wep – CA Work Experience Program

Day 8

Today I started off in the Raleigh office to say goodbye to all the people I’ve been working with the past 2 weeks and the friends I’ve made during my time at NAI Tri Properties. Then, I headed to Palisades III for a broker event–definitely the best part of the day–touring the building’s completed lobby and shell floors. I got to meet many new commerical brokers from other companies (including a CA alum) and got to talk about possible amenities and designs to be incorporated into the building. Palisades wasn’t the only building I toured, though, I went to two other completely different office spaces afterwards to get an idea of the uniqueness of office space and ability for each company to customize their space to best serve them (one location followed a very traditional, classic but clean office style while the other was more open, colorful, and creative). Then, I went to the Durham office to meet up with everyone there, completing some tasks for a recent broker event Tri Properties hosted and looking over the draft Q1 2022 market report detailing local data in various property types that I had worked on last week. Overall, this was a great opportunity to learn so much more about the different aspects of commerical real estate and apply myself while working at so many different and exciting projects.

Day 7

Today was full of more marketing practice with Linkedin and InDesign, as well as updating the company’s profiles for properties in Matterport while at the Raleigh office. Most excitingly, I attended a TCREW (Triangle Commercial Real Estate for Women) lunch event where women across the triangle area meet from areas of real estate brokering, marketing, law, and more. There, Dr. Kevin Jenkins gave a speech on equity, equality, and empathy in the workplace and in daily life and what can be done on a day-to-day basis to improve working conditions in office spaces (the food was also really good). The lunch took up almost all of my day, but was definitely an exciting event and thought-provoking presentation by Dr. Jenkins that I’m glad I was able to attend.

Strategic Connections Work Week 2 Day 2

Today was a very productive day. Right at 7:00 Am we drove together to Fayetteville. In Fayetteville there is his biggest project of the year that he is working on. Upon arrival we jumped quickly into a meeting to discuss timing of when it will all be done and if the cost is still the same. We then took a look around the building and moved all of our product into a pile. The project is coming together very nicely. On issue we ran into was in the meeting the owners of the building want it done way faster that possible. They want all the t.v, lighting, and cameras all put in in the next 2 moths. This wasn’t possible though because the building wont even be finished in 5 months. So we decided that we will just work very hard to get as much as possible done. It was a fun day today and I learned a lot.

Day 6

Today I worked a lot in InDesign and Illustrater in the style that the marketing team at Tri Properties utilizes both programs. I practiced organizing a page similar to their building brochures and how they use the pen tool to create vectors of buildings for brochures. While using the pen tool was hard at first, I got the hnag of it after a little and created my own vector of a house (which took a lot longer than I thought it would).

Strategic Connections Week 2 Word day 1

Today We did most of the work in his office. It was a very important work day though. Tomorrow we are going to a site in Fayetteville. This is his biggest project he has ever had. So today we had to make sure everything was right. We started off by making sure all the products order are going to get there on time. Then we needed to make sure all the pricing was right. It was lots of little steps we had to go through to make sure everything is perfect. We ran into a couple challenges along the way though. The price for all the product went up. This was a problem because that means they will have to charge the client more and they wont be happy. So what we had to do was try and negotiate a fair deal where it would help both people. Overall it was a great work day!

Day 5

Today I spent most of the day learning to use InDesign as Tri Properties utilizes it for almost every poster, sign, brochure, etc. that they create. I looked at previous brochures for building advertisement in the program and worked on my own creation. Then, I got to spend time learning about the investment side of real estate, looking at all the data the investment group at Tri Properties collect and calculate for building owners. While it was less moving around and visiting properties today, working through InDesign is very useful for creating professional designs to present information as the company does and to better understand how they use the program for their purposes.

Here’s the conference room where most of the larger meetings are held from the Durham building while on call with the Raleigh building.

Day 4

Today was definitely an exciting day! I went to the Raleigh office instead of Durham for the first time and got to meet many of the brokers who work primarily out of that office. I listened in on an early morning meeting talking about industrial and land development, which sounds serious but was very relaxed and light-hearted. Then, I got to attend a celebration lunch event for the tenants of one building in the Industrial Park with food and games–which was very fun and showed the importance of community for the different businesses functioning together. The best part of the day was the end, though, where I went with the vice president of buisiness development and explored downtown Raleigh’s office/flex spaces and recent developments that she or other coworkers had helped negotiate. We specifically went into a smaller office building originally built in the 1920’s that had a beautiful interior that mixed modern technology and decor with antique.

Here’s an example of the office space I was in that had a very clean, refined interior space and a picture from the beginning of the lunch party when people first started arriving.

Strategic Connections Work day 4

Today I went to a project work site. We had to take a look to make sure everything was being done properly and on time. I helped with the wiring. The wiring was a little tricky at first because I had to make sure the red and black wires didn’t touch. If this did happen then I could have been shocked. Once I got the hang of it though it was not hard. I just had to align the red wire with the other red wire. After I finished all the wiring I tied all the wires together so there not just hanging around. Another thing I did on site was help carve out a space in the wall where a camera could fit. The camera will be used for zoom calls. Overall it was fun helping work on the office buildings.

Day 3!

Today I started off with a new experience under the internship: visiting a property and meeting potential tenants under a new sub lease of the property. This was definitely the most exciting way to start the day as the Tri Properties representative and I spoke with a potential tenant and his broker as well as gave a tour of a relatively small flex space in the area. While shadowing Emily of Tri Properties, I learned important advantages of building spaces to include in order to appeal to potential clients such as affordability, location, amenities nearby, modern implementations such as quality air conditioning and alarm systems, lighting, and more. As well, here’s a link to the location I was at and its matterport virtual tour further down: https://www.triprop.com/properties/?propertyId=552735-lease. After that, I came back to the Durham office to finish up information for the 2022 Q1 market report detailing the vacancy rates, absortion, and available square footage of each sub-market (locations such as central Durham, Wake County, RTP/I-40 Corridor, etc.). Then, after a quick lunch, I went on another journey to Preston area to take a matterport scan of a small office area available there. This didn’t take long at all as the space was very limited and there were minimal rooms, which made for an easy process of taking the 360 shots with the camera. After that, I returned again to the office to sit in on a marketing meeting connected to the Raleigh branch I’ll be at tomorrow that discussed social media, marketing events coming up, and advertising. Other than the tour of the office I mentioned at the beginning, the marketing meeting was very interesting and insightful into the marketing aspect of the company.

This is the location I visited, as also shown in the link to its advertisement on Tri Properties’ website.

Day 2

Today I got to explore a lot more of the real estate environment and what goes into a company like Tri Properties. I toured the Imperial Park, where a majority of the office buildings and amenities are leased and maintained by Tri Properties, and examined the difference between class A, B and C office space as well as importance of warehouses, high demand for flex spaces, and what goes into upkeep to maintain building status. My favorite part of the day was helping do a Matterport. This meant I recorded an office up for lease through a camera and their software to capture a virtual walk-through that potential tenants can use to tour the space online. The camera is placed a few yards apart each time and rotates to capture a 360 view of the area until the whole office space is covered, rendering into the program for others to view.

Here’s an example of a Matterport rendering from a side view. They can also be used to tour the building first-hand by virually walking through each room.