Current media coverage and upcoming developments hand-picked from the industry.

Mindy McIlroy, President of TerraNova Corp.

Before Blaming Your Workplace, Look in the Mirror and Make Sure You’re Not the Problem

/in , ,

DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW – February 21, 2022 BY MINDY MCILROY

When anyone blames their workplace environment for getting in the way of their success, I often ask them to consider a possibility that most people have a hard time suggesting: “Look in the mirror first and make sure you’re not being your own worst enemy.” It’s always easier to go the politically correct route of automatically agreeing with anyone seeking to cry on our shoulders as they blame others for their career issues, but the fact is, there’s a likelihood that this approach may be doing them a huge disservice.

While there is no doubt that there are occasions when the environment does get in the way, and some women and men suffer all sorts of serious discrimination, bias and workplace challenges, a lot has already been written about those cases. This article is not related to those cases. Specifically, I want to share my personal experience and insights on the countless other cases that are reported on less frequently, a good number of which I’ve personally witnessed firsthand throughout my career. I’m speaking about perfectly qualified people who, for a variety of reasons, are the only thing standing in the way of their own progress and they blame others rather than look within themselves.

My life’s experience is a great case in point. I started my real estate career as the executive assistant to a man revered as one of the commercial real estate industry’s smartest and toughest businessmen. By virtue of my hard work, determination and desire to learn and grow professionally, I received multiple promotions over the years and today lead his company, which today has a $1 billion investment portfolio.

In my experience overseeing all day-to-day operations for Terranova’s diverse retail portfolio and personally completing over $1 billion in retail leasing transactions, and most recently as the company has transitioned to become an opportunistic alternative investment firm in dynamic industries as life sciences, technology, health care, petroleum and agriculture, I have seen and learned a lot. Most notably, I have acquired an in-depth understanding of how the attitudes we choose can determine our destinies. One person can walk into a room and dominate the room, while another similarly situated person can feel threatened and uncomfortable in that room. I am passionate about this topic out of my desire to help mentor and guide people, since there are so many good people not living at their full potential and not aware of the cause of the problem or how to fix it.

So, how did I achieve my leadership role? It wasn’t luck, and no one sprinkled magic dust on me. It was hard work, perseverance, grit, and focusing on the goal without getting emotional about any deal. It was about having poise under pressure and being ready to stand my ground, articulate my points and, when necessary, respectfully contradict even the most intimidating of personalities. And, notably, these allegedly tough executives usually ended up agreeing with me.

It’s unfortunate that today’s litigious workplace environment has made people so overly sensitive to these issues that discussing these topics can make us targets for allegations of everything from insensitivity to discrimination. Yet, despite the risk of all this, I will share some guidance that has taken me a lifetime to learn:

  • Find a good mentor. In my career, I’ve been fortunate to count on mentors such as Terranova’s CEO Stephen Bittel, as well as my predecessors Trish Blasi and Beth Azor, who were both Terranova presidents. Find a mentor who’s a warrior—someone who keeps it real, motivates you, and doesn’t only say what you want to hear. A good mentor will “say bad stuff to your face, and good stuff behind your back.” A good mentor will have proven ability to survive and thrive in the same corporate environments in which you are seeking to play.
  • Focus on the solution, not the problem. I don’t even like to use the word “problem,” because in my view, it’s just a “situation telling us what to do next.” Behind any obstacle there are opportunities, and it’s wise to take on the mindset of a hunter, focused on finding and seizing the bright spots in any environment.
  • Pay it forward. Whatever you are doing, whether you’re answering the phone or entering an elevator, make sure to understand who you’re dealing with, and what you can do to help them. Never hesitate to help anyone around you. I’ve found that life takes unexpected twists and turns, and people always give preferential treatment to those who always treated them well even from the infancy of their careers. This has always been a strong part of Terranova’s DNA, with Stephen leading by example by generously donating his personal time, talents and treasure to help our team and community.
  • Have the right mindset. As someone living with a disability (Parkinson’s), I know firsthand that mindset is everything. There are many days when I could have chosen to stay in bed with a victim mentality, feeling sorry for myself and blaming the world. Yet, I rose to the occasion and never let my condition stop me from getting stuff done. Indeed, the lens through which we choose to see the world determines our ability to properly identify and seize opportunities before us. Therefore, choose your lens carefully because it will determine your destiny. This also applies to your workplace in general—I’ve seen some people succeed in the same workplace that others have claimed was toxic. It’s the reason some people can work extremely well with one person, while others find that same person difficult or impossible to work with. It’s important to be comfortable feeling uncomfortable, because the road to personal growth and success requires it. Oftentimes, we have adverse reactions to people as a result of our own fears and insecurities, and in those cases, avoiding those situations we cause us to miss out on learning valuable lessons. Rather than run from situations that scare us, we should ask ourselves why we are having those reactions, and then run toward them and face them. Many times, that’s exactly where the best opportunities for growth and success are awaiting us!
  • Read! Stay on top of your industry’s trends but also read things that challenge and inspire you personally. Choose your reading carefully though. I’ve found many so-called self-help books come from a victim mentality and can do more harm than good. Never been a fan of phrases like “Girl Power,” which I find silly since we shouldn’t need to remind anyone that we are powerful or that our power is related to our gender. Focus on books that remind you of all the power you have to shape and determine your future. I’ve always appreciated practical business books like ”First, Break all the Rules,” and more recently, enjoyed reading “Untamed.”
  • Don’t take anything personally! The less emotion we have in business, the better. In fact, in any confrontation or negotiation, the most emotional party tends to lose. Leave your ego at the door and focus on working collaboratively to get the job done. If you haven’t already, you must read “The Four Agreements!”
  • Come from passion, not fear. When we come from passion, we are tapping into our highest energy vibration, and we are focusing our efforts on achieving our goals rather than protecting ourselves from imaginary demons. I often compare it to riding a bike—keep your gaze fixed steadily on the path where you “do” want to go rather than on the obstacles or distractions along the road. If you stare at the obstacles, you’ll steer your bike straight into them!
  • Be ready for confrontation. Confrontations are often necessary to get to the next stage of any relationship. It’s never comfortable or pleasant, but you have to do it. Get comfortable being uncomfortable and facing tough conversations from a place of faith that everything will work out as it should, since you are doing your best and coming from a place of power rather than weakness.

Again, I’m not suggesting that anyone should ignore situations of legitimate discrimination or wrongdoing. I’m merely suggesting that we always ask ourselves, before drawing any conclusions, whether we are seeing things through a clear lens and not mischaracterizing situations or missing opportunities due to our own limiting beliefs. Indeed, when we operate from a place of power rather than fear, and when we respond rather than react, we put ourselves in the best position to achieve our goals.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

South Florida Real Estate Transactions Like ‘Adult Game of Monopoly,’ But the Economy is Giving Investors Pause

/in ,

DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW – January 26, 2022 BY MELEA VANOSTRAND South Florida real estate transactions are off to a good start in 2022, evidenced by an announcement from Terranova Corp. that it has completed over a dozen capital markets transactions totaling over $230 million so far this month. 

That exceeds typical activity, according to Terranova’s chairman Stephen Bittel.

“I feel incredibly fortunate that I get to, in my career, play the adult game of Monopoly. That’s incredible fun, we make a lot of money at it, and it enables us to take our profits and do good in our communities,” Bittel said.

However, although Bittel said he believes there’s a lot of room for growth, the overall state of the economy might cause people to rethink asset values due to rising interest rates, increasing inflation and a lack of policy coming out.

“I think there are a lot of things going on that have given investors pause and I think, as earnings begin to be released this week for year-end, I think we’ll see underperformance by retailers reflecting less in consumer confidence. We’re very much a consumer-driven economy,” Bittel said. “Supply interruptions are causing everything to go up.”

Terranova recently announced an affiliate closed on a $40 million refinancing of Palm Plaza shopping center in Miami Lakes. The deal, with Puerto Rico financial services company Banco Popular, pays a loan and provides capital for future growth.

The building is undergoing a $1.3 million renovation with new landscaping, a parking lot and landscaping. The last remodel was 19 years ago. The 90,621-square-foot retail building is 95% leased. The retail center houses tenants who produce some of the top 10% highest-grossing sales in the country. These include CVS, Sketchers and Starbucks. 

“We signed both of them through long-term renewals, which stabilized the revenue stream from that property for the next 20 years,” Bittel said.

Restaurants Recovering After ‘Terrible Year’

The leasing of restaurant space at Terranova is at 100% and rates are more than what they were pre-pandemic. Bittel said that’s a sign of the continued growth of South Florida.  

“Restaurant sales in 2021 exceed in South Florida the levels achieved by those same tenants in 2019. 2020 was a terrible year. The tenants that figured out how to do a takeout and delivery business while at the same time taking advantage of the outdoor sun have come back stronger than anyone could’ve imagined,” Bittel said.

Coral Gables is becoming a go-to place for meals at any time of the day, according to Bittel. 

“They expanded outside, they gave the people the outdoor dining they wanted, and we’ve leased up 100% of our available restaurant space,” Bittel said. 

Although there are some bright spots in many real estate markets, retailers—especially older retailers—continue to hurt. 

“Kmart just has an older model and they didn’t update their offerings, so they’re suffering.  Walmart and Target have plenty of history, but they’ve done a great job of modernizing and creating an online presence and changing the offerings in their stores,” Bittel said. “I think we’re going to see a lot more high-end, organic supermarket options in South Florida, like crazy.” 

Migration Wave Hasn’t Finished 

Bittel said he suspects migration to South Florida will continue, reasoning the first wave of people were company leadership, while the rest will be the second level of senior leadership seeking proximity to top leaders. Bittel said South Florida will also likely continue to see more out-of-market restaurants migrating.

“Institutional investors in real estate are heavily focused on industrial and multifamily. The multifamily serves the incoming population, and industrial serves the growing base of distribution both for e-commerce, as well as Central and South America and the Caribbean,” Bittel said. 

With multiple transactions, including the $22 million sale of Terranova’s headquarters building on 41st Street, $55 million refinance of its portfolio of properties along Coral Gables’ historic Miracle Mile and the recent $6.8 million acquisition of 93 Miracle Mile, Bittel said he’s excited to see what other opportunities come Terranova’s way as the year continues. 

“It’s our core business that we’ve done for 40 years,” Bittel said. “We try to buy high-quality, long-term assets.”

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

801-Arthur-Godfrey

Moving Up and Out: Stephen Bittel’s Terranova Sells Headquarters of Nearly Two Decades in Landmark Deal

/in

ARCHITECTURE ART DESIGNS – January 21, 2022 In one of the largest investment sales to occur on 41st Street in Miami Beach, Terranova Corporation is leaving its headquarters of practically twenty years. Since 2002 the commercial real estate company has made its home at 801 Arthur Godfrey Road, located on the main Mid-Beach thoroughfare that connects Miami Beach to the mainland via the Julia Tuttle Causeway. Originally purchased by Terranova for $4.3 million, the property on which the nearly 52,000-square-foot building sits was sold to Miami-based Fifteen Group for $22 million, who plan to renovate the building and lease it to family offices, wealth management and financial firms.

Founded by Stephen Bittel in 1980, Terranova has spent nearly half of its lifetime in the building on 41st Street. As  chairman of the company, Bittel has garnered over four decades worth of experience within the commercial real estate sector, seeing his company through the highs and lows of the economy by enacting due diligence and keeping his finger on the pulse of trends within commercial real estate and its relevant markets. As one of the top firms in South Florida, Terranova has served as the exclusive agent for more than $5 billion worth of commercial projects and represented notable clients such as Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and New York Life. With the sale of its current headquarters marking the beginning of a new era for Terranova, below we take a look back at its history, as well as the history of its founder and chairman.

Terranova is Latin for “new land,” a name Bittel chose in reference to the opportunities foreign investors could capitalize on in the United States. In his final year attending the highly selective liberal arts college Bowdoin College, he was awarded the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a national grant that gives graduating seniors the chance to pursue independent study outside of the United States. Executing his original project that won him the scholarship, Bittel spent a year in Europe during which time he met with a number of investment advisors and bankers, finding that the private banking model there was much more conducive to providing personalized investment services to high-net-worth individuals.

Bittel’s father and grandfather were both attorneys, and the presumption was that he would follow in their footsteps and one day take over the practice. Having received a scholarship to attend the University of Miami School of Law, Bittel returned to his hometown of Miami to pursue his law degree after completing his year abroad and graduating magna cum laude with a degree in economics from Bowdoin. However, his time in Europe had changed his professional aspirations considerably, and he has said it was clear to him at that point he would never practice law. Rather than taking care of other people’s capital, he wanted to play a more active role in directing it.

Despite his shifting perspective Bittel followed through with pursuing his law degree, although he also took a full-time job at a commercial real estate firm to gain further knowledge in the sector. It was during his second year at law school that he started Terranova Corporation, running the operation out of his home office while working to complete his degree and pass the bar exam. In that first year it was an uphill battle for Bittel, as his company started out with both a negative net worth and severely undercapitalized, but by the time he graduated his business had already grown to seven employees and had acquired two strip shopping centers. Borrowing the deposit and raising the equity from one large investor from Germany in addition to friends and family-type investors locally, thanks to the strip centers Terranova had regular cash flow and Bittel immediately put it to good work building the company further.

In the first two decades of Terranova’s existence, strip shopping centers were its bread and butter. As young families flocked to the suburbs where new developments brought larger homes at more affordable prices, the demand rose for retailers and services in closer proximity. Bittel grew the company’s portfolio significantly by capitalizing on the need for nearby pharmacies, grocery stores and popular chains, purchasing shopping centers and strip malls in the municipalities of Miami-Dade County. By developing relationships with national companies such as Walgreens, Publix and Starbucks Bittel was able to streamline Terranova’s operations, creating multi-location leases that simplified business matters while also installing these “anchor” stores into their retail locations and driving traffic to the other businesses in the centers as a result. At the height of this strategy Terranova had one of the largest suburban supermarket-anchored portfolios in the state with a property base of over 8 million square feet including not only strip centers, but also office buildings, industrial parks, multi-family and self-storage assets.

It was around the time that Terranova Corporation moved into its then-new headquarters in Miami Beach that Bittel began to recognize a shift in public sentiment. His own younger employees appeared to no longer be interested in the larger, newer homes in the outer municipalities, and instead were choosing to purchase and renovate smaller, older homes closer to city centers such as Miami Beach itself. For them and many others, proximity to work and the other exciting offerings of downtown locations was more important than more space, and as a result suburban strips were no longer the solid investment they used to be. As a result, in the early 2000’s Bittel began to re-diversity Terranova’s portfolio, purchasing properties located in high street areas near a walkable downtown core in more central areas such as Miami Beach and Coral Gables. Although looking at it from today’s lens urban retail may seem like a no-brainer, at the time there were many within the industry who had not yet recognized its value potential. In fact, there were quite a few naysayers to one of Terranova’s first purchases in Miami Beach, seeing the $52 million purchase price as exorbitant at the time. Just a few short years later though it was Bittel who got the last laugh, as the sale of that same property came in at nearly seven times the price it was purchased for and became one of the largest property sales in the history of South Florida. 

Within the last decade, Terranova has continued to build its urban retail portfolios to considerable success. During the financial crisis of the late aughts that saw many homeowners struggle and the residential housing market suffer greatly, Bittel’s foresight of investing in urban areas meant that even as homes were harder to purchase his commercial properties continued to see growth due to the availability of rental properties in urban areas. As the coronavirus pandemic has catapulted the markets into perhaps one of its greatest times of uncertainty, Bittel has used these times of distress to put Terranova’s balance sheet to work, expanding their portfolio of assets through opportunistic acquisition of distressed debt and equity. In addition to actively working to rebuild their Lincoln Road Miami Beach and Miracle Mile Coral Gables retail portfolios back to their pre-COVID-19 strength, they are also redeveloping their gas station, convenience store and car wash assets, a newer segment for them that has seen successful initial results. 

As for the future of Terranova Corporation’s HQ in light of the sale, they plan to stay on the top floor of the property for the next  year until they find a new home base, either remaining in Miami Beach or moving to Coral Gables. Whether it be his home office, the 41st Street property or the remote work of the pandemic, Stephen Bittel has always found a way to drive his business in the right direction for the future, and no matter where his company plants their roots next he will certainly continue to do so.

 

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE