Authored by: Jenn Quader, President and CEO
I’m out to dinner with friends. We’re laughing.
How are things at the company? they ask. What is it you do again?
“Commercial real estate communications.”
Oh…hmmm…cool….so. How do you like your fish?
This is the plight of today’s commercial real estate professionals. People don’t understand what we do.
And that’s okay – I don’t necessarily understand what everyone else does.
But I do think it’s important for people to understand the impact of what we do.
Back in 1994, our company’s founder started this firm based on helping commercial property developers, owners, operators, brokers, etc. market themselves and bring their company visions to life.
Today, nearly 30 years later, our mission is even more ingrained. We exist to advance commercial real estate and finance through effective communications, and in doing so, we are strengthening an industry that affects more than 1.7 million jobs and contributes over $234.9 billion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
The impact of what we do has a ripple effect to even more people – it expands to every space in which people live, work, and spend time.
One of the speakers at this year’s ULI Spring Meeting said, “Real estate houses the economy, and everything we do in our lives.”
By building understanding and clarity around an industry with this much impact, we are helping the world to better understand itself as our built environment evolves. This is important work.
A few key statistics on the impact of commercial real estate:
-
- Commercial real estate development supports 9.2 million American jobs and contributes $1.14 trillion to the U.S. GDP, generating $396.4 billion in salaries and wages (as of 2019).
-
- Demand for 4.6 million new apartments between now and 2030 will create more than 100,000 jobs. U.S. apartments and their residents contribute more than $3.4 trillion to the national economy each year.
-
- Architecture is a $1 trillion sector that accounts for almost 6% of the economy.
-
- The commercial real estate finance industry provides $3.5 trillion in financing for commercial properties throughout the United States.
-
- The U.S. interior design service market was estimated at $150.7 billion in 2020 and growing.
-
- Some 24,500 employees work in the landscape architecture field in the United States.
-
- The real estate appraisal sector is projected to grow 3% from 2019 to 2029, with 75,100 jobs currently.
-
- REITs contribute an estimated 2.4 million full time jobs to the U.S. economy and own more than $3 trillion in real estate assets, outperforming the S&P 500 over the past 20 and 30 year periods.
-
- The total market size of smart buildings technologies can touch $81.6 billion by 2025.
So that’s what we do… we change the world, one strategic communication at a time.
Hopefully this gives all commercial real estate communicators out there some fodder for their next dinner conversation!
