President’s Message
Kathy DeMello
What an honor to be installed and to serve as the 2017 NHCIBOR President at the Manchester Country Club on December 8th! The dueling pianos made for a lively night with commercial brokers dancing in the aisles! Can you imagine? My thanks to Bob Marchewka, our 2016 President, and Gerry O’Connell, our 2015 President for mentoring me and helping me to prepare to take on this task. My thanks, also to Tom Riley, NAR’s Treasurer, for joining us in the celebration and performing the swearing in ceremony for the new board and me. This great organization was founded in 1993 to serve and empower the commercial real estate community and to further the commercial real estate industry. With a strong commitment to education, advocacy and legislation, events and networking, information services, and as a very active affiliate of the National Association of REALTORS®, NHCIBOR membership has grown continuously over the years since its inception.
Our Strategic Planning Board met in November, under the guidance of Roger Turcotte, to update our Mission Statement, Strategic Plan and Key Objectives. We are currently in the process of refining the results of that day long retreat and publishing them to our 500+ members. Some of the top items are:
- Consumers see CIBOR as the primary source for commercial real estate information/practitioner network.
- CIBOR would impact legislation, rules and regulations at local and state level to facilitate growth in the state.
- NH has a license requirement for the practice of commercial real estate
Our 1st action for the last item will be focused on developing a curriculum for approval the New Hampshire Real Estate Commission. Our Education Committee will be working diligently toward that end and we hope to collaborate with the University of New Hampshire on this most important task.
Additionally, we will look forward to the Education Committee putting together some great programs for our membership and any professionals interested in the particular seminars offered, including local and national speakers, and the continuation of the highly successful Developers/Town Planners Forums which we introduced this year.
Being President of NHCIBOR also means you are President of NECPE (New England Commercial Property Exchange). As an organization, we continue to look for avenues to bring this listing service to commercial agents and brokers across New England. We are fine tune a contract between NECPE and the Warren Group that will bring our members the most up to date information on properties they are researching. We have signed a contract with NH Department of Resources and Economic Development (DRED) that allows DRED to access NECPE listings for publication on their website, allowing companies looking to move to New Hampshire the opportunity to view properties available that may fit their needs.
Lastly, I am proud to announce that NHCIBOR was the recipient of the 1st Kopka Award for charitable giving, given by NHAR, through our CIBOR Cares Program.
I look forward to a year of serving, learning, and giving, making new friends and leading such a great organization!
Kathy DeMello
NHCIBOR President 2017
Berkshire Hathaway Verani
175 Amherst St.
Nashua, NH 03063
kathy.demello@verani.com
603-888-4600