MEDIUM January 12, 2022 Another year has come and gone, and for many of us we find ourselves once again facing the question: what do I want to accomplish this year? While it may seem like something of a cliché at this point, a new year presents a natural bookend to a period of time, giving way to the powerful promise of new beginnings that can energize you into making a positive change. That is the tantalizing appeal of new year’s resolutions — they present the opportunity to take a step back, take a big-picture view of our lives and change our story. Unfortunately, new year’s resolutions are also notoriously hard to keep. One study that followed 200 people’s resolutions over the course of two years found that by the end only 19 percent had managed to keep up with their initial goals.
One theory that has been put forward as to why new year’s resolutions fail is because we often make them too broad. For example, the top five new year’s resolutions are: eat healthier, get more exercise, save money, focus on self-care, and read more. While all admirable pursuits, for the most part the generalized nature of these goals make them lofty and difficult to quantify, resulting in discouragement and ultimately failure. However, I would argue that to “read more” is actually all that is needed to be asked of yourself, regardless of the content, length, subject matter, or method through which you do so.
As an entrepreneur with a company that is now entering its 42nd year, I believe I can say with some confidence that I understand what is necessary in order to succeed. While every person and business will certainly have unique challenges and paths to success, there are still some traits that are universally needed in order to effectively manage, grow and lead, and a curious mind is one of them. For myself, I begin each day by reading numerous new sources, and whether in my study or on my bedside table it’s rare you’ll see me without a book in arm’s reach. I’m a history buff so it will often be a new biography or exploration of a time period, but regardless of the subject matter, the act itself is powerful. Elon Musk is famous for his love of science fiction, and has reportedly found inspiration for his companies through reading them.
Musk and myself are certainly not the only leaders who are big readers: Bill Gates reportedly strives to read one book a week, Mark Zuckerberg has an online book club, Mark Cuban has said the books and magazines he’s read have paid for themselves many times over by providing him with ideas that led to new customers or solutions, and it was Warren Buffet who famously answered a question about the key to his success by gesturing toward a stack of books on his desk, saying “read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” Indeed, the average American reads one book a year while the average CEO reads roughly five per month. Each of these people are known to have vastly different leadership styles, but they all use reading to further their knowledge and give their companies an edge over the competition.
Research has shown that reading is a powerful way to facilitate the development of cognitive skills, including memory, decision-making and verbal intelligence. While it certainly requires brain power to process information from other sources such as images or speech, the acrobatics your brain must perform in order to read makes it particularly demanding on the brain. When you read, both your intelligence and your concentration are required to act at a high capacity, making inferences, producing narratives and using our imagination to put together the puzzle created by a sentence, and by reading more often you give your brain a good workout on a consistent basis. This is true regardless of what is being read — from a magazine article to a dense textbook, the simple act of processing words boosts brain function considerably.
By reading more, you can also vastly improve your communication skills. The more you read the more words you are inevitably exposed to, allowing you to naturally build your vocabulary and in turn develop your writing skill and speaking style. Being well-spoken and articulate are important skills for entrepreneurs who will inevitably need them during business meets, conferences and public speaking events, and a large vocabulary has also been shown to correspond with a higher income for adults. Additionally, a larger vocabulary can improve your ability to listen — an often-overlooked but important aspect of communication — allowing you to better understand what the other person is saying and allowing you to engage in meaningful conversations. Reading also helps you develop empathy, as the same neurological regions of the brain are stimulated when you read about something as when you actually experience it. In reading about the experience of another, you can gain an understanding close to as if you actually experienced it yourself, developing the ability to better communicate with those around you as a result.
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Year Why Reading More is the New Year’s Resolution You Should Actually Stick To
/in General, In the newsMEDIUM January 12, 2022 Another year has come and gone, and for many of us we find ourselves once again facing the question: what do I want to accomplish this year? While it may seem like something of a cliché at this point, a new year presents a natural bookend to a period of time, giving way to the powerful promise of new beginnings that can energize you into making a positive change. That is the tantalizing appeal of new year’s resolutions — they present the opportunity to take a step back, take a big-picture view of our lives and change our story. Unfortunately, new year’s resolutions are also notoriously hard to keep. One study that followed 200 people’s resolutions over the course of two years found that by the end only 19 percent had managed to keep up with their initial goals.
One theory that has been put forward as to why new year’s resolutions fail is because we often make them too broad. For example, the top five new year’s resolutions are: eat healthier, get more exercise, save money, focus on self-care, and read more. While all admirable pursuits, for the most part the generalized nature of these goals make them lofty and difficult to quantify, resulting in discouragement and ultimately failure. However, I would argue that to “read more” is actually all that is needed to be asked of yourself, regardless of the content, length, subject matter, or method through which you do so.
As an entrepreneur with a company that is now entering its 42nd year, I believe I can say with some confidence that I understand what is necessary in order to succeed. While every person and business will certainly have unique challenges and paths to success, there are still some traits that are universally needed in order to effectively manage, grow and lead, and a curious mind is one of them. For myself, I begin each day by reading numerous new sources, and whether in my study or on my bedside table it’s rare you’ll see me without a book in arm’s reach. I’m a history buff so it will often be a new biography or exploration of a time period, but regardless of the subject matter, the act itself is powerful. Elon Musk is famous for his love of science fiction, and has reportedly found inspiration for his companies through reading them.
Musk and myself are certainly not the only leaders who are big readers: Bill Gates reportedly strives to read one book a week, Mark Zuckerberg has an online book club, Mark Cuban has said the books and magazines he’s read have paid for themselves many times over by providing him with ideas that led to new customers or solutions, and it was Warren Buffet who famously answered a question about the key to his success by gesturing toward a stack of books on his desk, saying “read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” Indeed, the average American reads one book a year while the average CEO reads roughly five per month. Each of these people are known to have vastly different leadership styles, but they all use reading to further their knowledge and give their companies an edge over the competition.
Research has shown that reading is a powerful way to facilitate the development of cognitive skills, including memory, decision-making and verbal intelligence. While it certainly requires brain power to process information from other sources such as images or speech, the acrobatics your brain must perform in order to read makes it particularly demanding on the brain. When you read, both your intelligence and your concentration are required to act at a high capacity, making inferences, producing narratives and using our imagination to put together the puzzle created by a sentence, and by reading more often you give your brain a good workout on a consistent basis. This is true regardless of what is being read — from a magazine article to a dense textbook, the simple act of processing words boosts brain function considerably.
By reading more, you can also vastly improve your communication skills. The more you read the more words you are inevitably exposed to, allowing you to naturally build your vocabulary and in turn develop your writing skill and speaking style. Being well-spoken and articulate are important skills for entrepreneurs who will inevitably need them during business meets, conferences and public speaking events, and a large vocabulary has also been shown to correspond with a higher income for adults. Additionally, a larger vocabulary can improve your ability to listen — an often-overlooked but important aspect of communication — allowing you to better understand what the other person is saying and allowing you to engage in meaningful conversations. Reading also helps you develop empathy, as the same neurological regions of the brain are stimulated when you read about something as when you actually experience it. In reading about the experience of another, you can gain an understanding close to as if you actually experienced it yourself, developing the ability to better communicate with those around you as a result.
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In $7M deal, Terranova adds another Miracle Mile building to Coral Gables portfolio
/in Acquisitions, In the newsTHE REAL DEAL- January 5, 2022 BY FRANCISCO ALVARADO In a $6.8 million deal, Terranova added another Miracle Mile retail building to its Coral Gables portfolio.
The Miami Beach-based commercial real estate firm headed by Chairman Stephen Bittel bought the one-story site at 93 Miracle Mile, making it the 15th property Terranova owns on the street, according to a press release. The holdings span 120,000 square feet. Recently, Terranova obtained $55 million in refinancing for its Miracle Mile assets.
An affiliate of Wexford Capital, which is based in West Palm Beach and Greenwich, Connecticut, sold the corner property on Galiano Street for $800,000 below the previous purchase price from five years ago. The Wexford affiliate paid $7.6 million in 2016, according to records.
The 9,000-square-foot vacant building was previously occupied by Navarro Discount Pharmacy, which closed after the chain was acquired by CVS in 2014, the release states. In a statement, Terranova President Mindy McIlory said the firm plans to bring in a “strong, high-profile tenant.”
Terranova has nearly $1 billion in commercial real estate assets and purchased its first Miracle Mile property almost 20 years ago, the release states. In the past two years, the firm has acquired five properties on Miracle Mile, which underwent a $21 million streetscape makeover by the city of Coral Gables.
In October, Terranova paid $7.8 million for two storefronts at 232 Coral Way and 330 Miracle Mile, which are a few blocks west of the firm’s most recent acquisition. In another purchase last year, Terranova acquired a single-story building at 300 Miracle Mile for $6 million.
On a site at 220 Miracle Mile the company acquired for $12.2 million in 2013, Terranova had planned a two-tower, mixed use project with a 120-key hotel. The firm’s other holdings include 308, 348 and 360 Miracle Mile.
Last year, Terranova’s wheeling and dealing extended beyond Coral Gables. In February, the firm and its partner Terra sold a nearly 24-acre development site in Doral to logistics real estate investment firm GLP Capital Partners for $55 million. And last month, Terranova sold its longtime Miami Beach headquarters for $22 million to Fifteen Group in an off-market deal.
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Stephen Bittel Maneuvers Terranova Through a Post-Pandemic World with $55 Million Refinance of Coral Gables Properties
/in In the newsTHE AMERICAN REPORTER – December 21, 2021 BY JENNIFER ROSS
The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns brought about unprecedented changes to practically every industry. While the economic cycle has shown that over time it is to be expected that there will be periods of growth followed by periods of recession, the abrupt and sweeping shutdowns across nearly every country and sector made an impact unlike any we’ve seen before. As we round the corner on two years since COVID-19 first came into our radar there are still many unknowns as to what shape the future will take. Will outdoor dining be a part of our future forever? Will air travel ever be as simple as it once was? Is remote work the new normal or will there be a hybrid model?
The future of commercial real estate will inevitably be affected by the answers to all of these questions, and for Stephen Bittel this has meant maintaining a delicate balancing act. As chairman of the South Florida commercial real estate company Terranova Corporation, Bittel has acknowledged that work must be done to simultaneously sure up operations and finances while still remaining flexible and open to take advantage of any opportunities that may arise. It may feel safe for many business owners during times of economic downturns to simply seek shelter and wait there to weather the storm, but Bittel has recognized throughout his four decades of work within commercial real estate that times of uncertainty can also be advantageous if one knows how to react.
Case in point, Bittel’s work refinancing loans for Terranova Corporation’s urban retail properties, taking advantage of the historically low interest rates that have been available. The Miami-based company recently secured a $55 million refinance of its Miracle Mile portfolio in downtown Coral Gables, consolidating and replacing loans from three lenders on 14 properties, including 220 Miracle Mile, 300 Miracle Mile and 253 Miracle Mile. Additionally, just one month earlier Terranova refinanced its Marshalls/Lincoln Eatery building in Miami Beach with a $23 million loan, with the financing for all properties being provided by City National Bank. Bittel has said that the money will be used to repatriate some of the company’s capital, and also accommodate tenant improvements, as well as return some of its originally invested capital. While the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic certainly isn’t an ideal scenario for any business owner, by seeing the time as an opportunity rather than detriment Bittel has set himself up for success.
Who is Stephen Bittel?
As founder and chairman of Terranova Corporation, Stephen Bittel is leader of one of the top commercial real estate firms in Florida. A native of Miami, Bittel was born and raised in The Sunshine State before moving up the eastern coast to attend Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Trading palm trees and sandy beaches for fall foliage and snow, he soon adapted to the initial culture shock of transitioning from a public school education to a highly selective private liberal arts school, and was able to thrive in the academically rigorous environment. During his senior year of university he applied for and was awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a grant that enabled him to pursue a year of independent study outside of America, and Bittel spent a year traveling abroad researching the motivations behind European investment in the United States.
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