Page 22 - Issue 45 Sept2020

20 SEPTEMBER 2020
Jeremy Neuer pointed back
to a Wednesday evening last fall, when CBRE welcomed 80
guests to a New York City restaurant for a presentation by the firm’s top researcher in North America.
These days, the idea is almost a foreign concept.
“When’s the next time we can get 80 people inside a restaurant?
By Joshua Burd
Businesses across real estate and
Jeremy Neuer
New Jersey.
STAYING CONNECTED
How CBRE webinar series became a pandemic staple — and a valuable tool going forward
It’s a reminder of an ongoing challenge in the wake of New Jersey’s
We don’t
know that,”
said Neuer,
an executive vice president and co-lead of CBRE’s capital markets group in
Jeff Dunne
coronavirus outbreak: Deals are getting done, investors are touring
and many commercial real estate professionals are increasingly bullish — yet staying informed and connected remains a challenge.
CBRE’s tristate capital markets team has taken on that challenge since the earliest days of the crisis, with a series of webinars and virtual programs that featured industry heavyweights and
a wide range of topics. After drawing thousands of viewers over more than four months, the firm now plans to continue the series through the fall as the industry continues its recovery.
“There was a hiatus from business as usual, and we just thought there was an opportunity to fill a void,” said Jeff Dunne, a CBRE vice chairman, who leads the tristate capital markets team.
other sectors have leaned heavily on videoconferencing and virtual panel discussions throughout the pandemic. Yet Dunne and Neuer say their team sought to provide practical, nuanced content on a recurring basis, while drawing on CBRE’s vast resources and network as the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm.
The programs, which ran twice a week from April through July, have focused on how COVID-19 has impacted real estate but also broader topics such
as technology and transportation. Speakers have included some of commercial real estate’s top players, from Gus Milano of Hartz Mountain Industries to Scott Rechler of RXR Realty, along with CBRE’s own in- house experts.
“The main impetus was to continue
connectivity, but more importantly ... to provide relevant information that is going to help clients during a period of time when
there was a lot
of newness and
uncertainty,”
Dunne said.
“So we were
trying to give
them leading
indicators of
what we thought
was going to happen next that would help them in their business planning.”
As Neuer recalled, it became clear by late March “that people were home and they had time” after COVID-19 forced the closure of offices across the region. That prompted CBRE to host its first Virtual Lunch & Learn on March 26, providing a macro update that featured Matt Van Buren, its
CBRE’s tristate capital markets team has stayed connected with clients and colleagues throughout the pandemic, thanks to a series of webinars and virtual programs that have drawn thousands of viewers since the earliest days of the crisis in the U.S.