Another year for our industry in the books. And what a year it was. For some, it was a blur and for others, it was like time stood still. At CARW, we are proud of the industry, the members and the firms. Innovation and determination have driven our community to make deals happen and set the stage for success in 2022 and beyond. Check out our “We Can Get Through Anything” video HERE.
LET’S BREAK IT DOWN:
Earlier in the year, large group gatherings were still on hold. So we broke events down into smaller pieces with our Building Tour Series. More than three hundred members participated in these events. Tours took us to The Avenue MKE, Milwaukee VA Soldiers Home, Wheel & Sprocket, The Bradley Symphony Center, Central Standard Distillery, the new Paul Davis HQ, and even the Old Chicago Post Office.
Lunch and Learns were mostly virtual but had a huge reach for members participating and also watching through the CARW Youtube channel where the content is stored, shared, and referenced. More than four hundred participated live. To check out these videos click HERE. Topics included:
- Real Estate Tax Planning Considerations and Outlook presented by Wipfli
- M7 Region Economic Development Update with Jim Paetsch
- Wisconsin State Budget Policy with Steve Baas of the MMAC
- How Industrial Real Estate is Leading Sustainable Development, Cold Storage & Lien Law with Godfrey & Kahn
- Update on the MAC
- Current State of the Local CRE Financing Market
- Beyond the State Budget
- WEDC Grants Webinar
The CARW Foundation raised more than $20,000 in 2021 thanks to the generosity of the CARW members. More than $7,500 was raised at the CARW Golf Outing and $4,000 through renewals. The Hall of Fame Event kicked off in 2021 with a celebration honoring Deborah A. Sobczak, the inaugural recipient, and Thomas Bernacchi kicked off the Foundation Scholarship efforts. Much more to come on this in 2022 as the scholarships are awarded to students!
Emmitt Smith was in the house! The 2021 Retail Event was like none other. We held the event at the Fiserv Forum and featured Hall of Fame NFL running back Emmitt Smith. Hosting such a legend in amazing space land at the top of our list. Presenting sponsor Craig Haskins with Knight Barry Title introduced Mr. Smith the now successful commercial real estate entrepreneur and CCIM designation holder. Emmitt spoke about his successful football career, how he became involved in real estate, his current projects, and the importance of providing opportunities to smaller businesses in the industry.
The Deal of the Year awards never disappoints with top award winners celebrating at the Grain Exchange in person, after a year of virtual awards. All recipients and finalists can be seen here. The top award winner was Milwaukee Tool and the event was sponsored by Tri City National Bank.
CARW became a key partner for executing the State of Wisconsin’s WEDC Bouncback Grant program which provides $10,000 grants for businesses entering into a lease from January 1, 2021 through June of 2022 into a vacant commercial space. Applicants need only to provide lease information and fill out a simple application regarding the move. CARW can provide a letter of support to accompany the application. To date, CARW has supplied more than fifty letters. The program will continue to be a resource for our members to use to support their clients.
Sponsors stuck with us in 2021. We are grateful to the key players who support our members and our industry through everything. Sponsorships are vital for conducting all programming and services for members. In-person or virtual – or even hybrid – the technology is key to providing the best, most accessible information for the members. Huge thanks to Irgens, our partner sponsor.
In our first in-person hybrid event we invited futurist and commercial real estate leader, Geoffrey Kasselman, SIOR to discuss the Ten Trends That will shape ‘Life After Covid.’ The keynote was followed by a panel discussion that was conducted with virtual and in-person participants including CEOs from Wisconsin companies: David Kriete, Kriete Trucking; Tina Chang, Syslogic; John Florsheim, Weyco Group: Nancy Hernandez, Hispanic Collaborative; and Bernie Sherry, Ascension Wisconsin. More than 100 people were in the room at the Brookfield Conference Center and more than fifty joined virtually. That presentation can be viewed on the CARW Youtube channel.
We celebrated our 92nd NextGen graduate in 2021. This program that began in 2017, has helped support nearly one hundred commercial real estate professionals with less than five years in the business. The programs were held both in-person and virtually with so many of our commercial real estate leaders supporting the programming and happy hours that followed. The 2022 Class will be announced in mid-January!
Membership is at a record high for 2021. As we end 2021, membership remains stronger than ever. We ended 2020 with 786 members. Now we have reached a record high with 952 members representing more than 504 offices in 113 cities. This would not be possible without our board and membership committee members championing CARW!
Our annual CARW Member Survey gave us great insights, as always, into why members belong and what services they seek. A few highlights:
- CARW Members join, and they stay – more than 60% of members have been involved in the organization for more than five years
- Networking and Professional Development are members’ top interests in being involved. Nearly 90% of respondents said NETWORKING is ‘why they belong’ and 80% of respondents said PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT is ‘why they belong’. 60% said that ADVOCACY is ‘why they belong’. Others suggested that visibility for their company and access to data are driving reasons for their membership in CARW.
- More than 70% of members seek out other CARW members to do business with and more than 90% would recommend CARW membership to others! We appreciate that so much and want to do everything we can to provide value and be worthy of your recommendation. Speaking of which, if you know someone who is not a member – they can apply HERE
Speaking of Networking – CARW Networking events included the Holiday Party where we saw record attendance at the spacious Bradley Symphony Center, presented by Irgens. We made the most of outdoor networking last winter while tubing at The Rock in Franklin as well as celebrating March Madness at Explorium Brew Pub. The Market Update went off without a hitch featuring some of the most prominent CRE professionals sharing their insights and perspectives on the industry. If you missed the recap, grab it HERE. Several happy hours were also held at various locations throughout the region.
The Catylist / Redi Platform was recently acquired by Moody’s analytics. Subscribers to the platform not only receive the research and listing information but the deep insights and analytics provided by Moody’s. New features have been added to the platform because of user feedback and input including full tenant data, personalized cover pages, Moody’s CLS reports, listing traffic reports, and more. To date, there are more than 70,000 properties in the system, and 24,000 sale comps. The system represents more than 100M square feet of commercial real estate for sale and lease throughout Wisconsin.
A BIG THANKS TO OUR SPEAKERS THIS YEAR:
- KC Conway, Chief Economist, CCIM – Red Shoe Economics
- States of Wisconsin WEDC Secretary Missy Hughes
- Danielle Lewis, Senior Manager, CPA; Joshua Graham, Partner, CPA; Chad Zeznanski, Director, CGA Wipfli
- Jim Paetsch, M7 Vice President of Corporate Relocation, Expansion and Attraction
- Steve Baas, SVP of Government Affairs MMAC
- Zach Hill, Alliant Energy; Sam Dunaiski; Renew Wisconsin, Ken Maly with NGFK
- Marvin Bynum II and Carol Muratore, attorneys with Godfrey and Kahn
- Maleta Brown, CPM, Cushman & Wakefield; Alyssa Geisler, CBRE; Ivan Gamboa Tri-City National Bank; Jeff Hoffman, SIOR, CCIM Cushman & Wakefield | Boerke
- Tony Janowiec, Interstate Parking; Josh Jeffers, JJeffers
- Regina Levchets, First Midwest Bank; Jon Mulch, BMO Harris Bank; Adam Newman, Landmark Credit Union; Stephen Mcguire, US BANK
- Tina Chang – Syslogic; John Florsheim – Weyco Group; Bernie Sherry – Ascension Wisconsin; Nancy Hernandez – ABRAZO / Hispanic Collaborative; David Kriete – Kriete Group; Nick Egelanian – Siteworks
- Kristen Johnson, City of Milwaukee Health Commissioner
- Patrick Wohl, NAR Political Advocacy Representative
- Senator Dale Kooyenga
- Tom Larson, Executive Vice President for the Wisconsin REALTORS Association
- Emmitt Smith, CCIM, NFL Hall of Famer, and Real Estate Professional
- Kevin Schmoldt, NEWMARK; Dave Schwartz, Innovative Construction Solutions; Tom Maas, Landmark Credit Union; Amy Levin, Next Realty; Peter Glaser, CBRE; Joe Kleiman, Mid-America Real Estate
- Garrick Brown, Locke House
- John Davis Founders 3 Real Estate; Joe Kleiman Mid-America Real Estate; Mitch Starczynski, NEWMARK; Jennifer Huber-Bullock, CCIM, Colliers
Cheers to a prosperous New Year and thank you for your partnership in building our industry! On behalf of the CARW Staff and Board, THANK YOU!
Sincerely,
Tracy Johnson, CAE
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- Interested in joining a CARW Committees? Click HERE
- CARW YOUTUBE Channel Recorded Videos HERE
- Looking to recommend a Member? Click HERE
- Can your business benefit from advertising and visibility through sponsorship? Click HERE
CARW BY THE NUMBERS:
- 94 – the percentage of members who said they would recommend CARW to a colleague
- 65 – number of virtual webinars, member meetings, and Nextgen sessions CARW coordinated
- 6 – number of CARW members achieving CCIM or SIOR designation
- 8,220 – Active listings in Catylist
- 24,134 – Sale Comps in Catylist
- 70,108 – Properties in Catylist
- 255 industrial spaces leased totaling over 7,327,900 sf
- 319 industrial properties sold totaling over 13,486,000 sf
- 317 offices spaces leased totaling over 1,260,900 sf
- 182 office properties sold totaling over 15,613,000 sf
- 220 retail spaces leased totaling over 700,700 sf
- 497 retail properties sold totaling over 10,071,000 sf
- 952 – number of CARW members
- 92 – cumulative number of CARW NextGenners
- 54 – number of support letters CARW wrote for members and their clients seeking WEDC Bounceback Grants
- 20,456 – number of dollars raised for the CARW Foundation at the Annual CARW Golf Outing and Hall of Fame Dinner
“My mother always used to say, “The older you get, the better you get. Unless you’re a banana.” Betty White
A BIG THANKS TO OUR 2021 CARW SPONSORS:
