Broker of the Month

Presented by Willmeng Construction

Broker of the Month : Steve Lindley

Artist: “A person who produces paintings or drawings as a profession or hobby; a person who practices any of the various creative arts, such as a sculptor, novelist, poet, or filmmaker; a person skilled at a particular task or occupation.” For Steve Lindley, executive director, Cushman & Wakefield, his artistry in conducting acquisitions and divestitures for clients of the firm’s Capital Markets Group is matched by his fervor for the arts and the discipline of creative placemaking. “Arts, culture and creativity help to create places and developments where people want to live, work and play,” he says. “My wife Victoria is an artist, and she and I love experiencing arts and culture together–from high - art at great museums, to street art in our downtown galleries, to local music and festivals, to enjoying some of Phoenix’s great culinary artists at our incredible restaurants.”

Starting Points

With 30 million square feet and $2.5 billion of office and industrial transactions accumulated over his 30-year career in brokerage, Lindley is one of the Valley’s commercial real estate maestros. “Commercial real estate is inefficient, sloppy, relatively illiquid and doesn’t price daily,” he says. “It is a tangible asset with real brick-and-mortar value. As a result, I can predict the market and help my clients take advantage of market inefficiencies.”

Background

A San Diego native, Lindley attended Arizona State University, where he majored in finance. Upon graduation, he pursued a career on Wall Street working for Drexel Burnham. “I started in the summer 1987 during the peak of the leveragedbuyout, junk-bond and hostile-takeover boom,” he says. “Three months later, I was working on the stock trading floor when the market crashed on Black Monday. By 1990, Drexel Burnham was out of business and I was back in the big skies and sunshine here in Phoenix.”

His three-year Big Apple experience provided strategic insight and the financial acumen to confidently enter the CRE sphere. “My Wall Street background gave me the market knowledge and skills to help my clients add value to their office and industrial investments,” he says.

Creative Placemaking

In the office and industrial sectors, there is an ongoing and robust appetite from tenants for dynamic, energized and amenitized workplace locations and environments. Enter creative placemaking. “The term refers to how arts and culture intersect with successful development,” he says. “Office and industrial tenants are focused on attracting and retaining the most talented workforce. And, the buildings where these tenants locate need to be cool and authentic. Smart creative placemaking strategies are one of the best ways to do this including arts, culture, design and creativity.”

As his career progressed, Lindley found himself increasingly attracted to the subject and found himself eager to incorporate the concepts into his work. “I started to notice projects I was selling that integrated art and design to attract tenants – this was well before people were using the buzzword ‘creative office,’” he says. “Now, my clients use me as an advisor for incorporating the benefits of arts and culture in their developments - like Sharon Harper at Plaza Companies and Stan Shafer at Holualoa, who continue to do phenomenal creative placemaking work at their Park Central property.”

Approach

For Lindley, creative placemaking is not a recipe, but rather a way of thinking. “Creative placemaking must match the culture and be tailored to the location and to the users in the development,” he says. “Urban core locales require a different style and taste than do suburban footprints. Each requires different creative placemaking strategies to attract talent and tenants.”

ULI2D Community Mural Project

Participation and engagement in the community is one of Lindley’s passions, and the November 2019 unveiling of the Mesa ULI2D Community Mural Project is a terrific example of the dedication and effort he brings to the table as chair of the endeavor. “We established a goal for our ULI2D project to catalyze neighborhood revitalization through two-dimensional mural art,” he says. “There is a growing body of national research that shows that arts, culture and creativity can be a big benefit, including positive impacts on crime, health and income. Our ULI team partnered with 14 of top mural artists, from Mesa and the Phoenix area, who met with residents to listen and create art that would tell the story of Mesa’s Guerrero Park neighborhood.”

ULI2D Community Mural Project

ULI2D Community Mural Project

Opportunities

Across Greater Phoenix, Lindley sees a thriving office and industrial sector with continued room for expansion. “To date, office tenant demand has been strongest in our more well-established high-amenity locations, mainly north Tempe and Scottsdale,” he says. “Tenants have also been leasing and building corporate campus locations in more suburban locations – the Price Corridor and Chandler, Scottsdale along the Pima Freeway and the West Valley.”

Personal

When not conducting multimillion-dollar deals, undertaking creative placement advisory or interacting in the community, Lindley relishes time spent with his family and friends. “I am proud of, and blessed by, the wonderful relationships I have made in my life,” he says. “Victoria and I love to travel and recently discovered Mexico City – we’ve been twice in the last year – with its gritty, artsy, creativity, stunning architecture and amazing restaurants.”

Future

Unquestionably, Lindley fits the description of an artist, not only for the quality of his work in CRE, but for his role in bringing creative placemaking guidance to his clients and delivering art and creative energy to the community.

Steve Lindley at monOrchid