Lindzanity – Episode 7 – Steve Schwarz Joins To Discuss Commercial Real Estate

Back in 2007 Phoenix, a staggering 99 percent of the population were commercial real estate agents.

The crash of 2008 changed everything. Now just 89 percent of the Phoenix population is a commercial real estate agent.

Ok…not quite. I kid commercial real estate agents.

To set the record straight, I invited my friend Steve Schwarz (founder of ViaWest Group) on the podcast to discuss all things commercial real estate.

Steve has invested successfully through a few boom and busts over 20 plus years in the business and built a great Phoenix firm (they own and manage my favorite set of buildings in the city).

We walked back through the crash in 2008 (which rocked Phoenix like no other city) to the markets today.

Steve catches me up on the big changes that technology and WeWork are having on the industry and the ‘Opportunity Zone’ angle a lot of people are talking about.

You can watch our interview here on Youtube.

Here is the audio only version.

You can also just listen to the episode on Spotify or the Apple Podcast app (just search my name).

Here are the Show Notes:

Show Notes:

– How did Steven Schwarz start ViaWest Group?

– Why did Steven Schwarz move to Phoenix?

– What is “Sexy Money”

– How is the Phoenix real estate market?

– What is Howards take on the Phoenix real estate market?

– What is “absorption”?

– Pace at which Phoenix is “absorbing”

– What Steven is worried about in the market

– What other cities does Steven like working in?

– How did 2008 effect ViaWest?

– How did ViaWest get out of bank trouble?

– How did they start raising capital?

– What is Wework?

– What are problems with owning office space?

– How has Wework improved the business office model?

– How does Wework push innovation?

– What is an “Opportunity Zone”?

– Who does Steven trust to learn info from?

– How do people invest with ViaWest?

– How does Steven invest personally