Today’s guest, Greg Spillyards, shares with Ed about his journey to impact in the commercial real estate space. He explains how he went from a transactional model of real estate to a more redemptive approach.
Show Links
Ed Gillentine:
EdGillentine.com
Instagram: @journey.to.impact
Journey To Impact by Ed Gillentine
Cushman & Wakefield/Commercial Advisors
Books
Toxic Charity: by Robert D. Lupton
When Helping Hurts: by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
The Divine Conspiracy: by Dallas Willard
Full Podcast Transcript
Greg Spillyards
The return, I mean, okay, you might make a five to 7% return, but the return beyond that and for the neighborhood and for the city where you hope your children live and grandchildren live is going to extend beyond your lifetime.
Journey to Impact Intro
Welcome to the Journey to Impact podcast, where we show you how to turn your unique passion into a strategy to change the world. If you've been listening to the show for a while, hopefully you've been getting a broader understanding of how diverse impact efforts can be. Today's guest, Greg Spillyards, shares with Ed about his journey to impact in the commercial real estate space. It's time to get off the bench. Let's do this! Here's your host Ed Gillentine.
Ed Gillentine
Welcome to the Journey to Impact podcast. I'm your host Ed Gillentine. I'm here with my good friend, Greg Spillyards. Greg, welcome!
Greg Spillyards
Thank you very much, Ed. I appreciate you having me.
Ed Gillentine
Greg is the CEO and the Managing Director of Cushman Wakefield, which is a commercial real estate group here in Memphis. He's been with them for a long time, but kind of a circuitous journey just real quickly cause I don't want to take away from his time. I want to hear his story. I'll give you a little bit of background on Greg. He got a business administration degree at the University of Memphis in 2000 and then some years later, I'm teeing you up to this great story. He went back and got a Master's of Divinity at Seminary. Which I find to be fascinating.
So now he as I mentioned earlier, is the CEO and the Managing Director there at Cushman Wakefield, and he's responsible for their vision, the culture, those types of things, and he's doing a fantastic job. So Greg, without further ado, give us the Cliff Note version as best you can of how you got to Cushman Wakefield, how you got into the real estate world, and just sort of your journey there.
Greg Spillyards
I'd take the journey back to when I was six years old. So this is the cliff notes version I promise I'll fast forward it, but when I was six years old, I was sitting in a little Methodist church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and I wrote a note, dropped it in the collection plate, send it up to the altar, to the pastor to say, I'd like a visit from the pastor to tell me what it's like to be a United Methodist pastor. And he showed up at our house that afternoon to talk to me about what it was like to be a pastor. So I had God had clearly planted a seed for ministerial work within me early on.
And I did, it was more than just being a kid, but I felt drawn to it. But then around that same age too, I was going to school at a small, Episcopal school in Pine Bluff called Trinity Episcopal. And I would sit out in the carpool line waiting on my parents to pick me up and there were these old dilapidated rundown, blighted, whatever you want to call it Victorian style homes right across the street from the Episcopal school. I would just sit, and I remember as through the eyes of my youth, look at that, look at those homes and envision them with life again. And I can specifically remember envisioning families sitting in these homes, enjoying a meal. So that's those two things were converging even at that point, you know. It was like, okay, there's this pastoral call, but I knew that real estate was a strong interest of mine and mainly which at the time I realized was more of a redemptive perspective of real estate. And then, you know, I go through elementary years, we're going to do Memphis go to school here through high school.
I attended Christian Brothers High School here graduated in 95. Went to University of Arkansas and knew then I was on a path to go into commercial real estate. Was at Arkansas for three and a half years, and then made the decision to transfer back to Memphis. I'd met the girl who had become my wife.
I knew at the time whether she knew it or not, I knew at the time she was going to be my wife. So, and I knew she was going to graduate school here anyway. So I said, well, I'm going back to Memphis because then I can plug in in the city where I know we're going to be, and I can start working my way into the commercial real estate world.
CBRE was a known company and brand that I was aware of. I applied for an internship there. I did not get the internship, but it only stoked my fire even more for wanting to get in there and finished, graduated with the, with the business degree at University of Memphis in 2000 and immediately transitioned.
My wife found an ad in the newspaper for CBRE looking for a marketing associate. I go back in there, meet with the same people and they then hire me that time, fortunately. And and I started there in June of '01. And so that, you know, that was not a position that was thinking about the redemptive aspects of real estate, but I was very much being catapulted into the transactional world of real estate and June of '01 I'm one to five brokers that are hired to open our East Memphis office.
And then of course, three months later, 9/11 happens. The real estate world was jolted by that. And we've seen that a number of times since then, but as a 22 year old I needed to find my place. It wasn't going to be brokerage. So I started moving into property management. Then through a set of circumstances, started operating in the construction management areas of the business and started really doing projects and work associated with real estate that I never even knew really existed.
I did. I always just knew the deal or what I saw at the end of the project, but I never really had gotten into the guts of the project.
Ed Gillentine
So you're literally getting a chance to learn every single aspect.
Greg Spillyards
Every aspect. And it was an incredible experience because the people at CBRE, they, I mean, we were very close. And and they just, they knew, I didn't know what I was doing.
Ed Gillentine
Right.
Greg Spillyards
And so, that was for four and a half years, you know, really working on the detailed aspects of real estate. And then I knew I wanted to go back into brokerage eventually. And then this great project came up in 2007, where we were asked to assemble a team to redevelop an industrial park in Southwest Memphis called Bellbrook Industrial Park. And it was owned by Trammell Crow Development, an investment out of Fort Worth, and one of the requirements of the team was that we would office at Bellbrook Industrial Park, retail frontage on Brooks Road. And for those in Memphis and who are familiar with Brooks Road, it's an area of the city that a lot of the economic opportunity investment and investment has passed on to Southeast Shelby County, particularly industrial real estate has moved on to the bigger box warehouses and has just left all this antiquated 40 year old space sitting and not, not occupied substantially. So in 2007, with this team of seven people, we went to Bellbrook and we started par, we partnered with LRK, local architectural group, and we focus on this theme of clean green and safe. And we went about our work of investing in the property of dressing it up. It was a hundred acres. It was 1.6 million square feet. It was about 60% occupied. It felt empty. It felt like a ghost town. It felt scary. And we went off to change that. And I was in it still at that at that time, mentally and professionally as it was a transactional endeavor, we, as we had met with our client, their plan was that we get in there, we do our thing and then we sell the property within three years, we get it to 85% occupancy and everybody wins. Well, officing there was a significant aspect of how this became a transformational moment in my career.
Ed Gillentine
The idea of being in the middle of it.
Greg Spillyards
The idea of being in the middle of it, the idea of being there every morning and every evening seeing the life and the rhythm of that part, that part of the city, getting to know the people who are stakeholders in that part of the city. Getting, you know, just simple things like eating at restaurants that I didn't know existed and meeting restaurant owners and getting into even the schools, which would come along a little bit later. It was beginning to transform.
the way I thought about real estate. It was more relational and and we were doing transactions. We were, our mission was to basically take multi-family leasing and make it applicable to industrial leasing. And so it was very simple as leases, very straightforward terms, the spaces we had delineated out to where you could go in at 3000 square feet or 150,000 square feet. We had a spot for you. We could do a transaction quick. We prided ourselves on that. So we were churning transactions, but something else was churning within me of this is not about the transaction. It's about who's coming in here, like, how is this impacting the area that touches this property?
And so that's what got me really working in the schools. I met a gentlemen named Albert Crawford who had started the Airways Lamar Business Association 20 or so years ago, and Albert really began to mentor me and really, I really believe God placed him in my life to help me find the reset button.
And he, and I would meet at the Mrs. Winner's fried chicken on Brooks Road every Thursday morning and he would download to me his journey. He said he was an angry black man in the civil rights movement. And that was his identity. And he was in the middle of the fight, and the riots and he had been beaten and that was what drove him.
And then he, all of a sudden, I can't remember his late seventies, early eighties, he did, he found Christ or Christ found him. And he said that my identity became rooted in Christ and that's who I was. And he said all that anger and everything just disappeared. And he said, and then I began to go a different path of just loving my neighbors and my loving my neighborhood.
He actually has a book called "Love Your Neighbors" is the name of it. And he just started teaching me about how that is the way you know, we, we can be driven by many things, but really the way towards community development and community and social peace is by loving one another. He lived in Bethel Grove.
He was very active at Bethel Grove elementary. He was just incredibly impactful from 2007 till about midway through 2008. And he, and he and I ate at Piccadilly on a, I think it was a Tuesday afternoon. And the next morning I received a call that he had passed away of a massive heart attack.
Ed Gillentine
Wow.
Greg Spillyards
I had the opportunity to speak at his funeral.
And to meet his family, you know, and get to know them more. And I just, I believe God was calling me to pick up the mantle that Albert left and to really follow his footsteps in his way. That didn't exactly align with transactional real estate. And not that anything's wrong with transactional real estate it was, or just that pure view of it, but it's just not where I believed I was headed.
Ed Gillentine
Let me interrupt for a second and chase a rabbit because and we'll circle back. Talk about redemptive versus transactional versus in our line of work, we call it extracted. Right? Talk about that in the real estate world and how important that is.
Greg Spillyards
Yeah. Well, it's, you know, transact, everything's a transaction, right? I mean, transaction is kind of rooted with all of it, but the redemptive aspect is what I go back to the vision when I was six years old, it was restorative. It was life-giving, it was light and dark and it was I saw in it that yes, we are making transactions. We are we're providing jobs. We are bringing businesses back into this community, but there was a, there was a joy that was tied to it that that was more enriching than just the commission check.
Ed Gillentine
Right.
Greg Spillyards
The commission check was nice, but the joy of being in relationship with people, and I, I remember some of the some of the deals that we conducted there. It was on a different level. You know, it was not just about what was on paper and what we were agreeing to, it was more about it was about trust.
It was about I mean, obviously proficiency played a big role in that, but it was about, you know, do we trust one another? And so you know, the redemptive aspect and that was the big part of the journey is I had to, I had to be plucked out of that.
Ed Gillentine
Sure.
Greg Spillyards
To begin to see what the redemptive view was.
Ed Gillentine
Sometimes I feel like you got to get yanked out of where you are to give you a clearer vision. Like when you're in your day to day your lens, it's, it's almost like that film that gets on the inside of your windshield. Right? And you don't really see it until the sun is looking right in it. And you're like, man, this is kind of filthy.
And I know one of the I guess paradigms that you and I share is this idea of redemptive versus extractive. And it goes all the way back to how you view work, how you view economics and so, you know, capitalism is not a religion contrary to what a lot of people think. Free markets, they are, they're very broken. They tend to err on the side of extractive, they do seem to me to be more realistic in terms of redemptive. But when I see, like, to me, the transaction is the trigger that gets the rest of the redemptive going, extractive seems to be transaction. We're done. See you later.
Greg Spillyards
Right.
Ed Gillentine
And so I feel like, especially with real estate and in the United States, Especially you go back historically, what's this economy built on? It's built on owning a piece of property. Leveraging said piece of property to build a house, leveraging that asset, to invest in something else. And in the middle of all that flourishing, I think. And I want you to sort of give your thoughts on, in the middle of all that you got a flourishing family having dinner, lights on, right? You've got community and the neighborhood around you, and so that's where the flourishing comes from. It's way, way more than a transaction. The transaction simply kicks it off.
Greg Spillyards
That was the providential, you know, plan was for us to locate at the property. Was that it, it wasn't something we could just move on from the, the work we were doing we were living with.
And that that's a huge aspect of it. And, you know, I think, especially in commercial and even in residential now with as many investors as there are globally investing, even in Memphis, you know, in, in residential real estate, it's a line item.
Ed Gillentine
Right.
Greg Spillyards
It's you know, and it's either performing or it's not, and it doesn't take any account into the human aspect whatsoever.
And I, you know, and just to reset, just to know, like, I was very much seduced by the transactional aspect of it. I mean, I was not. In fact, I was incredibly empty during a lot of that period because I was trying to find joy in the transaction and I was not finding it. And it was becoming very frustrating, and I would even say it was probably as when God entered into really entered into my wife and I's you know, perspective there, I was in a very empty place. I was in a very dark place and it was like, he came in and rescued me from that and reminded me, like, focus more on what this is really all about here. This isn't about the reason you're being successful here. Isn't because of your efforts, the reason you're being successful here is because of what you just said.
It's the redemption that comes on the other side of the transaction and look at it, look all around it's happening.
Ed Gillentine
Isn't it neat that you even had that as a child. I think a lot of times, if we go back to our childhood, there's a bit of a vision, whether we believe it came from God or it's altruistic or whatever, there's a bit of a vision for that flourishing of whatever direction we're going into. So from there then give us, like, how did you get to seminary?
Greg Spillyards
Well, that's a super long story, but I'll just say this part, my wife and I independently began through prayer independent of one another started experiencing and discerning what we believe was really a calling for God to move us out of where we were professionally and even locally, we would come to find out. And there were many other people that were around us in our community that were saying, we believe that God is calling us to do something different and seminary had never entered my mind. Ever. I honestly, before 2008, I did not know what a Master's of Divinity was.
Ed Gillentine
My dad went to seminary and I remember him studying really hard. He was about your age when he did it. So he had a career and I remember thinking 'I would ever want to do that.'
Greg Spillyards
I mean, when you think, how can you use this?
Ed Gillentine
Right, exactly.
Greg Spillyards
And there's no real practical applicability of it at all, but it was clearly what we were supposed to do. It was so clear and we went to worship at Christ Church in July of 2009. And that day there was an altar call. Not an altar call to accept Christ, but it was an altar call to come forward if you ever believed you were being called by God into some vocational aspect of ministry. And we did not, we didn't have all the pieces together.
We didn't know what it looked like, but I took my wife's hand as the congregation saying, 'here I am Lord.' And my, and we were both very emotional and walk to the front of the church. And one of the pastors there, a good friend of mine, Jamie Lee, placed a magnet in my hand, it was an Asbury Theological Seminary magnet.
And it was just, and it wasn't the first time Asbury had come up, but it was like, this was just affirming.
Ed Gillentine
He didn't ask you if you were lost did he?
Greg Spillyards
He didn't ask us if we were lost.
Ed Gillentine
Are y'all wondering around here?
Greg Spillyards
Everybody knew everybody was kinda like, 'what are they doing?' You know? And truly if the altar hadn't been where it was. I mean, we were, so it was, it was a very spirit filled moment.
Ed Gillentine
That's neat.
Greg Spillyards
And and it was incredibly impactful, so at that moment it was like, okay, we're going to start the wheels. We're going to, we're going to, God had already started the wheels we were like, we're gonna, we're going to trust that this is where we're headed.
And then we had an impactful transaction actually, that got us to where we needed to be based on the commitments we had made to our client. We had this impactful transaction hit very soon after this experience, this experience of committing and it allowed me to go with a clear conscience to my managers at CBRE and to my client and say, this has been great, we've hit all the marks we committed to, but we're this is where we're headed. And just to bring some reality into this, based on how my life had been over the last three or four years, my boss says if you'd given me a hundred guesses of what you were coming in here to tell me, that would not have even been on the list.
And I'm like, well, you know, I get it. And I'm convicted by that, but
Ed Gillentine
Wasn't on your list either.
Greg Spillyards
And so that started there and we were going to move, but it was 2009. I mean, middle of the recession, the worst time in the century. And it was November of 2009, worst time of the year to put a house on the market.
And we put the house on the market. It didn't sell. We keep going. I start taking classes online at Asbury. I'm still working at CBRE and CBRE was so gracious in saying, you've got a job here, as long as you're here in Memphis and you're able to do both, like you've got a job. So this goes on until May, I already had someone lined up to take my role.
We just felt like we needed to go ahead and make a move. So Christ Church actually offered us a job to come on board as Director of Outreach in May of 2010 and my plan at that time was that I was going to, I was going to take six credit hours a semester towards a 96 credit hour degree. I was going to do this for, till I retired.
I was going to work at the local church here. And at that time it looked like it was going to be Christ Church and we would just do this on our own schedule. Did that for a year, all great, and then, you know, we had another family situation going on. We were looking for the right school for our oldest daughter, and God led us to this school in Lexington, Kentucky, which was 12 miles from Asbury Theological Seminary, where I was enrolled online.
At the time I had 23 credit hours under my belt, and it really mapped out perfectly for us to move to Wilmore, to go to resident seminary and get the rest of my 96 credit hour degree while our oldest daughter attended this school. And so in a three week time span in the summer of 2011, we rented our house out here, I quit my job at the church, and we moved to Wilmore, Kentucky.
Ed Gillentine
That's crazy.
Greg Spillyards
It was the craziest thing we've ever done. The path was not clear of what it was going to look like logistically or even financially. But God met us every step of the way, every single step. And even in humorous ways at times you know, we were just so fearful of uprooting from this life that we thought was everything, which in large part had a lot of trappings to it like that we just know of like East Memphis life, you know, like we very much steeped in that and we just couldn't imagine uprooting from that.
And we did. And we were so fortunate too at first, we actually lived in this 165 year old farmhouse that set up on a hill. It was called Sycamore Hill. You can't make this stuff up. And we would sit out on the porch at night and the whole, everything in the household would stop at sunset because at a particular, well, most of the year, the sun would set right between these sycamore line of sycamore trees.
And I would laugh because it was God saying. You were worried about leaving something and look where I brought you. And really it's not even about this, but I'm just doing this to humor you. And, you know, to say like, could you have asked for anything better, but ultimately we, we could find something better.
And that was we, we were there for a year. And my wife and I we were little, we were about a mile and a half out of the main town area of town, and Bill Latimer, who lives in Union C ity, he had made a substantial gift to Asbury Theological Seminary to improve their family housing. They had developed this family housing.
We had put our names on the waiting list. And in that summer of 2012, a spot came up at Kalas Village is the name of it. And we both said, you know, we're living in this spacious farmhouse out on Sycamore Hill watching the sunset every night. And we're like, nope, we're supposed to move into Kalas village.
We've moved 420 miles to be a part of the community. We need to do one more mile. And that really initiated the most transformative season of our lives. For two years, we lived in Kalas village. We lived in a community of people from all over the world. My kids interacted and played with kids out in the, in the cul-de-sac and around town that literally had, I mean, they, they had a world map on their wall in the room that had thumb tacks everywhere they knew people from.
Ed Gillentine
I want to come back to that in a second, because I think it goes back to when you were six, envisioning those houses with lights and meals and flourishing community, but before I get to that, I think I heard you say basically, y'all had no clue what you were doing.
You were taking a step at a time, and I think that's important because I've never met anybody that's having impact that's got it mapped out. I'm sure there's people that do that. Right? But I'm sure it never ends up the way they think. And so there's this idea of just get started. Just take it a step at a time.
How important was just taking the first step, whether it was that altar call or whether it was going to Kentucky, how important was that?
Greg Spillyards
It was everything. I mean, now I know Jesus says you need to count the call, you know, count the calls. And we did, we weren't just blind. I mean, we were actively like thinking through our resources and we were thinking through the expense of it.
But it was, it didn't necessarily add up. Right. But we knew where the gaps were. So we were, we were, we were educating ourselves on where we needed to be, but the biggest step was when it was so clear we were to go to the school that popped into our view for Megan, our oldest daughter.
Ed Gillentine
Right.
Greg Spillyards
For us, that was God saying, this is what you're to do. And I'm providing for your most complex need for your family. I'm going to, I'm going to show up there. And so, because I showed up there, I'm going to show up in every other way and not just show up. I'm going to show up with extravagance and so really at that point, the key thing was selling our house here.
And my wife and I, I remember distinctly sitting in our den and I was both praying saying, God, you have clearly called us to go. This house is the only thing that stands in our way. And we know you'll take it. And we just, and we, we gave that over to him that night, the next morning, I'm walking through Christ Church's offices, and I overhear a conversation where someone needs to buy in the White Station school district, they need to be in three weeks, they need to have an MLGW bill in their names so they can get their kids in White Station. And I hear the person they're talking to say, "Have you talked to Greg Spillyards? Because I think they're about to move." And within two days they signed a lease to live in our house for three years, which is the exact amount of time we were going to be there.
And, and the key here is that they needed that. That was some, that was a way God was working in their family and their life. And because we were being obedient, God was able to, to bless another family and their, and their obedience. And so it was just, it was eye opening. It was a, it was a key factor in, in our realization of that we all are, we all are part of the same community in the kingdom.
Ed Gillentine
Right.
Greg Spillyards
And that he's working through all that. And so, you know, so the house deal within two days of that prayer and of giving it over to God, he did something more miraculous with it than we ever could have thought about doing.
Ed Gillentine
Yeah.
Greg Spillyards
And that's no knock on real estate agents.
Ed Gillentine
Right. And I'm hearing not only taking that first step, you have this vision, but maybe it's cloudy and you gotta take the first step, but that doesn't mean you just jump off a cliff, right? It sounds like you guys are using your brain trying to think through it, but there does come a point where this act of faith happens and we talk about it in the book.
About faith has the idea and I'm going to separate it from religious faith for a second, but just continuing on when it's not really clear.
Greg Spillyards
Right.
Ed Gillentine
But that doesn't mean you don't use the experiences, the skillset that you have that God's given you, that you've built. And it sounds like you guys, you guys were really wrestling with that, but I think that's something that everybody that's trying to have impact is wrestling with. Now, there's a million different directions we can go. So after seminary, you end up back in Memphis, back in the professional world, the transactional world, and yet you're different. And so why in the world would a high performing highly profitable, I think billion dollars in real estate company like Cushman Wakefield say, 'Hey Greg, with your seminary degree, we want you to lead a bunch of high performing men and women that have a tendency, because they came up in the industry to be transactional. We want you to lead them and guide our culture, how in the world did that happen? So am I wrong about all that? Is that-
Greg Spillyards
No.
Ed Gillentine
Clarify if I am, I'll put it that way.
Greg Spillyards
There are particular individuals who are a part of a lot of that, that it wasn't, this big ambiguous Cushman thing. There were individuals and relationships, but I would, so February of 2014, it's four months before I'm graduating with my M Div. I had the opportunity to be a part of a faith and work fellowship that was sponsored by the Kern Foundation. And that had actually allowed me to meet with a guy named Bob Lupton in Atlanta. He was in Wilmore to speak at our chapel service.
Ed Gillentine
Should we shout out one of the best books that I've seen. What was his book?
Greg Spillyards
Well, Toxic Charity,
Ed Gillentine
Toxic Charity, for those of you listening.
Greg Spillyards
And it, and it was coming along right at the same time as When Helping Hurts, which both of those books really were transforming my thought about who we are in relationship and with others.
Ed Gillentine
And what is poverty.
Greg Spillyards
Yeah. And even recognizing that I, too, am a stranger. I mean, I, too, experience poverty and. And it may not be materially, even though in Wilmore, I did feel like it was material poverty occasionally, but anyway, he comes to town and I sit down with him and I said, I am about to graduate in M Div I'm on track to be an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and I have had the opportunity to see different models of ministry, particularly rooted in the business world. And I just believe I'm supposed to go back to Memphis and engage in that work. And he very confidently replied. He said, you're going to do that. You're going to go back to Memphis. You're going to find a sponsor and that's the work you're going to do.
Because what I said I wanted to do was basically what we had done at Bellbrook, but across the city of Memphis. And I said, you know, I want, I want to go back and I want to go into one of these firms that understands all aspects of commercial real estate transaction, or project, or construction, or whatever it is. And angle that towards underserved areas of the city. And of course there was nothing like that really being done. And he says, you're going to go back and find a sponsor. And I'm thinking who in the world would sponsor something like this. So we moved back in May of 2014. Moved back into the house. We had left three years before hang all the pictures in the old nail holes.
As if, again, God showing up with a bit of humor. I mean, it was like we had gone to eyes and were placed back down in Kansas. It was really wild. I remember we got up the next Sunday morning. I went and taught my parents Sunday school class. We're laying in the same bed we were laying in three years before scared to death.
And that next Friday I was introduced to Larry Jensen, who I knew through my 10 years at CBRE, but Larry had led Commercial Advisors, Cushman and Wakefield Commercial Advisors. He and Wyatt Aiken founded it in the early nineties and I'd never actually interacted with them, but so I, this contact I had at Cushman, he said, 'you really need to sit down with Larry and explain and describe your vision for him.' So I sit down with him and I say exactly what I just said about how this vision of partnering with an organization. And he looks at me and he says, I wanted to do something like this for 10 years.
So I just have not, he goes I've I have angled my service towards serving on boards.
Ed Gillentine
Right.
Greg Spillyards
And he goes, that's about 50% of my time. And then 50% of my time is running this business. He said, I want to do this. And so, you know, fast forward in November of 2014, I come on board to start a division of the company called Community Advisors.
And it was really, it was just me and I was going out and meeting with various nonprofits and faith-based organizations and pitching to them what we were looking to do and what our capabilities were. And what I found immediately was just open arms. People were going, 'oh my gosh, this is one of the most difficult aspects of our organization is figuring out facilities. And this is the most contentious aspect of a lot of our board meetings.' And they're looking at me like, you're the guy that's going to come fix all this. And I'm looking at them going I really only know industrial real estate, so I'm going to need the support and the help of this entire organization of Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Advisors to help me do this work.
And so that really bonded me with with the brokers and with the property management team to say, look, I don't know, I'm kind of the, the tip of the spear here, but I don't know. I don't have the bandwidth or the expertise to do all this, so y'all are coming with me, you know, and I was so just thankful and grateful that so many were like 'let's do it this is what we want to do too.' It matched the culture of the company that had really been formed since the beginning. And this was all set up. Right? I mean, this was all totally a God thing that just set it up for me to be there and so we did that. That was the work I did first, right out of the gate, started working with Porter, Leath.
They were looking to do their site selection on their academies, I helped them with the acquisition of the property in Longview Heights, which is where the first academy that they built has been for four years now. We've done the site selection for them and Frazier and an Orange Mound, which is going to be opening in January.
But also got me in this crazy journey with Tom Shadyac and Memphis Rox and plugged me into the neighborhood of Soulsville. And I've found myself at neighborhood association meetings, you know, on Tuesday nights in Soulsville and getting to know the neighbors. And that truly is where I find the real joy is.
And I had to also learn just to keep my mouth shut and just to show up and be present and to listen and learn and have my preconceived perspectives or ideas just totally thrown out and have them rebuilt by the people who live in the neighborhood, by the people who know what they're talking about and who live in it every day.
And I don't think I would understand that if I hadn't have had that experience on Brooks Road even though I didn't live in Whitehaven, I spent enough time in Whitehaven to understand a little bit at a deeper level of what all, what the challenges were, what the opportunities were. And so that was the joy of my work.
I was convinced that we could be sustainable, you know, as a private, you know, we could be a private center within Commercial Advisors. And that work continued until 2017 when Larry came to me and said, 'You know, we want you to continue the community work, but you are aligned with the culture. We do, you know, I had I believe if you were interviewing anyone else in the company, they would say that I had earned the trust and respect of the team members, there at Commercial Advisors.
And he asked if I would transition into a leadership role while still doing the community piece. At first, I was very hesitant because I didn't want it to just empty out into not being an initiative. And I still remain focused on that, but the opportunity that came actually was for it to expand out and not be in a compartmentalized aspect of our company, but to be a very real part of what each one of our team members.
Ed Gillentine
Sort of get into DNA.
Greg Spillyards
Yes, absolutely.
Ed Gillentine
Not a side issue. Not, we make some money and we give it away, but how can we make this a part of the, of the overall company.
Greg Spillyards
And where everyone plays a part in it. You know from brokerage to asset management to construction management, everyone has played a significant role in providing our services, you know, to organizations that need them. And, and it's not necessarily pro bono. I mean, you know, it's there's a, there is real, there's a transaction. Usually there's, there's a real service. But it's usually, you know, our way we, our fee structure is based on, you know, we only get a percentage of what we, earn for you.
You know, it's not so much, you know, you're going to pay us this and hope it works out. So And that's just the way the real estate.
Ed Gillentine
Economics is interesting to me and, and how it can be almost like a guard rail on the side of the road. And whether you're non-profit impact, straight up for profit, I think that's, that can be super healthy in helping nonprofits for example, make decisions. I've also found that any of the free stuff, the pro bono stuff that we do does not have a high likelihood of success because I think people value what they pay for. There's a lot of nuance there and I mean, it really gets me fired up to hear about what you guys are doing because you're making it work within a sustainable profitable organization-wide way that I think is redemptive. I think it gives back , it's wholesome. It lets the community flourish. Right? And so I think focusing only on profit or only on giving away or only on anything, right? I think there's a lot of analogies to the human body, right? It all has to work together. Let me ask you real quickly.
I hear two organizations that were willing to step out of the mold. One was CBRE that said, you know what, you're getting it done. As long as you're in Memphis and can continue to get it done, we want to support you. And then Larry comes along and says, I know this may sound crazy, but we want to do that. Which by the way, what Larry's saying, I think there's more and more men and women wanting to do that, organizations wanting to do that, but Larry took the step. Right? How important was that? Not only to you, but when you think, like when you talk to other organizations that want to do this, I think of the impact Larry's had. Yeah, he's done boards and he's run a successful business, but arguably giving that organization a shot at changing their DNA and just really grounding it, might be one of his greatest impacts. I'll shut up. Talk about that for a minute.
Greg Spillyards
The fact that CBRE and Commercial Advisors have taken on the perspective they took on in our journey is a testament really, to Memphis and to Memphians and to, and to who, I mean, the corporate citizens of the city are incredibly gracious.
And and so that, that's a huge factor in this, and that's a huge factor of why while living in the bluegrass of Kentucky and just beautiful part of the country, we yearned to be back in Memphis. We yearned to be back among our community and the people we love. And so that, that's a, that's a huge deal.
And I'm glad you, you brought up the fact that both of those organizations stepped out through our journey. But what I think Larry really did by coming on board and taking that step is he gave other business leaders and organizations the permission to do it.
Ed Gillentine
Yep.
Greg Spillyards
There was one project we were working on with a local legal firm and they were all in. And they did pro bono all the way through. In fact, the attorney who was working on it had to go back and apply for more pro bono hours to get the deal done, but they knew they knew what we were doing and they knew our role in the, in that particular project. And they wanted to partner in that.
And so it gave them permission. We had engineering firms reach out and say, we want to do this same type of work. Now, it wasn't just about representing clients who are nonprofits and faith-based organizations. It's about representing anyone. We were representing the largest property owners in the world.
I mean, industrial real estate in this city is white hot. It is one of the hottest industrial markets in the country, and we're representing many of those property owners. So this isn't just about, you know working with there was a joke going around T repping churches and nonprofits is something people love to.
There's a little jingle that they would sing. That's not just what we're doing. You know, what we're doing is we're doing some of the most complex real estate transactions that this city faces, but then we're taking that and that experience and doing what we know how to do because our clients have taught us how to do it, and pouring that in.
So really we're giving the same best of class real estate service to these organizations, which then the whole ecosystem flourishes.
Ed Gillentine
Right.
Greg Spillyards
So yes, we, you know, we're representing organizations that are adding 500 to a thousand jobs in the city, but then we also can represent Advance Memphis to acquire warehouse on Suzette, where they're doing very intensive, you know, support for entrepreneurs and for workforce development, it all fits in to the same community.
Ed Gillentine
I love the balance of it, and I think that's an important word. And I think it kind of is a good segway to maybe a project or two that you guys are working on. You want to talk about that kind of from a high level?
Greg Spillyards
Yeah, sure. Well, you know, one thing that, so the company. There are a number of projects we're working on at a community level, neighborhood level, you know, that are, you know, from a project management standpoint, like one where we're currently doing the project management for Believe Memphis Academy to fourth through eighth grade school and Alcy Ball actually students showed up this morning.
Ed Gillentine
Awesome.
Greg Spillyards
We hope and pray that's going well, my heart is with them right now, but one area that we've really focused on, and this is something that is sort of, it's kind of a side project from Commercial Advisors. It's, we're using Commercial Advisors is providing resources to do this, but we're trying to find a way to bring equity into or equity opportunity into neighborhoods where there seems to be multiple pieces in place for flourishing, but maybe there's just a component or two that are missing. And of course, in that component or two a flourishing that's missing, we also see latent physical assets that could be brought back online, could have the lights turned back on, or services turned back on, and actually provide a space for business to operate. We're engaging the neighborhood first and creating a vision for what this needs to look like.
Ed Gillentine
Ask them what they need.
Greg Spillyards
Exactly. And that's something we just, you know, we have failed at so often. And then, you know, or we've gone into communities. And when I say we, I mean, anyone, you know, who takes it upon themselves to try to save something and it just, it often fails because it's like we come in, we charge in and it doesn't really connect. And we don't really know what's missing.
Ed Gillentine
When Helping Hurts and Toxic Charity, I think are so important. And I think also the idea of best practices out of balance. So that's why I love that word best practices out of balance. What works in Detroit is fantastic. That doesn't mean it's going to work here and you know this as well as I do what works in 38126 with Advance Memphis doesn't work in the Hurt Village district or Pinch district.
Greg Spillyards
There's so many factors that go into that. So right now, I mean, an area that we have spent a good bit of time in is Soulsville, which has bounded by Bellevue to the east Mississippi to the west, and then Crump to the North of South Parkway to the south, those are kind of the boundaries. You know, we've determined as Soulsville. There's a lot of argument around that of whether that's accurate or not, but then you have the core of the neighborhood you have where Soulsville Charter School is located.
You have Delta Prep, you have Memphis Rox, you have the Stax Museum, you have Le Moyne Owen, you have all these incredible community assets they're right in the neighborhood. Where where's the other piece, you know, where's the private sector piece, where's the economic. So what we believe is that you've actually got to have some catalytic event or a catalytic investment to get something over the goal line.
Ed Gillentine
I love that word too.
Greg Spillyards
There's this you know, so they're businesses that are operating in the neighborhood who would significantly benefit from improved commercial space. So we're going to those businesses and we're engaging them and asking, you know, what would be ideal for you to have on a main thoroughfare here that could help you, you know, really thrive.
Based on what the feedback is they give us, we put that into a vision plan and we go out to the larger community seeking investment at a moderate to lower rate of return, but it's sustainable and it's not something that's going to lose money. It's not going to compete with your market investment, but what's great about it is it's considered a legacy investment and where you're able to diversify your portfolio or whatever you're looking to do.
And you can actually put it into an impact project. Something like redeveloping the corner building at Macklemore and College, where that could all of a sudden become a thriving location for not only the students who are at Soulsville Charter School, or the parents who are coming into the neighborhood to pick their students up, it's a great place for LeMoyne Owen's students.
It all feeds into the ecosystem and it's not us doing it, it's a, it's the only role we have in it is connecting the dots.
Ed Gillentine
Just the connector. By the way, not to get too technical, you can fund that with a donor advised fund in many cases, whether it be alone or whatever. So you're taking, you may not get market return, but you just took a heck of a lot of you know, tax implications off the table. Right? And it's, to me, that's amazing. And and it's wholesome, right? It's balanced. I interviewed the, MyCityRides people the other day. Evidently, they, if you will lose about a thousand dollars per scooter, they put it on the road. Right? So they're subsidizing that.
However because our public transit system, as I understand it, it'll get you where you need to go, but it is not efficient. So you think about those, those catalytic needs in that neighborhood. If you can't get to a job, if it's going to take you two hours to get to a job, and if one bus goes down, you're in trouble.
That's a problem, but if you've got a scooter that's affordable, right? That you can get to these closer proximity areas. Well, five years of kicking in a thousand dollars per scooter has a catalytic effect. And I see that in the Soulsville area. I see it all across Memphis. If you can, just, if you guys can connect that missing piece Memphis is an unbelievable city.
I think there are unbelievable cities all over the U S they just got to have the Larry Jensen, the CBREs that are willing to take a risk and give, I love how you put it, give permission to other business. To take a risk that can catalytically explode. I'm not sure that's a word, catalytically explode impact flourishing in Memphis and around the world.
Greg Spillyards
And the word is really leverage. If people can use it as leverage it, my wife and I have, I think this originated when we were talking about decorating our house, but a small difference can make all the difference in the world. Yep. We nothing is by accident, nothing, everything we see around us, whether it is flourishing or blighted, it's, there's a reason.
And we have to dig into what that reason is. And so if you think of from a leveraging standpoint of, you know, the thousand dollar gap that just needs to be filled to put a scooter on the street or, or the $10,000 that can go into catalyzing this development and Soulsville the return, I mean, okay.
A five to 7% return, but the return beyond that and for the neighborhood and for the city where you hope your children live and grandchildren live is going to extend beyond your lifetime.
Ed Gillentine
As an example, I think mathematically that MyCityRides, people said that for that $1,000. They pick up, I think, $14,000 a year of economic benefit, just savings from the the city government as I understood it.
So you do that times, whatever the life of the scooter is, let's just say it's three years, you know, that's almost $60,000. That's huge. That's a pretty dang good return for a thousand dollar investment. And you see that trickling out across the city. I think it's amazing. I got to land the plane. So you've talked about like 10 things that would be a legit podcast on its own, so we're going to wrangle you back in, the problem with you is you're you're in the city of Memphis. So you're easy for me to call up and pester. So you may have to move back to Kentucky. I don't know, but then we'll do it over the phone. I really and I'm going to say this to our listeners.
One of the great things about. Greg has done with the seminary degree. And I would say this to those of you that are thinking and going, thinking about going back and getting, you know, business degrees or even a philosophy degree, as you can tell, Greg communicates this nuanced subject really well. And I think we need people that are educated.
Yeah. You need people. Making the transactions go down. You need Steve Nash and his team on the ground. You need Roshun Austin in Orange Mound. You need those people, but you also need people that can communicate the vision. And I would put Greg in that sort of category, he's kind of got a foot in both areas on the ground, but also the same as a Brian Fikkert or a Bob Lupton that are communicating the need for this.
And so, we try to wrap up with what I call rapid fire. Okay. So this is, I'm going to put you on the, on the spot, but we're going to start with something that I'll let you warm up a little favorite ice cream flavor and brand.
Greg Spillyards
Alright. Blue Bell- Cookie Two-Step.
Ed Gillentine
That is pretty good. I hadn't seen that one in a while.
Greg Spillyards
Yeah, well, it was probably,
Ed Gillentine
Was it a special edition or something?
Greg Spillyards
Was? I think we was all in our freezer.
Ed Gillentine
Gotcha. Best doughnut in Memphis or the United States.
Greg Spillyards
I mean, Gibsons and I usually get the apple fritter.
Ed Gillentine
Oh man. I'm not an apple fritter guy, but like a year or two ago, I got a hot one, like fresh out. Unbelievable. My head is still spinning thinking about it.
All right. So a little bit more serious. Favorite quote?
Greg Spillyards
Oh gosh. ' If you can dream it, you can do it.' Isn't that the Walt Disney quote?
Ed Gillentine
Sounds close enough to me. I was going to give you, I was about to ask, is that original with you? Or it sounded sort of Disney.
Greg Spillyards
My daughter, she, we didn't think she was ever gonna figure out how to ride her bike.
Ed Gillentine
Yeah.
Greg Spillyards
It's just taken forever. I mean, and one morning she gets up and she goes out and she gets on her bike and starts riding. And she comes in, we weren't even with her. And she came in and she says, Hey, I'm riding my bike. Like, what how'd you?
She said, last night, I had a dream about riding my bike and it just clicked. So 'you can dream it. You can do it.'
Ed Gillentine
Power of the dream. I like that. We'll give her credit for that. Favorite book? It could be a book you're reading now it could be something that changed your life.
Greg Spillyards
I'll say Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard was significant and all, in at least the context of we're talking about today.
Ed Gillentine
I've had like 28 people tell me to read that book and it's in my iPad and it just looks long and so I haven't worked up the courage.
Greg Spillyards
And you've got to read every page about three times before you move to the next one. But yeah.
Ed Gillentine
All right. Well, I'm, I'm committed. I'm committed. We can read it together. Yeah. There you go. Like some accountability. We can meet at Mrs. Winner's except there is none.
Greg Spillyards
Are there any more Mrs. Winters?
Ed Gillentine
I don't think so.
Greg Spillyards
That one on Brooks Road closed not too long after Albert passed away, unfortunately.
Ed Gillentine
We used to go to the. Y'all might've been keeping them in business on your Thursday mornings. We used to go to the one on Stage Road and Sycamore View. That sweet tea was amazing.
Greg Spillyards
Yes, it was.
Ed Gillentine
Most influential person in your life and real quickly, why?
Greg Spillyards
I will say the people who really influenced me are the faculty at Asbury Theological Seminary. And I've said this a number of times, even recently, as I've thought more about it. I've never been in the company of a group of people that do something with the excellence that they do it. And I know this sounds like a plug for Asbury. It's really not, it is true. I mean, I was kind of blown away really.
By when I showed up on campus, I mean, I was taking classes online, but when I arrived on campus and I was in these classes, I mean, we had a professor David Bauer, Dr. David Bauer, he had taught Matthew inductive Bible study using Matthew as the text for 30 years.
Ed Gillentine
Wow.
Greg Spillyards
And updated his slides every Fall with things that he discovered, and this guy is genius, photographic memory, like, and I mean, it just, that just blows me away. And so I use it, I use that as like, accountability. It doesn't matter what profession you're in. Are you doing it? Are you entering it in into it with excellence and dedication? And I saw it over and over and over again through the faculty.
Ed Gillentine
That's really cool and in all seriousness, hopefully an encouragement to educators out there
Greg Spillyards
Absolutely
Ed Gillentine
Who have a crazy influence for good or evil. And that's why the excellence is, is important. Because talk about a slog 30 years, I mean, you're doing a lot of the same stuff over and over, and I've always, I tell my kids don't be that smart Alec to your professor. They've already heard your comment. Right? They've heard it a thousand times and they don't think it's funny.
Greg Spillyards
What's amazing though, if you ask David Bauer, what his favorite pricopie of Matthew is,
Ed Gillentine
Yeah?
Greg Spillyards
Just the genealogy.
Ed Gillentine
That's, that's amazing. I got to talk to that guy. I just finished reading through Numbers, and I confess, I skimmed all of the begets. Brother, thanks for coming. It's been amazing.
Greg Spillyards
I really appreciate it.
Ed Gillentine
We'll have to circle back. There's so much to talk about and all you guys, all that you're doing at Commercial Advisors is really amazing. For our listeners, I hope it's been really helpful. It's been fun for us to do. And until next time, all the best!
Journey to Impact Outro
Thank you for listening. We love your feedback. So please let us know what you thought about this episode, as well as what you'd like to hear more of in the future. For more information, impact resources, or to purchase a copy of the book, Journey to Impact, visit EdGillentine.com.
That's E D G I L L E N T I N E.com. The book is also available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or target.com. For Ed GIllentine's speaking inquiries or advertising opportunities, send us an email at ajourneytoimpact@gmail.com. This has been a presentation of the Journey to Impact podcast team, Executive Producer, Ed Gillentine, Associate Producer, Meredith Taylor, produced and edited by Joey Woodruff. Special thanks to Steven Chandler.