RBN Northeast Conference - Washington, D.C.
Earlier this month Chris Waldburger and I, as well as over 30 other RBN members from around the country traveled to the Capitol representing ROI Commercial Real Estate for the Retail Broker Network (RBN) Northeast Regional Retreat, hosted by our Washington D.C. affiliate Renaud Consulting. Huge shout out to Henry Renaud and his team for putting together such an amazing event!
Some of you may be thinking, why did she go to the Northeastern RBN retreat? Doesn’t she work in the Western region? Well, being in a large organization like RBN, there are over 58 offices across the country that we affiliate with, the only time that we get to see everyone from the group is once a year at ICSC ReCon in Vegas. After recently taking on a chair position, it has made me put myself out there more and strive to be more connected within the group. Last year, I attended two RBN retreats and I found it incredibly beneficial to have one on one time with these brokers to pick their brains about trends and while also getting to know them on a more personal level. It has made it a lot easier to pick up the phone and call for help if/when needed and most importantly, it’s great to have the ability to refer a client to someone that I know, like, and trust in another market. The RBN sap aside, the conference was being hosted in Washington D.C. which is a bucket list city for me that I had never been to, so it was a no brainer - I booked it! And now I am here to tell you about all of the cool things I learned and got to explore on this trip. Let’s get into it!
Day 1 - Welcome to the Capitol
I made the grave mistake of taking a red eye flight because I clearly have no respect for myself, but you know what, I made it work - thank you body for dealing with my poor planning. After landing in Dulles, VA bright and early, I headed straight to National Harbor to check into the hotel where I got ready for a full day of exploring and meetings ahead! Our clients Evan and Larry Siegel picked me up and showed me around their hometown while sharing some very interesting facts about the city. For instance, did you know Washington D.C. was designed by the French Visionary, Pierre Charles L’Enfant in 1791, and the reason that there are so many roundabouts (36 to be exact) in the city is because it was designed as a form of protection should there have been any land invasion, it would have taken them longer to get through to the Capitol - interesting right?
Like most urban cities, D.C. has a lot of pockets with different neighborhoods, some of my favorites that we visited were Logan Circle, NoMa, Dupont Circle, and Kalorama. After driving around town for a bit, we headed to a fantastic lunch at La Diplomat, a renown french restaurant operated by Starr Restaurant Group. The sourdough bread you guys… to die for.
We wrapped up lunch and headed down to the recently reestablished Wharf, which has now become a waterfront city and destination for restaurants, retailers, residences, and businesses. Then we headed to Georgetown to check out a few retailers that we have been eying to bring to Las Vegas (love this part of my job). Then we finished off our time together with a meeting back at Larry’s and caught up on all things business. Thank you Larry and Evan for an amazing day and showing me around your city!
Back to National City I go, to my surprise, D.C. has quite a bit of traffic, the drive from the D.C. to National Harbor took roughly an hour, but I was able to make it just in time for the RBN welcome reception. Here we had some dinner and drinks and got to networking!
Day 2 - All Aboard the Bus Tour!
Wakey wakey, it’s time for the Bus Tour! Renaud Consulting booked a fantastic tour guide who was a wealth of knowledge in such a historical city. The beginning of the tour included some stops at the Capitol, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and drive-bys of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, and the Pentagon. All of which were even more beautiful than I could have imagined. We sadly just missed the iconic Cherry Blossom bloom by two weeks, but still got to see some. There were so many cool facts that we learned, but I will share three of my favorite from this tour.
Washington D.C. drew in 25 Million visitors last year, and they are anticipating that number to go up to 33 Million this year.
In 1909, Mayor Ozaki gifted 2,000 cherry blossoms trees to Washington D.C. as a token of friendship between Japan and the US.
The First Lady gets to choose the flowers that go outside of the Capitol, First Lady Jill Biden chose red tulips which were beautiful!
After the monument tour wrapped up, we were headed to lunch at Throw Social which is a very fun restaurant and bar that has interactive games like Axe Throwing, Ping Pong, Corn Hole, Shuffle Board. On weekends they curate the space with DJs and live music where you can rent cabanas and make a whole day or night out of it.
Back on the bus we go! This time for a Real Estate tour by the Washington D.C. Economic Partnership (WDCEP). Another very detailed tour where we were updated on the business and economic climate of the city and toured through some of the recent redevelopment hot spots in DC including: Mt. Vernon Triangle, NoMa, Union Market, the Wharf and Navy Yard. Some takeaways from this tour below:
Washington D.C. has the richest counties in the country.
Old Ebbitt Grill is the #3 top grossing restaurant in the country and does roughly $39 million in sales annually out of 14,000 SF. It is also the oldest restaurant in the city, opening in 1856.
Average retail rents in these areas ranged from $40-$90 PSF/YR depending on the location.
Dropped back off at National Harbor, we had one more Real Estate Tour to complete. This one being a walk through with Peterson Development to show us the ins and outs of National Harbor, a 360 acre mixed use project that sits on the Potomac River. Here they explained the design and layout behind the project and how they were able to overcome some of the challenges of the recession when developing it.
After a FULL day of taking in so much information, we finished up dinner and had some drinks at Bond 45 and checked out a cool Irish Pub inside National Harbor on our way back to the hotel.
Day 3 - RBN Meeting by Hosted by NE Region
Wrapping up the retreat, Renaud Consulting put together a meeting for the group where we discussed some tips and tricks for LinkedIn, all things Food Halls, and overall deal strategy. We had brokers from all over the country providing insights from different markets on how they are overcoming construction delays as well as working around some of the lending struggles since it has been difficult getting loans approved as of late given the economy and rates.
All and all, this trip was incredibly informative and I made some new friends along the way while visiting a very cool city filled with history, art, and a vast range in cultural diversity. Thank you RBN for setting this up, it’s alway a great time getting to explore and network with this sharp group of brokers!