Trendsetters

34 Years of Giving Back

One of the cornerstones of Valley Partnership’s mission is community outreach, and at its end-of-the-year Friday Morning Breakfast on Dec. 17, the organization presented The Salvation Army Tempe with a check for $60,000. This generous donation was part of its annual community project.

For the past 34 years, Valley Partnership has been giving back to the community through monetary donations and labor. Each year, it selects a nonprofit organization that can benefit from the skills, efforts and supplies provided by its partners to renovate and enhance facilities for children and those in need.

In pre-pandemic years, the community project was an annual hands-on event that brought together upwards of 300 leaders and members from the real estate and development communities for a day of service. Past projects include painting murals and building patio furniture for New Pathways for Youth in Downtown Phoenix; creating parks, gardens and playing fields for the kids at Sunshine Acres Children’s Home in Mesa; and transforming a vacant parking lot into an urban farm for The Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix.

“We always ask ourselves, ‘Where can we make the biggest impact,’” says Carrie Martin, vice president of events and marketing for Valley Partnership. “With organizations such as St. Vincent de Paul or The Salvation Army, you’re helping hundreds of thousands of people.”

In addition to raising funds for The Salvation Army, this year’s project included an on-site component. On Dec. 4, slightly more than 100 members volunteered at The Salvation Army’s Tempe location, performing landscape maintenance, painting and packing food and hygiene supplies.

“Our focus was fundraising, but The Salvation Army building has been around for about 100 years. It’s just tired, and it needed some work,” Martin notes. The location serves more than 600 families and clients, offering life-saving services and support.

The money raised by the Valley Partnership Community Project will help with needed repairs, reorganization of the facility and additional food and hygiene bags among other things.

“With so much going on the past year or two, people just want to do something good,” Martin says. “Our community project is a way for them to not feel so helpless. It’s a true feel-good kind of moment.”

CHANGES AT THE TOP

With a new year comes new leadership as CRE professional organizations elect officers for 2022.

Melissa Scott Tyrel Williams

Building Owners and Management Association (BOMA) of Greater Phoenix

President: Melissa Scott, Sunbelt Holdings Vice President: Kathryn Rhinehart, Davis Southwest Secretary/Treasurer: Lynn Nixon, Titan Restoration

Rusty Kennedy NAIOP Arizona

Board Chair: Rusty Kennedy, CBRE Vice Chair: Cathy Thuringer, Trammell Crow Company Treasurer: John Orsak, Lincoln Property Company Programs Chair: Phil Breidenbach, Colliers International Secretary: Derek Flottum, Irgens

Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM)

President: Tyrel Williams, ORION Investment Real Estate President-Elect: Ed Valerio, Link Logistics Real Estate Treasurer: Brent Penrod, Eisenberg Company

Karla Moran Southwest chapter of the Real Estate Investment Advisory Council (REIAC)

President: Karla Moran, SRP Vice President: Arthur J. Ferrari III, Lineage CRE Secretary: Keyvan Ghahreman, Willmeng Program Chair: Dick Lund, Biltmore Holdings Membership Chair: Chad Mantei, BBVA Commercial Treasurer: Phil McKenzie, KMPG

Community Outreach Chair:

Mark Singerman, Rockefeller Group

TAKING OWNERSHIP

CHASSE Building Team is now 100% employee-owned. The firm recently launched an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) — or, in this case, a TSOP. “We decided to call it our Teammate Stock Ownership Plan,” says founder and president Barry Chasse. “We want our employees to act and think like owners.” Chasse founded the eponymous company in 2007, and over the past 14 years, the company has grown to more than 200 team members and oversees more than $425 million in client engagements each year. A surprise announcement of the TSOP was made to employees at a companywide meeting at Sloan Park in Mesa on Dec. 2.

DATA CONCERNS

According to the recent report, “Data Center Success … Leading to Sustainability Questions,” by Cushman & Wakefield, data centers are thriving, but water usage is a continued concern as the largest data centers can utilize millions of gallons of water for cooling. Desert areas, such as Phoenix, may be limited in their future data center deployments unless air cooling during the night or liquid cooling directly to the rack can be used instead. Excessive heat can limit server life, so continued optimization of cooling systems is an imperative moving forward.