Everywhere one looks people are craving and striving for community. In one’s personal or professional life, community is a major overarching desire to be achieved. City planners, developers, retailers, and people in general yearn for the involvement of community. Yet community is not found in the mere physical buildings and places created, but by the people and their interpersonal relationships. These relationships begin and are nurtured through years of mutually shared experiences, trials, and victories. The essence of in-depth personal relationships is the underpinning of this much sought-after community.
From our earliest recollections of elementary school all the way through college, we were looking for a place where we “fit in” and “work and play well with others.” This is the same in our professional lives as well. Almost every corporate mission statement highlights “culture” (an MBA synonym for community) as a core corporate value.
On a recent Thursday afternoon at Trinity Hall at Mockingbird Station, about 60 retail real estate brokers experienced the essence of Dallas’ brokerage community as we celebrated the prequel of the iconic mixed use development’s rebirth. Although we are fierce competitors for property listings, tenant representation assignments, and even brokers themselves, we always tend to come back together and support one another. The Dallas brokerage community works together to continue to help our market grow, to lease space, and to expand businesses. We work and play well together.
We don’t have an Austin Town Lake (yet) or the Golden Gate Bridge (although the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is almost open), but we do have the finest group of brokerage professionals in the country. This community transcends age and stage, experience level, corporate affiliation, and is wholly intermeshed into a cohesive body to help do deals and help Dallas grow.
On a blistering hot July day, there were myriad reasons not to go to a broker function; however, in Dallas, this is what our people do. We support one another and work for the common good. It is truly an honor to be a part of this community.
Frank Bullock is executive vice president and market leader at SRS Real Estate Partners. Contact him at [email protected].
