NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area Chapter: Latest News

Congratulations to the Best of the Bay Winners!

March 14, 2024 Filed under: Chapter

NAIOP SFBA held it's 10^th annual Best of the Bay Awards on Thursday, March 7, 2024, at the Four Seasons in San Francisco.  Matt Field, Co-Chief Executive Officer of TMG Partners, served as master of ceremonies and kept his predecessor, Luis Belmonte’s, tradition alive by employing his infamous gong.

Lively and upbeat, the Best of the Bay is a unique commercial real estate awards competition which features attendees voting for the winners in real time. As each award category is introduced, nominees give a creative pitch to steer votes in their direction.  If they fail to wow the audience or drone on too long they get gonged.

The biggest award of the night, Development of the Year went to Prologis Nexus, a future-forward, sustainably-built industrial space with Class A office style.  Claudia Tarpin and Samidha Thakral presented for the team. They donned flashing sunglasses, broke into song, and stole the show!

Owner / Developer: Prologis, LP
Leasing Broker: Kevin Hatcher, CBRE
Architect: Lowney Architect

The Diversity Champion Award went to Rainbow Capital Partners an exciting group that invests in a new generation of developers and operators in commercial real estate primarily funding people of color, LGBTQ+ women-led firms. Accepting the award was Ryo Ishida, Managing Partner, who shared with the audience how non-traditional operators are driving performance. Yet there's a market inefficiency with minorities and women managing less than 2% of CRE assets. Rainbow Capital has built a community of 1,000+ members and 300+ real estate operators and developers. They are breaking barriers showing there's arbitrage in funding a different network of deals.

Becka Studer, Senior Director of Leasing and Marketing at Phase 3 Real Estate Partners was honored as Developing Leader of the Year.  She is a leasing and marketing expert who manages over ±5M SF of the GENESIS National Life Science Portfolio.  She has chaired the NAIOP SFBA Marketing and Communications Committee since 2020, where she established and produced the Chapter podcast channel, developed the branding for communications, and substantially upgraded the Chapter’s presence on social media. In 2022 she was asked to join the NAIOP SFBA Board. She has also been honored by the San Francisco Business Times as the Most Influential Women of the Year in 2022 and by Bisnow as the Bay Area Power Women in San Francisco 2021.

To celebrate the 10^th Anniversary of the Best of the Bay, this year’s event featured the Development of the Decade Award. The past 10 years of the commercial real estate industry has certainly seen its ups and downs, but collectively, we must honor all that has been accomplished in the past decade.

The category started with a retrospective video of the past Development of the Year recipients:

Foundry III – Tishman Speyer / JP Morgan
270 Brannan Street – SKS Partners / Mitsui Fudosan America / Colliers
85 Bluxome Street – Presidio Bay Ventures / Cushman & Wakefield
181 Fremont – Jay Paul Company / Newmark
Menlo Gateway – Bohannon / Alexandria / Eastdil Secured / Northmarq / Newmark
Park Tower – The John Buck Company / MetLife / JLL / Eastdil Secured
Chase Center + Thrive City – Golden State Warriors / Cushman & Wakefield
2130 Third Street (The Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building) – SKS Partners / The Prado Group
2024 Development of the Year Recipient: Prologis Nexus – Prologis, LP / CBRE / Lowney Architect

The audience then voted on which they thought was worthy of the Development of the Decade Award and the award went to:

Chase Center + Thrive City – Golden State Warriors / Cushman & Wakefield

A first-of-its-kind in San Francisco at the time, Chase Center serves as a world-class sports and entertainment destination; one that’s home to a championship team in the Golden State Warriors, a tremendous culinary scene, engaging retail, and some of the world’s most innovative companies. Chase Center’s state-of-the-art concert venue has significantly changed the face of entertainment in the region.
Located in the heart of Mission Bay, the $1.4 billion project was completed on time for the 2019/2020 NBA season. It enabled the Warriors to consolidate their arena, practice facility and basketball operations offices under one roof. The amenity-rich facility includes a myriad of features designed to enhance the fan experience, including 44 club suites, 32 courtside lounges, 60 theater boxes, premium lounges, and more.

Thrive City is a dynamic community gathering space created by the Golden State Warriors and Kaiser Permanente to promote health and wellness. Thrive City is largely composed of retailers and full-service restaurants, creating a special communal dining experience for San Francisco on the waterfront, not only for event ticket holders but the surrounding neighborhood.

The vision of Chase Center was to create a place that would provide people with unforgettable memories. Much more than just a venue, Chase Center has become a beacon for the surrounding Mission Bay/SF neighborhood and the entire Bay Area community.

See complete list of winners below.

Category Winners

Industrial Transaction of the Year

The Brown Truck Trifecta, Sunnyvale, San Jose, Hayward

Brokers: Craig Hagglund and Jeff Huberman, Lee & Associates
Developers: Mark English and Drew Hess, Layline
Capital Partners: Brad Pearson and Mounir Rafeeq, Corebridge / Rick Plackter and Max Feely, Carlyle

Office / Life Science Transaction of the Year

350 California Street, San Francisco

Buyer: Connor Kidd and Stephanie Ting, The Swig Company / Paul Stein and Joe McCarthy SKS
Seller: Brian Boudreau, MUFG
Broker: Kyle Kovac, Mike Taquino, and Giancarlo Sangiacomo, CBRE