AIR CRE Takes Members on Boat Tour of Long Beach Port

AIR CRE, an 1,800 member, Los Angeles-based commercial real estate trade association, conducted its sold-out Port of Long Beach Boat Tour earlier this month. Executive director Tim Hayes told Connect CRE that attendance for the annual event—held annually for the past decade, except for a two-year hiatus during the pandemic—was approximately 170. 

Given the backdrop of one of the nation’s busiest ports, and one of its busiest industrial real estate markets, it stands to reason that the focus of the tour was primarily on that sector. “We’ve been around since the ‘60s, and our organization grew up heavily industrial,” said Hayes.  

Of AIR CRE’s 1,800 members, 1,400 to 1,500 are industrial brokers, with the remainder comprised of smaller firms that cross property sectors, he said. ‘With everything going on out here, from last-mile to getting product from one place to the next, it’s mainly the industrial brokers who attend.” 

Attendees heard from assistant captain Tyler Askari of Harbor Breeze Cruises, who provided live commentary on a wide range of topics including current and future port construction projects and technological improvements, pre- and post- pandemic stats, the Pier Wind project as a source of renewable energy and domestic and international challenges facing the port.

A current domestic challenge facing the port is coming from the Port of New Jersey, which has moved into second busiest among the nation’s ports ahead of Long Beach. It’s a situation that the Port of Long Beach is working to change, Hayes said. 

Not all the educational material was verbal; there were some visual aids as well. Attendees got a look at the self-driving robots that are now unloading container ships, as well as the recently opened Long Beach International Gateway Bridge between Long Beach and Terminal Island—a taller span that can accommodate larger ships passing under it, replacing the Gerald Desmond Bridge that dated from 1968.