Matt Schlindwein, a managing partner with Greek Real Estate Partners and CREDA New Jersey chapter president, welcomed members and staff on July 1 to mark the organization’s rebrand from NAIOP New Jersey, part of a larger move by what’s now known as the Commercial Real Estate Development Association. — All photos courtesy of Caryl Communications
By Joshua Burd
For a commercial real estate crowd, the analogy was all too fitting.
It certainly was to Matt Schlindwein, president of what’s now called CREDA New Jersey, as he spoke during an event last week to mark the rebrand of the trade association long known as NAIOP New Jersey.
“Several of us renovate and redevelop projects all the time,” said Schlindwein, a managing partner with Greek Real Estate Partners. “We preserve the foundation, we strengthen the structure, enhance the aesthetics and prepare buildings for the next generation.
“Today, that’s what the organization is doing. Our foundation has remained unchanged. And we are modernizing and positioning the organization and the brand to reflect what we do, reflect who we are and take us into the next generation.”
The same may be true for the other 54 or so chapters of what’s formally known as the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, which unveiled a new name and logo on July 1. But the change is especially significant for the New Jersey organization, which launched in 1970 and is one of the association’s oldest chapters, giving it a rich history, a critical role in the state’s business community and a broad reach that its leaders hope will become even more expansive.
Dan Kennedy, CREDA NJ’s CEO, said the group embraces its new name “with a tremendous amount of respect for the legacy we’ve inherited from those that have come before us,” from members and staff to those that have invested in the industry on a broader scale. But the rebrand will help the chapter convey its reach to multifamily, data centers and other sectors — a far cry from what was originally called the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks.
Importantly, the name also reflects the breadth of the industry’s talent.
“The D in our acronym is ‘development,’ not ‘developers,’” Kennedy said during the July 1 event at The Park in Berkeley Heights. “So while the lens that we look through is mostly, first and foremost, the lens of owners and developers, everybody on the deal team is welcome. Every asset class of commercial real estate is welcome in our organization.
“And with our name that we’re leaving behind, folks didn’t always feel that way. So we hope that this is a welcoming move, a move that sets the stage for growth in the future and a move that you all see yourselves in.”
That may have broader implications for CREDA and its more than 21,000 members across North America, according to Clark Machemer, a senior managing director with Crow Holdings Development and former NAIOP New Jersey chapter president.
“The national organization looks to New Jersey for leadership,” said Machemer, chair-elect of CREDA’s national board of directors. “And that’s leadership that started with (former NAIOP New Jersey CEO) Mike McGuinness and has carried to Dan Kennedy.
“And everyone in this room has really set the bar high for the entire organization. That’s going to remain the same.”
Kennedy “is going to lead us into the CREDA world” alongside Schlindwein and the future leaders of the organization, he said, adding: “I look out here and really see a diverse group and a lot of new young people getting involved in real estate — and that’s really exciting, too.”
The July 1 program also included James Visceglia, a property maintenance coordinator at Federal Business Centers Inc. and the great grandson of Frank Visceglia Sr., one of NAIOP New Jersey’s founding fathers. He gave way to Advance Realty Investors’ Peter Cocoziello, also a former chapter president, whose own firm has expanded from traditional commercial projects to become a prominent multifamily developer.
That makes the group’s evolution especially meaningful, he said.
“To see it broaden into this organization is important,” said Cocoziello, Advance’s founder and CEO. “But what’s more important is that the relationships and knowledge within this organization are absolutely phenomenal.”
NAIOP becomes the Commercial Real Estate Development Association
