In 2017, Suzanne Kinney stepped into the role of president and CEO of NAIOP Arizona, taking the reins of one of the largest chapters in the country. Since then, NAIOP Arizona has continued to grow, engaging more sectors within the commercial real estate industry and expanding its membership.
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AZRE magazine sat down with Kinney to discuss the reasons behind NAIOP Arizona’s success, what it does on behalf of the industry and how it’s engaging the next generation of leaders. The following responses have been edited for length and clarity.
AZRE: What has made the Arizona chapter of NAIOP one of the best in the nation?
Suzanne Kinney: I would start by saying that we listen to our members to make sure we’re in tune with meeting their needs as they change over time. We’re very much a member driven association, so having active participation from our members is key to putting together the programming, the events and the political advocacy.
For the past several years, we’ve focused on modernizing and professionalizing the association, so the member experience is consistent, reliable and of high quality. That has contributed a lot to the success of our organization.
AZRE: You mentioned the importance of listening to members. How do you collect that feedback?
SK: Between the staff and our board of directors, we make the effort to meet with our members to understand how things are going for them, what their needs are, what their pain points are and how we as an association can help with that.
Our committees are another avenue for listening to members. An example of that is a year and a half ago, we started our multifamily committee, which was brand new for us as an organization. We spent the first six months engaged in a dialogue with members who are developers, brokers and otherwise focused on multifamily to understand what was going on. We learned there were a ton of challenges related to zoning and permitting at the city level.
That’s an area where we can gather input from our members and communicate that to city officials and staff to show it’s not something project specific, but a broader challenge. Our committees are a great way we can get feedback and then try to implement it.
AZRE: NAIOP has three guiding principles — connect, advocate and learn. Let’s go through each of these, starting with “connect.” Why is networking so important for this business?
SK:Our chapter is known for creating an environment where connections can be made and fostered over time. When I talk to cohorts of young professionals, I enjoy hearing stories about people who got involved in our Developing Leaders program early in their career, created a peer network that spanned different functions within the industry and grew alongside that peer network. Having a group of people to call on when they have questions and get referrals from is rewarding to hear about.
We also facilitate opportunities for our Developing Leaders to meet with senior level executives that they might not otherwise have the opportunity to talk with. NAIOP opens the door for people early in their career to get to know the experts in the industry they might not otherwise get to meet. We’ve also found there is a desire amongst our senior level members to share their knowledge with the younger generations.
AZRE: The second point is “advocate.” How is NAIOP involved with legislative affairs?
SK: We are organized as a 501(c)(6), which means that we can lobby as much as we want and need, which makes us unique in the association space. We’re the only organization that exclusively represents private development and advocates at all levels of government and that’s a critical piece of the value we provide our members.
We’re active with the state legislature, the governor’s office and state agencies that impact our industry. We’re also engaged at the federal level with Arizona’s congressional delegation, and now more often at the local level as well. There are a range of challenges, like meeting our energy needs, that we’re starting to experience and we want to make sure that commercial real estate is well represented in these important conversations that are taking place.
AZRE: Last but not least is “learn.” Can you talk about the educational opportunities available to members?
SK: We provide a lot of value in this space. Most of the year, we’ll have two programs that fall under the education umbrella per month that span a wide range of topics. Some are real estate focused, such as financing and lending. Others are addressing broader issues that impact the industry.
We’ve also incorporated our programming for the retail, multifamily and DEI committees within our larger education umbrella. These are areas where committee involvement is really important because committee members will come up with ideas for topics, as well as speakers who can share their knowledge on these topics. We also build networking into all of these events as well, so “connect” and “learn” are closely intertwined.
We’re also excited that we’re relaunching our Young Professionals group, our premier mentorship program, in 2025. The goal is to elevate the program so it becomes an even more enriching experience for Developing Leaders who participate. More to come on that, but it’s a big focus for us right now.
AZRE: Can you talk about the relationship that NAIOP has with ASU and UArizona?
SK:We have two programs with ASU. The first is a long-standing partnership with the Master of Real Estate Development Program, or MRED. Each semester, NAIOP puts on a practicum where we have an actual project that’s selected, and everyone involved in that project comes to the MRED class to teach about their piece of that project, including the developer, contractor, design professionals, broker and so on. It’s an amazing program and our members are eager to hire those MRED graduates because they are so qualified upon graduation.
At the undergraduate level, we’ve worked with the Hispanic Business Students Association as a sponsor. The signature program we put on with them is an annual workshop where we bring in four or five of our members who talk about different career paths in commercial real estate to introduce students to what’s available in terms of careers.
The third program we have is with the University of Arizona and its Commercial Real Estate Club within the Eller College of Management. The club is a group of 25 or so members, and we host them each year on their road trip up to Phoenix. We set up a full day of meetings with NAIOP members, so students typically go to six different companies to learn more about what that business does, how they work, projects they’re working on and what they’re looking for when they hire employees out of college.
