Real Perspectives Podcast

John Pollock is Chief Executive Officer of Meridian and is responsible for the vision, growth and profitability of the company. John directs the company’s strategy and manages operations, including development, sales, marketing, asset management and finance. Prior to his appointment as CEO, John was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the company. With more than 20 years of know...

H. Pike Oliver is the sole proprietor of URBANEXUS through which he works on managing land and creating built environments. He is also an Affiliate Instructor for the Runstad Department of Real Estate in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.  Early in his career, Pike worked for public agencies, including the California Governor's Office of Planning and Research where...

Today, we sit down with Rene Olivo and Chris Henderson. Rene is the president of Skyline Construction in the Bay Area and Chris is the president of Unimark Construction in Seattle. Both are part of the larger, Skyline Enterprises organization and lead their companies in California and Washington.  We talk to them about what it’s like to run a construction and building organization in today’s envir...

Today, we sit down Josh Santos, a Bay Area resident and current Northern California Division President for Landsea Homes, where he leads all aspects of the Northern California portfolio for the company. We talk to Josh about home building and home buying and the challenges this part of the industry is experiencing today. As you’ve probably heard, people want more single-family detached homes, and...

Jeremy Thornton is an executive vice president of Colliers International in San Francisco, and he has 20+ years of experience in the sourcing and structuring of debt and equity capital for commercial real estate transactions nationally and internationally with over $6.5 billion in successfully completed assignments in his career. His expertise encompasses a wide spectrum of transaction types inclu...

Amy Bradac founded Bradac Co. in 2011 as a full-service real estate construction management firm. As the CEO, she is responsible for the daily operations of the company, building new business relationships, and ensuring her team delivers high quality, high-value service to all of her firm's clients. Amy’s 20 years of experience as an architect and contractor give her the unique perspective of havi...

Kim Snyder is responsible for all activities for Prologis’ West region, including development, acquisitions and operations. Key markets include San Francisco, Seattle, the Central Valley, Southern California, the Inland Empire, Las Vegas and Phoenix. He joined AMB Property Corporation in 2005, bringing extensive experience in real estate development and construction, acquisitions and industrial le...

John Cumbelich is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of John Cumbelich & Associates. Headquartered in Walnut Creek, CA, the firm has been responsible for several of the highest-profile retail real estate transactions in Northern California since its inception in 2000. John has more than 30 years of retail real estate experience and has personally been involved in transactions totaling in...

Today, we sit down with David Karol, Principal at Ridge Capital Investors and Dick Scott, Divisional Vice President of PS Business Parks. Dave is a chapter president of NAIOP San Francisco and Dick leads NAIOP Silicon Valley. Today, we speak with them as representatives of their local NAIOP chapters, where we discuss the impact of California Senate Bill 939 and its intended and unintended conseque...

As the CEO of Grosvenor Americas, Steve O'Connell provides the strategic direction for the company's investment, development and financing activities. Steve O'Connell was appointed to the Grosvenor Americas Board in 2018 after joining in 2011. He became Chief Executive of Grosvenor Americas in 2019. Steve led Grosvenor’s Development team in San Francisco and successfully established its multifamil...

Julie Taylor is an executive vice president of Colliers International in its San Francisco office. She works exclusively to serve the needs of retail real estate property owners, investors, and retailers. Julie is highly active in the Downtown San Francisco trade area leasing flagship properties and representing luxury and urban retailers. She has leased almost 800,000 square feet totaling 70 tran...

Pamela Anderson-Brulé is co-founder and president of Anderson Brulé Architects, the San Jose firm she started in 1984. Working exclusively in the public realm, Pamela created a new architectural practice model through her development of Strategic Process Design. The process was developed and fine-tuned by ABA over the firm’s 35+ year history. ABA was nationally recognized specifically for the grou...

Ryan Grams & Eugene Gershman are two leaders of GIS International Group in Seattle, a real estate development and construction company serving the greater Puget Sound area. The company specializes in single-family and multi-unit projects, and it is known for its work on all types of terrain with a particular understanding of difficult building sites such as steep slopes and wetlands. As a thir...

Brad Hinthorne is a principal in the Seattle office of Perkins and Will. He was born in a Bavarian-themed town in Washington, spent his childhood in the Seattle suburbs, and his teenage years on the family’s cattle ranch prior to attending college and graduate school at the University of Washington. His three decades of professional experience is equally diverse, having practiced in Boston, San Fr...

Today, we sit down with John Thatch, senior principal at the Dahlin Group in San Francisco. John oversees the design innovation and design quality control at the firm. As a leader and mentor, he places a special focus on staff education and professional development for the benefit of everyone at his firm. John often gains inspiration for design through travel and walking the great cities of the wo...

Susan Boyd is the CEO of Bellwether Housing in Seattle. She was elected to her role in February of 2017 after 28 years of experience in direct social service, policy analysis, advocacy and law and as a respected voice on regional housing issues. Prior to her current role, Boyd had served as Bellwether’s Director of Real Estate Development, leading housing development strategy and tripling the numb...

Today we sit down with Tim Schoen, the President and CEO of BioMed Realty, the leading provider of real estate solutions for the life science and technology industries. Tim has been BioMed’s CEO since 2016, when he joined the company following its acquisition by Blackstone Group. Tim brought to BioMed years of commercial real estate experience from Healthpeak and Kilroy Realty Corporation. He curr...

Manny Fishman is a shareholder in the San Francisco office of Buchalter, where he focuses his practice on representing real estate developers and owners in the acquisition, sale and financing of commercial properties. In addition, he has an active leasing practice representing owners of several major office buildings in San Francisco, as well as tenants in lease and sublease transactions.  Manny a...

Today, we are speaking with Jake McKinstry and Gabriel Grant. Both are principals with Seattle-based Spectrum Development Solutions. Founded in 2008, Spectrum is a mission-driven for-profit real estate development and advisory company. The company has a diverse, cross-sector focus spanning workforce housing, student housing, healthcare and civic-oriented projects. All of their projects have a stro...

Eric Foster is the Chief Executive Officer of Swinerton, a San Francisco-based construction company that today is in 17 offices across 8 states. The company was founded in 1888, and Eric is the company’s only 11th CEO since its founding 132 years ago. Eric joined Swinerton in 1982 as a Project Engineer for the San Francisco Structural division after graduating from the University of California, Be...

Cynthia Parker is President & CEO of BRIDGE Housing, a leading San Francisco-based nonprofit developer, owner and manager of affordable housing. Ms. Parker brings over 30 years of relevant experience to BRIDGE, including establishing the Housing Office of the City of Seattle and serving as the City’s Director of Housing under two separate mayors. Under Ms. Parker’s leadership at BRIDGE Housing...

Bill Condon & Matt McGregor lead the industrial leasing efforts at Colliers Seattle, where Bill is also the Managing Director of the office. The industrial market is poised to be one of the winners coming out of the economic collapse of early 2020, and Bill & Matt provide an insider's look into the drivers of this sector of commercial real estate.

Elizabeth Hart and Michael Saign are both Vice Chairman with Newmark Knight Frank's offices in San Francisco and San Jose, respectively. We sit down with these two industry leaders to get a close look into the transforming world of Bay Area commercial real estate at the start of 2020. Most importantly, we asked them to contrast the two submarkets and help us understand the drivers of the industry...

Reid Thomas is Executive Vice President and General Manager of San Jose's NES Financial’s Specialty Financial Administration, focusing on technology-enabled EB-5, 1031 and Opportunity Zone fund administration. NES announced earlier this month that it had entered into an acquisition agreement with JTC, a UK-based provider of fund, corporate and private client services to institutional and private c...

In his 40 years in commercial real estate, Ed Del Beccaro, has seen it all. Today Ed is the East Bay Regional Manager for the TRI Commercial offices located in Walnut Creek and Oakland. The East Bay brokerage operation is full-service with office, industrial, retail, multi-family and investment sales. In addition to brokerage, Ed aims to grow East Bay property management to complement TRI's Sacram...