Landlords Chasing Filtration, Certification In Push To Welcome Workers Back

Developers, more so than any industry outside government, are responsible for the way the modern world looks.

The biggest development firms in the U.S. between them construct hundreds of millions of square feet of new buildings a year. Millions of Americans live in the apartments they have built, work in the offices they have designed and shop at the retailers they agree to do business with.

Companies like Trammell Crow, Hines, Tishman Speyer, CIM Group, Related Cos., Alliance Residential and Greystar are privately held, and they aren’t subject to the same level of scrutiny as their publicly traded peers. But these firms are hugely impactful on American life, and they are still run by a higher proportion of White men than other sectors of the commercial real estate industry.

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The coronavirus pandemic's effects on retail have been devastating, causing a spike in bankruptcies, thousands of store and restaurant closures, and a wave of landlords simply handing back properties to their lenders.

But far from the eyes of most commercial real estate investors, a different retail story is playing out. In the country's small, rural communities, brick-and-mortar retail is comparatively thriving.

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Robert Thornburgh is assuming his new role as CEO of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors at a time when the office and industrial sectors across the country are on different paths.

Office space is grappling with coronavirus pandemic-fueled uncertainty about when people will return to their offices, while the industrial sector has garnered a tremendous amount of attention from investors and developers.

It's also a time when the organization itself is changing. Women made up just 3% of SIOR's membership 10 years ago and now it's roughly 7% women.

Two years ago SIOR opened a new category of membership — associate member — aimed at early career professionals. At the associate level of membership, the percentage of women is higher at just over 20%, Thornburgh said. 

"It's indicative that we're doing something right," he said. 

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“Urban planning is health care.”

It’s a phrase that Araceli Camargo and Josh Artus come back to time and again. It is the guiding principle behind the new initiatives and research their Centric Lab consultancy is embarking on, trying to help developers and property professionals make the communities they build in more healthy and more equal. 

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