CREative Connections

CREative Connections is a commercial real estate interview podcast made by NAIOP SoCal and Connect Media. The hosts named on the show are Tim Jemal, CEO of NAIOP SoCal, and Daniel Ceniceros and Sarah Quinn of Connect Media. They do not always appear together. In episodes 1 and 2 the Connect Media hosts run the interviews. In episodes 25, 48, 49 and 50 Jemal conducts them alone and describes the series as talking to people who shape commercial real estate in Southern California. That region is the anchor, but the conversations also reach into national and global capital. Reading the market is one strand. Christopher Thornberg, founder of Beacon Economics, argues that industrial property is in better shape than its vacancy numbers suggest. He separates raw occupancy, which he says keeps climbing in places like the Inland Empire, from the overbuilding that followed cheap post-pandemic borrowing. Gunnar Branson, CEO of AFIRE, answers questions about foreign investors and data centers, notes Canadian interest in American facilities, and closes on why staying connected to colleagues abroad matters beyond business. Strategy is another strand. Eliza Bailey, co-founder, CEO and CIO of Belay Investment Group, describes pairing a top-down relative value analysis of property types and markets with a bottom-up search for the right real estate and the right operator. Asked how an 18-member team covers so much ground, she points to partnerships with local operators and developers who act as both acquisition and execution teams and underwrite deals alongside Belay. Victor Coleman, CEO and chairman of Hudson Pacific Properties, gives a three-part rationale: an entertainment operating business combined with real estate, Hollywood's surplus land, and the arrival of technology. The third strand is the association's own honors. Episode 48 talks with the Colliers team named NAIOP SoCal's 2024 Broker of the Year, and the discussion turns to hiring people first and fitting roles second, with attitude, personality and culture weighed alongside aptitude. Word of mouth, they say, has beaten agencies for finding the right hires. Episode 25 features Blake Bokosky on the sales side and Joe Bevan on leasing, the JLL team behind Intersect, a People's Choice Deal of the Year winner. Coleman's conversation also ends with recognition, as Jemal names him the fourth hall of fame inductee. Jemal is quick with praise, and the award episodes are openly celebratory. For market analysis, start with the Thornberg episode. For a look at how an award-winning brokerage team is put together, the Broker of the Year conversation is the better pick.