Expansion With a Purpose
When we speak of growth at IAMC, it’s as likely we are talking about personal and professional development as we are about membership metrics.
Intentional membership balance with economic development, service provider and corporate end user members creates an ecosystem that maximizes benefits for all of us.
While that seems limiting, IAMC is uniquely positioned to provide high value to its members. It’s all about quality over quantity. We are a who’s who of industry leaders responsible for driving value to industrial portfolios and communities.
Our 300+ corporate real estate members are industrial real estate management professionals representing nearly 200 leading global companies including 49 of the Fortune 500 and 14 of the Fortune 100. Our member companies are responsible for $66.5 billion in capital investment and over 176,000 jobs created in the last three years, according to our friends at Conway Data who publish Site Selection.
Our service provider member companies include real estate developers, architects, engineers, contractors, consultants, real estate brokers, utilities, financial service providers, and technical equipment and service vendors and represent the leading suppliers of products and services sold to our corporate members.
Our economic development members represent some of the most professional and most successful regional organizations in the world charged with cultivating a welcoming business environment and prosperous communities.
The three membership categories are as central to IAMC success as the quality of the members in each of them. Each in their own way provide expertise and perspective that drive value to transactions while building relationships that go well beyond the transactional.
Members may be part of other associations. But it’s their participation in IAMC that consistently delivers the highest value in professional development.
Words to grow on.
IAMC Member Spotlight: Connie Fricke, Senior Real Estate Manager, Land O’Lakes, Inc.
The Purina Animal Nutrition Center campus in Missouri is part of the Land O’Lakes portfolio.
Photo courtesy of Land O’Lakes
Tell us a little bit about you.
Fricke: I am currently the Senior Real Estate Manager for Land O’Lakes. I was born in Moorhead, Minnesota, and raised in Bloomington, Minnesota. I received my Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota.
Tell us about your path to corporate real estate.
Fricke: I started out in marketing/advertising working for a company called RJ Brandons and moved to event planning for a complex called Riverplace in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From there I moved to facility and property management. I’ve managed all types of real estate (retail, office, residential, industrial). I’ve been on both the service providers side (working for Ryan Companies, Cushman & Wakefield and CBRE) and the corporate side at Land O’Lakes.
What is the scope of your responsibilities at your organization?
Fricke: I currently lead our Real Estate team. We are responsible for all acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, lease administration and facility management for all warehouses and economic incentives. We have roughly 207 leases and 136 owned locations.
What is your favorite part of your role or the industry as a whole?
Fricke: I enjoy that every day is different, and every project is a new challenge. I love working cross-functionally across all our business units and teams to find the best solutions for our business units. I work with an outstanding team that has a lot of talent. They do an excellent job of coming up with solutions for all of the crazy things that come up in real estate each day. Never a dull moment.
What is one skill specific to your job that you can share with the rest of the membership?
Fricke: Leading with influence and not authority. Ultimately in the end it is always the business unit’s decision. We help provide all the information and make recommendations, but ultimately the decision is theirs to make.
Tell us about a corporate real estate or facilities management project in which you played a role of which you were particularly proud.
Fricke: We had a difficult disposition: The building was on the market for two years. The area it was located in had really changed. We worked with the city’s economic development team, brokers and private developers. Ultimately it was decided that auctioning the building would bring the business the highest value. It turned out to be the best solution for the community and the business.
What led you to join IAMC?
Fricke: I was encouraged to join IAMC by my director when I accepted the position at Land O’Lakes. I really appreciate the networking and knowledge sharing of other corporate real estate professionals. I take something away from each Forum that I can use in making our real estate team stronger.
Tell us about one thing you have on your bucket list.
Fricke: Travel to Italy and Spain.
What was your first job?
Fricke: I was a waitress at Bridgeman’s Ice Cream Parlor.
What would your superpower be?
Fricke: Being able to predict the future.
IAMC International Audience in London Learns About FDI Trends, EMEA Logistics and Sustainability Factors
Kensington, London, United Kingdom
Photo by Alexei_Fedoren: Getty Images
Managing Consultant,
Global Location Strategies
An IAMC International event at the Hilton London Kensington in November featured EMEA logistics insights from Kevin Molfid, head of logistics research at Savills; a discussion of “the carbon cost of location” by Cushman & Wakefield’s Sally Bruer; and an exploration of site selection and current FDI trends by Nicholette Ross, managing consultant at Global Location Strategies.
“There are several factors that we’ve seen contributing to location decisions regardless of industry,” Ross told me a few weeks after the event. “However, one of the biggest ones for our projects has been the energy landscape. In markets such as Europe and the U.S., energy is constrained from both a generation and infrastructure standpoint and many countries and communities are trying to figure out how to serve projects of all sizes. For some of our projects, electric feasibility has been one of the factors driving the search region.”
She says supply chain risk mitigation is another factor, whether it’s due to increased potential for natural disasters, trade conflicts, geopolitical impacts or war. “Companies are incorporating these types of risks in their overall decision when comparing locations,” she said.
Workforce and availability of properties continue to be main factors, she said. Sustainability is a prime focus too.
“Access to renewable energy and what the generation portfolio of providers looks like is something that many companies are considering in their decisions,” Ross said. “We are seeing this particularly in the cases where our clients have a global footprint or in scenarios where a company’s portfolio for all locations combined is measured for sustainability.”
Asked how top-of-mind topics among the attendees in London compare and contrast with what she hears from clients stateside, Ross said, “Issues noted by attendees included cost pressures due to inflation, labor or rising rents, which would align with concerns of the corporate clients we have stateside. Additionally, companies are having to think through ESG regulations even in the cases of simply wanting the ability to lease out a building. This is a bit different from the U.S. as ESG requirements are not federally regulated.”
IAMC Local and IAMC International meetings continue to bolster the knowledge base and professional development of IAMC members in the months between the organization’s two Forums every spring and fall. Tentative events scheduled for 2025 include:
- February 6: Fort Worth, Texas
- February 19: Birmingham, United Kingdom
- April 8: São Paulo, Brazil
- April 10: Long Island, New York
- May 8: Phoenix, Arizona
- May 22: Monterrey, Mexico
- July 10: Seattle, Washington
- July 29: Atlanta, Georgia
- August 7: Chicago, Illinois
- August 28: Mexico City, Mexico
- September 11: São Paulo, Brazil
- September 25: Toledo, Ohio
- November 20: London, United Kingdom
For more information, visit iamc.org. — Adam Bruns