Real Perspectives Podcast

Today’s conversation takes us outside of the office and toward art. The art that you usually see in front of buildings and airports and apartment complexes. Gordon Huether is a Napa, Calif.-based artist whose specialty is this type of art, and we talk about the need for more of it across the world. We also discuss his early days and how he got introduced to it, what got him to create and how like every other business today, his is also impacted by the logistics issues brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a world that is often laden with uncertainty, one company looks to make things simpler and a little more predictable. Reali is a company that is vertically integrating the home buying experience, trying to make the process as smooth as possible and frictionless to one of the parties under most stress - the home buyers. We sit down today with Reali’s CEO, Tyler Baldwin, to talk about how his company is doing that and what it hopes to make of the home buying experience in the future.

In today’s conversation, I sit down with Anthony Romano, the CEO of CREtelligent, a company that powers the commercial real estate space by providing an innovative approach to gather a number of due diligence data. Anthony’s prior experience in commercial real estate and technology prepared him well for this role, but it’s the opportunity to transform an industry not known for innovation that motivates him the most.

Today’s conversation takes us to Seattle, where we talk to Alison Beddard, the new Managing Principal of the Seattle and Bellevue offices, and the rest of the state of Washington for that matter, of Cushman & Wakefield. Alison’s path to leadership was not a straight line, and it often isn’t, but her story of self-confidence and ability to lead a successful organization stood out, and now it is paying dividends.

We talk in our conversation about the Puget Sound region, the changes that the industry has experienced since COVID, and how all those variables are making the business of commercial real estate brokerage new and better.

Few people have had an impact on the industry as deep and as broad as our next guest. Michael Casolo, who today serves as the Global Chief Revenue Officer for Unispace, has spent 25 years working in an industry that changed very little over that time. Today, however, it’s an industry ripe for change and disruption, the good kind, and he’s helping lead the charge of that evolution.

Jill Jago’s path to architecture and workplace strategy was not a straight line from one opportunity to the next, and it rarely is. Her understanding of the trends and what shapes a successful organization, however, has been deeply impacted by her experience and work throughout the engineering and architecture world that she has called home for years.

Today, she leads the Advance Strategy group at B+H in Seattle and helps organizations globally think about solutions that not always include a building. She also drives innovative thinking on sustainability and how post-pandemic, our world is likely going to change in ways that will transform the way we work, live and co-exist with others.

Today’s conversation is with Jim Clewlow, the Chief Investment Officer of CenterPoint, one of the nation’s largest and most influential industrial commercial real estate investors and developers. Jim’s road to CenterPoint was an improbable one. He started in the commercial real estate industry after graduating from the University of Illinois and taking a research job with CBRE. He wanted to become an office broker, but opportunities there were scant, so he went to the industrial side of the business and had to learn on his own the ins and outs of that industry. And it was not a very exciting part of the industry at that time, either.

Today, Jim and CenterPoint are helping define the industrial real estate market throughout the country, and Jim sees the industry’s constant change as one of its most appealing features.

Today’s conversation takes us to Los Angels where we talk to Hal Pohl, the Head of West Coast Acquisitions at Haven Capital. Hal has a long-standing experience in the industry, but Haven Capital is a newcomer to commercial real estate market, and they are trying to take a somewhat niche opportunity and bring it to the mainstream of the industry.

How Haven Capital is looking to do that is the subject of our conversation, as well as a perspective on the different food groups of an industry that seems to be recovering with great speed.

Today’s conversation is with Lauren Seaver, she is the President of Opportunity Housing Group, an entity that was founded out the Blake Griggs Properties enterprise and based in Danville, California. 

Lauren recently helped launch Opportunity Housing Group as way to address much-needed middle-income housing across California, a niche segment of the vast multifamily real estate industry sector, but one that impacts nearly a third of residents in major metropolitan areas. 

In her new role, she is responsible for all stages of the acquisition, due diligence, financing and asset management process. She brings to the organization over 8 years of experience in institutional multifamily and commercial development and acquisitions. During her career, Lauren has led the development, entitlement and acquisition of over $800 million in multifamily and commercial real estate.

Welcome to the podcast, Lauren!

We speak today with Wayne Berger, the Chief Executive Officer of the Americas for IWG - also known as International Workspace Group or the company that owns Regus and another dozen or so companies around the workspace environment. Wayne’s perspective on the workspace and occupier industry is unique but also broad. While IWG is based in Europe. Wayne’s organizations spans North and South America. He sees the world from a very different perspective.

Our conversation today takes us into the world of office use and the things that COVID has accelerated and changed perhaps forever. We discuss our perspectives on offices opening up and what companies will have to consider in the future. Finally, we take stock of the role shared workspace will play in that new world and the space IWG will ideally occupy.