Hartford, CT In mid-March SIOR Global formed its Community Assistance and Relief in Emergencies (CARE) program in response to the pandemic crisis - SIOR CARE. With its roots at the beginning of World War II when SIOR was formed in 1941, the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors has a history of stepping up in times of need.
Given social distancing guidelines and shelter in place a part of everyone’s world for the foreseeable future, the Connecticut/Western Massachusetts SIOR Chapter decided recently to create a regular chapter Zoom connection called “SIOR Weekly CRE Chat Series.” The idea is to host a weekly session for our members, sponsors, and the wider real estate/business community to stay connected; and to share new/best practices in our “COVID” world and beyond. Our hope is to create a way to provide value to our members and sponsors, and to be a positive influence in the market and community.
Each week a guest speaker (or speakers) will address a relevant real estate market or industry topic; particularly around the effects from our new post COVID world and as the new normal way of doing business continues to evolve. The first week the chapter hosted a lender discussion with three of our sponsors – Bank of America (Lindsay Castonguay), Community Investment Corp. (Rich Evans), and Savings Bank of Danbury (Pat Kelley). This past week was a due diligence discussion with Pam Elkow from Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey moderating; and Rachel Rosen from Burns and McDonnell, and Sam Haydock from BL Companies talking about Environmental Site Assessments in our new social distancing world.
Roughly 70 participants have joined in the first two sessions, and the feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive!
This coming week’s session will feature Adam Winstanley who will talk about the various commercial real estate asset classes from a developer/investor perspective.
May 20th will feature the chapter’s postponed Re-Use development breakfast panel, originally scheduled for March at The Farms Country Club in Wallingford. This will be structured as a webinar with Mark Duclos moderating, and it will be held at 8:30 am.
The chapter is planning to hold face-to-face get-togethers again in the fall with our golf outing moved to September 1st at The Farms; and our fall (Annual) meeting in September (date and venue to be announced soon).
In the interim, we are committed to keeping our weekly chat series rolling with new guests each week including sponsors and associate members. Copies of our sessions will be available on the chapter’s website - https://my.sior.com/siorconnecticutchapter/news
Thanks to all who have participated the first two weeks, and thanks in advance for all of you planning to raise your hand for a future session.
The Connecticut/Western Massachusetts Chapter is one of forty-eight chapters of the prestigious international organization, the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors. Commercial real estate professionals must meet rigorous requirements to earn the SIOR designation. SIOR, founded in 1941, has over 3,200 members in 685 markets located in 36 countries. SIOR represents today’s most knowledgeable, experienced, and successful commercial real estate brokerage specialists. The SIOR designation stands unchallenged for excellence in the performance of real estate services and is universally recognized as the prerequisite in the selection of a commercial real estate broker, agent, or consultant.
Please visit the chapter’s website to find additional information on chapter members, and upcoming events. Should you have questions or interest in the requirements and benefits of becoming an SIOR and joining the chapter, please contact John Reed, SIOR at 860.987.4788.