Earlier this month, veteran broker Tony Smaniotto joined Colliers International to lead office sales for the firm’s Chicago office. Smaniotto recently spoke to Illinois Real Estate Journal about his career and the Chicago office market.
Here is some of what he had to say:
Illinois Real Estate Journal: What will you be doing in this new position?
Tony Smaniotto: My role here will be to build the office investment sale practice throughout the suburbs and downtown Chicago as well as the secondary markets in the Midwest.
IREJ: How did you get your start in commercial real estate?
Smaniotto: I graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in urban planning and began practicing at the Village of Tinley Park where I was given an opportunity to be the first city planner on staff in what is a very dynamic and growing southwest suburb. It gave me a lot of opportunities to work in planning and zoning and building permits, etc. Through the course of all the hours spent at village hall in the evenings, I met quite a few major commercial real estate builders, developers and investors who were conducting business. Inevitably, we built relationships and they began to encourage me to take the next step and get into the commercial real estate business. Almost to a man, they suggested I approach the big commercial real estate brokerage firms. I was encouraged by friends and mentors. I went out into the market and was given opportunities at a few firms, but I was drawn to what was Coldwell Banker at the time, which is now CBRE, because of the dynamic that was there and the opportunities to be trained and mentored. I was mentored by a gentleman named John Keepper, and he and I single-handedly canvassed and built a market area for the Central Business District at which time nobody was really conducting CBD office sale business. He and I took that concept and built it into one of the top office investment sale brands in the market right now. I was satisfied in my role as a planner but there was so much opportunity for myself and my young family, which is why I got into commercial real estate and I have never looked back.
IREJ: What do you enjoy most about this business?
Smaniotto: Without a doubt, I enjoy the people, whether they are clients or co-workers or competitors. There is a great esprit de corps among the commercial real estate community. I love the excitement of the transaction. I love to do transactions because you meet more people and you have different challenges in every deal. I love Chicago and I love urban office. It’s almost like a hobby of mine to follow design, development and transactions because of my planning background. I love to see how cities evolve and I love to be a part of that by helping people buy, sell, build and develop.
IREJ: What would you say is the most challenging part of succeeding in this business?
Smaniotto: The most challenging part of succeeding in this business is understanding how to manage your time and how to put yourself in a position to weather the inevitable downturn and how to take advantage of the inevitable uptick in the market first. Sometimes people get over their skis in our business. They sometimes find themselves caught – whether it be professionally, economically or financially – in a position where they can’t weather the storm. That’s the most challenging. It takes a lot of business planning, a lot of gut check and a lot of financial planning.
IREJ: What kind of personality traits do you have that have helped you succeed in this business?
Smaniotto: I have an outgoing personality but I also have humility. You’ve got to brag about yourself in this business, but I have a certain amount of humility and I think people appreciate that. I think my clients appreciate my loyalty because I approach every deal as being the first of many.
IREJ: What about people who are new to the field, what advice would you give to them?
Smaniotto: You have to prepare a business plan and understand that it takes time. Work hard and don’t get discouraged. Get involved in the business and the community by building relationships because at the end of the day, it’s a relationship business.
IREJ: What led you to specialize in office?
Smaniotto: I’m a city planner by training. I love big cities. Downtown Chicago is a very exciting and dynamic place, as is Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis and even Detroit. I’ve done more than $1 billion worth of business in Detroit. Detroit is going through some headline issues right now, but there is a lot of opportunity in Detroit. If you look at each of those cities, they’re all quite different and unique, but the underlying fabric of a city is very exciting to me.
IREJ: How has demand for office space been so far this year in the Chicago area?
Smaniotto: We’ve been chugging along. We’re at about a half-million square feet of absorption this year, and I’ve had years in this business where it got as high as 4 million or 5 million square feet. I guess a historian would say it’s not doing that well, but the way I look at it is there is a transformation, in effect, going on in Chicago. There’s obviously an incredible amount of energy and momentum occurring due to the growth in Chicago of technology firms such as Google and others. We’ve seen a lot of activity with the big one-off transactions and we’re seeing a lot of the corporate service demand chipping away. We haven’t seen a lot in between and we’ve got to get a lot of those small and mid-sized office space users to get rolling before we really get back to a healthy office market. You’re starting to see deals happening in the suburbs. We’re starting to see the return of value-add investors to the suburban market. If you watch the cycles, when those guys start getting active in the suburbs, it makes you feel pretty good that things are going to turn the corner because they don’t spend their money lightly and they don’t take risks lightly.
