Board Member Focus: Amanda Bates, NAIOP SFBA President-Elect 2022
Amanda Bates is a commercial real estate professional who loves seeing developments come to life. She is Vice President, Bay Area Investments Lead at Kilroy Realty Corporation (NYSE: KRC), the renowned West Coast office and mixed-use developer, owner and operator. Bates is responsible for sourcing new investment ideas across the Bay Area and quarterbacking ground-up development projects from land acquisition, to construction, budgeting, lease up and stabilization. “Because I am involved in all aspects of projects, I get to work across departments internally,” she said. “I enjoy that collaboration immensely and it has given me a literal ‘ground up’ education in real estate development.” Her favorite part of her role is leading the disposition process and thinking strategically to get ahead of issues before they come up. She has executed on approximately 5 million square feet of office building sales during her time at Kilroy.
Kilroy Realty Corporation was recently named NAIOP 2020 Developer of the Year due to their commitment to people-first experiences and well-crafted real estate that goes beyond just the four walls of a building. The company excels in creating spaces where businesses, employees and communities thrive. Bates is proud to be part of the Kilroy team and to contribute to their recognized successes.
One of her most fulfilling accomplishments at Kilroy has been working as a key member of the team that recently won entitlements for the Flower Mart mixed-use development project in Central SoMa. The approval included an initial office allocation of approximately 1.4 million square feet under San Francisco’s Office Development Annual Limit Program (Prop. M), as well as priority for a future phases. This was the largest single allocation of Prop. M in San Francisco history. “It has been extremely exciting to be involved with this project from land acquisition to entitlement over the past six years” Bates said.
Bates, who currently serves as NAIOP SFBA President-Elect 2022, credits the Chapter and especially the Young Professional’s Group (YPG) with helping her grow a strong network and accelerate her career. After completing the YPG program as part of the class of 2015-16, she served on the YPG Behind the Scenes events committee and subsequently as Co-Chair of the Chapter Sponsorship Committee. She was then asked to join the Chapter Board which led to her appointment as President-Elect at the end of 2020. In addition to her many accomplishments within the Chapter leadership, she also presented at the NAIOP Best of the Bay Awards Dinner for Bay Area Lease of the Year in 2020 and 2019 and took home the trophy both times. “NAIOP is an incredible resource for commercial real estate professionals of all levels and all backgrounds to gain exposure and connections to deals and people far beyond their individual companies” said Bates. “In addition to attending events, it is definitely a ‘get what you give organization’ and the more you participate, the more you get out of it.” 
Bates advises emerging professionals to both keep their heads down in order to become experts in their exact jobs and to seek mentorship from those in senior positions in their companies and in the broader industry. Being in acquisitions, she believes that connections are part of her currency. “More often than not it is your contacts and the information they help you gather that can set you apart from the pack,” she said. “Building your network is essential to your success.”
Prior to her time at Kilroy, Amanda worked in office investment sales at HFF in Washington, DC and in Private Banking at J.P. Morgan in New York. She studied Finance, International Business and Spanish and graduated with her Bachelors in Business Administration (BBA) from Emory University in Atlanta. She now resides in Marin with her husband and son. “I cherish downtime with my family,” she said, and “I especially love getting away to wine country!”
