Equity announces top producing agents
Equity, a national full-ser- vice commercial real estate company, announced its top three producing agents for 2020: Matt Lasky (Columbus, OH), Elaine Gillespie (Cincin- nati, OH), and Tracey Herron (Dayton, OH).
“I’m proud of these agents who persevered throughout such an unpredictable year,” Austin Wathen, SVP of Equity’s brokerage divi- sion, said. “Despite the chal- lenges we all faced due to the pandemic, Equity’s team of agents, including our top three, continuously showed resilience and dedication in their day-to-day work.”
Like almost every industry, the commercial real estate industry was largely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In July of 2020, Equity’s CEO, Steve Wathen, described how the industry was affected in a video released by the com- pany. In the video, Wathen described various hardships such as low tenancy rates and late rent payments.
“When the pan- demic first started having an impact on businesses, we didn’t know how long lasting or to what extent these busi- nesses would be impacted,” Gillespie admitted. “When I saw this happen, I immedi- ately sat down with my team to regroup. We just viewed the pandemic as another obstacle in the sales cycle and used that time to reach out to clients, see how they were doing, and see if there was anything we could do to help.”
Lasky and Herron too focused on client relations during the shutdowns.
According to Herron, she spent much of her time call- ing and checking in on her clients. In fact, she reported that due to her consistent communication tactics, she closed more restaurant and industrial deals than she ever had before.
In fact, Lasky and his team were able to complete four healthcare acquisitions rang- ing from $4 million to $20 million during the pandemic. “These deals took a lot more work, grit, and persistence than years prior,” Lasky said. Lasky also contributed his team’s success to diversifying their client portfolio to serve autism therapy tenants, behavior health tenants, and veterinary tenants.
Moving forward into 2021, these three agents agreed that they would continue to work hard to gain and main- tain client relationships, close deals, and network.
Georgia Paget was an assistant stage manager at London’s production of “Hamilton.” David Lawrence was directing choruses and orchestras throughout Britain. Katy Oakden, a onetime equine midwife, was managing a busy veterinary practice. Mark Karrie, a sound engineer, had just begun a national tour for a West End musical.
Their jobs, like those of millions of others — restaurant cooks, hotel chambermaids, airline pilots, librarians and many more — suddenly came to a stop when the pandemic struck Britain last spring.
Now they are part of the small army of thousands who have taken a role to fight the virus, hired by the National Health Service and private firms contracted by the government to assist in temporary jobs like cleaning hospital wards, spreading the word on self-isolation rules and administering tests for the coronavirus.
The NHS is revered by the British public for valiantly providing front-line medical care during the pandemic, but the government’s use of outsourcing companies has drawn criticism for mismanagement. After the country’s first lockdown, a 108 million British pound contract (about $136 million) to hire contact tracers was awarded without real competition. In August, thousands of contact-tracing jobs were scrapped after complaints of having no one to call.
But the myriad government reversals and fumbling efforts to stop the virus have done little to discourage workers from taking on positions to help seize the pandemic.
For the temporary workers, the pay is often barely above minimum wage, often a drastic cut from their
previous work. Many hope and expect to return to their former careers once the crisis is over, but they say they find some solace playing a role they are not used to, and sometimes using their professional skills for new purposes.
Paget’s job is calling people who have just learned they tested positive for the virus, as part of Britain’s contact-tracing system. She calls to make sure they know they must self-isolate for 10 days and to offer them information about available support.
She makes nearly 80 calls a day from her computer, at home in Biggleswade, north of London. She knows little about the people she is calling except their name and the fact that they tested positive.
Few are happy to hear from her. But it is not a thankless job. In December, not long before Christmas, Paget said, she called a man who had just tested positive. During their conversation, he told her that he had lost his wife to COVID-19 within the previous 24 hours.
Paget, who began the job in October as the virus’s second wave took hold in Britain, said she had received good training and had become used to a range of emotions on the other end of the line: from angry individuals who do not believe in the pandemic to those who are simply lonely. For this caller, she took the time to speak with him, relaying the information she needed to provide while also letting him talk.
“I’m glad I spoke to him because I think it was quite nice for him having someone to talk to after that,” said Paget, 28. “That’s one that makes me think, ‘That was worth doing my job that day.’ ”
Working for the ‘greater good’
Lawrence struggled at first to get people to open their mouths wide enough so he could properly stick a swab down their throats. That is his job now, three days a week, working as a coronavirus tester serving Cambridge and Peterborough.
But for years, he had been a choral conductor, so he called on some friends who were opera singers who had experience opening their mouths wide. Their advice: Tell the people arriving for tests to whisper “car” (it sounds like “cahh” in an English accent) or tell them to imagine they are about to bite into an apple.
Those suggestions are now taped to the wall of his cubicle.
“I’ve enjoyed it much more than I expected to,” said Lawrence, 55.
The virus continues to spread through Britain, accelerated by an especially contagious variant, and the country recently surpassed the grim milestone of 100,000 COVID deaths. Helping in some way to slow that spread is “a very important job to do right now,” Lawrence said.
“I will be able to personally look back at this time — I can’t wait to look back on this time — and say I did my bit, I did something useful, and I already feel very proud of that,” he said.