Boulder Chamber integrates commercial real estate group

BOULDER — The Boulder Chamber and the Commercial Brokers of Boulder advocacy and networking group have joined forces in an effort to better support local brokerages, businesses and property owners as the industry continues to adjust to the new challenges that have emerged in the post-COVID-19-era commercial real estate space.

“The world of commercial real estate is always a challenging environment, even when times are good,” Summit Commercial Brokers managing director and CBB president Jim Ditzel said. “… Working more closely with the Chamber specifically on the office vacancy issues that are occurring in the market is only going to enhance both entities. The Boulder Chamber can rely on the market intelligence that the brokerage community is going to have, and the brokers community can rely on the varied professional acumen that the Chamber has.”

Office vacancies have remained stubbornly high in certain submarkets — downtown Boulder, particularly — so a “stronger connection between our economic-vitality efforts with the Chamber and the availability of commercial space” ought to serve “positive synergistic purposes” for both parties, Boulder Chamber president John Tayer said. 

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The Chamber has always been a “close collaborator not only with the Commercial Brokers of Boulder organization,” Tayer said, “but with the individual brokers and property owners” who collectively constitute the local industry.

Integrating the roughly 90-member CBB, which holds monthly networking meetings, into the Chamber’s professionally managed organizational infrastructure will create “a natural partnership,” said Bank of Colorado Boulder market president Aaron Spear, who serves as the CBB’s vice president. 

“From a leadership standpoint, from an administrative standpoint, we can offload a lot of that part to the chamber. That was a big part of the draw as far as the professionalization of the administration is concerned, whether that’s booking meetings, organizing events and getting people to them. We think that’s going to be a big lift for us.”

From the Chamber’s perspective, “we all have an interest in making sure we’re filling out empty office buildings and commercial structures,” Tayer said. 

The CBB will be folded into the Boulder Chamber’s economic vitality unit, overseen by Joseph Hovancak, who was hired by the organization late last year. 

Hovancak, who was previously executive director of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance and spearheaded the Prosperity Partnership, an economic initiative addressing resiliency, racial equity, entrepreneurship and economic mobility in Fort  Lauderdale/Broward County, Florida, “will oversee the operations to make sure we’re maximizing the synergies,” Tayer said. 

Better integration with the Chamber “is going to lead to more awareness (of the issues facing the broker community) and better policy (on commercial real estate) in Boulder,” Spear said.