Real estate trade associations are the unsung heroes. But given the chance to sing, we expect AIR Commercial Real Estate Association might pick Yellow Balloon or Up, Up and Away.

The association is one of the nation’s largest real estate trade orgs, with 1,600 members in SoCal. Helming it since 1998: executive director Tim Hayes. We met with Tim at the Doubletree LAX in El Segundo, where he was giving a primer on AIR's spiffy new property data system. Created with partner Xceligent, it delivers on AIR’s goal to include office and retail properties in its database, increasing membership among brokers in those areas. Since August, the system has catalogued over 110,000 industrial, office, and retail structures in the LA Basin, whether they're on the market or not, along with the listings associated with each building, verified tenant and comps data sets, and ownership info.

We snapped Tim with AIR COO Joy De La Cruz. AIR's industry-standard forms (sale and lease contracts, owner/agency agreements, and so forth) are also getting a rebuild from the ground up. Tentatively called WinAIR Forms 3, it incorporates a number of items brokers have requested, such as change-tracking. The forms will "speak to each other" in a package-based system, so that any changes made to one form automatically makes the change in all related docs. This year, the association also plans to step up its owner lunches, giving young brokers a chance to chow down with principals. (More catered events involving young brokers means a rough year for Lunchables.)

AIR's 2014 annual market review and forecast was held at the Jonathan Club. One of Tim's first projects was the 1999 launch of e-MULTIPLE, an Internet-based Multiple Listing Service. During his tenure, AIR has grown from an 800-member association with 190 member firm offices, to more than 1,600 members and 410 offices. When he started, AIR didn’t have much of a presence in Orange County or the Inland Empire. He credits JLL’s Louis Tomaselli and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s Ron Washle for helping get them there.

Tim was born in Seattle but grew up in the LA area. Before AIR, he worked for three years out of college (Loyola Marymount) as an industrial broker with Daum. Then he became the corporate real estate director for 1-Day Paint & Body, managing nearly 50 stores as well as some single- and multi-tenant investment properties totaling 1M SF. Speaking of multiples, Tim and wife Consuelo have a set of twins--the youngest of their 11 children ranging in age from 8 to 25. Activities outside of work include golf, but Thursdays are Tim and Consuelo’s date nights.