Kyle Nagy
It’s not exactly news that a number of trade and service associations suffered membership drops during the economic downturn. And it should be no surprise that real estate-based organizations were among the hardest hit.
So it makes sense that the 2012 president of the Southern Nevada chapter of NAIOP — more formally known as the Commercial Real Estate Development Association — recognizes the importance of conveying what the organization has to offer industry professionals, and why its monthly breakfasts still attract key players in the business community.
“There are so many industry leaders in one place,” said Kyle Nagy, who succeeded Sallie Doebler as president effective with the calendar year. “For commercial real estate, it’s typically the biggest and the best.”
NAIOP has long been recognized as the central gathering spot for developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial and mixed-use real estate. In addition to its breakfast meetings and occasional special programs, the organization promotes standards for commercial development and advocates for public policy.
Nagy is a founder and director of CommCap Advisors, a commercial mortgage banking firm based in Henderson, and he knew the challenge ahead when he assumed the presidency of the still-large organization in January.
“It’s been a tough couple of years,” he said. “For me, it’s all about recommitting folks to NAIOP.”
Not so long ago, those breakfasts drew a virtual who’s who of the people and companies shaping the Las Vegas Valley’s skyline. It became a great place to grab a morning bite, take in a program — and do some deals.
“It was where everyone gathered,” Nagy said. “You could do it all at one meeting.”
It is the size of the audience that has changed a bit, not its caliber. If you’re talking real estate, it’s still the place to connect with decision-makers.
Nagy is a polite and soft-spoken individual who describes himself as a small-business owner with a financial-analytical background. Armed with capital from life insurance companies and investment banks, CommCap Advisors seeks projects involving loans above $1.5 million, providing money at more favorable terms than borrowers may have had previously. It’s definitely a niche.
“We fill the need that the banks locally cannot satisfy,” he said of his firm, which offers “non-recourse” loans, which means they do not require a personal guarantee.
“That’s why they’re a preferred choice by borrowers,” he said.
Nagy attended UNLV and has been active with both the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies and the Commercial Development and Management Corp., two groups that keep him connected to campus.
He’s entering his 13th year in commercial real estate. Like a lot of folks who’ve been here a while, he’s had an eye on what’s happening with redevelopment in Las Vegas, and believes a healthy downtown is critical for identity and cultural reasons, and is an important central meeting place.
With a family of his own, it’s easy for him to recall one other downside of Las Vegas’ previously high real estate values.
“Land prices were so high that we didn’t have the things other communities have,” he said, citing Wet’n Wild and Scandia among the family amusements that went away when their land became too valuable. Prices have dropped since, of course, prompting him to think that some similar attractions might pencil out now.
So he’s bullish on the commercial real estate industry, which is probably a wise mind-set for the president of NAIOP to adopt. He feels that things are improving, in part since CommCap Advisors has had an increase in lending activity since 2010. And he suspects the sorting-out process among industry professionals is about over.
“In the last three or four years, people were re-examining their lives, figuring out who they are, if they really wanted to be in real estate,” he said. He wasn’t one of them, however.
“Real estate is the first thing people think about,” he said. “It’s a fundamental, basic component of our business cycle. The best developers are going to survive.”