Statements from NAIOP Pittsburgh

During the first week of February, NAIOP Pittsburgh attended the annual Chapter Leadership & Legislative Retreat, also known as CL&LR, hosted by NAIOP Corporate. 

Accompanied me on this trip were our Chapter President, Nate Phillips; Chapter Administrator, Erica Loftus; Chapter Advocacy Consultant, David Caliguiri; and a portion of our Chapter Board Members: Clayton Morris, Jackie Bezek, Aaron Roach, Stacey Weniger, and Brian Walker, who just rolled off as our Corporate Board Chair. This three-day retreat consisted of seminars where we were able to take away benchmarks on how to make our chapter the best it can be.

This year's conference Keynote Speaker was Scott Jennings, a CNN Contributor, serving as a conservative voice for day-to-day politics on their broadcast. Scott was entertaining, to say the least, answering tough questions from the crowd and reminding us that politics is like a pendulum. 

In addition to intriguing speakers and networking with industry leaders, we were afforded opportunities to create valuable connections with other NAIOP Chapters from across North America, including the newly formed NAIOP Detroit Chapter. Detroit is where the 2024 NFL Draft took place and we had a first-hand discussion about the upcoming 2026 NLF Draft with key players involved in the 2024 project. One of the NAIOP Detroit members, Andrea Daniewski of Bedrock Detroit, will be a speaker at our March 20th Chapter Breakfast focused on the NFL Draft.

We also discussed advocacy issues with NAIOP Massachusetts, arguably the most advocacy-focused chapter in NAIOP. Their insight into how they approach advocacy in their region will serve as a stepping stone to our Pittsburgh and state efforts. We spent time with our counterparts from the NAIOP Philadelphia Chapter and look forward to continuing our mutual efforts for the betterment of CRE in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Lastly, we spent our final day on Capitol Hill, where we met with Senators and Representatives who represent NAIOP and its members. The highlight of our time on Capitol Hill included meeting with Senator Dave McCormick and Senator Fetterman's aide, Madeleine Marr. We also had the opportunity to meet with aides from the offices of Congressman Guy Reschenthaler, Congressman Mike Kelly, and Congressman Chris Deluzio.  During our time with our elected officials, we were able to speak to the NAIOP Corporate Advocacy Initiatives, which include the increased energy demand facing our nation, a push for Congress to further incentivize the adaptive reuse of vacant buildings, and new tax legislation that renews the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. To read more about the three key initiatives, download the one pagers below:

• Adaptive Reuse

• Energy & Electricity

• Tax Policy

We encourage each of our members to print out the one pagers mentioned above and reach out to your elected officials, advocating on how these issues and policies will affect your business.  

When a large number of people contact their representatives about a particular issue, it can create a powerful and compelling sense of urgency. – medium.com