The Rapid Change of Commercial Real Estate with Mike Emory | EP161

Michael is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Allied Properties REIT. Prior to entering the Real Estate business in 1988, he was a partner at the law firm of Aird & Berlis LLP, specializing in corporate and real estate finance. He is also a Director of EQB Inc. and Equitable Bank.

In this episode, we talked about:

Mike’s Bio & BackgroundMike’s View on the Office Market: Downtown and SuburbianClimate RisksInterest Rates and Monetary PolicyInflationMike’s Advice to Individuals Who Want to Get into Real EstateFuture of Mike Emory

Useful links:
https://schulich.yorku.ca/faculty/jim-clayton/

Transcriptions:
Jesse (0s): Welcome to the working capital real estate podcast. My name's Jessica Galley And. on this show, we discuss all things real estate with investors and experts in a variety of industries that impact real estate. Whether you're looking at your first investment or raising your first fund, join me and let's build that portfolio one square foot at a time. Michael, welcome back. Thank you. We're on working capital, the real estate Podcast.

I have with me today, Michael Emery, founder and executive chair of Allied REIT. Mike, how you been? I've

Mike (37s): Been great. Thanks. It,

Jesse (38s): It's been quite a while since we last did this.

Mike (40s): It has, and in the intervening couple of years, my grandchildren have grown up. They're now 5, 5, 3, and three and endlessly enjoyable for my wife and I.

Jesse (53s): That's great. I feel like my dad's in the same situation right now that, that period in your life. So great. That that is a great time for you. For those that didn't hear our first episode, anybody that wants to check that out on YouTube, Michael Emery, working capital, you just type that in. It should come up. But for those that didn't hear that first episode, quite a bit has changed over the last couple years. If you could bring people up to speed as to, you know, what you do at Allied and a little bit of your background.

Mike (1m 20s): Sure. As we probably discussed a couple of years ago, I started life as a lawyer but didn't spend much time practicing law. I was able to get into the industry in 1988, a small company called Allied Canadian, which basically evolved into Allied Properties, REIT, the public entity that we know today. The last two or three years have been very interesting for Allied.

They have been challenging in a way. Certainly the pandemic created its own complex of issues which we've worked through very successfully. The current cyclical decline that we're living through has, has created a new but rather normal series of issues. I've been through many cycles, many, much worse than the cycle we appear to be going through now.

They are, in many respects, disturbing and disorienting, but they're also curative. They eliminate excesses within any economic system, and I think that's actually what's happening. It's been good for Allied because we've been able to take the change over the last three years and use it as an opportunity to strengthen our operating team. Our business ultimately is not acquisitions, it is not development.

Although we do both of those things. Our business is operations and our success or lack of it derives almost entirely from the quality of our operations. And we've bolstered our operating teams dramatically over the past three years. We are, I think, a preferred employer. So we are able to attract the best talent in the industry, and we've done exactly that over the last three years to the point that we were able to implemen