On the heels of the spectacular 138th Inaugural Gala on Friday, September 24, our leadership and volunteer members attended the C5 Summit in New York. As many of you may know, I practice both residential and commercial real estate and, because of my dedication to the industry, I obtained the coveted Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) Designation to help elevate the importance of REALTORS® within commercial real estate.
As a member of the C5 advisors, I was inspired to hear NAR President Charlie Oppler’s vision for C5 and proud to see the event come to life! The opportunity to network with this many REALTORS® in one place is something we haven’t had the chance to experience in a while, and it was great to meet so many new faces.
I was also particularly impressed and proud that so many of our friends from Chicago were there to represent our association, our city and Illinois. In fact, Illinois REALTORS® sponsored the event and had a fantastic booth at the expo! Listen to their take on the event in their podcast here.
It was also rewarding to be able to connect with our leaders on a different level as we took advantage of the conference schedule to explore New York together, from taking in Broadway shows to fun photo ops in Times Square.
We enjoyed a variety of presentations, including a keynote by former MLB player Alex Rodriguez, who is also a real estate investor, a DEI in CRE panel moderated by my new friend T. Dallas Smith, a U.S. Economic Panel that included our favorite dynamic economist Lawrence Yun, and so much more! CAR’s own Deena Zimmerman, who received the 2021 Commercial Achievement Award during the Inaugural Gala, emceed the event in her stellar, accessible style!
NAR released brand-new commercial insights during the event that were of interest: the September 2021 Commercial Insights, which included the top 10 commercial office markets for 2021, and the fall Commercial Connections, which focused on the hottest markets for international institutional investors. Unfortunately, Chicago fell short of making the top 10 on either list. However, there is good news, as renters are coming back to many big cities, including Chicago.
Attending events like these allow us to stay on top of trends and product offerings that we can bring back to you, our members, and implement into our own educational opportunities, with a Chicago twist, of course. For instance, the future of sustainability brought great ideas we can incorporate into our Renewable Real Estate event. The future of offices spaces was discussed as well, which gave great insight into the future direction of the commercial market. We can’t wait to share some of these insights with you to continue to enhance your member experience!
We have a strong (4,000+ member strong!) commercial audience, and it’s only going to grow from here. We’re already implementing exciting programs, like our Legal Library (launching later this month), which will streamline the contract process for your commercial transactions. We’re excited to continue to help you grow in all facets of the real estate industry.
I’d like to congratulation NAR President Charlie Oppler, the staff at NAR and all those who made the first C5 ever so memorable! I’m still floating on the high of this past week and would be napping now, but there is still so much to be done!
Antje Gehrken
2021-2022 President
A.R.E. Partners