In this episode of Broker’s Angle, Hal Coopersmith sits down with Noam Aziz of Meridian, a young commercial leasing broker who’s proving that success isn’t about age, it’s about action. At only 21, he’s closed hundreds of leases, built a growing team, and outworked the competition, one phone call at a time. This episode dives into the mindset, discipline, and strategy behind rapid success in commercial real estate.

Transcript

Hal Coopersmith: So people calling?

Noam Aziz: Great question. I think people are afraid of picking up the phone. because I think that, you know, they may be afraid as to how that person’s going to respond. They may be afraid if they’re going to come off as aggressive. I’m very aggressive. That’s how I obtained a lot of business. I like calling people because you get to the gist right away and you can do your pitch. Whereas, you know. Texting somebody is not really such appropriate in terms of pitching, or maybe it’s good, you know, as a process to do deals, but emailing is great as well. But calling you’re in front of people and I think that’s very effective. Shows that you’re aggressive and that you want to go after deals. So calling is the right guy. I probably call. I mentioned to you probably four to 600 people a day. How many people answer the phone? That’s a different conversation, but as long as you’re calling people and they have a missed call from you, it feels they can feel it. Whereas texts, you know, some owners are not going to be responsive or tenants are not going to be responsive, and, and I do primarily landlord rep. I probably do 75 to 80% landlord rep as opposed to tenant rep. landlords don’t have to respond to emails. They have a luxury, we represent them. They don’t have to respond to an email.  Many of them, maybe don’t know how to utilize email. That’s totally fine. Or find it ine effective, you know,

Hal Coopersmith: So how did you get into calling how.

Noam Aziz: It’s a good question. Well, when I was a few days in at Meridian, I started June 12th of 23. I canvased Lennox Avenue in Harlem and I just called all of those owners and I mentioned to them what deals that my fellow colleagues at Meridian didn’t Harlem. And I told them about what’s happening on their street, what’s happening in the neighborhood, what developments are coming up. And I emailed them, um. You know, reached out to tenants, but calling people was just the best route to go. I didn’t, I didn’t find, you know, cold emailing or, you know, things of that nature as effective. To say, hi, I’m a new broker and I want to email you. If I, if I call somebody that’s new and I’m cold calling, I like to be different than other people. I’m a triplet first and foremost. I have two brothers. I’m the youngest. one of them goes to Columbia University. and we’re like one or two minutes apart. And my opening a lot of the time is that I’m a Persian Jew from Great Neck and that I’m a triplet to catch them a little bit off guard. I don’t like to be like other people. I don’t like to be stiff. I’m not institutional, quote unquote. I work very hard. but I like to be different. I don’t want to be the norm, you know?

Hal Coopersmith: So you find the landlords, you call them up and you say,  I’m a triplet.

Noam Aziz: Yeah and then I tell them that my first name is Noam, and that means pleasant, and I’m not pleasant at all. That’s what I tell them as well.

Hal Coopersmith: What do they say?

Noam Aziz: So they either say that’s great, or they say, not interested. And you know, there’s many ways that commercial leasing brokers can provide value to an owner. It’s not only if they have a vacancy. You know, you can have a vacancy now, you can have a VA vacancy in 10, 20, 30 years from now. I hope I’m going to be in this business long term. I hope whether you work with me now or 10, 20 years from now. you know, I hope that we’re in communication because as a commercial leasing broker, a lot of the time, you know, I’m helping owners that I currently have relationships with, whether it’s underwriting deals that they’re looking at, or they’re asking me like, no, should I renew this tenant? Are they paying market rent? Are they paying slightly below? Can you help me bid them up? And do it out of the kindness of my heart because I care about them and I, want them to come back to me for future business.

Hal Coopersmith: What do the landlord say when they don’t want to speak to you?

Noam Aziz: They can hang up. They can say, Who cares? But at the end of the day, a lot of people play tough to get, you know, getting me on the phone. I’ll always be receptive to phone calls, but everybody’s busy, so you have to provide value. One of you speaks to someone on the phone and people can be busy. People can have bad days. When someone has a bad day, don’t speak to them. They’re probably in a argument with their wife. I don’t blame them. but you can always call back people like aggression people, like someone that is persistent. I love persistence. I’m very persistent. I think I’m persuasive to an extent as well, but I really think that being an effective commercial leasing broker is really just about being on phone, being on phone calls, because there’s many deals that I’ve hashed out just by a simple phone call, save the deal,

Hal Coopersmith: Where did you learn, be on the phone?

Noam Aziz: I always make mistakes and I have 12 people currently that work on my team and they’ll ask me, um, Hey, should I, is this an appropriate email that can I, I can send, Hey, can I send this text message? Hey, should I make this phone call? And I tell them, I don’t want to hear about it. I want you to do it. I make plenty of mistakes. I make thank God mistakes on a daily basis, and that’s amazing. It’s amazing to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. I think I’m very open-minded, and I learned how to, learn from mistakes and to grow as a person by doing it. So the way I train my team is I want you to make mistakes. I could care less what happens from it. So learning experience, and we’re young. You know, I’m 21. I have a lot of time to make mistakes and I’ll learn from it and I’ll be even more effective.

Hal Coopersmith: You’re 21 and you have 12 people underneath you.

Noam Aziz: Thank God. Yeah.

Hal Coopersmith: How long have you been in the industry?

Noam Aziz: Been in the industry for about two and a half years. Started June 12 of 2023 at Meridian.

Hal Coopersmith: So it would seem. People to progress very quickly. How did you progress so quickly?

Noam Aziz: So I really believe in growing organically. you know, there’s a lot of tenants that I work with that I’ve seen, and they have, they open up one shop and I tell them, relax, don’t expense rapidly. Build out the space, make sure that one’s sustainable. And then. Open up the next one when you’re ready. And I always tell them when a, corporation comes after you and wants you and wants to buy you out or this and that, don’t do it. your product is going to not be as quality and it’s going to be a detriment. I really noticed that when I started at Meridian in 23, I did eight deals in my first seven months. Then in 24 I did 55 leases, and then in 25 I did 127 commercial leases. Thank God you need a team. You need to collaborate with people. So when I was picking up assignments left and right in 24, I realized that I can’t be everywhere at once. I would love to be everywhere at once. I think I’m very efficient. I think I’m very effective. I think I’m a good sales man. Call car salesman. That’s awesome. Thank you so much. And that’s a good thing. Uh, we are in the business of sales, but I have to create structure and I have to make sure that, you know, the assignments that we’re on were, are being monetized and it just so happened that I put one colleague on the assignment and then I put him on more assignments. Then I would work with tenants with him, and then it just, we just collaborated so much more and we just built this, this team structure, thank God. And I had a lot of people that helped me along the way, such as Adam Maloff.

Hal Coopersmith: So you have all these deals, grow a team. How do you stay organized?

Noam Aziz: So I’m a very simple person. I used to write on a sheet of paper my lease is out and people that I’m going to, that I have to call. And I realized that I was scribbling because I was rushing and I’m a very rushy person. I’m I like things that happen quick. I don’t, I have Pat, do I have patience? I don’t think I have a lot of patients, but what I realized is that when I was doing that note sheet, I’d have to be in the office to follow up. So then I created a note sheet on my phone. I have a to-do list. I have my leases out, I have Lois out, you know, I have everything. And I look at that and I work typically from five 30 to about midnight, 5:30 AM am Yeah. When when I’m awake, when my eyes are open, I might not be in front of a computer, but when I go to dinner, like I went to dinner last night and I took a train back to Grand Neck. Caught the nine 12. I had to transfer from Woodside. I was on the phone and I was responding to email since Outlook was backed up. and I was calling people and I think that’s like the best time to do outreach, to catch up on things is like when the hours when your competitors are not working, that’s when you can play catch up. That’s whenever you can discuss with an attorney such as yourself about the red lines that you receive during the day.

So, you know, time is the most valuable asset, but. This is not a nine to five job. The only time I don’t work is on Shabbat. I have a breathing room, but the second Shabbat ends. Um, I have so much energy that I have to deploy, and that’s why I think I become, I become so effective at that. That’s why I can manage so many responsibilities. And unlike other brokers that are in my position, I’m on top of every single LOI, every single lease that I have out because of how. I believe I’m, but about how much I, I put emphasis on wanting to be involved in a deal. I don’t just give it off. I want to be there. I want to grow the team. I want to speak to my colleagues a lot. Not just in the office after hours, you know, we’re all young, we’re hungry. I don’t have children, you know, I have priorities, but work is my life right now.

Hal Coopersmith: You said you take it as a compliment when someone calls you to use car salesman. Why is that?

Noam Aziz: Well, we’re in the business of sales. That’s for starters. and I don’t think, to be honest with you, as a broker, I am as I’m pushy and I’m aggressive, but I also want to do deals that are quality. I don’t want to just do a deal to do a deal. I really want to, especially if I’m representing an owner, I want to make sure that that tenant survives and sustains threat. So, being mentioned as a used salesman, I think is honestly might be a good thing because it means that I have a lot of business, but I learned very quickly and just in life, you know, I, I love when people disagree with me. It’s a good thing because, you know, especially if you’re in the wrong and you can learn from it, but you know, people’s words. They’re meaningless. Who cares what other people think? But I think it’s a compliment ’cause that means I’m probably very active if I’m being called as a used car. So that means I’m actively pitching people, speaking to people and making deals.

Hal Coopersmith: And how do you zone out, let’s say, on a cold call or someone calls you a used car salesman, negative things that they’re saying about you?

Noam Aziz:They’re probably having a bad day. I think that you just have to, you know, put yourself in their shoes. I think they are honestly are probably having a bad day or, I don’t know. There’s, there’s many different occasions why someone would speak negatively or would mention that. I’m not saying that that’s like a hard knock. I don’t mind being called that. But I always realized like when we, when we go to ICSC or I was on Corey’s podcast, it’s not about, it’s not about what happens in the present moment. It’s about what you do after. Like at IIC SC you can meet so many people and I love meeting people and I love going to dinner with a certain person, and I’m young, so when I go out with, you know, older people or I learn from someone that has a lot more experience, my heart sinks a little bit because I’m like, wow. This guy’s a lot more intellect than me, but It’s important what you do aftermath when you meet someone, the actions that you take. So I always think about that. I say, you know, who cares about the present or the past? I think about the future. So I could care less what? Anybody says, if someone doesn’t want to work with me, no problem. Regardless, I think you’re going to work with me 10 years from now, whether you like it or not. That’s what I truly believe.

Hal Coopersmith: So you say the actions that you take afterwards, what’s an example of some of those actions?

Noam Aziz: You can meet someone at ICSC. You can tell them, you know, it was, it was great meeting you and I look forward to doing business with you in, in the near future, but you have to take that next step. How are you going to do business with each other in the future if you don’t take that next step? It’s like following up. It’s basically following up. I mean, I spoke with an owner last week that I’m pitching in Harlem. I’m like, let’s go out to dinner. Not this week, the following week. Let’s pencil it on our calendar right now. Yeah, right now let’s pencil it. And he’s like, oh, lemme, lemme check my calendar, you know, call me next week. I said, you know what? No problem. I’ll call you next week. I’m going to call him next week and I’m going to schedule that, right. That’s taking the next step. Not just letting it be, but I think a lot of people don’t take that next step or they take the next step and they do that in like the, at 10:00 AM and on a Monday morning, in the middle of the day, I’m doing deals in the middle of the day, 10:00 AM in the morning. I already, I already handled my followups prior to walking into the office, right? I handled it way before anyone else got it to the office because I’ll have my priorities straight. So I’m actively, I’m not playing catchup during the day. I’m only playing Catchup. If, let’s say I’m in a meeting and I’ve missed phone calls, then I’m playing catchup.

But like I created something where I’m on top of everything no matter what, and I always will be. And if I’m not, I’ll play Catchup at night, or I’ll play Catchup in the morning and I’ll out compete and work harder than anybody else.

Hal Coopersmith: Why’d you get into real estate?

Noam Aziz: It’s a great question. Honestly, I don’t know. I was in Queens College my first semester. I was going in two days a week and I was at home the other three days and I was taking eight classes. and I saw one of my friends, Daniel Sharga, used to work at Meridian. He’s an amazing guy. and he was taking his real estate U course and he did it in about a week, and I just decided to do it. And then I went on LinkedIn during winter break. I was taking a couple of classes as well, and I hit up Aaron Azi, who’s a distant relative of one, and I worked at a RA for a few months prior to joining. Meridian just happens. I have. maybe distant cousins that in real estate, but my father is on Diamond District. He is, I have tremendous respect for my parents. They raised triplets. My father, has a PhD in nuclear physics from Oxford University. He left Iran a few years before the revolution and finished high school in England because he was so talented and so well educated. it just happened. My mom’s, you know, homemaker, she raised four children. We’re very successful. My brother’s in Columbia. He graduated Queens College. He got his bachelor’s in three years and now he is going to be, he’s in med school. so yeah, it just happened. But I was, I always, I was always working younger. I think one of my brothers who has special needs, he really. Made me independent growing up because I would take care of him and I would be with him like Saturday nights when my friends would be going out and growing up I had a little bit more responsibilities, I think, than other people in my position. And I never wanted to be a detriment with my parents. Whenever I wanted to ask them for like money to go out with, to lunch with my friends, I always wanted to obtain that myself. I used to, at the age of 13, I used to, 13 until I started working in real estate. Do, eBay and Amazon reselling. I used to resell electronics. I used to buy them wholesale or just buy them, you know, on third party buy someone that just found them in the garage and I would flip it.

Hal Coopersmith: All hustle.

Noam Aziz: All hustle. Like anything else, it’s a hands-on experience. I actually believe that hands-on experience.

Hal Coopersmith: It seems talking to you that you are mature well past your age. Based off of what you’re saying. I hope so. That would explain it. Just your outlook, your perspective, even some of the stuff that we were talking. Before, at least in terms of, okay, I may be 21, but this is why I can lead a team of 12.

Noam Aziz: Yeah. I mean, I think I’m mature for my age, but I also think that. You’ve never seen me in, in the office, but you can can speak to James or anybody in my office, but I have a foul mouth. I hope my mom doesn’t appear that, but I do. and I’m very sarcastic and I like to goof off, but I’m serious. You know, I think it’s, I think it’s very important not to just be stiff. I don’t think owners and tenants want to work with someone that is just very stiff and maybe I don’t want to work with them. If they’re, I probably do, but I like to light like, you know, business and I think you can be successful by not just being so stiff. people like to work with people that they, they enjoy their presence. They make them laugh that have that type of relationship. So I’ve seen that been being very effective. So yes, definitely mature. I thank my parents for that. I think I’m very thankful for just the way that I grew up.

Hal Coopersmith: So what are you seeing as a trend in retail real estate right now, this being, February of 2026?

Noam Aziz: I think we’re in a fascinating time. I get, you know, people always speak to me about what the current state of just what’s going on in the city with politics, and I have my, my views, I’m sure you do as well, but I think it’s,  I think it’s a very fascinating time. I’ve had an incredible start to the year, thank God we’ve picked up probably over 25 assignments so far this year. We’ve done over a dozen deals this year. Thank God. I see the market as very active. I know many people that don’t have to sell. but I know there’s a lot of buyers out there. A lot of people are looking at retail condos, and a lot of more opportunities are coming to the market. I see the same things. Restaurants, heavy, heavy demand, lack of supply. I see big box spaces coming back to the market, lack of demand, but a heavy supply. and I know that tenants. Across the board prefer smaller, square foot, smaller footprints. And you walk, you go to Chelsea and you look on the side streets, you know you can get a few thousand square feet for 60 bucks a foot. Whereas, you know, pre COVID they were trading over a hundred a foot. The Dwayne Reeds of the worlds, the RiteAid of the worlds. These owners were probably getting. A hundred, 150% of what they’re getting now. I mean, I have a variety that I’m marketing on 26 and 22nd and ninth that we were getting 1.3 mil per annum.

And the retail, it’s a retail condo, and the retail condo taxes are a little over 400 grand a month, a year. And we’re about to rent it after six years of it being vacant for a little over 400 grand a year per Ann. And the city doesn’t know, but the city typically, I think what, what’s standard is the, the taxes should be about a third of the rent roll. So the city believes that that aid was paying 1.3 mil annum that. The taxes. It should be, it. It’s still probably worth 1.3 million per Ann. That’s why the taxes are four 40 grand. So my clients theoretically just lost $3 million in the past six years, and we’re about to rent it for about 400 grand per Ann to start, to a grosser that’s going to put $3 million in the space. And hopefully the city realizes that, acknowledges it, and the taxes become a third. But who knows? It’s, there’s a lot of unknowns. But these are the spaces that are really suffering. I mean, the Dwayne Reed on Second Avenue, you know, and I think it’s 63rd Street. You have 9,000 square feet, thank God you have about a hundred feet of frontage. And I see these owners and I tell these owners, chop it up and you’ll hopefully get what, what they were paying. But you, you rent that to a whole single tenant, you’re probably getting half of what you, you were getting, you know, previously. And it’s very unfortunate. But we’ve seen that a lot with UPSs of the world that are paying 300 bucks a foot. And these other tenants that, um, signed leases during COVID and leases that were expired

Hal Coopersmith: So large. Retail pharmacy, footprints, Rite Aid, Dwayne Reed, CBS. Those large tenants aren’t there anymore,

Noam Aziz: so they might be there, but they’re not paying what they used to pay. I mean, I know banks that are just these banks, you know, they take, they used to take 5,000 square feet. I have a bank that I’m about to start marketing in The story Queens, that’s 10,000 square foot corner. These banks don’t need that amount of square feet anymore. I mean, representing KO popular and at East Fordham Road, 3 0 1 East Fordham Road, and they just exited their lease and they just signed on its Freedom Road for 2000 square feet. They in about 5,000 square feet. They don’t need that much size. They don’t need to be pay such a big number. So yeah, that’s the, that’s the issue that’s coming up and I see a lot of properties that are in foreclosure and that are being actively bid on, and that will gradually start coming back to market and coming back at realistic price per square foot. Because right now we both know the city, thank God, I believe that they’re incentivizing developers since we have a lack of housing supply. Essentially, even though I think it’s the city’s fault for that, and I guess they’re attempting to circumvent, you know, and actually make housing affordable here. But they are incentivizing a lot of developers and I picked up many development, spaces.

And you know, a lot of these developers, they underwrite a heavy, a high price per square foot. And a lot of the time their development sites sit, but sometimes they don’t. You know, but there’s,  heavy TI packages that get involved. Everything is always. About economics at the end of the day. But yes, the big box spaces, they’re the ones that I believe are going to be the most,  struggling, but also the side street spaces that are just too big and not enough frontage to divide. You get such a lower price per square foot, and the city is not. Really, you know, a good guy guarantee is amazing, but security deposit I think, is the most efficient because if you don’t get, if you don’t, if you don’t have such a strong guarantor to go after them costs tens of thousands of dollars and it can take such a long time to evict a tenant. There’s a big risk now. It’s very challenging. And on top of that, these owners have to pay a broker fee, free rent, attorney fees. It adds up a lot. So I feel for them,

Hal Coopersmith: So smaller tenants in these larger spaces, that’s a little bit more where the market is, what type of tenants are going into those spaces.

Noam Aziz: So you’re talking about smaller footprints, right?

Hal Coopersmith: Yeah.

Noam Aziz: So one of the first clients ever I ever essentially started speaking with was Salva, he’s an Uzbeki barber. He owns. I think the most barbers in the city on the sidebars. He has 13 shops right now. I did seven deals with him the past two and a half years. He takes 300 square feet, whether it’s a side street or on the avenue. Pays about 200 bucks a foot, and he crushes it. He doesn’t need a thousand square feet on the avenue. He needs three chairs because probably two of them are going to be filled up at every, any given moment. If he had a thousand square feet, no problem. But he is not going to pay more than six, $7,000 a month, you know? So those type of tenants are taking spaces, the motto, espressos of the world, even though motto’s, you know, not paying rent in certain spaces, they’re the ones that are taking space, you know? There’s a bunch of candy stores, yogurt shops, dry uses that are opening up in very small footprint spaces. QSRs are, it’s been like crazy. If it’s a vented space and it’s 300 square feet, they fly like that. So there’s many times that want smaller footprints.

Hal Coopersmith: And then for the larger ones who are, taking the

Noam Aziz: spend, I did a deal with the cop family who are amazing B owners. Dollar Tree. Tree on South Boulevard in, in the Queens, Jamaica, Queens.

and we just put LA in there, which is a very big, they took a 10,000 square foot space Laundromat owns about, they operate about 35 locations. And we just got hired on a former, on an existing Dollar Tree on Springfield Boulevard, square feet. Um, we’re about a Rite Aid on Woodside Avenue, which is, think it’s 7,200 square feet. I’m marketing it with loss factor. What I do a differently than other brokers is, I’m happy to relay this, is I have strategies on every single property that I’m marketing. So this Rite Aid is 7,200 square feet. I’m not dividing the right aid. My, my client, his name is Charles. He’s very old school. Very old school. And he’s very simple. No, I need these numbers. Just come back to me. When you have these numbers, you can negotiate and do whatever you want. You can do the red line. Don’t even talk to me about the counters. Just whenever you have an offer that wants to move forward to lease, and those are the numbers, let me know. He’s like, don’t even send me financials. Financials are meaningless at this day and age. I disagree with him. He’s going to be like my next phone call if I can get to it before Shabbat.

If not, it’s going to, he’s going to hear from me tomorrow night and I don’t think he’s going to like that because he’s taking care of his mom. So I’ll, I’ll call him on on Sunday, but anyways. He has a 7,200 square foot right aid. I’m not dividing it. So what I did is I’m marketing at 7,900 square feet. Why is because if I’m asking, let’s say 85 bucks a foot on 7,200 square feet, if I go out to market at 7,900 square feet, I can take that price per square foot and it probably comes down to the high 70. So it looks appealing to the tenant when they walk in. They can take all the measurements they want in the world, tell, essentially they have to tell me what they want to pay. That’s what it comes down to. And that’s my strategy with smaller stores. with office, you know, brokers tend to put a 27% loss factor. We can get away with it on the retail side of things and put a loss factor. A lot of owners make you do that and tell you, oh, it’s 600 square feet, call it 1100. You can’t go. You can go against them and fight them, but you might not get hired. Might on. Like, well, we, we had a lease at within the first week when I was fighting come out. I’m like, why are the lights not on? Why is nobody paying Con Edison to tell? How can I show the space at Pitch Black? But I was marketing at 1100 square feet. It was 600 square feet. I rented it for 11 five a month. People do that, especially the owners on Christopher Street. They market, they market spaces that are not just true to size, but I, I like to strategize the spaces that I pick up. You have to strategize. You can’t just go willy nilly and just ask Iran. I mean, I saw a space on the market that came on, Barry, I’m not going to say the specific address. I said, it’s my team. I said, this broker’s asking $40,000 a month. It’s worth low twenties and you probably have to write a 200 grand ti check in eight to 10 months free. It’s like, why even bring that to market? Doesn’t make sense. There’s no strategy there.

Hal Coopersmith: So loss factor one, strategy. What’s the example of another kind of way that you’ve strategized?

Noam Aziz: Bring spaces to market that you believe in and be transparent to owners and tell. I tell them what your true thoughts are. cause it’s going to waste your time. At the end of the day,

Hal Coopersmith: If you say, look, you know, this guy can get you this number and I can get you this number plus 10 or something like that. Yeah. And you say. You’re lying through your teeth just to get the listing.

Noam Aziz: Yeah. You know, thank God I’m in a position where I don’t need to take on all the assignments that I need to. And quite frankly, I, I don’t want to handhold and bring you from a 40,000 asking rent to have you come all the way down to $25,000. When you understand that that’s what the market is, I’m going to relay that to you at the start. You go enjoy yourself with all the other brokers. And then come back to me when you actually want to solidify a deal. I think there’s a lot of luck that gets involved and it’s about timing. As a broker sometimes, you know, it’s just fortunate that you pick an assignment and you just rent it and you know, swiftly timing is everything. But also just being transparent. I mean, with tenants, there’s a lot of times where I tell them, I’m like, look, I know you want this space. I know you sent it to me. I’m going to be transparent with you. I would not want to make a marriage with you and this owner. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think that they’re going to treat you well. I think they’re going to cause you issues. I’m going to be transparent with you and upfront with you. I’m going to tell you that, but I’m happy to still get you the best terms possible.

Hal Coopersmith: How did you get your first listing?

Noam Aziz: So I canvas Lennox Avenue. I called this owner Jay Newhouse, who, his company’s called RJ Block Properties. He’s a Hasidic J from Manzi. He has,  an amazing team. Na, I’m very close with Joe Levin is the property manager. They have an amazing super called Santiago, who I’m very close with for whatever reason. and I called Jay and emailed Jay for about four months. I probably sent him like 90 emails. Just active follow up, but in a positive way that was providing him value. And he, he responded to me saying, hi nom, did we ever connect? And I said, no. And he’s like, okay, no problem. Let’s connect. I got him teams meeting with him. He told me about a space that he had vacant at 5 47 Lennox Avenue with a previous broker for three years, vacancy for three years. I walked in, coincidentally, he was there. I told him to come and he’s like, oh, I’m not going to be in the area. But, you know, actually I might, maybe I’m going to look at a deal. I might come after swung by. Um, it was at, it was between one 37th Street and one 38th Street. It was formerly Cali’s Bar. It was 3000 square feet, more likely. It was more closer to 2200 square feet. And I had dividing wall. I told him I last 25 for the full space. I’ll ask. 15 for one side, 12 for the other. It was vacant for three years. I rented the kitchen side of it with the vent and the hood and whatnot for 13 five, asking 15, and then I rented the other side to rent a center and relocated them from three blocks north for $9,500 a month.

So I got ’em 22 5 on an ask of 25, and I rented all of it within about six months. And that was my in. And I leveraged that and I picked up many owners on Lennox Avenue. And then I started expanding on hundred 25th Adam Clayton, FDB, on the east side of Harlem. And it’s, it was not a competitive market. And I pick and chose which owners will pay a commission so that I continue my reputation as a broker that gets standard, if not better rates. And all the tenants know me, and many of my clients call me the mayor of Harlem. And I know many boards in Harlem as well. So thank God I really, it was random that I started in Harlem, but I think it was probably the best thing for my, career starting out on a non-competitive market and pitching owners and cold calling tenants. And now I’m, you know, one of the most, I think I’m probably the most active broker in terms of volume that’s in Manhattan, the outer, outer boroughs. Thank God.

Hal Coopersmith: So you got the listing. What do you do next in terms of getting the tenants?

Noam Aziz: Everyone always says you have to call, you know, I don’t know, Meridian, they, you know, to be in green, you have to call 200 people a week. You know, I have office line and I have a cell phone. Before I came to you at 3:00 PM I had an Excel spreadsheet and I was calling owners on both phones simultaneously. I think calling, is extremely effective and that’s what I did. I, I did. Then there was other ways that I, you know, did my outreach to get the, you know, the tenants. But, both deals were cobras. One of the deals I had to really handhold because it was a, there’s  brokers in Harlem that have a license, but they like, live in Harlem and they’re just friendly with, you know, the tenants that are just there. They’re like, whatever. But, I could care less. I want to do deals, I want to do volume. I, I don’t care about the money. I care about the money, but I don’t, I don’t, I don’t think about the money during the day. I want to think about deals, I want to think about, you know, relationships, money comes. I always, I still believe that. I tell my team that I should never be greedy.

We love co-broking other brokers, they’ll try to push their own deals direct, but I’ll be very transparent with my clients, with landlords. And I’ll tell ’em like, Hey, do this deal instead of that deal. They’ll be like, but no, you’re going to make a bigger commission on that deal. So I, I think, I think this, I think that tenant might be better for you. I don’t care because they’re going to, I can make tenfold and I can have that relationship for decades. So cold calling, doing outreach to brokers is the way that I rented that space. You know, you can, you can sit, you can come in the office 9, 9 30, you can send the queue, little emails. I just rented a distribution. I have this amount of thing available. But what if you call someone simultaneously? What if you really discuss the economics of a deal and you’re transparent with them? That’s the way that you can do business. I did a deal on Lennox Avenue in Harlem, three 50 Lennox Avenue. It was vacant for 10 months.

The second I picked it up, I said, I know the tenant that’s going to take the space. Kenny Fried Chicken. I had bow sheet and Rual on this farm. I’m going to say this explicitly, and I hope brokers hear this because they work with the same time as well. I said I sent this space to Belgian and Royal, but you know what I said, I don’t care. I know brokers that work with Belgian Rual. I reached out to several brokers, even some at the same firm that compete with the same person, and I told ’em, send it to them, send it to Kennedy and. I swear Baji and RHA got bombarded with the flyer by 10 different brokers that day, and I got them to the space. They sent an LOI with one of the brokers and I told my client, I said, listen, these guys don’t know what the hell they sent on paper. Let’s have a landlord in meeting. Let’s meet them. But a landlord had meeting. We negotiated terms. Then RHA and Bji tried to flake and I would, and I called their wives and whatever. Two and a half weeks later, we had sign leases and checks in my office. That’s the way I did business. I could never do that deal unless I was unselfish and I really just wanted to get a deal done with that specific group. Who cares? you know, that owner was, was very grateful. That tenant put probably 200 grand in a space that never had a vent. They brought gas. It was incredible.

Hal Coopersmith: So you started in Harlem, you have a niche in Harlem now you’ve expanded Yeah. To other areas. What’s that like?

Noam Aziz: It’s awesome. I really think that I’m building a great presence in the Williamsburg and the Brooklyn and even the Queen Pockets. I mean, Queens is far from my office, but, you know, I pat myself on the back. You know, I did a deal on Boulevard with a laundromat. I did both sides. Everybody works with that laundromat. Everybody knows that owner. I’ve, I did close to 10 deals last year in Jersey, in New Jersey, with just tenants alone. you know, I went to a couple of the tour, the meetings, but, you know, collaboration is so important. You can build a presence anywhere. You just can’t, you know, expand so quickly. And it has to be organic. But it’s awesome. You know, it’s, it’s fascinating because I think, I really know certain markets to the TI mean, I, I mean, Paul Massey’s style was. I know a block know every owner on the block on Lennox Avenue. Sentimental to me. I know every owner on the strip from one 10 to let’s say one 37th street, and I know every single tenant if they’re serious. So I built that presence.

Hal Coopersmith: You’re 21, you have a team, you are wise. Beyond your years, what advice would you give to other brokers?

Noam Aziz: Make mistakes. It’s awesome. Truly. I think making mistakes is a blessing. You know, you learn so much from it. Collaborating is incredible. If you’re young, I understand, you know, you have an apartment that you have to pay rent, but thinking long term is always important. Not thinking short term, never be shortsighted, always ask people for advice. I have a lot of respect for older people, quite frankly. I like speaking with people over 60, 70 years old. They have so much intellect. Of them have agreements on Gen Z and how soft they are to an extent. But go out there, make phone calls. If someone is upset at you, that’s, that’s, thank God means you’re probably doing something wrong, which means that you’re making mistake and that’s going to benefit you do something right, but call people and be persistent. And be aggressive, and try not to have a stick up your butt.

Hal Coopersmith: That is a great note to end things on. Noam Aziz, thank you for being a part of Broker’s Angle.

Noam Aziz: My pleasure.