Getting Started in Commercial Property Management
Property management is a crucial and important job that also happens to be recession proof. Buildings are not going away–they will also need to be managed. While stressful at times, property management is still somehow very rewarding. You look at the downtown and skyline of Calgary and other cities across Canada and see a building you manage and feel immense pride over these multi-million dollar assets.”
A panel of property management professionals joined REDI Canada’s Manager, Industry Relations, Amanda Blacktopp, CPM to talk about the realities of starting a career in property management.
Part 2: Succeeding in Commercial Property Management expands on what an average property management day looks like, how the panellists thrive in their teams, and what skills and strategies they use to succeed in property management.
Access the full webinar recording here: Career Pathways in Commercial Property Management. The following excerpts are edited for clarity and brevity.
How’d you get started in commercial property management?
Christina Martin | Property Manager | Hines
My first job in the corporate commercial real estate world was with Hines. I started as an administrative assistant for the development team. We worked on the One Park Central development, which included acquiring the land, demolishing the existing building, and applying for the development permit. I was quickly promoted to an assistant property manager role, where I oversaw the ATCO Park complex within Hines. Then I had a short stint at Colliers, with an industrial portfolio in retail buildings. And then I did return to Hines as a property manager, which is my role today, where I manage two commercial office towers, in downtown Calgary.
Melissa Ferguson | President | Symmetry Commercial Real Estate
I got started in 2005. I applied to be an unlicensed admin assistant at a firm in downtown Calgary. At the time, I had thought the company was an oil and gas company, so I didn’t even know that I was applying at a commercial real estate company. But I’m so glad that I did and it all worked out. I was working at a firm that did just sales and leasing transactions, so I really wanted to try out property management. In 2008, I moved to a different company as a property management assistant and in 2009, I got licensed in rural, commercial, and residential, but not property management, although I think the process is different now.
In 2011, I became a senior property manager and then in 2018, I decided to start my own company. I had to go back to complete my RECA pre-licensing education, first to do property management and then the broker licence, as well as condo licensing which RECA split out from property management a few years ago.
Brodie Johnson | Property Manager | Brookfield Properties
My journey into real estate started in 2017 where I was the planning and advocacy manager for an economic development organization in Toronto that worked alongside property managers and other real estate folks. That provided an amazing opportunity to work on a spectrum of projects with various entities, whether it was the city or supporting landlords with development applications, to working with real estate organizations such as BOMA and their stakeholder groups.
Ultimately, I think what I enjoyed, in that role was working with the large office owners and landlords on initiatives that were important to their business and their tenants and gave me a pretty good glimpse into the day-to-day life of property management. Fast forward a few years, in 2020 I made a lot of great contacts in the industry and a close senior contact of mine reached out and offered me the opportunity to join them as an assistant property manager in starting up a brand new office building in downtown Toronto. So jumped on that opportunity. I worked there for several years before moving back to Calgary. In early 2023, I had the opportunity to join Brookfield today as an assistant property manager and recently late last year I was promoted to property manager here at Suncor Energy Centre.
Amanda Blacktopp | Industry Relations Manager | REDI Canada
Personally, I had no idea that property management as a career existed and once I did, I had already finished college. I thought that real estate was only residential realtors. I came from a small town and while I loved the idea of property and buildings and wanted to learn more, I didn’t know where to start.
How did you research a career in property management and get started?
Melissa Ferguson | President | Symmetry Commercial Real Estate
Once I was in real estate, it was more of a case of, okay, how do I further myself or what can I do, what courses are there? At the time, there was licensing, the RPA and CPM path that most people were taking. But, realistically, employers didn’t have a lot of requirements or even much encouragement to have anything other than your licence.
Christina Martin | Property Manager | Hines
I sort of just fell into it. When I was hired as an administrative assistant, the only requirement was an undergraduate degree in any subject matter. Through industry associations, I learned about all the various definitions and all the different jobs that are related to real estate. As property managers, I say we’re kind of generalists, but we learn from a lot of different experts within the industry, from property tax to leasing. So for anyone who’s interested in real estate, getting an entry level job within property management gives you a major insight into how diverse the industry really is.
Brodie Johnson | Property Manager | Brookfield Properties
Similar to what Christina was saying, in school I learned about development and finance, but not really about property management at the time. So, I think just working tangentially with those folks allowed me to learn about different career paths. Once I found out about the industry associations and organizations, fortunately, some really helpful folks were able to answer a pile of questions for me and that opened up those doorways and really shed some light on the direction I wanted to pursue.
What’s your educational background, and how does it relate to property management?
Brodie Johnson | Property Manager | Brookfield Properties
My educational background is in planning and development, more related to real estate finance, development, and site planning. I’m currently taking pre-licensing courses for property management.
Christina Martin | Property Manager | Hines
I completed my undergraduate degree at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.I double majored in urban planning and environmental sustainability, so similar to Brodie, I had an urban planning background. I interned with the Halifax regional municipality and realized I didn’t want to make maps all day every day as a GIS technician. So then I moved out west. I worked at the Fairmont Hotel in Lake Louise for a little bit and didn’t know much about Calgary’s real estate market. I was one of the first people to participate in the Real Estate Development Leadership certificate and was actually hired through that program into an administrative assistant position. That certificate was great to learn about different developments within the Calgary market and meet peers that were already working in the industry.
I’m licensed. I completed the first pre-licensing course, the Fundamentals of Real Estate and then I completed my designation in property management while I was working at Colliers since it was a requirement of my position at the time. I’m looking at taking my designation in commercial and then hopefully eventually working towards my full broker licensing just by taking kind of one course slowly throughout the years while working.
Melissa Ferguson | President | Symmetry Commercial Real Estate
I don’t have any formal education in real estate other than all of the RECA licenses. In addition to that, there’s always continuing education every year to renew your licence and make sure we’re up to date.
What role have Industry Associations played in starting your career through to today?
Melissa Ferguson | President | Symmetry Commercial Real Estate
I’m a member of BOMA Calgary and have been pretty much my entire career. It was always very supportive at any company I worked at. And throughout the years BOMA has been such a great place to be a member of. A lot of the people that I started off in the industry with we’ve stayed in touch and grown up and it’s kind of neat to see where everybody is now versus 15 years ago. Through BOMA I’ve made lots of connections and great friends and been part of lots of different initiatives. I was a co-chair on the 2018 BOMEX Committee, been part of the mentorship program, and been a judge for the service excellence awards for a few years and that’s really rewarding just in itself. I also find BOMA is very informative. They keep you in the loop about trends, changes to laws, and heads up about plans for downtown or various areas of the city. Just this year I joined CREW Calgary, looking for the same thing that I get with BOMA, but with women peers. I think that they both have their strengths.
Brodie Johnson | Property Manager | Brookfield Properties
I was a member of NAIOP and boards in a previous life, but currently I’m a member of BOMA and part of the Government Affairs Committee. The thing I like about the committee work and BOMA is that it’s not limited to building operators and managers. It includes any folks that are adjacent to that industry as well, like vendors, consultants, or service providers; it’s a really good, broad spectrum of people that are trying to advance our industry forward. So it’s great to be part of and you get a lot of diverse opinions and perspectives.
Christina Martin | Property Manager | Hines
The common connection between all of us is BOMA. I currently co-chair the next generation committee, which is a group of BOMA members who are 35 and under, and we put on about four industry events per year, usually two social and two educational events. I also just completed the BOMA mentorship program as well which was really valuable to me to access a different group of people than I’d typically meet at BOMA next generation events. It’s just a great space to learn more about what’s going on in the industry and the first time I went I met people in jobs that I had no idea even existed within the industry. BOMA events are a great resource to meet new service providers, network, and share ideas.
I’m also involved with CREW. I served on the membership committee for two years and have recently switched the golf committee for this year, which works with the sponsorship committee as well. So, I get a different side of CREW.
Also, since I started my career in real estate development, the first committee I ever joined seven years ago was the Urban Land Institute Young Leaders Committee. I was on the board for a while as well, but I still help out there, and although it’s not directly related to property management, it’s just an interesting way to see new developments in the cities that they do construction hard hat tours. They recently did one for the first office-to-residential conversion of The Cornerstone. So, it’s just an opportunity to meet with more general contractors, lawyers, and people like that to expand my professional network.