Tenant Experience Network (TEN‪)‬ HILO

In this episode, host David Abrams is in conversation with Rob Kumer, CEO of KingSett Capital. Rob shares his journey to commercial real estate. KingSett is a private equity real estate investment company focused on Canada, both the equity and credit side of the business and all asset classes. After graduating from the Ivey Business School, Rob began his 20-year career journey in CRE. He started as an analyst, then moved to the investment side of the business and became President in 2021, and more recently assumed the role of CEO. Rob acknowledged his extraordinary relationship with KingSett’s founder and Executive Chair, Jon Love, who is also a two-time guest on the TEN podcast. Rob believes that aligning to a set of core values has significantly contributed to his success and that there is always something to learn from other people. He shares some of his insights from the early days of the pandemic, including this comforting sentiment: “It is never as good as you think, and it is never as bad as you think”. I loved hearing Rob reflect on the pride he feels about KingSett’s collective determination to navigate and overcome the crisis the CRE industry is fighting. Our conversation continues with how the use of spaces is changing, which is necessitating more amenity, meeting, and touch-down/collision spaces, and fewer private offices and exclusive workstations. As some businesses rethink their space requirements, more often than not, the actual footprint has not changed significantly. Rob notes that companies are looking for more amenities, shorter lease terms, and access to fully outfitted facilities, like KingSett’s program ‘Ready, Set, Go’ spaces. As well, there is a greater emphasis being placed on moving buildings to ZERO carbon and KingSett is taking a leading position in this effort. Rob shares his 3 pillars for success in the office category and speaks about the importance of experience and the technological advances impacting all asset classes. KingSett is very focused on decarbonization, and energy management including deep water cooling and implementing new lighting systems. Customer experience is driving many new initiatives that save time and provide more convenience, from pre-ordering a coffee when arriving at the building to using destination dispatch on the elevators. We close the interview with several questions that provide an opportunity to get to know Rob a bit better on a personal level. Get ready to picture him in coveralls giving your car a tune-up!

In this episode, host David Abrams is in conversation with Sophie Wade, Founder of Flexcel Network and host of the Transforming Work podcast. Sophie’s journey to her current role started with the experience of living in many different countries and studying people. She started out in strategy and finance and later focused on the future of work as her personal situation demanded working differently. Sophie is an avid observer of people and has used this skill to shape her view of the world, and now the subject of ‘work’ specifically. She points out that for the first time, we are at a point where we are asking questions about how we should be designing spaces to meet our needs better. Sophie emphasized the need for everyone to recognize that we are in a period of significant change and now is the time to embrace where we are and engage everyone in the process of defining what in-office work looks like. We discussed how interdepartmental collaboration needs to take place to respond to the emerging needs of people. When it comes to technology, Sophie is a big proponent of experimenting, exploring and testing to see what works. We both acknowledged that communication is key amongst all stakeholders during this significant time of change.

In this episode, host David Abrams is in conversation with Jen Tindle, Chief Comic Relief Officer @ AllAboutCRE.com. Jen shares her journey to commercial real estate and how she got started in the business. Today, Jen is focussed on helping to solve the knowledge gap that exists between CRE firms and CRE technology providers. Jen started her career in public accounting — a path we share in common — and found tremendous value in better understanding how businesses work. She then leveraged that knowledge to land a position in private equity real estate, which at the time, she knew nothing about. Then, Jen got exposure to many different parts of the business and discovered her passion for process and data. She co-founded a proptech startup in the data/integration business. Jen’s latest project, allaboutcre.com, is an educational platform that builds on her love of learning. She shares some great insights into what the CRE industry needs to be thinking about over the next 3 to 5 years to continue to be successful, as well as her thoughts on how building tech stacks are evolving. Our discussion saw the role of host and guest often switching back and forth, which made for a very dynamic conversation, providing us both with the opportunity to share our perspectives.

In this episode, host David Abrams is in conversation with the co-hosts of the new CRE Unplugged podcast, Nadine Ezzie, Founder and President of ezzie + co and Ryan Elazari, Senior Director at Empire Management. We learn about Nadine and Ryan’s journey to commercial real estate and how they got started in the business. Nadine is an attorney and made her way to CRE, serving as in-house counsel for an industrial developer. Through LinkedIn, she was then presented with the perfect opportunity to join a proptech startup, heading up its customer success team. Nadine headed to Boston to be employee #5 of a company that automated the drafting of commercial lease agreements for institutional organizations across the country. This gave Nadine a first-hand view into the legal departments of big companies, and after 4 years, she left to establish ezzie + co, an all-in-one CRE legal and advisory firm, using innovation and technology to serve her clients. Ryan, a returning guest on TEN, was born and raised in NYC, found his way to CRE as an associate at Empire Management. His continued education in the field led to a promotion to Senior Director of the firm, participating in development and acquisition projects. We learn how Nadine and Ryan hit it off when they met. Their friendship and connection have led them to collaborate as hosts on a new podcast, the aptly named CRE Unplugged — Innovating from the streets to the skyline. They have a lot of passion to go with their ambitious mission to not only be informative and educational but to add a welcome dose of humour as well. Ryan shares how his company is staying ahead of the curve to deliver a great experience to Empire’s customers. Nadine shares her aspirations of what she would like to bring to her business that has the potential to be transformative. We explore how customer experience is becoming a significant driver of tenant engagement and how this phenomenon is impacting the industry. I am excited that the team at HILO has had the opportunity to sponsor and assist with the launch of CRE Unplugged and can’t wait to see how Nadine and Ryan bring it to life.

Subscribe to TEN so you never miss an episode of the Tenant Experience Network.

In this episode, host David Abrams is in conversation with Peter Riguardi Chairman & President, New York Region at JLL. Peter’s career journey in commercial real estate began early on, watching his father work in property management and then having the opportunity to learn from many experts in the business before embarking with a group of colleagues to start their own company in 1989. He would later sell that firm to JLL in 2002 and has been at JLL ever since. I love how Peter gives credit to his family for teaching him the value of showing people respect. He also provides a valuable lesson about situations where you can “control the work” by striving for exclusivity, rather than competing with other brokers, even if it means smaller assignments. Peter is seeing an increase in people coming back to the workplace and occupiers using the office to competitively attract talent. He has also noticed a significant push to the best office buildings, regardless of their location. With 460 million square feet of office space in NYC, only time will tell how much space use will have to change. We both agreed that the industry needs to seek innovative and creative solutions to meet emerging needs in CRE, as it continues to compete with the many options where people can choose to work.

Subscribe to TEN so you never miss an episode of the Tenant Experience Network.

In this episode, host David Abrams is in conversation with Nico DePaul, Chief Operating Officer at NNN Pro Group. Nico’s career journey began through a search for an internship, and after showing up for an interview 4 times, was actually offered a full-time role. So for him, it was goodbye law school, and hello commercial real estate, starting in the net lease space as a junior analyst. Nico kicks off the show with an explanation of how net lease space works and who it is best suited to. He invested early to learn the business, putting in long days and taking on all that he could in order to gain experience and knowledge. As an early employee of the firm, Nico has been able to personally contribute to the significant growth of the business, which is now a 100+ team, and just a few years ago he took on the role of COO. Nico describes the ways in which the net lease industry is being affected by the current environment in CRE, with many variables affecting the level of activity across several categories. Like all aspects of the industry, Nico shares many ways that technology is impacting his space and the ways in which the business is evolving.

Subscribe to TEN so you never miss an episode of the Tenant Experience Network.