Just as Blake Hastings started thinking about making a major career move in 2017, a cancer diagnosis brought more change to his life than he could have imagined at the time.
Hastings, now 39, had been the managing director of CBRE’s Minneapolis office since January 2013. Just over four years into his tenure with the company, he started talking with Oppidan CEO Joe Ryan about moving into the president’s slot at the Excelsior-based real estate development company. But that March, he was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a cancer of the bones. The treatment of the disease put off any decisions about a job change.
“We’d just been talking in generalities for a few months prior to that,” Hastings said in a recent interview. “My diagnosis obviously put things on hold.”
Hastings learned he was cancer-free on Thanksgiving 2017 after going through chemotherapy and having part of one foot amputated. It wasn’t long before he was ready to get back to work. He started his new job with Oppidan last December.
“For me it’s so much fun getting back to the transaction,” he said in a recent interview. “I love real estate deals.”
Hastings comes to Oppidan thanks to a family connection through his wife, Carey. Ryan is Carey’s uncle.
“Joe was looking for someone to keep the business going legacy-wise for generations,” Hastings said.
In the following interview, Hastings talks with Finance & Commerce about moving from the brokerage world into the development market and his initial months with Oppidan. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you get this job?
At the end of the day, Joe and I are family. About two years ago, Joe was thinking about succession planning to keep the company going as a legacy business. We started talking then. Obviously, I had a health crisis in 2017 which really put things on hold for me for nine months. Then we subsequently started talking again.
To start to transition the business can take five, six, seven years if done correctly. We have a good match of skills. He has what I don’t and vice versa.
What are the day-to-day things you’re doing as Oppidan’s president?
It’s different today than what it’s going to be. Today, it’s really reviewing the company, getting to know our customers, getting to know our people, getting to know the history of the business, then focusing on refining our strategy to tighten it up into certain pillars in certain areas we want to focus on and hone in our next phase of growth.
At the end of the day we have great people so it’s continuing to challenge them to provide better outcomes for our clients. It’s going to be meeting with customers, meeting with employees, always reviewing strategy, business development for new customers. We’ve always got to be cultivating new because things change so rapidly in our business.
We’re still a small company. We’re 37 employees now. Everyone does different roles. Whatever you need to do to get the job done for the client.
Which new business line or property type might Oppidan get into this coming year?
Up until 2008 they did do some industrial and a little bit of office, but it was really the boom of retail that was the historical fuel of the company. Joe started with a bank branch, then he just grew and grew and grew and did grocery-anchored development, et cetera.
Now, as we come out of it, we’ve got seven senior housing projects at some stage of completion or in development. We’ve got a mixed-use project, Lowa46, that’s a Cub-anchored retail with multifamily above that will be complete this summer. Then we’ve got our traditional, programmatic retail development where we’re doing work for Caliber Collision, Northern Tool, Duluth Trading amongst others. Those are nice because that has us out across the country doing work for them, so that diversifies us geographically.
We’re doing data center work, multifamily mixed use, and we’re on the hunt for office and industrial build-to-suit as well.
We really like our bread-and butter-programmatic retail. I think we can expand that to different sectors. Senior housing is a great market for us. We like the demographics of the baby boomers.
What is Oppidan doing to lay the groundwork for more growth, and how is it preparing for the market to one day slow down?
We’re more diversified now than we were. We are watching our risk profile knowing that there will be a downturn. It’s inevitable. Is it in six months, is it in 12 months or is it in 18 months? It’s probably somewhere in there.
That’s something we need to watch. We have a very select list of clients that we’re very comfortable with where they are through recessions and challenges. We’re really picking sites and making decisions knowing that in 18 months that maybe there is going to be a change. Hopefully it’s a shallow challenge, but there will be a challenge.
We’re just being safer in our decisions. It’s a fine line between growing and understanding there will be a challenge. We’re making a lot of growth decisions based on what we think is coming. We’re being very systematic and trying to do more with fewer people.
What about brokering sales and purchases of CRE prepares you for going to the development side?
Before I was at CBRE for six years, I was a broker in Phoenix for 12 years. Brokerage is your MBA in real estate. I advised on 1,200 transactions in 12 years. In Phoenix, the development intensity was really high. I worked on 16 new buildings, five build-to-suits. So I got to advise my clients on “here’s what’s best for the development, here’s the land site we need to look at, here’s the returns.” The main difference for me is going from advising to making decisions for us.
Real estate is real estate. I have a good feel for the bricks and mortar what makes a good real estate transaction. I would say that the second part of my career at CBRE allowed me to understand leadership. At CBRE I came in without any formal training to lead 235 people. But I felt like I thrived in that and I love to challenge people, love to create a culture.
But there’s a lot for me to learn. But the nice thing is this transition with me and Joe is going to be a long, long time. I get to learn from someone who has been doing development on his own for 30 years and 10 years before that in real estate.
How many and what sorts of projects will Oppidan do this year?
We’ll do anywhere between 30 and 40 development projects. Also do some construction management.
What is one thing people would never guess about you?
I’m a cancer survivor. I love outdoor activities. Especially going hunting and fishing with my boys.
What are your words to live by?
“Never ring the bell.”
– Admiral William McRaven
