Trendsetters

MAIN ATTRACTION

Here’s what attracted some of Arizona’s most influential commercial real estate leaders to the industry

LARRY DOWNEY, vice chairman,

Cushman & Wakefield: “Commercial real estate allows me the chance to interface with companies and their decision-makers, assisting them with corporate occupancy decisions. Every day, there are challenges that afford me the opportunity to problemsolve and find solutions for clients. No two days are alike, juggling transactions in Phoenix or cities across the U.S.”

MOLLY RYAN CARSON, senior vice president and Southwest Region market

leader, Ryan Companies US: “Family. The opportunity to work for a company that embodies my values and the opportunity to positively impact communities attracted me to the industry. Many things have surprised me throughout the years. What didn’t surprise me is hard work, honesty and talent are easy to spot and it’s even easier to spot their absence.”

LEROY BREINHOLT, president and designated broker, Commercial

Properties Inc.: “For some reason I have wanted to be in real estate since I was a child growing up in Phoenix. I always loved selling things — from door-to-door candy sales as a child, to selling odds and ends as a teenager, to buying, fixing and selling cars as a teenager and during the first three of four years in the real estate business. I love the strategy of putting people together to ‘attempt’ to create a win-win situation and have both parties leaving happy and fulfilled.”

Bob Mulhern, senior managing director, Colliers

International: “My father was a home builder and I always wanted to be in the development business. My first job out of college was for Continental Homes, and I moved into the commercial side of the business very shortly thereafter. I have since been involved in development, management, brokerage and ownership of commercial properties.”

SHARON HARPER, chairman, president and

CEO, Plaza Companies: “Plaza Companies started with an idea back in 1982 and has grown into a great success story with an excellent reputation. It has not surprised me, but it has very much taught me the value of creating strong partnerships and operating your business with the utmost integrity.”

PAT FEENEY, executive vice president,

CBRE: “As a restaurant owner in town in the mid-1980s, I heard many unbelievable stories at the bar from customers in commercial real estate. I told my wife that if half of what they were saying was true, I had to get into that game. The rest is history.”

THINKING INSIDE THE BOX

In early April, Pipeline Worldwide and a team of architects, contractors and engineers traveled to Uganda to implement the winning designs from the organization’s Battle of the Boxes. The goal of the competition was to convert shipping containers into housing for health care workers at refugee settlements in the African nation.

“The settlements typically are in very remote areas,” says Jamie Nollette, co-founder of Pipeline, a Phoenix-based nonprofit that connects donors with vulnerable communities in East Africa. “The health care staff are living in tents on the ground or temporary housing. It’s really poor conditions.”

As part of its aid work, Pipeline ships medical supplies and equipment to its partners in East Africa. The containers then remain in those countries. So Nollette organized the contest, which kicked off in August 2019. Three teams, comprising representatives from top companies in the Valley, were each given a 40-by-8foot container and, with a max budget of $15,000 that they raised themselves — which included the cost of the container as well as building it out and furnishing it — came up with a way to convert it into living quarters for six people.

“The idea was to use only materials that we could then find in Uganda,” Nollette explains, noting that one team substituted tree bark for insulation; another used bamboo for interior walls. “We want these to serve as prototypes, and then we will teach the locals how to replicate them.” Each design also had to incorporate offgrid power.

“Access to resources, such as tools and raw materials, is extremely challenging in these third-world regions,” Nollette adds. Openings for doors and windows have to be cut and the components installed on-site, generators and solar power need to be added, and each container has to be made livable.

“We definitely had some long days,” notes Todd Scott, project manager at McCarthy Building Companies (shown at bottom right), who was part of one of the competition teams and traveled to Uganda with Pipeline to help implement the designs. “But we were able to get all the containers built, complete with beds, mosquito nets, desks and chairs.”

Pipeline will return to the settlement in August to see how the containers are functioning after being lived in and make any needed modifications for future builds. But whatever design elements come out on top, Nollette affirms, “The workers who will be using the containers say they are life-changing.”