Diana Yurek of Sumitomo Real Estate Sales of New York Inc. and Greg Collins of Julien J. Studley are both brokers here and both work for prominent companies in the commercial real estate game. Both say a significant contributing factor to the small numbers of minorities and women in the business is simply a lack of interest on the part of these groups. Collins says, "Real estate brokerage, especially on the strategic tenant representation side, isn't on most people's maps for career choices of any ethnicity." Yurek agrees saying she has noticed women don't generally pursue careers in commercial real estate.
"There are quite a few women in residential, but not commercial," she says. "I'd say only 5-10% in brokerage and sales are women, but in residential it's about 22%." She says that for her commercial was more exciting and as an alumnus of all-women's Mt. Holyoke, she had been encouraged to actively pursue her goals and not be stopped by apparent obstacles such as the number of her fellow women in the field.
She does identify one "disadvantage." She observes, "Because the industry is 95% male, there is a considerable amount of male networking and male bonding that goes on over golf and lunch. A lot of women have been able to make a living with smaller firms. It's very tough to break in to the big time as a woman. There really aren't too many owners and executives who are women, nor women who have stayed in the industry for more than 10 years. It's a combination of both a glass ceiling and simply women not pursuing it."
She does say that if one is "persistent" and works hard, one can achieve their goals and succeed. Collins agrees, "At my firm and most firms it's a function of how productive one is, whether they get promoted. This is pretty close to a meritocracy -- pretty much color-blind."
What he says levels the playing field is the model in brokering is, "You eat what you kill." He says personally it was this kind of meritocracy that actually attracted him to the field and adds, "It's pretty close to an empirical formula.
"I don't know what the practices are with regard to say construction or property management," Collins says. "I've never compared notes with others from competing firms. There's not much there for me to really ruminate on. In years past we've gone to MBA conferences or college campuses for recruiting. In terms of yield it's just difficult getting any people into the tent. Another hurdle becomes compensation." He says it's difficult to entice people in general with the "You eat what you kill scenario."
As for Studley specifically he says, "We've enjoyed a certain degree of success with blacks, females and Asians in our ranks. We're probably no less representative than the rest of the industry. Of our almost 500 people, I'd say 40% empirically fall into the category of minority. That can't be a bad number."
Collins concludes, "I personally haven't felt any impact externally in terms of attracting clients or internally in the firm. I've been doing this for almost 11 years now."
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