Dear CREW San Diego Members,
As we enter the holiday season and wrap up the year, it is important to reflect on all of CREW San Diego’s successes and accomplishments this year. As a chapter, we have continued raising our organization to an impressive level, further advancing our purpose, mission, and vision.
CREW San Diego celebrated our 40th year as a chapter this year. Throughout this milestone year, we have continued to experience incredible growth and engagement from our members. Today, we are well underway planning our programs, special events, and outreach efforts for 2024 that will further our mission of being San Diego’s premier commercial real estate organization. Our primary focus is to elevate our network of commercial real estate professionals in the region.
In keeping with our mission, we hosted four open educational programs in 2023. It started with our sold-out Economic Forecast. We also held five members-only events focused on networking and an array of personal development offerings. Our Special Events Committee hit it out of the park this year with our large social events including our annual Golf Tournament, Summer Social, and Annual Charity Wine Tasting and Silent Auction. Our Board annually selects a nonprofit partner to support. This year, all the proceeds from our annual Wine Auction fundraiser went to the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate’s Real Estate Awareness and Diversity Initiative (READI) at the University of San Diego (USD). This program is aimed at promoting real estate as a career path for students in underserved and underrepresented San Diego communities.
We are thrilled to announce that, after years in the making, our chapter’s nonprofit, Building Futures Foundation (BFF) is officially off the ground. This group is tasked with raising funds to provide stipends for the development and education of our CREW San Diego members. We are proud to offer this as one of our many exclusive membership benefits. What’s more, this year we successfully provided stipends to five CREW San Diego members.
Earlier this year, CREW Network offered 30 national scholarships to undergraduate students across the United States and Canada. We were elated to hear that San Diego had one Network Scholarship winner in 2023. Join us in congratulating USD’s Mia Soto.
As we begin another year with continuing market concerns and geopolitical uncertainty, San Diego remains a unique location well positioned to pull through the near future ahead of some of our West Coast neighbors. There are four critical drivers setting us apart: We live and work in a highly desirable location; with high levels of innovation; access to capital; and amazing talent.
San Diego is home to several world-class institutions that CREW San Diego has worked closely with for years to build strong relationships driving student education in commercial real estate. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) was recently ranked among the top 10 biomedical research institutions in the world and continues to provide smart labor to our strong and dynamic life sciences industry. Life Science is one of San Diego’s leading industries and continues to be an area of strong growth in our market. San Diego State University (SDSU) Real Estate graduates represent real estate specialties across the spectrum. Graduates occupy positions from property management to chief executive officers of public real estate companies headquartered in San Diego, and are well represented within asset management, brokerage, finance, law, and investment management, among other specialties. Furthermore, USD continues to be ranked among the top undergraduate real estate programs in the country. USD remains a pioneer in their commitment to providing local students with the best access to resources and promoting real estate as a career opportunity, not only to their students, but to local high schools as well.
Our county’s economy remains strong and is well diversified with sectors like high tech, life science, tourism, hospitality, and military spending while providing stability and feeds our region.
More exciting developments are on the horizon! San Diego and Tijuana have been selected as the first cross-border region to be designated a World Design Capital. The cities were selected because of our unique history, rich and diverse design community, commitment to cross-border collaboration, and all the unique opportunities that exist in our shared community. The region will soon embark on World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024, a yearlong celebration of our innovative cross-border region bringing local leaders together to design a better future.
These multitude of factors will allow the San Diego region to pull out ahead and have lasting endurance despite the national economic outlook.
In closing, thank you for your continued support and dedication to our organization.
We hope you continue to provide us feedback on how to better serve you as we always strive to do better. We will continue to provide you with access to networks of developing business opportunities and educational programs to achieve your goals, growth, and success.
Please know that our 2024 Board of Directors is always here to support you. We are available for any questions and feedback as we are driven to be better for our members.
Elizabeth Doll
Executive Director – Asset Services
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc
CREW San Diego Members,
What an incredible year! Thank you for the opportunity to represent you and our chapter as President along with the 2023 Board of Directors, who are a remarkable group of women passionate about Commercial Real Estate and CREW’s Mission and Vision. The 2023 Board of Directors, Co-Chairs, and Committee members have worked hard contributing ceaseless volunteer hours in an effort to provide an environment for development, career growth, networking, Done Deals, and fun!
There is one specific item I'd like to highlight from this year. CREW San Diego is passionate about supporting professionals striving to advance their careers in the commercial real estate industry by providing opportunities for our chapter members to further their education. The CREW San Diego Building Futures Foundation (BFF) was approved by the CREW San Diego Board of Directors in 2020 and received official IRS approval of 501(c)(3) status in 2021. This is a unique benefit only available to our CREW San Diego Members. CREW San Diego’s Building Futures Foundation Committee organizes events to raise funds for the non-profit organization and ensure the annual application time frame is announced to our membership, applications are then reviewed by the Building Futures Foundation Committee for selection. The first BFF stipend was awarded in 2022 and this year we awarded four more!
The time has flown by and I know we are all still crazy busy as the year winds down. During the Holiday Season, please take time to be with your friends, family, and loved ones reminiscing together over past experiences while creating new memories. Remember to focus on what’s most important to you, the things that feed your soul and make you the best you!
Before I close, let’s take a moment to reflect on our 2023 accomplishments and growth.
2023 Highlights:
Giving Back
CREW San Diego in collaboration with our non-profit Building Futures Foundation (BFF), awarded four stipends for CRE continuing education to CREW San Diego members!
Just over $13,000 in stipends awarded, the most since BFFs non-profit status was obtained in 2021
Our BFF Committee organized several sweat-working yoga sessions for our members with the proceeds being donated to BFF
Our chapter met the CREW Network Foundation Chapter Challenge with 100% of our Board Members donating; over 50% of our Membership donating; and raising over $33,000 for the CREW Network Foundation!!
CREW Network Foundation awarded Mia Soto, SDSU Undergraduate Student, with a Scholarship in 2023!!
CREW San Diego awarded four scholarships to chapter members to attend the CREW Convention in September 2023
CREW San Diego awarded one Emerging Leader a Scholarship to attend the 2023 Emerging Leaders Retreat
CREW San Diego raised $6,630 for the University of San Diego’s READI program.
Member Engagement
Our membership is at one of the highest it’s ever been, with 273 confirmed members and another seven pending their membership fee payment – reflecting 5% growth overall
Our chapter continues to have strong 2023 retention rate at 75.3%
Our chapter has 95 Legacy Members (five or more years); representing 35% of our Membership
Our Emerging Leaders cohort continues to grow and add fun, exciting, and educational events
Our 2023 Golf Tournament was one of our highest attended with a 58% increase in profitability
We have 50 Done Deals Reported!!
Thank you to our Marketing Committee for all of their focus on this important strategy initiative
I know there are more that folks didn’t have the time to report all of their collaborations to close business together
Two member projects won San Diego Architectural Foundation (SDAF) Orchid awards this year! Callan Ridge - a Done Deal project for Project Management Advisors (PMA), BNBuilders, and FPBA - won the People's Choice Award - I'm sure our Marketing Committee's promotion efforts helped! Also, McCullough Landscape Architecture won an Orchid in the Landscape Architecture category for their Helix Water District WaterSmart Demonstration Garden.
Our Career Outreach committees have experienced significant growth in members involved for CREWMates, UCREW, and CREW Careers!
UCREW and CREW Careers have increased community outreach this year! One benefit of their outreach was an increase in the number of CREW Network Foundation applicants this year (11).
Fantastic Sponsors
Highest annual sponsor dollars in our history, with a 11% YOY increase
New enhanced sponsorship packages approved for 2024
All of our sponsors – Annual Sponsors, Vendor Sponsors, Event Sponsors and In-Kind Sponsors, made our Special Events, Educations & Programs, Emerging Leaders, CREWmates, UCREW, CREW 101, and our Holiday Party possible with their generous sponsorships throughout the year
As I hand the baton to Liz Doll, 2024 President and the 2024 Board of Directors, I am excited to see the accomplishments that will be achieved through all of their hard work!
Molly Addington
CREW San Diego 2023 President
