From professional soccer goalkeeper to New York City commercial real estate broker, Justin Myers shares how the skills he developed on the field, communication, leadership, adaptability, and teamwork, have shaped his 15-year career in office leasing. In this episode of Broker’s Angle, Justin discusses learning the New York City market “through shoe leather,” building long-term client relationships, knowing when to pivot for a client, and why becoming an expert in a specific submarket can set a broker apart.

Transcript

Hal Coopersmith: So you’re a former athlete?

Justin Myers: That’s right. I played soccer at University of California Berkeley for four years, and I was able to play professional soccer for five years in Major League Soccer, USL, and abroad in Puerto Rico and Vietnam.

Hal Coopersmith: So how do you go from being a professional soccer player to a commercial real estate broker?

Justin Myers: It was the best experience ever to start with to becoming a real estate broker, particularly because I was a goalkeeper, constantly covering the goal, communicating with my players, making sure that our team was going to create a shutout and win the game, and being there to make the save, communicate, and direct the team as possible.

Hal Coopersmith: So you’re translating some of the skills from soccer to real estate, but how do you go from, “I’m a professional athlete,” to “Now I’m in real estate”?

Justin Myers: Well, growing up, both of my, of my parents were in commercial real estate and residential real estate. My mom is currently with Compass, and my father was a commercial real estate broker with Cushman & Wakefield for many years. So real estate was always on the breakfast table growing up. And I knew that coming out of soccer, I really could not sit behind a desk all day. I needed to be active. And my brothers went to Cornell and Penn State, so they naturally came to New York City. I’m originally from San Diego, so I came to New York and said, “Wow, this is definitely the best city in the world,” and I love what’s going on in terms of office leasing with all the tech and creative companies expanding in New York, not to mention all of the financial services companies. And I figured, with six hundred million square feet of office space, there’s definitely a part of New York that I could be a part of.

Hal Coopersmith: So you said that real estate was always on the breakfast table. How was the process of getting acclimated as a broker?

Justin Myers: The process was difficult because the most important part of being an office leasing broker is knowing your market, so I had to understand and learn New York City, from the Midtown Financial District to Midtown South and SoHo, Flatiron, Nomad. You have to be able to know Park Avenue South, Madison, Fifth, Sixth Avenue, the side streets, where the value is and where tenants are, are, expanding and leasing space and what type of tenants there are. So the best way to learn that is by walking the streets, walking the buildings, talking to people so you can get a feel as opposed to sitting at a desk and looking at e-everything from a computer and a phone. So as the old brokers would say, “Shoe leather is how you learn this business,” and that’s by walking around and, and talking to, to folks and, and, walking into buildings to understand exactly what’s going on.

Hal Coopersmith: So you invested your shoe leather time. What did you learn from your clients?

Justin Myers: So first you have to listen to your clients, understand what their pain points are, what they enjoy about their space, what’s going on in their business, if they’re raising money, if they’re going to be expanding, if they need to, increase their quality of the space in order to retain and attract talent. So with that in mind, it’s very important to listen, and then once you get that information, you can advise correctly. For example, some clients may say, “I want to be on Park Avenue and 57th Street,” and then they may not understand that rents have gone to one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars a foot in some of those buildings, and maybe you have to start presenting options on Madison, Fifth, or further west or east in order to accommodate their quality needs, but also accommodate their budget.

Hal Coopersmith: What is an example of how you’ve helped a client?

Justin Myers: So recently, I’ve worked with a company called Synthesia AI over the past four years. We originally met when they were approximately six thousand square feet at two forty-five Fifth Avenue. They had a five-year lease and needed to expand, in the second year. So we were able to work with the landlord and cover the mark and show them other options and they decided to expand in the building to thirteen thousand square feet. Literally, one year later, they said, “Hey, we need to expand again. However, we’re not sure whether we want to take a second floor or not.” And we went through an entire market search, looked at, probably thirty or forty buildings, and we landed on, on a building, on another building on Fifth Avenue. It’s a class A building at around a hundred dollars a foot. However, the space would not be built for a year, and they were growing so fast, and even though we had a lease out, where typically companies or brokers would try to continue with that lease, we pivoted, and we found a space that was fifty thousand square feet built and ready to go with a roof deck in Flatiron, which was very hard to find, and we ended up transacting with a landlord called GFP. Graal owns that building. And the moral of that story is, even though you’re moving down the line to make a deal, you have to listen to your client and understand that maybe that deal is not the best for them, and you may have to pivot and go make sure that there’s a– that we’re uncovering other options for them instead of sitting on your, your heels and waiting for the deal to end or to close.

So in that case, we were able to find another space, move off of our original deal, and the new space was actually thirty percent more for the same rent that we were going to pay at the other building. And, and concurrently, we’re going to have to sublease their space at two forty-five Fifth, which we are currently, and we have three offers for their space at higher rent than what they’re paying now. So that, ideally, they’re going to be whole on their sublease or even be able to make a little bit of money on their sublease, and not worry about double rent

Hal Coopersmith: How are you able to attract clients?

Justin Myers: So attracting clients is extremely important as a broker, because we’re all commission-based. So obviously, referrals and references are key, and that’s probably a quarter of the business so that they can say, “Hey, Justin and Lee and Associates did a great job for us. We want to refer them to our, our colleague at another company.” However, we can’t just rely on that, so we have to go out and find new clients and bring them information and advisory to, to have them work with us. So simple cold calling, and bring information to those clients is key. But over my 15 years, the best process has been actually being in the building, knocking on the door and saying, “Hi, I’m Justin. There’s an opportunity in the building,” or, “I have a client that knows you. I want to meet you and bring them information immediately so that you’re able to see them, see the space, bring the information, and get a, get a quick understanding of what’s going on.” and that’s been successful over my 15 years.

Hal Coopersmith: What have been some of the challenges that you’ve faced?

Justin Myers: Well, we all know the real estate market has ups and downs, like the economy in general, so you have to understand the economy and the political environment as well, and be sensitive to what’s going on. For example, during the COVID years, there was significant vacancy, and it would be very difficult to tell clients if they had a deal or a lease out on something that they have to close that deal very quickly because there’s other offers, and that’s not true because there was so much vacancy, be very patient. In this market, because, space is so tight and low vacancy, and there are offers, you have to be very firm with clients about when they have to speed up to make a deal or they have time because they may lose a deal, and that’s worse than you forcing a client to do something that, that they don’t have to do.

Hal Coopersmith: So you talked about market intelligence, offering that to clients, as well as lead time for a space and just kind of understanding the market. How do you help someone navigate New York City commercial office leasing who is not as familiar with the process and the current market conditions? And it’s not their everyday responsibilities?

Justin Myers: So over the past fifteen years, I’ve done several deals with foreign companies. For example, I worked with a company called Once Capital, and they moved into 450 Park Avenue, which, SL Green owns now. And this was their first headquarters in New York. They wanted to be in about two to five thousand square feet on Park Avenue, and this was their first lease in New York. So to, to navigate that market, the best process that we found was to look at as many buildings as possible, but the actual non-binding proposal process is very important because you get to learn about the company’s, ability to transact. Do they have a US entity to sign the lease, or is it a foreign company? How does security deposit work when a landlord wants to secure the lease, whether that’s with a good guy guarantee or what– whether that’s with s- a significant security deposit. So it’s very important for that non-binding proposal process to learn– to help them learn how to close that deal.

Hal Coopersmith: So you’ve been in the business for 15 years. I imagine you didn’t start working out with the largest clients. What’s it been like growing with some of the clients?

Justin Myers: Sure. So a great example of that is I worked with a company called Ampush Digital that was 1,000 square feet 10 years ago. And we moved them to 5,000 square feet and then 10,000 square feet, and then one of the employees started a different company. It was also 1,000 square feet, and we treated them the same on every single turn. And that company that went to 1,000 square feet ended up folding their business. However, that gentleman’s wife works for a company called Giggs Digital, and he remembered the process that I ran for them. And recently, Giggs was a, is a global company in, London, Germany, and San Francisco, and they wanted to open their New York office. So I was tasked with finding them space, and we recently closed a deal in meatpacking for 6,000 square feet in the 80s per square foot. But the moral of that story is treat every client the same, whether they’re 1,000 square feet or 100,000 square feet, because I’m in this business for a long time, and people are going to be working for a long time, so they want to remember you, that you’ve done a great job, no matter the size or the, the length of the, of the deal.

Hal Coopersmith: That is fantastic advice. One of the things we like to talk about is advice for, future brokers. Any other pearls of wisdom you want to share?

Justin Myers: So particularly in New York City, it’s important not to be a jack of all trades. So you want to be an expert on your market. If a client says, “Hey, I’m looking for residential space,” that is not something you should be trying to do. If somebody says, “I’m looking for a particular retail requirement,” and you focus on office leasing, it’s important to bring in a retail broker to help you. And furthermore, I really recommend, focusing on one submarket too. Because New York is 600 million square feet, you may want to task yourself with learning Grand Central, learning SoHo, or learning Financial District so that you can be an expert on that one submarket. And that way you can provide best value for those clients, and then you can expand from there as opposed to trying to learn the entire market at one time. That makes it very difficult, and your clients will not appreciate, the fact that you’re not an expert in, in something.

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

Justin Myers: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.