SIOR Portland Fall World Recap: Meeting Today’s Challenges, Helping Clients Face Future

By Dennis Kaiser

The 2019 SIOR Fall World Conference kicked-off Thursday in Portland, attracting nearly 1,000 commercial real estate professionals. Highlights of the multi-day gathering in the Rose City was an opening keynote by Ben Stein, as well as a full slate of panels and networking opportunities.

New SIOR President Mark Duclos told Connect, “SIOR is in the best financial shape ever, and we’ll seek to leverage that position of strength to growth into 2020. We operate in an ever-changing world and companies face challenges that the commercial real estate industry can help solve. SIOR members will continue to seek ways to help their clients face the future.”

Duclos notes that the organization remains focused on executing on its three-year strategic plan in 2020. That includes membership parity, especially among younger pros building a career in the CRE industry, as well as a push to greater diversity through partnerships with other organizations.

Among the slate of panels on Thursday included one titled, ‘Industrial Occupiers: A View from the Inside.’ The standing-room-only audience heard from Intel corporate real estate strategy development director Alysia Staar, and Bob’s Red Mill CFO, Trey Winthrop. The discussion touched on a host of topics including labor, transportation, technologies such as automation and robotics, tariffs, e-commerce, space needs and the ways corporate entities tap into CRE expertise.

A key takeaway from the conversation was both corporate executives noted real estate service should bring an understanding of what’s going on in the market that companies might not be attuned to such as availabilities, rates or deal dynamics. Winthrop says, “decisions by metrics” is a key operational element today, and brokers can “see what is ahead” and play a role in advising corporate leaders what may be coming down the road.

Staar agreed with the notion that real estate pros who take the time to understand the strategies of a company bring value. A key she is attuned to is a “demand signal” that indicates change is ahead, though admitted it may be “elusive” and can change quickly. These days, she is seeking options with spaces, so they have more flexibility to accommodate a change, such as adding more lab space if needed. She also noted that technology is becoming “more complex” and the “size of tools” is growing, which adds up to an appetite for larger facilities now.

Another panel on Thursday titled, ‘Smart Building Platforms’, dove into the technologies that integrate all systems, captures tenant patterns, and takes building environmental data and outside data to learn and grow smart.

The conference continues today with a planned general session featuring Prologis’ Martin Lindstrom, who will dissect the role data plays today in a presentation titled, ‘Forget BIG Data – Small Data Defines the Future.’ Other key sessions on Friday include ‘Underwriting & Due Diligence of Investment CRE Deals;’ ‘Run Your Brokerage Like a CEO;’ ‘AR/VR: Real Estate’s New Reality;’ and ‘Valuing Your CRE Services Company and ‘Succession Planning.’

*Pictured L to R: SIOR’s Tom McCormick, Patricia Loveall, Mark Duclos

For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Dennis Kaiser