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Keiko Pace

June 16, 2014 In Luncheon Summary

Sustainability Equals Real Money: The Whole Impact of Sustainability on Charlotte

Who you missed: Amy Aussieker is the Executive Director for Envision Charlotte, where she is responsible for developing strategic plans for community outreach, fundraising, vendor and partner relationships. Amy’s background is a blend of corporate, non-profit and entrepreneur expertise. She spent several years as Group Vice President for Sales and Marketing for the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, where she was responsible for leadership, fundraising and community relations. She also served as a business development and community affairs executive with Balfour Beatty Construction, and she founded, operated and recently sold a successful retail business.

Amy has previously served as a board member for the Arts and Science Council, co-chair for the School Bonds, chair for the Hot Jobs/Cool Communities initiative for the City committee, co-chair of Charlotte’s Citizen Transit Advisory Group and a board member for Slow Food Charlotte. She has been recognized by the Charlotte Business Journal as a 40 Under 40 award winner and a Top 25 Women in Business Award recipient.

What you missed: Amy and her team strive to help develop Charlotte, NC into a global model of environmental sustainability. Launched in 2010, Envision Charlotte believes that environmental sustainability, when combined with a pro-business approach, benefits the regional economy. Uptown Charlotte, NC currently has 61 participating buildings with 21 million square feet of office or commercial space, hosting 67,000 workers. Through Envision Charlotte, regional corporate and government leaders are working together to measure factors of sustainability in real time through individual sensors on each participating building.  The goal is to make Charlotte one of the smartest cities in the world, resulting in a superior place to do business. Those factors of environmental sustainability are broken down into 4 pillars; Air, Water, Waste, and Energy.

Air: Charlotte ranks 19th worst in the country for air pollution. The energy that we use while commuting to work, working in our offices, and in our homes leads to the production of air pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions and smog. Over the next 5 years, Envision Charlotte aims to deploy innovative programs to reduce energy use and promote cleaner air, including ride and drive programs, promoting the use of electric vehicles, and other forms of alternative transportation.

Water: Demand for water is expected to exceed supply within the next 30 years. Uptown Charlotte uses 238,000,000 gallons of water every year. Envision Charlotte has developed a program to track and report water usage in uptown buildings called Smart Water Now. Through this program they are working with building owners, managers, engineers, and tenants to take simple steps to reduce water usage and improve efficiency.

Waste: With over 100,000 pounds of waste generated each day in uptown Charlotte, the landfills that’s serve the city are on track to be full within the next 5 years. Envision Charlotte aims to divert at least 20% of that waste away from the landfill by increasing recycling programs and sensoring waste from buildings to study how they can reduce their production of waste.

Energy: 30% of Uptown Charlotte's energy is wasted in office buildings. Envision Charlotte has a goal of reducing 20% of Charlotte’s energy use in the next 5 years through Smart Energy Now. Through this program, office workers and business leaders are becoming more educated on how small simple changes in their daily habits and routines can have a huge impact on overall energy use. Since Envision Charlotte has started measuring energy use there has been a reduction of 8.2%, with 6.2% coming from changes in behavior alone.

Why: The message is simple. By lowering the amount of energy use, waste production, and water consumption, you will lower the cost of doing business in Charlotte, and therefore bring in more business and opportunity!

Envision Charlotte believes that everyone can make a difference in helping Charlotte become more environmentally sustainable. Because of their hard work, Charlotte, NC, is well on its way to becoming the most sustainable urban core in the country.

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May 13, 2014 In Luncheon Summary

Getting Your Business to Dance with Jim Donald, CEO, Extended Stay America

Who you missed: Jim Donald is the current CEO of Extended Stay Hotels and former CEO of Starbucks and Haggen Food & Pharmacy. He was named one of the “Top 25 CEO’s in the World” by the Best Practice Institute in 2006 and one of the “25 Most Influential Business Travel Executives of 2013” by Business Travel News. He has a reputation for turning around financially ailing companies toward growth. Donald speaks to many groups to share his experience as a leader focused on innovation, quality, service, strong relationships within the community, and risk-taking with the freedom to fail.

What you missed: Getting Your Business to Dance: Donald explains six “dance lessons” that are necessary to implement in order to ramp up your business when no one is buying.

Why:
1. Have a fish story – In other words, what are you going to tell people about your business? Have a story to tell so people remember you years later.

2. Never be bigger than the front line – It is important to present yourself as an equal and not above or better than the average person. Employees lead the way and it is necessary to relate to them on their level.

3. Go where you have never been before – Send a personal message to associates/guests/clients that makes them feel comfortable.

4. Communicate to everyone in the organization – Speak a language that other people can understand. Realize that everyone is powerful within the company.

5. Encourage risk taking with the freedom to fail – Donald shared how he gives a “Get Out of Jail Free” card to encourage his employees to take risks no matter the end result.

6. Celebrate the success of others – It’s not about you anymore! Create an environment that shares success stories.

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May 8, 2014 In Press Releases

Crew Charlotte Hosted 8th Annual Casino Night

Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Charlotte is proud to announce its 8th Annual Casino Night benefit raised over $20,000 for the CREW Network Foundation Scholarship Endowment, as well as the Belk College of Business at UNC Charlotte and Queens University scholarship programs.
Sponsored by CohnReznick, Casino Night brought together over 230 top commercial real estate professionals at Founders Hall on April 24th for an evening of networking, hors d’oeuvres, casino games and a silent auction.

To read the full press release, please click here.

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May 8, 2014 In Press Releases

Crew Charlotte Board Members Honored By NCACPA

Bobbi Jo Lazarus and Marie McLucas, the 2014 president and
treasurer, of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Charlotte, received 2014 awards from the
North Carolina’s Association for CPAs (NCACPA) in April. Each year the association recognizes
several contributors for their outstanding work, which sets the bar for all of their affiliates.
 
 
To read the full press release, please click here.
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April 28, 2014 In Announcements & News

Reframing Charlotte: A Challenge

The Mecklenburg Times wants residents of the Charlotte area to weigh in on 10 home designs that local architects created to represent our region.
 
The designs are the result of a challenge we threw out to architects in February: Design a “Charlotte-style” house.
 
“Reframing Charlotte: A Challenge” was inspired by comments made by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Director Debra Campbell, when she was presented with the “Real Estate Person of the Year” award by Commercial Real Estate Women Charlotte at the group’s December luncheon.

For the full press release, please click here.

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April 17, 2014 In Announcements & News

Award Winning Crew Teamwork

CREW Charlotte member Ann Erickson with BB+M Architecture was recently awarded the IIDA Carolinas Chapter DesignWorks 2014 Hospitality Award for the Vue Sky Lounge in uptown Charlotte.  The project was designed by Ann and constructed by fellow CREW Charlotte member and sponsor Jennifer Yoxtheimer with J.D. Goodrum, General Contractors.  The high-end design, quality of the workmanship and attention to detail by all parties helped make the space the award winning venue that it is.  Collaborating on this project was a great experience and a true testament to the value of CREW relationships! 

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April 14, 2014 In Luncheon Summary

Busyness Does Not Equal Productivity with Stacey Randall of Randall Research

Who you missed:  Stacey Randall is the founder and chief consultant of Randall Research, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Stacey’s mission is to use research to uncover client’s needs around productivity and engagement.  Her goal is to create productive people and engaged organizations so going to work on Monday isn’t so bad.  Stacey holds a Masters in Organizational and Strategic Communication.  She is a Certified Productivity and Time Efficiency Coach and Consultant, a trainer for the UNC-Charlotte Continuing Education Division, a published writer, and a national presenter on employee engagement, generational diversity, work/life integration, and management training.  Stacey is married with two children.
 
What you missed:  It’s Time to Take Control: Stacey offered important insights into how we can take control of our days to optimize our efficiency.  Being busy isn’t always the same thing as being productive.  She described the four styles of productivity and encouraged us to each identify our own type in order to understand how to get the most out of our day.
 
The first two styles are considered “left brained” approaches.  There is the Prioritizer who is logical and focused on outcomes, while the Planner is very organized, sequential and loves to create “to do” lists.  The two “right brained” styles include the Arranger, who is supportive, expressive and likes to work as a team in a collaborative style, and the Visualizer who is able to see the big picture and has the intuition to determine how to get things done.
One of the key problem areas that Stacey identified for the average worker today is e-mail.  She pointed out that while it is not in anyone’s job description, it has become our main mode of communication and many of us spend a great deal of time in our e-mail inbox.  A cluttered inbox represents a multitude of postponed decisions.  Stacey shared her key to becoming agile in email by using the Contain Circle, which provides a path to clarity by first READING an e-mail, then DECIDING what needs to be done with it before ACTING on that decision so that the e-mail is then CONTAINED.  It doesn’t need to be a continued distraction. She provided a flow chart for the ACT step in the circle.
Do you need to ACT on the e-mail: Yes or No
If no, either file or delete the e-mail.
If yes, then do one of the following: 
(1) Take the action necessary – Do it!
(2) Delegate the action to someone else
(3) Convert it to a task – put it on your “to do” list so you don’t forget
Why:  There is no “one size fits all” for being your most productive self.  It is important to identify your style for productivity so that you can work your best.  Don’t be fooled by the common brain myths: Multi-tasking, Memorizing and Unlimited Resource.  The truth is that multi-tasking is not efficient, productive or accurate.  Focus on one thing at a time.  Your brain isn’t meant to store unlimited information, so write things down.  And finally, your brain is not an unlimited resource, so use it for what it is intended – ideas!
Stacey shared that the average person spends 41% of the day in their e-mail inbox and receives 110 e-mails per day. Because we don’t manage our e-mails in a productive way, we spend 6 weeks per year looking for information lost within our e-mails.  This contributes to the average of 37 hours of unfinished work on our desks at any given time.  

Stacey left us with some Best Practices for e-mail use in order to increase our productivity:

  • Turn off the e-mail alert
  • Pick 3 to 5 newsletters that you never or rarely read and unsubscribe from them
  • Don’t check your e-mail until you have finished the high priority project for the day
  • Determine a reasonable number of emails that should be in your inbox at the end of the day.  The number of emails you have currently will dictate where you set your initial goal, but you can keep working towards a lower number.  Stacey has less than five!!
Finally, Stacey shared 5 Productivity Tips:
  • Get up earlier.
  • Start your day off with water.  You need to hydrate.
  • Manage your energy and adjust your calendar.  Know how your body works so that you don’t plan mentally challenging tasks for a time of day when you are mentally exhausted.
  • Use only ONE “to do” list.
  • Prepare, prioritize, prepare, prioritize
You can find out about workshops Stacey will be conducting in the Charlotte area on her website. 
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March 11, 2014 In Luncheon Summary

Dena Diorio, the First Woman Mecklenburg County Manager talks about the State of the County and Plans for the Future

Who you missed:  Dena Diorio is the Mecklenburg County manager, responsible for executing the policy decisions of the Board of County Commissioners and overseeing the administration of County departments. She advises the Board on operational and financial matters, services and other issues, and submits an annual operating and capital budget for consideration. Raised in Westchester County, New York, Dena started her career in New York City, eventually working for the then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Later she took jobs in Stamford and Danbury, Connecticut until moving to Mecklenburg County in 2007. She has a B.S. in Social Services from the State University of New York at Plattsburg and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Columbia University. Dena is married and lives in Huntersville. 
 
What you missed:  CREW Charlotte’s March luncheon featured the first woman Manager for Mecklenburg County, Dena Diorio. Dena’s presentation focused on the state of the County, where we are headed in the future, and her role as a woman leader. 
 
In the combined city-county government structure, Mecklenburg County provides Health and Social Services, Education, Library, Economic Development, and Parks and Recreation services to residents. Following the 2007-2009 Recession, the County has experienced a return to fiscal health, including increasing the employment base by approximately 50,000 new jobs and a corresponding drop in the unemployment rate. Future efforts by the County include continuing efforts in the county-wide property revaluation, working to improve the efficiency of the building permit process, which balances customer service with safety, and creating strategies to address the current lack of income mobility facing the region.
 
Why:  Commercial real estate makes up approximately 40% of the Mecklenburg County tax base. County operations affect commercial real estate in three key ways: (1) Mecklenburg County provides incentive grants to attract new businesses, such as Met Life, Electrolux, and Chiquita, (2) Inefficiencies in the building permitting process are being addressed to promote development in the County, and (3) Through education, competitive tax rates, and workforce development, Mecklenburg County is working to remain highly competitive to potential future relocations.
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March 5, 2014 In Announcements & News

Jones Lang Lasalle Is Now Calling Itself JLL.

Jones Lang LaSalle is now calling itself JLL.

Our name and logo reflect our evolution as a global company. We now serve and work alongside clients in an ever-wider range of markets and cultures.

We made the move to JLL because the name is easy to say, easy to understand, more visible and more memorable. It suits our vision for the future of our business and how we can better serve your needs. And the fact that so many people already refer to us as JLL makes it a natural choice.

Our name may be different, but what remains constant are our core business values-client service, teamwork and the highest ethical standards-and how we put them to work for you.

Wherever we work, you can count on JLL to deliver real value in all we do.
 

For more information, please click here.

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February 12, 2014 In Announcements & News

Kimberly Kendall Achieves Sior Designation From Society Of Industrial And Office Realtors®

(January 14) – Kimberly Kendall, senior associate at Bissell, has achieved the SIOR office designation awarded by the Society of Industrial and Office REALTORS®. SIOR is a Washington, DC-based international professional organization of more than 3,000 commercial real estate professionals, 2,800 of whom have earned the coveted SIOR designation.
 
 
To achieve the SIOR designation, Kendall completed at least five years of creditable experience in the highly specialized field of office real estate; met stringent education requirements; and demonstrated professional ability, competency, ethical conduct, and personal integrity.
 
To read the full press release, please click here.
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