CREW Special Report: An “Epic” Kickoff

“Take epic chances” was the theme of the 2025 CREW Network Convention held in Austin this week.

Kicking off the event, CREW CEO Allison Beddard said she found an old notebook from 2015—a gift from past CREW Network President Lori Kilberg—encouraging her to record every wild idea and go big with the journal.

Keynote speaker Chely Wright, head of corporate social responsibility and new markets at ISS Americas and former country artist, also spoke to the idea of thinking big. In her opening remarks, Wright shared her 50-year journey of building a name in both country music and commercial real estate, as well as her path to becoming a published author. Wright also took an epic chance when she came out on the Today Show in 2010.

“My real passion is real estate,” Wright told the audience of more than 500 first-time attendees and many other commercial real estate professionals. During her speech, which was interwoven with musical performances, she shared how she started investing in properties in Nashville, Tenn., and Kansas City, Kan., in the late 1990s. Wright even told a story about working on a property in Nashville before heading on stage for a show.

---

READ ALSO: CRE Investors Find Bright Spots Amid Headwinds

---

Following the pandemic, Wright spent four years at commercial design firm Unispace before being named to her leadership role at ISS, a workplace and facility management company, in March.

Tariff risks in the real estate economy

In the second general session of day one, Marcus & Millichap CEO Hessam Nadji shared insights on the global economic outlook for commercial real estate. He remarked that the economic climate “feels elevated” following the Fed’s interest rate cut of 25 basis points last month.

He also noted that the country has gone through multiple cycles of economic uncertainty and the tariff rate was out of balance for decades. Nadji emphasized that the economy is not in the condition it was before the Great Depression began almost a century ago.

At that time, global trade came to a halt and stunned the economy. Today, U.S. trading partners are expanding ties with new partners, the world economy will keep moving, and the full impact of tariffs has yet to be felt.

What’s performing well?

Nadji pointed to a long period of healthy economic fundamentals, which include 17.4 million jobs added over the past decade, 1.8 million job openings and 9.9 million new households. “From the base of economy that we live in today, it’s still a very strong foundation of very hot employment, having had some wage growth over the last five to seven years and a very good savings rate,” he said.

Nadji also pointed out how the demand for certain sectors has shifted compared to 10 years ago, yet this time marked by rapid change and uncertainty also offers opportunity. He cited the office sector as an example. With many office tenants now on a hybrid schedule, office foot traffic has reached 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels—up from 57 percent in 2023—supporting future office demand.

“Retail is the new apartments, office is the new retail, the balance has shifted,” Nadji observed. He noted that vacancy rates are 5 percent for retail, 4.6 percent for apartments, 8 percent for industrial and 16.5 percent for office. He also shared that there is still hesitation about new construction, especially in the industrial sector, and that’s giving the market the chance to recover. He also believes that this will result in value-add projects and strategies across the board in the coming years.