Jeff Pollak Of Streetsense On 5 Things You Need to Create a Highly Successful Career in the Commercial Real Estate Industry Today
The commercial real estate industry is a dynamic and challenging landscape that offers enormous potential for success. However, it requires a unique blend of skills, knowledge, and aptitude to truly excel. How does one establish themselves in such a competitive field? What does it take to consistently rise to the top in commercial real estate? How does one rise above the headwinds that are challenging the commercial real estate industry today? In this interview series, we are talking to commercial real estate professionals, brokers, investors, leaders of Real Estate Firms and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), as well as anyone who’s found significant success in this industry. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Pollak.
As Managing Principal of Streetsense, Jeff views creativity and consumer-driven design as pillars of business success and works tirelessly to drive co-creation and collaboration among clients, partners, and internal teams. A 25-year real estate veteran and one of the nation’s leading retail consultants, Jeff has worked on every type of consumer environment imaginable and brings a driving leadership style that engages and accelerates clients along their brand evolution journeys.
Prior to joining Streetsense, Jeff served as Executive Vice President and Principal at SiteWorks Retail, as well as the Director of Development and Leasing for a Washington, DC-based developer with a retail portfolio in excess of 1.5 million square feet.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would like to learn a bit about your origin story Can you share with us the ‘backstory’ of how you got into the real estate business?
I have always had a love for architecture, so much so I earned my degree in Architecture / Urban Planning. A mentor of mine said to me on graduation day, “great architects make money, the rest draw toilets.” My takeaway: he was telling me I didn’t have the creative chops. So I decided right then that if I wasn’t going to design the buildings, I was going to curate what made them special.
Today I see architecture as a canvas for our talented teams at Streetsense to paint, activate, tell a story, and engage the community. We bring life to an otherwise static place.
Can you tell us about your company and what makes it stand out?
Streetsense is a creative collective of placeshapers, brandbuilders and storytellers. We not only offer place consulting services, but also hospitality consulting, interior architecture, and creative agency services. Unlike traditional architects, whose strategies are rooted in entitlements, zoning and length x width, our strategies are rooted in the people that use the space.
For example, we are working on a project in Kansas City, where the developer is struggling to get traction from tenants on a ground up retail project of 350,000 square feet. The architect designed to the maximum entitlements, and the brokerage team told ownership they could lease it. We were brought in to solve the problem and set the project on a trajectory for success. The first thing we told ownership was that having entitlements doesn’t mean there is demand for those entitlements. We are now redesigning this project that the community needs and wants. Our approach will drive acceptance, emotional connections with consumers, and ultimately rents and value.
As with any career path, the commercial real estate industry comes with its own set of challenges. Could you elaborate on some of the significant challenges you faced in your career and how you managed to overcome them?
Early in my brokerage career, I struggled with the reputation that the industry carried. “Make a deal and move on to the next.” I found myself saying ‘no’ to my clients far more then yes, and in doing so, it developed trust, and a large referral business due to that.
Having lived in the transaction world, and now advising clients on their most challenged and cherished assets, we are often asked to sit between the property owner and the broker.
Do you have a favorite “life lesson quote”? Can you share a story or example of how that was relevant to you in your life?
I don’t look to any inspiring quote to motivate me. Instead, I embrace a simple philosophy that governs my life: “Strive to be better today than you were yesterday.” This principle permeates every aspect of my existence, guiding me as a husband, father, partner and employer …
Can you tell our readers about the most exciting new projects you are working on now?
We have been engaged to look at subway transit system in a major U.S. city that has mostly recovered from COVID-19 from a ridership perspective, but the retail offerings in the stations have not. We are evaluating the new ridership profile, as a once-clear and obvious demographic user is no more. Understanding the needs of the end user and curating a new retail strategy will help the city, and better serve the subway rider. This is the perfect project for Streetsense. You can’t just look at the vacancies, think “high foot traffic,” and build a strategy. The customer coming from a wealthy suburb has different needs and expectations than the across-town user. You can have all the data you want, but sometimes sitting on a bench and watching how people move through space is just as important.
Ok, let’s now move to the main part of our interview about commercial real estate. What are the 3 things that most excite you about the industry now? Why?
Disruption in my mind means opportunity. The built environment is going through a massive transformation. We went into COVID-19 thinking it was the end of retail, and came out of thinking it may be the end of office. That’s the opportunity I find exciting: The built environment needs to be very fluid, and spaces need to be less “purpose built” going forward.
A few weeks ago, I was preparing for a pitch meeting and decided to go work at the hotel pool where I was staying. I’m a hotel snob, so it was a nice hotel with a great roof top pool. Not one person at the pool was there to swim or sunbathe. Everyone was working, either alone or in a group setting. I casually walked around and took an informal poll. The answer was the same across the board: Why work in an office, when we can come here, sit pool side or in a cabana, and have drinks and food brought to me? Besides me, only two others were staying at the hotel; everyone else had adopted the poolside as their office away from the office.
I am hearing the phrase “Stay alive until 2025” a lot. What is your plan to survive in the current market?
The U.S. is over-retailed and over-officed. I like to say we are under-demolished. The supply demand dynamic is way out of whack.
Virtually every office lease that turns over will reduce their space. I read a report recently that estimated that 15% of the U.S. office market is class A and will be fine, 25% is obsolete and needs to be torn down, and 60% can only compete on price.
How has technology changed the commercial real estate industry, and how do you foresee it shaping the future of the sector?”
AI rendering tools will allow us to express our ideas very quickly about a place and get fast feedback. However, knowing how to creatively direct the AI remains the most critical input.
Mobile data allows us to see how people move through space, and points to the problem we can try and solve. Whereas mobile data looks in the rearview mirror, AI can predict paths of travel on a proposed design solution — now that will be powerful.
When evaluating deals or opportunities in real estate, what are the most important factors you look for and why? Can you provide some examples?
We’re not evaluating deals as you would typically define them, we’re advising clients on their deals and assets. When talking with a potential client about their properties, I need to believe that they don’t already have a preconceived expectation of the outcome. I can tell immediately if our process will be futile. We want to work with owners who see the value we deliver, and engage accordingly. It’s not in my DNA to be a yes man.
Can you share a story with us about the hardest deal you made, that ended successfully for you?
Every deal and every client is ‘hard,’ working with people you love and respect makes every outcome successful.
For a young person who would like to eventually make a career in commercial real estate, which skills and subjects do they need to learn?
I’m approaching this question from a consultancy perspective; we bring solutions to our clients, but are not in the traditional transaction, development, or asset ownership business. In our advisory capacity, you need to know how a deal is put together, what will drive ROI, and how to unwind a deal — especially today. Anyone entering this business needs to know the basic economic underpinnings of a real estate deal, and while we bring design and creative solutions, our clients are still in the business of making money — and we need to defend our recommendations accordingly.
Do you have three things you would advise a new real estate professional to avoid?
Don’t compartmentalize your skills. When I started in the biz, I worked in property management. From brokerage to design, it’s important to expose yourself to as much as possible.
Don’t communicate solely through email; pick up the phone.
Don’t become a one-market expert — visit as many markets as you can and pay attention. The more you see and can reference, the better you will be for your clients.
What advice would you give to another real estate professional about improving the work culture, building team morale, and helping each employee thrive?
I think it’s important to have many unique voices at the table when developing or curating a project. Developers and owners used to dictate the story of their project, but today the consumer decides how your project will be perceived. So, the more voices you have early in a project, the better chance of the project’s success, and the teams working on it will enjoy the process more.
Ok, here is the main question of our interview. Based on your personal experience and success, can you please share “Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Commercial Real Estate Industry”?
Understand that design is not a strategy — it’s a response to a strategy.
Know that 100% of the people who visit a real estate project engage with the sidewalk, and only a fraction go inside or upstairs. Make the sidewalk experience great.
Accept that placemaking includes brand and story, not just the things you touch and feel.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 😊
We continue trying to put the use of places and spaces into buckets. Historically, retail was about clothes on hangers and stuff on shelves, hotels were about business travel, offices were about technology and collaboration. Today, there is as much technology on a park bench as there is in a traditional office, retail is delivered to your front door, and you can stay at a stranger’s house anywhere in the world.
I’m hopeful that developers can deliver places that are multi-faceted and multiuse. Lenders will have to figure out how to finance it and municipalities will have to create incentives to promote it.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://www.linkedin.com/company/streetsense/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-pollak-93418210/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!