Greysteel Launches National Black Professionals Network With ‘Boots On The Ground’ Approach To Diversity

Over the past two years, many of the largest players in commercial real estate have begun taking a closer look at the diversity of their firms, launching top-down initiatives to support the recruitment and retention of people from marginalized backgrounds.

Despite progress made, people of color made up 12.9% of all C-suite roles held across some of the industry's largest companies as of November, indicating an industry still dominated by White men. Often, those numbers are similarly homogenous further down the ranks.

Four brokers at Greysteel saw that disparity and decided to work from the bottom up. T.C. Cosby, Nigel Crayton, Aaron Inman and Romain Sinclair on Tuesday launched the new Greysteel Black Professionals Network, and the four brokers are serving as board members. 

The national network is a new initiative within the firm that the board members say will help recruit Black talent and support those professionals as they work their way up in the world of commercial real estate. The network will also work to partner with Black-led financial and development companies to broaden access to wealth-building through commercial real estate, its founders said.

"What’s beneficial from us leading the charge is we’re boots on the ground, we’re in the field," said Cosby, Greysteel's director of capital markets based in D.C. "We also want to drive our business forward, and that just equates to higher representation across the board."

In an interview with Bisnow, Cosby, Crayton and Inman said the idea for the network grew organically over the past couple of years, and when they pitched it to senior leadership within the real estate firm they received full support.

Crayton, director of investment sales, said he hopes to grow the network, which currently has eight members, in both size and impact over the course of the next year. Specific targets include achieving more Black representation in each of Greysteel's 16 offices and assisting at least three Black owner-operators to at least $20M in assets under management in each market where they have an office. 

The company has offices in Austin, Baltimore, Charlotte, Dallas, Fort Worth, Gainesville, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Newport Beach, Norfolk, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, San Antonio and D.C.

"We’re looking to change generational wealth. We’re looking to change that game, and CRE has been that for a lot of different people through the tax savings through the ownership through appreciation and really just the roof over your head," Crayton said. "I think that’s really what we’re looking to build here and help equal the playing field, that’s all there is."

Ari Firoozabadi, Greysteel's president and CEO, said the firm "should have gotten here a lot sooner" in creating the network, but that he was glad to be hosting and supporting the effort within the Greysteel platform nonetheless.

"I think there are a lot of buzzwords being used today by companies looking to appease shareholders or customers, and we all know that minorities are underrepresented in our industry," Firoozabadi wrote in an email. "We look forward to intentionally investing in the brightest Black real estate professionals in our markets and making our impact." 

Brokerages have struggled to hire diverse talent in recent years. An analysis reported by Bisnow in November did not include Greysteel, but found that among the largest brokerages in the country, the total number of people of color at the top actually declined over the previous year.

Cosby, who has been at Greysteel since 2019, said occupying a more senior position at the national firm gives him a more "conducive launchpad" from which he can secure support from the executive committee while still having the ability to directly mentor more junior employees.

"I think we find that you need a platform first and an understanding of how to build something, the bandwidth and that’s a big part of the reason we’re building this," Cosby said.

The trio of brokers wants to make their vision national, and they say they have already spoken about their idea at Greysteel's annual meeting. They are currently exploring a fall luncheon, and they are holding biweekly meetings to develop a strategy for additional outreach to prospective employees.

Inman, a senior associate in investment sales, worked with Cosby and Crayton shortly after arriving at Greysteel. He said as a newcomer to the industry, he appreciated the opportunity to learn from two more senior members of the firm who were Black because they could fill him in on the background and context that he lacked.

Inman described a conversation with a White colleague early in his tenure in which he asked his colleague what kind of real estate professionals he grew up around. Inman's colleague could name people he knew on the commercial side, while Inman only knew residential real estate agents until he was an adult.

"It’s typically not an industry that people saw," Inman said. "Within our community, there’s not a lot of commercial real estate ownership, because a lot of it is generational."

Now that he works at Greysteel, Inman hopes to make the message clear to college graduates and other people looking to get a start in the commercial real estate industry that he and his team are specifically seeking them out. Once the network is established, he hopes to lead recruitment drives at institutions like Howard University and make their efforts visible through happy hours, luncheons or even a podcast.

The network's founders said Greysteel is a more diverse firm than many, with roughly 15% employees of color. But they say the network will help increase the number of diverse applicants and provide them with a support system to stay at Greysteel, further empowering them to pursue their goals in the industry.

"The talent is there ... but a lot of times, if you don’t know anybody in the industry, you don’t know how to get into the industry," Crayton said. "We just want to equal the playing field so that the people who would be fantastic in this role and just don’t know how to get there or in this industry, they have the chance to do so."