Nicole Price is the Associate Director of Cushman & Wakefield, a leading global real estate services firm. With over a decade of experience in the real estate industry, Nicole has made a positive impact on both her clients and her community, and she is living out her childhood dreams of being a rockstar — in her own way.
In addition to her role at Cushman & Wakefield, Nicole is a Board Member at Lake Merritt-Uptown District Association and BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) Oakland/East Bay. She is also a Board Member and Director at Large for the nonprofit, urban university. She holds a degree in business administration and marketing from DePaul University and an MBA from California State University-Long Beach.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Nicole Price discusses how her childhood ambition to become a performance artist led to her success in the facilities management industry
- What is Nicole envisioning for the 2021 real estate market and construction industry?
- How Oakland’s Business Improvement Association is providing outreach to homeless communities
- Nicole’s go-to resources for staying on top of industry trends
- How can you begin a career in the real estate and facilities management industry?
- The value of networking and industry associations
- Where you can learn more about Nicole and the real estate industry
In this episode…
Since the pandemic, many industries have been facing challenges, the real estate industry included. However, as we move further into 2021, there are new opportunities arising for those in facilities management areas.
As someone who has over a decade of experience in real estate, Nicole Price has an awareness of industry trends and what it means for workers in these areas. According to Nicole, there is an increasing demand for real estate services, and there are plenty of technological innovations moving the industry forward. So, how will the real estate and facilities management fields grow following COVID-19? And how can you get your career started?
In this episode of the Watching Paint Dry podcast, Greg Owens sits down with Nicole Price, Associate Director of Cushman & Wakefield, to talk about impacts on the real estate and facilities management industries. Nicole discusses how the industries will transform in a post-COVID world, the resources she turns to for continued education, and how you can utilize networks, associations, and programs to begin your career in the industry. Stay tuned.
Resources Mentioned in this episode
- Greg Owens on LinkedIn
- McCarthy Painting
- McCarthy Painting Contact No.: 415-383-2640
- McCarthy Painting Email Address: info@mccarthypainting.com
- Nicole Price on LinkedIn
- Eyes on the Highrise podcast
- Cushman & Wakefield
- BOMA International (Building Owners and Managers Association International)
- IFMA (International Facility Management Association)
- CREATE (Commercial Real Estate Alliance for Tomorrow’s Employees
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by McCarthy Painting, where we serve commercial and residential clients all around the San Francisco Bay area.
We’ve been in business since 1969 and served companies such as Google, Autodesk, Abercrombie & Fitch, FICO, First Bank, SPIN, and many more.
If you have commercial facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area and need dependable painters, visit us on the web at www.mccarthypainting.com or email info@mccarthypainting.com, and you can check out our line of services and schedule a free estimate by clicking here.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:03
Welcome to the Watching Paint Dry podcast where we feature today’s top facility managers, property managers and property owners talking about the challenges and opportunities of managing hundreds of 1000s of square feet of real estate and how to beautify and improve their properties. Now, let’s get started with the show.
Greg Owens 0:31
Hello, everyone, it is May 7 and this is another episode of Watching Paint Dry podcast. Greg Owens here with McCarthy Painting. And McCarthy Painting is a sponsor for this podcast. It’s my company. I’ve been involved in the painting industry since I was 16 years old. That was over 30 years ago. It’s a tremendous amounts of changes in our industry. And throughout the bay area where we do painting projects. We work for all kinds of companies, including h&m, spin xoops Chase Bank, we just did some work for Chase Bank again, and it’s turned out beautiful. We also have done a tremendous amount of work for Abercrombie and Fitch and a lot of other businesses. If you’d like to know more about McCarthy Painting. We do both residential and commercial projects throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. You can reach us at info@McCarthypainting.com or go to our website McCarthypainting.com. I am excited to have Nicole Price here for associate director at Cushman & Wakefield for the San Francisco Bay Area, and she is on on vacation and has joined us even though you’re out and having fun. Thank you for having taking some time to be on this podcast.
Nicole Price 1:55
Yeah, this is fun, too. So it works.
Greg Owens 1:58
Right? Yeah. And how are things for you? You’re it’s it’s spring, it looks like you’re enjoying enjoying it here. Now.
Nicole Price 2:05
Yeah, I can’t really complain, it’s really beautiful weather where we’re at sunny is a pool, and really can’t really complain. The good way to spend a Friday,
Greg Owens 2:15
that’s awesome. And I love your LinkedIn, sort of about you, where you sort of, like spell out sort of your ambitions and, and, and that kind of thing. And then but you also tie it really well into what you’re doing now at Cushman & Wakefield, and about being driven and getting things done and taking sort of your your ambition to be a singer and ambition to be a performance artist. And then bringing that Yeah, to facilities management. Can you speak more about where those ideas come from? And how that integrate?
Nicole Price 2:49
Sure, sure. Yeah. Thank you about the LinkedIn, I think it’s funny in this industry, in general, you’ll hear a lot of people just like we kind of fell into it, right? Like there wasn’t a clear path to get here. So yeah, when I was a kid, if you were like, really were to ask me, what I wanted to do was like, I want to be a rock star. And like, obviously, I can’t sing at all. I can play drums just barely, and but like, what I kind of stuck with me is like being driven and motivated. And I really, really, really enjoy working hard. And real estate is something that I fell into. I started leasing apartments when I was in college for this company in Chicago, for part-time work. And that just translated into a job after graduation doing residential management, and I liked aspects of it, but I really just didn’t like residential. I think when it comes to people in their homes, rightfully so they’re very sensitive and kind of a thankless job. And so that was my motivation to go back to school and get my MBA, which allowed me to transition into commercial back in 2013. And then I just have been hitting the ground running ever since it’s just, it clicked really well for me. Cushman and Wakefield as a company has been amazing for me in my growth, and just supporting me and promoting me. Thank you for that, though. Yeah, I just I just kind of took it from there. And so yeah, I know, I’m not going to be a singer anytime soon. But I’d like to think that I can apply some of that drive to what I’m doing and the teams that I’m running and the clients have
Greg Owens 4:31
I bet you’re deadly at karaoke night, though.
Nicole Price 4:35
Yeah, I mean, like as in you want to die when you hear me singing?
Greg Owens 4:40
I don’t believe that people that usually are you really good. say things like that. So it’s interesting because like, you mentioned, like residential versus commercial, and I like to tell my employees all the time because we do both types of projects. Right. The one beautiful piece about commercial work is it’s super crazy rare. Somebody cries around commercial painting, right? On the other hand, like we’re inside people’s houses, and they don’t like the color. I mean, we literally have been around people crying or husband and wife arguing over colors. And it’s no fun as a painting contractor to be standing in the room be like, we’re going to leave and come back. You guys figure this out, right? Which doesn’t doesn’t happen in commercial. They’re like, here you go.
Nicole Price 5:26
That’s it. That’s such a great comparison. Because it’s so true. You’re just you’re dealing on like, just a different level, a different playing field. And so you’re right, it is nice, you know, no one’s cry, at least, like on a good day. No one’s crying or commercial real estate, though.
Greg Owens 5:42
Right. Right. And how has been, how has 2020 been for you, I know, for us is like a tremendous amount of the commercial things that we were doing just came to, absolutely, you know, screaming halt. Right. And but we did go back inside and start painting things for people that were moving out. Right, like they’re right. And so I would think that we’re and now we’re feeling like, wow, things are picking up again, and things are opening up. What do you see on your end? How was 2020? And what are you seeing at the moment now?
Nicole Price 6:13
Yeah, it’s it’s pretty similar to on our end, I think the market that we’re in is really interesting, a lot of my portfolios are in Oakland, and around the Bay Area. And 2020 was wild, of course, I think it was a year managing that I never experienced before. But fortunately, a lot of the assets that we had didn’t experience too much loss in terms of people not paying rent, and that kind of thing. So that was really great. I think what suffered the most is definitely the retail market, which was already struggling pre-pandemic. So the pandemic just completely killed it. But now with the 2021, we’re seeing a huge, huge, huge uptick in leases in Oakland, especially office leases that be specific because so many people are moving out of the city. And I think that now there is kind of like a was it like in a light at the end of the tunnel with all the vaccines and stuff. So the leasing uptick has been crazy. So we it’s been very, very busy, it’s in very high volume with a lot of construction, just trying to get a lot of projects. And before we occupancy happens, try and get these leases done as fast as possible to secure, you know, that makes all the clients happy. And their lenders investors. So yeah, I mean, knock on wood. It’s looking very positive right now, though, just trying to just support that and keep that going is my biggest goal.
Greg Owens 7:43
Yeah, and I hear what you’re saying about the retail industry was already struggling with sort of the online sales and brick and mortar versus the online. And COVID kind of put a lot of those businesses under which is so it’s so sad, but but we’re also seeing that, like I’m seeing we’re doing like a carpet, flooring and carpet store that needs a retail space. Sort of right. Like it’s hard to, it’s hard to go and pick your carpet off of Amazon and have it installed in your house, you kind of kind of want to go and walk on it and stuff. And so we’re seeing changes like that I’m what is your portfolio consists of like, what types of what is what is your preferred portfolio? Let’s go there.
Nicole Price 8:24
That’s a good question. I so most of my career has been in high rise office space. But right now I have a high rise office space and industry, a lot of industrial and some retail. So it’s a mix. It’s a good mix of everything, but my biggest portfolio is definitely the office space.
Greg Owens 8:42
Yeah. And is, are you seeing a lot of the high tech companies moving out of San Francisco? Or is it more like accounting and those kinds of businesses, more professional service
Nicole Price 8:54
It’s a blend, really, we’re seeing a lot of like how you would call it I guess like traditional industries, a lot of law firms are moving out of the city, which is good. But we’re also seeing tech too. I think people are realizing that with the working from home and not wanting to take BART into the city or public transportation Oakland is definitely a great option for a lot of companies. Now, on your end, are you seeing what are you seeing with the like costs on our costs going up for you and your company? Like maybe not cost to the customers, but just I’m just always curious, because like what I’m hearing is next in terms of construction, pricing, certain things are expected to increase a lot and some things are going down. So I’d love to hear from your perspective.
Greg Owens 9:40
Yeah. Firstly, I mean, all of the above, everything’s going right. And no, and this is crazy amounts of demand. There’s shortages of materials, we keep running out of stuff, right? So we have to we’re having to like pre order much more so and be ahead of the game in so many ways. Because they’ll know they’ll run out of pain. We also do tenant improvements and some things like that. And so they’ll run out of plywood or other things, the cost of wood and material metal materials, things like that have skyrocketed. My understanding is the supply chain got totally slowed down. And that takes a while for it to like to get going again. But then there’s an in labour, like a, you know, and probably heard this from contractors all along, right, like getting getting skilled labor up to speed and keeping them working when there’s so much work going on. It’s the challenge for us for sure. Yeah. So I think yeah, I think and then we’re gonna Of course, we’re gonna pass that on to our clients.
Nicole Price 10:41
Okay. Yeah.
Greg Owens 10:45
Right, yeah.
Nicole Price 10:45
You have to cover your expenses somehow.
Greg Owens 10:48
Right. Right. And you know, and I look back on 2020. And I, there’s so many things I forget about right. And was such a challenging year. I mean, being pandemic was one but California, we got hit really, really hard with all the fires and things. This year, we’re looking at a drought again, probably possibly worse than the last few years even. Are you guys seeing anything or doing anything? Or how do you guys look at those those kinds of problems? One being water shortages, the other being like, sort of fires and that kind of stuff? anything you’re seeing in the building industry that has an impact on that?
Nicole Price 11:29
Yeah, I mean, that’s a really great question. I think it’s actually like kind of sad now how like common the fires are every year at this point. So it affects the biggest thing affects is just like daily operations, right? Just keeping your tenants and people in the building and building staff safe and healthy is a huge thing. And so with the fires, it’s interesting, now, people are basically on autopilot with how we’re running the buildings and the airflow into the building. So, you know, early morning, we get like, we’ll look at the reports for the air quality. And the engineers of the building are just on it, though, just We’re shutting off outside air intake. And you have to kind of just you have to be really flexible in California as what you’re realizing because like, you’re right on top of the pandemic, it was we there’s a lot going on in California, and then around the country to you add in things like all the civil disturbances that have been happening, and that’s its own, that’s its own animal that you have to prepare for. and preparing for that is, is also very difficult, because you don’t know what’s gonna happen. And you’re, you’re just preparing for the worst scenario, which is difficult and hard. And everything just adds to cost, though.
Greg Owens 12:44
Yeah, I think that also. Yeah, I think that also added to the cost of plywood, because I know, in San Francisco, they’re just now removing a tremendous amount of the plywood that was put up, because of all the protesting and all that stuff into pre-emptive. You know, there were just not even like main streets, a lot of side streets were covered up to portray, right, because there was just so much activity going on and the pandemic happening at the same time. super tough. You know, I was in Oakland just yesterday, and how is the the homeless challenge there? And you know, and it’s, it’s during this pandemic, it’s like, unbelievable to me how much it’s blossomed throughout all of especially Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, you see these cities, but Oakland, especially there just seems to be like entire, like tent cities now being built. How is that? How do you guys deal with that on that level? With the buildings that you’re you’re involved in? It’s such a sensitive issue, too.
Nicole Price 13:48
Yeah. I mean, there’s a there’s not really a think like a fix or solution at the moment with how we deal with it. What I will say that’s been really helpful for Oakland specifically, is we have a really, really great a Business Improvement Association. So there’s the Uptown one, and there’s a downtown one, and they do tremendous work with, they call them like ambassadors to the ambassadors. And they do tremendous work with like cleaning, and also the outreach for the homeless and like, you know, maybe having some of those encampments move. So that’s been a great assistance. For us as as building managers and running portfolios and stuff. I think just having that support on a city level is critical. Because if we didn’t have that, and it’s kind of up to us, that would be very difficult because, you know, and then it just goes back to safety. I can’t, you don’t want to risk a lot of my building staff having to deal with certain issues. Just it’s not right, and they can’t do that kind of stuff.
Greg Owens 14:52
Yeah, it’s so, so challenging because I know as a painting contractor, we we take care of graffiti for buildings. Right and, and literally like I’m having to tell my clients like, maybe we just wait six months and then see if things get better because we’ll paint it today. And tonight it’ll be complete, like, like we didn’t even do it. I have to like, constantly take pictures. No, we actually did do it today. No, maybe we should just wait a little while until things settle down. And, you know,
Nicole Price 15:26
right.
Greg Owens 15:26
We’ll go from there. And hopefully things get better. It’s on this podcast. I’ve been asking people about their predictions of this year and coming back into offices. I know. I know. I know. It’s basically guesswork, because we don’t really know. But what’s What do you feel? What’s your thoughts and feelings about how things are coming back? And the timeline?
Nicole Price 15:49
Yeah, I’m thinking, just based on my conversations Well, with a lot of different tenants that all the target seems to be Fall of this year. So again, it’s a moving target, as as we keep reevaluating numbers of what’s going on. But
Greg Owens 16:08
remember, they told us just two weeks, right,
Nicole Price 16:11
yeah.
Longest two weeks of my life for sure.
Greg Owens 16:15
Right.
Nicole Price 16:17
Yeah. So that’s, that’s kind of what we’re prepping for is like q3 q4, of this year. And honestly, it would be great if we can meet those targets with re-occupancy, but I think we’re all trying to be flexible here.
Greg Owens 16:31
Yeah, yeah. And you know, and and, you mentioned it earlier about the vaccinations in San Francisco and Oakland have done just such a great job of also making the vaccinations available to everybody, including like the homeless and that kind of thing, having these sort of pop up vaccinations. Super, super helpful. So I think they’re going to get more and more people vaccinated. And that’s what I’m hearing to is coming back in in the fall, at least not at full capacity. And, you know, people that want to are there people that are sort of more critical in the building space coming back or, or flex time, like maybe two days on two days off kind of thing in the office? Yeah,
Nicole Price 17:07
I think it’s definitely going to be a phased approach back. I don’t certainly don’t think it’s going to be a light switch of like, okay, now everyone returns one.
Greg Owens 17:17
Yeah. And what’s your thoughts on? So for a long time, we’ve been having these really big, wide-open spaces and shared desks and things like that. What’s your thoughts? Are any of you seeing any design changes in the office places, post-COVID.