Boston
It took an entire millennium, but commercial real estate brokers are finally getting a little attention.
After longstanding complaints that their needs were secondary to those of residential brokers, commercial brokers acknowledge that entities such as the National Association of Realtors have increased services to their sector, as witnessed by formation of the NAR’s Commercial Alliance division, and the group’s recently announced plans to produce an index to forecast trends in the nation’s office and industrial markets.
Closer to home, the initiative is yielding a new statewide board catering to commercial brokers. Although it has already held one educational program, the Massachusetts Commercial Investment Council will be officially launched in January, complete with a new Web site and financial support from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. Veteran commercial broker Robert J. Nahigian was elected as the council’s first chair, and said last week he is encouraged by the involvement of MAR leadership and industry professionals.
“I’m pretty happy about it,” said Nahigian, president of Auburndale Realty Co. of Newton. “I think we are definitely moving in the right direction.” Among the board members of the MCIC is former MAR President David Wluka, 1999 Realtor of the Year Carolyn Chodat and central Massachusetts broker Richard Lamb. Besides reliance on seasoned professionals, success of the MCIC also requires geographical diversity, said Nahigian, a big reason why meetings to discuss its formation were held across the state during the past year. By his informal count, Nahigian estimated there are about 8,000 to 10,000 commercial brokers in Massachusetts, or approximately 10 percent of the overall real estate license holders.
Given the limited pool of prospects and for other reasons, the MCIC is not limited to Realtors, although enrollment is free for MAR members, compared to a $50 levy for non-members. Even that price is a bargain, argued Nahigian, explaining that educational programs and other events are included in the rate. As for projections of member enrollment, Nahigian said it is difficult to determine at this juncture, but predicted the MCIC will be useful enough to inspire involvement by industry practitioners.
“Not every local (real estate) board has the resources to service the commercial brokers, and we think this will pick up a lot of the slack,” said Nahigian, noting that the MCIC’s inaugural educational course held earlier this month was sold out, with an estimated 60 people packed into a classroom at MAR’s Waltham headquarters to learn the fundamentals of commercial brokerage. The audience was a mix of young prospects, residential specialists eyeing the commercial market and even several industry veterans.
“I was shocked” by the response, said Nahigian, maintaining it was a sign that the demand for such programs exists, especially given the group’s access to top educators and industry leaders. “The talent we can offer is tremendous,” said Nahigian, himself a national commercial real estate lecturer who also teaches the subject at Boston University. A January real estate panel planned by MCIC will feature such commercial experts as Codman Co. President Robert B. Cleary Jr., Leggat McCall Properties principal Eric Bacon, industrial specialist Mark Stevens and Garry Holmes, past New England president of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR).
Nahigian said he does believe commercial real estate is becoming increasingly popular as a career option, but agreed it can be a difficult path to pursue, especially in challenging environments. The industry ranks were thinned substantially by the recession of the early 1990s, he said, but there have been pockets of growth among brokers since that difficult time. The MCIC will do its part to support additional gains, said Nahigian, whose group is also hopeful of increasing information sharing among brokers statewide, further easing the process.
As for other commercial boards across the state, efforts to contact officials at the Greater Boston Real Estate Board’s Commercial Brokers Association were unsuccessful, but the Northern Massachusetts Commercial Investment Board of Realtors (NM-CIBOR) has long favored establishment of a statewide commercial association. The group is the only so-called “commercial overlay board” in Massachusetts, that being a vehicle created by the NAR in 1993 to allow states and regions to establish a commercial organization to better service members. NM-CIBOR covers 87 cities and towns in the jurisdiction of five contiguous residential boards north of Boston, with the group managed by the Northeast Association of Realtors.
According to Anne Rendle, CEO of the NM-CIBOR and Northeast Association of Realtors, the group eventually hoped it would be rolled into a statewide board, but resistance at some levels in other trade groups has heretofore prevented such an outcome. The NM-CIBOR maintains the statewide approach would be better because it would create a critical mass of members, would prevent individual associations from competing needlessly against each other, and because the limited nature of commercial deals also results in crossover of territories.
Indeed, one key element of the MCIC will be to avoid duplicating services and programs offered by other entities, said Nahigian. To achieve that goal, the group engaged nearly two dozen real estate trade associations when formulating its charter, capped off by a summit in August that featured such organizations as the Urban Land Institute, the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, the Building Owners and Managers Association and NM-CIBOR, whose current president, Aime Denault, has been an active player in promoting the MCIC. “It doesn’t make sense to overlap what others are doing,” said Nahigian, adding that the MCIC will likely limit its involvement in legislative issues, leaving that angle up to organizations such as the GBREB and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, whose Massachusetts chapter also attended the August program.
Whatever the outcome, Nahigian said he believes the MCIC will be an enthusiastic advocate of the commercial brokerage profession going forward, particularly given the commitment by MAR officials and other industry leaders. The MAR already has an application on-line for people to join MCIC, and will provide additional support in the coming year to help with the opening campaign, according to Nahigian.
