Inspiring Leaders in Our Changing Industry: Jim Brooks, BH Properties

This summer, Connect CRE is producing a series titled, “Inspiring Leaders in Our Changing Industry” as a follow-up to last summer’s “Leading in Tough Times” series. We’ve selected leaders around the U.S. and across the commercial real estate spectrum to discuss significant changes in the industry and their organizations. In this installment, you’ll hear from Jim Brooks, president of BH Properties.

Charting a New Course: How do you navigate the transition from established practices to pioneering new frontiers within your organization?

Change is tough—it’s something most of us struggle with, but it’s absolutely necessary if an organization intends to grow and keep pace with market dynamics. The key to making change work is to clearly communicate where you’re heading and why. When people understand the vision and are involved, they are more likely to engage, which helps create a natural drive toward the goals you’re establishing. Without this alignment, change can create outcomes no one expects.

For bigger shifts, it often works better to take things one step at a time. Consider when we were setting up our offshore accounting department. We didn’t rush into it. We tried out different models and partners until we found a solution that fit our needs. The same applied when we decided to expand our regional office network—we didn’t just expand into the fastest growing markets. We defined our needs and goals and focused our efforts on key markets that aligned best with our strategy.

A Triumph to Celebrate: What recent organizational accomplishment brings you the most satisfaction? What specific challenges did it overcome, and what key factors led to its success?

When we thought about how to effectively cover different geographical markets, it wasn’t just about choosing the right organizational structure—it was about understanding where we wanted to be and how best to manage those markets. We’ve learned that having a qualified team in your desired market isn’t enough. You must first identify market opportunities that match your core strengths and build teams of local experts who share your culture and vision. Over the past five years, we’ve utilized this strategy and have successfully grown from three regional offices to six, allowing us to put people on the ground locally. This local expertise has been invaluable in finding and capitalizing on new investment opportunities. Importantly, our commitment to finding leaders who share our vision allowed us to build these local teams without losing the essence of our corporate culture, which has been key to our success.

Guiding the Next Generation: As we acknowledge the industry’s rising stars, what guidance can you offer them to become catalysts for positive change?

The past four years have created challenges no one could have predicted. The pandemic induced shift to a work-from-home culture has proven to be a challenge for all sectors of real estate, deeply impacting the way in which we build and maintain relationships – which has always been at the heart of the commercial real estate industry.

Now more than ever, it is crucial to empower our future leaders with purpose, passion, and a strong sense of commitment. As such, we adhere to an in-office approach to management because it provides the opportunity to guide and nurture our talent of tomorrow. Our continued emphasis on giving back to the communities in which we work helps foster a healthy working culture which we further enhance with regular company retreats and conferences—all essential for maintaining the bonds that have been the foundation of our industry for a long time.

Let’s make sure we keep those relationships alive and strong.

Click here to see the full Inspiring Leaders in Our Changing Industry series.