Broadcast Brings out Best at Bergstrom Center Conference

It’s always a treat when I get to do a live remote broadcast, and it’s even better when that broadcast is done in support of an organization that’s dear to my heart.

So I had an absolute blast when I got to do the most recent episode of Fried On Business live from the Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies Trends and Strategies Conference 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando.

For those who don’t know, the Kelley A. Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies is a cornerstone of the Nathan S. Collier Master of Science in Real Estate Program at the University of Florida.

And UF is my alma mater, so what could be better than rubbing shoulders with the folks who helped me get my start in the real estate business – and the ones I’m now helping along the way?

Tim Becker, Director of the Bergstrom Center, said the center serves as the go-between for the industry and the academics at the University of Florida. It provides vital research for the industry. The board members mentor the students and help them get jobs. Students come from around the globe and from a variety of backgrounds.

UF has been offering some type of real estate degree since 1945, Becker said. The number of colleges and universities offering a real estate degree has exploded in the last 10 years, but the UF program is unique because the advisory board includes experts from across the nation who have a wealth of practical experience.

To learn more, visit realestate.ufl.edu or look up the UF Master of Science in Real Estate Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/UFMSRE/.

Rick Scarola, Bergstrom Center Advisory Board member and Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Covenant Capital Group in Nashville, was at the event with his son, Matt Scarola.

With one foot each in the Tennessee and Florida markets, Rick said the conference helps to provide the perspective that Covenant Capital Group needs to make acquisitions and dispositions.

He said buyers are shifting their focus from core assets toward value-added deals. Which, incidentally, is Covenant Capital’s playground.

Covenant Capital tends to like smaller markets with high job creation. In Florida, that means places like Naples, Fort Myers, Sarasota, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, Rick Scarola said.

“We judge a city by job creation versus the number of starts. Anything greater than five to one we feel is accretive to a city,” he said.

“We have been very successful in second- and third-tier Florida cities – Melbourne, Titusville, Daytona, Stuart, Bradenton.”

University of Florida real estate students like Macy Trizonis, Natalie Anthony and Luke Duffack were at the event not only to socialize but to learn and make decisions about their career paths.

Three students. Three backgrounds. Three destinies. But the Bergstrom Center provides an integrative environment to study an integrative industry.

Luke, for instance, worked in a chicken processing facility to make his way through school. He never gives up and, full disclosure, he’s one of the students I’ve most recently mentored.

Natalie said she appreciated the program’s emphasis on selecting students with a well-rounded academic background.

Macy said discovering her real estate niche is exactly the reason she’s at UF and at the Bergstrom Center conference.

Julie Augustyn, Senior Vice President for Foundry Commercial, and Steve Nson of the DMZStream TV network and AnySizeDeals.com said the shift in retail centers toward service-oriented tenants is continuing. A Sembler Company presentation by Ron Wheeler, also a Bergstrom Center board member, detailed the trend with hard numbers gathered since 2009.

Retail center owners want more “Internet-proof” businesses like nail salons, gyms and restaurants, they said.

Now, this little blog post is barely scratching the surface of everything we talked about during the show.

Click here to listen to the full broadcast from the Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies Trends and Strategies Conference 2017 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando.