Question 2

Ackerman & Co. Senior Vice President Steve Langford
Investment Sales Brokerage | Atlanta | Male | 12 Years of Experience 

This is a heart issue that cannot be legislated.

While there are efforts currently underway to address the longstanding racial disparity within the CRE industry, such as Project REAP and the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors Diversity Mentor Program, such efforts regretfully do not scratch the surface of the glaring disparity in the industry. Continued support of these and similar programs to expose minorities to the vast career options within the CRE industry is a start. But the real change will only come about when minorities are simply viewed for employment opportunities based on their credentials and potential contributions to an organization [as] opposed to being considered as “less-than” those [who] may have a different skin color. The reality is that this is a heart issue that cannot be legislated. If someone cannot (or chooses not to) understand the problem, we will forever continue the vicious cycle.

Development | London | Male | 6 Years of Experience 

Complacency perpetuates the problem.

The key issue is awareness. Most people are not racist, and by definition most people are not minorities, so they do not perceive themselves as having or being part of the problem. However, in the context of systematic privilege, complacency perpetuates the problem and is arguably just as damaging as outright racism. The hope is that by simply raising awareness it internalizes the issue with the privileged and creates a platform and catalyst for change.

The approach to addressing that change does not need to differ much from the headings you’ll find in most real estate fund strategies:

1. Understand the context: Openly explore the issue gaining as much empirical data as possible.

2. Objectives: Set clear and measurable objectives based on the issues that were highlighted in the context.

3. Tactics: Refine clear approaches to achieving the objectives.

4. Implementations and Review: Implement the plan and regularly review progress and tactics to ensure alignment with the context and objectives.

I would stress this is not an affront, people don’t change when they feel they are being attacked. The overarching objective is: How can we do better? We can all do better.  

Cushman & Wakefield Executive Vice Chairman Darian Leblanc
Brokerage | Washington, D.C. | Male | 25 Years of Experience 

This issue is socioeconomic rather than racial in nature.

The disparity is undeniable. Compensation structure remains the most significant barrier to entry into commercial real estate brokerage. And it remains a barrier to longevity if an individual does manage to get into the industry. Most commercial real estate companies do not pay salaries to real estate brokers, except in unique circumstances. Until the industry creates a compensation structure to support young brokers while they are learning, the precious few entry slots that are available will appeal mostly to those with financial means. This issue is socioeconomic rather than racial in nature, but it has a disproportionate impact on minorities. After the compensation structure has been revised, recruitment disparities can be addressed.

Seritage Growth Properties Chief Operating Officer Kenneth Lombard
Retail Owner | Los Angeles | Male | 30+ Years of Experience 

This is not just about trying to check a box.

We all know real estate companies have goals. We have objectives specifically from a performance and revenue perspective. The only way this is going to change is as part of those goals, one gets measured by including a short to mid-term action plan around how they are going to increase their own diversity. Not only at the lower levels, but in particular the senior management and executive levels and the boards. These are all areas that I think could potentially impact in a positive way an environment that has not shown well in respects to diversity.

This is not just about trying to check a box to be successful. It’s about going out there and continuing the outreach until you successfully identify someone to be part of your team.

Property Management | Los Angeles | Female | 25+ Years of Experience 

It should not stop today.

During this immediate time of racial disparity, CRE companies need to ensure all of their employees are aware of the company’s support of all races and that racism will not be tolerated. If that means changing policies or forming a task force to create change, companies should do so. However, it should not stop today. Companies have to continue showing the support and practices developed. As educational and advancement opportunities arise, every candidate should be weighed equally based on qualifications, not other unrelated factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, etc. Companies should be transparent about their policies and provide more than the discrimination disclaimer on applications and websites.

T. Dallas Smith & Co. Principal Corey Ferguson
Office Brokerage | Atlanta | Male | 17 Years of Experience 

Listen with defenses down.

First, face the disparity honestly and objectively. Accept that it exists and that a change needs to happen. They can only fix what they accept as an issue. Next, listen with defenses down to the diverse voices within their organizations to see what needs to be done. Then be solution-oriented. In firms lacking people of color, make a concerted effort to improve equity through hiring practices and intentional mentoring and recruitment. Finally, let this impactful moment be the basis for formulating a legacy plan of addressing the unrecognized consequences of systemic racism within the organization.

Finance | Dallas | Male | 25 Years of Experience 

Build some relationships.

There are many qualified management and executive candidates in the industry. They should open some doors and get to know some of them. Build some relationships and mentor them to be valued assets in the industry.

T. Dallas Smith & Co. Advisor Detra Reid
Office Brokerage | Atlanta | Female | 12 Years of Experience

There is a ceiling to how far they are able to advance.

In order to address the industry’s racial disparity in the long-term, CRE companies and their leaders need to change their culture, which excludes minorities, for the most part, from senior leadership/C-suite positions. It is not enough to check the box anymore. Just as leadership invests in training, mentoring and developing their young Caucasians, they also need to provide the same level of support to their minority talent.

Every so often, CRE leaders will add a minority to their talent pool, giving them just enough authority to have hope that things will be different for them. However, it soon becomes evident to minorities that there is a ceiling to how far they are able to advance. If company leaders really want to address the issues regarding racial disparity, they will need to level the playing field and place minorities in positions that will ensure all voices are heard, not just the voice that is so familiar to them. This requires a deliberate effort to seek out qualified minorities for decision-making positions — to include the company’s board positions. Once a company’s culture has shifted from excluding minorities to including minorities, then and only then can they begin to address the issues of racial disparity. Until then, CRE companies will continue to be stained with the stigma of an industry that has been known for its exclusivity.

Investment | London | Male | 15 Years of Experience

Companies are often shamed for showing bias.

I think the solution is not hugely different to what has been done to promote women in the workplace. We still have a long way to go on that front, too, but there has been progress. There is increasing awareness in industry of the need to provide equal opportunities to women, monitoring of male/female ratios in companies, greater consequences from implementing pay differentials or showing male bias in promotion processes/decisions. Companies are often shamed for showing bias, but in some cases rewarded (directly or indirectly) for promoting and implementing equality in the workplace. 

Innovative Housing CEO Rochelle Mills
Development | Los Angeles | Female | 25+ Years of Experience 

Invest in our development.

Stop sharing your collective empathy/outrage while expressing you “wish you could do more.”

Stop inviting us to conversations only to demonstrate diversity (the fishbowl effect) when it benefits you. Hire, train, promote, support and defend racial diversity like it actually matters. Invest in our development — even if it has no direct benefit to your bottom line. Introduce us to leaders and colleagues. Create a seat and make room for us at the table.

Peebles Corp. Founder and CEO Don Peebles
Investment and Development | Washington, D.C. | Male | 36 Years of Experience

They need to reflect back on where America is, what America represents, and what America was when it started. It’s the land of great opportunity and business has an important role to play in the expansion of that opportunity.

SUDA founder Alan Dones
Development | Oakland | Male | 25 Years of Experience 

We must embrace uniform industry best practices.

We must embrace uniform industry best practices that integrate equitable outcomes into the DNA of real estate development and land-use practices — as intentionally and proactively as we now have adapted other principles such as environmental sustainability, ADA compliance, etc. 

My personal efforts have involved implementing a program known as Leadership in Engineering Equitable Participation. LEEP is to achieving equitable outcomes what LEED is to achieving sustainability outcomes, i.e. LEEP adopts a set of equity best practices, accompanied by a rating and certification process.

Roosevelt University, Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate Executive Director Collete English Dixon
Investment Management | Chicago | Female | 30+ Years of Experience

This should be part of every executive’s compensation plan.

If this time is truly different, the CRE industry and companies need to make the same sort of commitment to finally tackle the lack of diversity and inclusion the same way they attack every other business initiative: with a plan and a strategy, holding themselves accountable to achieving the goal(s). This should be part of every executive’s compensation plan, part of every company’s business plan and a pledge to their stakeholders to achieve. Being diverse and inclusive is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do and can support business success. 

Start with broadening the search for diverse talent and getting rid of the biases that have tripped up hiring and advancement decisions. Take a good look at the challenges that the corporate culture of a privileged white individual environment creates to undermine the success of non-white talent and fix it. Partner with organizations and institutions that are working to support the education, development and success of black and brown talent. Provide internships, mentoring and career development opportunities for young talent.

Investment | London | Female | 14 Years of Experience 

People feel unable to speak up about how they really feel.

Tackle the systemic racism that highly likely exists in their firms. Before they will be able to do this, they will need to ask themselves questions and seek to understand the answers to the following: How many minority ethnic employees do you have? How many are senior? How many have been promoted in line with their white peers? Are ethnic minority employees paid the same as their white equivalent counterparts?

Additionally, they need to find a way to ask their BAME [black, Asian and minority ethnic] employees their views on what it’s really like to work for the firm and their experiences. Employees must be able to answer anonymously if they wish and without fear of any repercussions. A big issue is that many BAME people feel unable to speak up about how they really feel and what they experience for fear of losing their job, their life being made difficult or being paid even less. If they’re not able to speak up, then how are senior leaders supposed to know what the issues are in order to tackle them?

Lastly, it’s important to recognize the word BAME is far from ideal. There are huge differences between the lived experiences of people who fall within this category. As such, their needs and how they are addressed are likely to differ.

Keller Williams Inglewood Commercial Director William Yarbro
Brokerage | Los Angeles | Male | 35+ Years of Experience 

I am forming the African American Networking Group.

Be more supportive of trade organizations and continue outreach at the high school and college level to increase awareness and a path to CRE. Paid internships also help expose students. More encouragement of networking opportunities. At Keller Williams Commercial, I am forming the African American Networking Group, of black commercial agents around the country at the different KWC offices, with the focus on handling local real estate requirements for companies that have real estate needs across the country and to be supportive of each other. 

AAREP Los Angeles President Alicia Bramble
Affordable Housing Asset Management | Los Angeles | Female | 15 Years of Experience

They need to prepare for the long term.

There are several approaches that commercial real estate companies need to take that will shift the narrative of diversity and inclusive work environment for the long term. They need to prepare for the long term. The CRE companies and leaders need to look at their organizations and ask themselves if they’ve gone above and beyond diversity and inclusion. They need to do an in-depth look at outreach and hiring practices. That’s where it starts. There are countless African American professionals with years of experience and impressive education and great personality. These are the people that should be considered for senior management positions.

Amanda Strong
Investment | Cambridge, Massachusetts | Female | 20+ Years of Experience

CRE leaders need to decide if they really care.

First, CRE leaders need to decide if they really care about eliminating anti-black racism. Since forever, real estate has been cushioned in white privilege, and no one has been willing to get informed about what that means. Most real estate people think about risk in terms of return. Hiring someone who looks different than you do means more risk, an unknown, a differing opinion. Until CRE leaders embrace those differences, we will not progress. It is not up to me to convince anyone about that or helping them overcome their fears. Everyone needs to find their own “a-ha moment.”

Smith Real Estate Services CEO Pamela Smith
Development Consulting | Atlanta | Female | 36 Years of Experience

Some strides have been made, but not enough.

CRE companies and their leaders should view this period of widespread concern and civil unrest about racial bias and disparity as an opportunity for deep reflection and examination. Having worked in the commercial real estate industry as a practitioner and business owner for 35+ years, there are still many instances where I walk into a conference or meeting room of CRE executives and I say to myself, “People of color are still severely underrepresented in Atlanta in the commercial real estate industry.” Yes, some strides have been made, but not enough considering that Atlanta is about 50.7% black and is the home of the finest HBCUs in the country. Every year, these institutions of higher learning produce a pipeline of talented graduates destined to be future corporate leaders and executives.

Long term, I think CRE companies and their leaders need to ask this question: Are our corporate policies really effective in ensuring equal access by people of color to opportunities for advancement throughout the organization? It’s 2020, if you look around your company and you don’t see diversity at every level of your organization from top to bottom, then your diversity and inclusion policies and efforts are failing and need to be revamped.

Development | Houston | Male | 12 Years of Experience 

Partner with HBCUs.

Organizations should expand recruiting efforts to seek out a more diverse talent pool. The National Black MBA Association has a great career fair every year where talented minority MBA candidates gather looking for employment opportunities. Organizations can also look to partner with HBCUs in the area that may not have a real estate program and help the administration develop one. This could be done by developing the curriculum, adjunct faculty and guest speaking.

The Michaels Organization Regional Vice President Granvel Tate
Finance | Atlanta | Male | 20+ Years of Experience

Take a page from investment banking and management consulting companies.

The first thing that CRE companies and leaders need to go to their websites and look at the “About Us” or “Team” section. Scroll through the pictures and ask themselves if they are comfortable with what they see and what they have written. For many companies and leaders, they will be fine with the homogeneity that they see. For those companies, there isn’t much that can be done. 

For those that recognize that they are missing out on new opportunities because of lack of diversity, they should look at where they source their talent. Take a page from investment banking and management consulting companies and begin to recruit from Historically Black Colleges and Universities in addition to Ivy League schools. Next, once these students become employees, companies need to have mentors for them that will help the new employees learn the unwritten rules of the company and the industry, and not just the hard skills. Finally, once these employees have several years of experience in the field, many want to work as a principal in business. However, due to many systemic factors, black real estate professionals do not have the friends and family network to tap into for equity for their initial developments in the same way whites have access to capital. Creating more partnerships, whereby majority firms co-invest with minority firms and creating more emerging manager and emerging sponsor programs at large LP investors is a good start to providing blacks with the opportunity to be principals in the CRE business. The Real Estate Executive Council and the Robert Toigo Foundation are good places to seek experienced diverse talent.

CBRE Senior Associate Austin Glover
Retail Brokerage | New York City | Male | 7 Years of Experience

Partner with diversity and inclusion experts.

Commercial real estate companies and leaders should assess whether or not the teams and tools in place are sufficient to correct the deficiency. These firms may need to partner with diversity and inclusion experts who can help improve the makeup of employees and executive leadership. Early industry exposure, recruitment, retention and promotion are all issues that need to be addressed in parallel.

Development | Atlanta | Male | 14 Years of Experience 

The ability to add diversity rarely comes around.

Commercial real estate is one of the most homogenous industries out there. Opportunities are often guided by family, corporate and/or social connections, and most of the folks in CRE look the same, so the ability to add diversity rarely comes around. Combined with the fact that most firms are small and seldom have job openings, diversity doesn’t seem to be a high priority. This current state of affairs will not change without sincere effort to do so.

I’ve been in the business since 2006. I’ve been in a meeting where another black person was present less than 10 times. The lack of diversity is a real issue.

Diversifying CRE has got to be a deliberate, strategic and intentional effort. Simply relying on the industry to diversify organically will not cut it, as the lack of color at NAIOP Night often reveals. The first thing that I would like to see firms do is to hire more interns that are people of color. The intern generally is a low-burden position that provides tremendous upside for the college student. They can be shown the nuances of the business, how the firm works, and will only increase the interest for him/her to continue in the business. You cannot get more diversity in decision-making management positions without diversity in the workforce. There are also several organizations like the Empire Board of Realtors and Project REAP who are tremendous resources for talent, and there are myriad universities right in our backyard that are great proving grounds. The bottom line is, if you are truly interested in diversity, you have to show a genuine interest to look around.

HomematchX CEO Stephen Lewis
Residential Brokerage/Technology | Dallas | Male | 5 Years of Experience

Buyers and sellers have to come together.

When you hear something, say something. Clients are very comfortable around their real estate agents saying who they don’t want in the neighborhood or neighborhoods they want to avoid. We have to stand up in those conversations. If they are comfortable discussing racial discrimination around you, then they think you will accept anything. The National Association of Realtors doesn't need those types of professionals or real estate companies. Buyers and sellers have to come together knowing we are a community undivided.

Windermere Partners Principal Managing Broker Jasmyn Jefferson
Brokerage | Tacoma, Washington | Female | 17 Years of Experience

Do the work.

The No. 1 thing a leader can do right now is stop acting like white supremacy and racism don’t exist. Do the work. Start at the very top, self-evaluate and be boldly vulnerable.

Dominus Commercial Vice President Aaliyah Haqq
Brokerage | Dallas-Fort Worth | Female | 2 Years of Experience 

There was no sense of belonging.

The first is to recognize there is racial disparity. There will also need to be an admission of their participation in a system that is designed to limit people’s advancement. If you are a Realtor, you learn about redlining. No Realtors should be shocked that systems exist that are ultimately designed to keep people of color from being equal participants in the American dream.

If you go to a CRE event that is not sponsored by an affinity group, the attendees will be the same, white men of various ages, very few women, even fewer people of color. Firms are not diverse; some people will say it is because there are not many people of color in the industry. That would not be inaccurate; however, that statement would not address why the industry is not diverse. As I have talked to other people of color in the industry, many have mentioned when they were at various firms, there was no sense of belonging that is intentionally fostered. From personal experience, it can sometimes be difficult to feel a sense of belonging. As a double minority, I am subject to the sexist jokes as well as the racists ones.

Senior leaders need to take a stand against racism and exclusion while creating an environment where people of color feel and know they belong, are respected and are given the tools, mentorship and sponsorship needed to be successful. They need to change internship and hiring practices to include more diverse young professionals.

Senior leaders also need to enlist the help of professionals in this space to help them. Considering the amount of time that it has taken for people to awaken to this tremendous problem, time is of the essence.

BFW Construction President and CEO Blane Soddart
Construction | Philadelphia | Male | 25+ Years of Experience

This rethinking must start at the CEO and chairman levels.

With protests against racism taking place around the world, now is an opportune time for commercial brokers to look at recruiting, supporting, retaining and promoting black commercial brokers. This rethinking must start at the CEO and chairman levels and be pushed out to the regional centers. Job performance, evaluations, salaries, bonuses and commissions must be tied to diversity recruitment, retention and promotion. With diversity goals tied to performance, we would see immediate change. 

Boards of directors and company CEOs need to communicate down to their EVPs, SVPs, RVPs, vice presidents and directors that diversity matters. Diversity needs to be a priority that goes beyond hiring into the supply chain and procurement. Commercial real estate has always been an industry of white men for white men, and it has stayed that way for generations. However, I am somewhat optimistic, more optimistic than I have ever been, that they are going to do what needs to be done to get black diversity, not just minority diversity, into the commercial real estate industry. Let's start with the top firms: CBRE, JLL, Cushman, Newmark, Colliers and Savills.

Legal | London | Female | 5 Years of Experience

Real diversity is required at all levels.

Have open and honest discussions with their black colleagues about their experiences so that they can gain a better understanding of systemic racism, what it is like to experience both overt and covert racism and the impact this can have on mental health so that they can understand how to attract more black people into the sector at all levels and retain them. Real diversity is required at all levels of an organization if there is ever going to be real, long-lasting change. I do not think it is helpful to group all non-white people into one “BAME” group as different races and communities face different challenges.

Curtis Development Principal Charmaine Curtis
Development | San Francisco | Female | 33 Years of Experience

Real, meaningful, systemic change is what we are truly after.

What we have long called “affirmative action” is not enough. Opening the door and offering a seat at the table is a beginning, but more is required if real, meaningful, systemic change is what we are truly after. While the word “woke” is much overused, the concept behind that word is powerful. I Googled it and found this definition: “alert to injustice in society, especially racism.” But it’s not enough to be alert. Achieving true “woke-ness” requires not just looking at the systems that perpetuate racism, but to look inward at one’s own internal biases and where they come from. We need more individuals who make up the companies in CRE to do this challenging work. We have to see what racism is, both inside and out, to be able to change it.

Investment | Chicago | Female | 40+ Years of Experience 

Sincerely acknowledge their white privilege.

Sincerely acknowledge their white privilege and how CRE companies systemically embody and promote racism, inequity and inequality.

Project REAP Board of Directors Chair Lamont Blackstone
Nonprofit | New York | Male | 30 Years of Experience 

Power dynamics do not change without committed leadership.

C-suite executives must recognize the value of diversity beyond the political imperatives of the moment. They should see it as a tool for reducing organizational groupthink, while also injecting highly qualified talent into a corporation's bloodstream. They should view that talent as enhancing their ability to compete in metropolitan markets being reshaped by demographic shifts, as well as shifts dictating where the opportunities will be for the development of new multifamily, industrial, life sciences and other commercial assets. If C-suite executives don't recalibrate their own perspectives and attitudes towards diversity, any recruitment and inclusion efforts will fizzle out downstream within an organization. Merriam-Webster will be changing the dictionary definition of "racism" to recognize its linkages to social and institutional power dynamics. Those power dynamics do not change without committed leadership from the top.

Massachusetts Port Authority Legal Specialist Tanya Mitchell
Development | Boston | Female | 8 Years of Experience 

Equity and belonging should be added to the conversation.

Leaders need to take a hard look within their organization(s) and truly hold themselves and their peers accountable in the part they play regarding racial disparity within the industry. Training surrounding implicit and unconscious bias has happened in some corporate structures, but leaders must review and measure how successful the training has been implemented as well as positive and/or negative impacts made.

Diversity training MUST continue, and accountability measures MUST be put into place to effect and affect change. Diversity & Inclusion are topics on the tip of the tongues of many leaders. Yet, still many require additional education on these topics. In addition, equity and belonging should be added to the conversation especially as it relates to the industry of real estate. 

Diversity allows for multiple diverse individuals to be present; Inclusion allows for those individuals’ thoughts and ideas to be acknowledged and heard. Belonging provides a platform for people to feel they are a part of a community, and not that the community is against them. Yet, in the world of real estate, Equity is a key point, because it provides the concept of an equitable share of ownership and power added to one’s voice. 

Ownership of real estate and property is a way to build generational wealth. It is a way to reduce a variety of disparities. If people of color are not supported to be at the table, heard at the table, and not allowed to eat at the table, how do you even approach the long-term issues of racial disparities? Leaders within the commercial real estate industry MUST be accountable for the creation, execution and expansion of Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging programs.