The Hughes Marino Operations team recently had the opportunity to go on a field trip of sorts with our own David Marino. The goal? To help those of us who normally stay behind the scenes, providing operational support to the brokerage team, understand the nuances of different types of commercial space. It was a one-day crash course in all things commercial real estate from one of the most knowledgeable brokers in the business. We dubbed it a “Day With David.”

Most people don’t know much about HM’s Awesome Ops team. That’s because we are, by design, behind the scenes. We are the client relations managers, financial analysts and marketing staff whose job it is to make sure that our brokers, construction managers, and lease audit team are 100% supported from within the HM office. We make sure the in-house operations run smoothly so that Hughes Marino can consistently deliver award-winning service to all our clients. However, in order to do that, we knew we needed to better understand the roles of our colleagues. When David came up with the idea for a field trip, we jumped at the opportunity.

First we visited lab space leased by Fate Therapeutics, where we saw how space can be converted to accommodate wet labs. We also went on to visit several other facilities to get a feel for different types of space (Shell, Class A Office, Flex, Industrial, etc.) At each stop, David explained the various costs and complexities associated with each type of space.

I know I speak for the whole Operations Team when I say that our day with David gave us invaluable experience that we’ll apply on a daily basis. Now to come up with an equally enlightening and entertaining way of teaching the brokers how we do our jobs. Wish us luck!