President’s Message
PUBLISHER Tall Timber Group www.talltimbergroup.com EDITOR Jeff Burd 412-366-1857 jburd@talltimbergroup.com PRODUCTION Carson Publishing, Inc. Kevin J. Gordon kgordon@carsonpublishing.com
D EI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) means something different to each of us, depending on our background and experiences. NAIOP Corporate and NAIOP Pittsburgh have taken a very straight forward measuring stick when examining DEI at both our local and national organization… “Are minorities and woman both working within Commercial Real Estate (CRE) and joining NAIOP in proportion to demographics?” Approximately 12 years ago, during NAIOP Pittsburgh strategic planning, this issue came up for discussion. We first focused on exclusion. What did we need to stop doing so that we are not excluding groups of people from our industry and organization? While this may have been an important first step, it did not yield results. In more recent years, we have been focusing on inclusion. How do we encourage minorities and women to work within CRE and those already established within CRE to become active NAIOP members? NAIOP has been making measurable progress engaging minority and women CRE professionals as a result. However, regarding our total CRE workforce demographics, we are lagging other professional service industries such as law, medicine, and education, especially with regard to minority participation. For the past three years we have been actively working with Robert Morris University to create a summer program for high performing minority high school students to expose them to the many career opportunities withing CRE. To date, NAIOP Pittsburgh members have invested over $80,000 and well over 1,500 volunteer hours bringing this program to life. In the past two years approximately 43 high school students and 10 mentor college students have completed the program. Planning has already started for the 2023 CRE Immersion Program. As these students transition to college and work, we will see if this investment yields the anticipated return on investment. And NAIOP Pittsburgh is looking at expanding the investment to include mentoring of the program alumni through college. An additional benefit to the program is that RMU has developed some of the program classes into college business classes which will better prepare their graduates for opportunities within CRE.
CRE is a significant portion of the economy. Shortages of design professionals, contractors, skilled craftsman, property managers, analysts, brokers, and other jobs can be eased simply by including a more diverse work force. More important, expanding minority investment into real estate of all types increases the net worth of communities and improves the economic growth and stability of our nation. This allows additional CRE development that improves the quality of life within a community. So yes, there is possible future financial benefit to NAIOP members. Those involved in redevelopment also benefit by having team members who better relate and communicate to minority communities affected by redevelopment, and can communicate the needs and expectations of those communities to those of us who have not lived there. Most important, there is a moral obligation for those of us who have benefited from years of working within CRE to actively include those groups who have not been so blessed. Richard Rothstein’s 2017 book “The Color of Law” takes a disturbing look at the discrimination that black Americans faced in the residential real estate market (and CRE) from before the Civil War to as recent as the 1970s and beyond. It wasn’t until the 1970s, that women could obtain a real estate loan without a man co-signing. Just about all of us started work after discrimination was legally abolished (almost). So while we may have been good at not excluding, it is now our obligation to actively include. This is my last “President’s Message”. For the five of you who read it to the end, thank you. Serving NAIOP Pittsburgh has been an honor. As president elect, Brandon Snyder is well prepared to take
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MORE INFORMATION: DevelopingPittsburgh TM is published by Tall Timber Group for NAIOP Pittsburgh 412-928-8303 www.naioppittsburgh.com No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission by the Publisher. All rights reserved. This information is carefully gathered and compiled in such a manner as to ensure maximum accuracy. We cannot, and do not, guarantee either the cor - rectness of all information furnished nor the complete absence of errors
the chapter to new heights. I am genuinely excited for the future of NAIOP Pittsburgh.
and omissions. Hence, respon- sibility for same neither can be, nor is, assumed. Keep up with regional con- struction and real estate events at: www.building- pittsburgh.com
Jamie White NAIOP Pittsburgh President
Why does this investment matter?
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