montana.
• The demographic cliff: Shrinking enrollment, tuition discounting, and which institutions are most at risk of closure or merger.
• Developer opportunities: Where private investors can partner with universities to unlock hidden value, adaptive reuse, and innovation hubs.
• Policy shocks: From NIH grant cuts to visa restrictions, how Washington decisions ripple through labs, student housing, and construction budgets.
• The future of labs vs. data centers: Why labs may be the “accessible” frontier for developers compared to the capital intensity of AI infrastructure.

For commercial real estate professionals, developers, and investors, this episode offers a rare lens on higher education’s role as both economic driver and real estate powerhouse. Universities may be nonprofit, but their campuses are multi-billion-dollar portfolios — and how they adapt will reshape communities across the country.

📚 Chris also shares timeless advice for young professionals: focus on your hidden strengths, even the things that come naturally and don’t feel like “work.”

🔗 Learn more about Chris and his work at Team Coheer or connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-morett/

Learn more about more untapped potential commercial real estate opportunities at www.vvco.com.

👉 If you’re interested in how campuses, developers, and communities intersect — and what’s next for higher ed real estate — this is an episode you don’t want to miss.

What is work really supposed to look like in the 21st century, and why do so many workplaces still feel broken? On this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, host Gordon Lamphere sits down with Corinne Murray and Sara Escobar, co-authors of Work, Then Place, to challenge assumptions about productivity, workplace strategy, and the evolving relationship between people, culture, and space.

Corinne and Sara bring a rare mix of perspectives:

Corinne Murray (https://www.linkedin.com/in/corinnejmurray/) has built a career spanning commercial real estate, consulting, coworking, and workplace strategy, from WeWork to RXR. She’s obsessed with defining “what makes work work” and helping leaders design environments where people can truly thrive.

Sara Escobar (https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraescoux/) started as employee #2 at Hulu, where she helped create one of the first culture-driven workplace teams before leading strategy at Netflix. With a background in organizational development, she’s focused on how physical, digital, and cultural environments interact to shape performance.

Together, they break down some of the toughest questions facing leaders, HR professionals, and real estate executives today:

🔥 Key Topics We Cover:

- Why “the workplace” isn’t just about the office, it’s a balance of physical, digital, and cultural environments.

- How to think about the four modes of knowledge work: individual focus, asynchronous collaboration, synchronous collaboration, and socializing.

- Why outputs vs. outcomes is the real test of productivity and how to design for effectiveness, not just busyness.

- The hidden “meeting tax” slowing organizations down, and what companies like Shopify and Dropbox have done about it.

- Generational friction in the workplace, from Silent Generation to Gen Alpha, and how leaders can build trust across age groups.

- The future of AI and work: why the hybrid workforce of tomorrow is really human + machine, and what that means for managers.

- The carpenter vs. gardener paradigm for leadership and why it’s time to shift from rigid outcomes to adaptive growth.

- How workplace design lessons from Hulu’s snack culture to Netflix’s digital pivot can help any company spark creativity.

💡 Big Takeaway:

Work doesn’t have to suck. The future isn’t about ping pong tables or free lunches; it’s about creating environments that reduce friction, enable people to be effective, and give them the energy to pursue what matters outside of work.

If you’re a CEO, HR leader, real estate strategist, or anyone rethinking workplace design, this episode is packed with practical insights, tough questions, and a roadmap for making work better.

📘 Grab the Book: Work, Then Place is available on Amazon and in bookstores everywhere. Learn more at workthenplace.com and check out their Substack: workthenplace.substack.com

👉 Connect with the Guests:

Corinne Murray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corinnejmurray/

Sara Escobar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraescoux/

👉 Connect with Gordon Lamphere & Van Vlissingen & Co.: Learn more: www.vvco.com

Illinois has become ground zero in America’s housing debate. Families feel squeezed by rising rents and mortgages, developers complain about endless delays and red tape, and policymakers face pressure from every side to “fix” the problem. At the heart of this struggle is a simple but profound question: why is it so difficult to build in Illinois compared to other states? And more importantly, what would it actually take to create real housing abundance?

That’s the conversation we tackle on this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, where I sit down with Josh Bandoch, Senior Policy Advisor at the Illinois Policy Institute and author of the upcoming book How to Get What You Want: Mastering the Art and Science of Persuasion. Josh brings a data-driven and candid perspective on housing policy, highlighting how Illinois falls far behind peers like North Carolina, Texas, and Florida when it comes to approving new units—and why Chicago in particular has become a case study in regulatory gridlock.

This is not just a policy chat. It’s a deep dive into how Illinois’ housing challenges intersect with real estate development, capital flows, and the future of our communities. We unpack the role of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Cut the Tape initiative and Governor J.B. Pritzker’s Missing Middle report, both of which signal that leaders are beginning to recognize the scale of the crisis. And we explore whether Illinois can follow the lead of cities like Minneapolis and Los Angeles, which have cut barriers and seen measurable progress.

📘 Check out Josh’s new book, How to Get What You Want, on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/How-Get-What-You-Want-ebook/dp/B0FDBGV22N

In this wide-ranging conversation, we cover:

- Why housing costs are straining families across Illinois and beyond.

- How Chicago’s zoning restrictions and permitting delays push development elsewhere.

- Why Illinois authorizes far fewer new housing units per capita than states like North Carolina, Texas, and Florida. - What “housing abundance” actually means—and how to get there.

- The real barriers to adaptive reuse in Chicago’s office and retail corridors.

- What Brandon Johnson and J.B. Pritzker are doing to cut red tape.

- Why accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and reduced parking minimums could unlock thousands of units.

- Lessons from Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Montana on successful housing reform.

📌 Resources & Links: Josh’s book: https://www.amazon.com/How-Get-What-You-Want-ebook/dp/B0FDBGV22N

Hardcover listing: https://www.amazon.com/How-Get-What-You-Want/dp/1637748302

Author website: https://www.joshuabandoch.com/

Publisher author page: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Joshua-Bandoch/244700930 I

llinois Policy Institute: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/

Learn more about Gordon’s Chicago Commercial Brokerage Team

In this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, host Gordon Lamphere sits down with Clifford Booth, founder and CEO of Westmount Realty Capital, one of the earliest pioneers in cold storage investment. With more than four decades of experience in industrial and multifamily real estate, Cliff has seen it all, from buying his first property to house his family’s antique business in Dallas to building one of the most respected private real estate investment firms in America.

Together, they dive deep into how value-add investing has evolved, why cold storage remains one of the most misunderstood yet lucrative asset classes, and what it takes to compete in today’s hyper-competitive industrial market. Cliff shares stories of turning a modest Dallas warehouse into a refrigerated food facility in the 1980s, lessons learned from repositioning million-square-foot properties, and why infill locations and multi-tenant flexibility are the future of cold storage development.

🔍 Key Topics Covered:

- How Cliff transitioned from antiques and art to building a national real estate platform

- The parallels between antiques and real estate: every piece is unique

- Why Westmount has always focused on value-add and opportunistic investments

- How cold storage went from niche to necessity and why COVID accelerated demand

- Why speculative cold storage development is both risky and rewarding

- The critical role of site selection: power, trucking, labor, and last-mile logistics

- Lessons in aligning incentives with contractors to control construction costs

- Why multi-tenant cold storage could be the next major shift in the industry

- The resilience of industrial real estate and why it’s no longer the “Rodney Dangerfield” of asset classes

- Strategies for managing insurance costs, capex, and portfolio risk in today’s market

Whether you’re an investor curious about cold storage, a developer navigating rising construction costs, or a broker tracking industrial demand, this conversation offers rare insight into one of CRE’s most specialized and fastest-growing sectors.

📚 Cliff’s book recommendation: An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin

👤 Guest: Clifford A. Booth, Founder & CEO of Westmount Realty Capital

🎙️ Host: Gordon Lamphere – Commercial Real Estate Agent, Van Vlissingen & Co.

Learn About Gordon's Industry-Leading Commercial Real Estate Practice In Chicago