The Ralph Bivins Project – Podcast Guest Sam Scott

HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Sam Scott Is director of the Commercial Gateway, the operator of the CommGate commercial information exchange, which focuses on commercial properties in Texas. Here is an excerpt from his visit to THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT podcast

RALPH BIVINS: This is Ralph Bivins with the Ralph Bivins Project. We are here today with Sam Scott. He is the director of CommGate, which of course is the Commercial Gateway, part of the Houston Association of Realtors. Good morning, Sam.

SAM SCOTT: Good morning, Ralph, thank you for having me.

To listen to the entire podcast Click Here for Spotify – or Click Here for YouTube

RALPH BIVINS: Shortly, we’re going to get around to talking about a big event that’s coming up shortly. In the meantime, a lot of interesting stuff has been happening the past few days and everyone around the country should know about it. The new 1 million-SF Texas Tower built by Hines in downtown Houston that opened a couple of years ago has reached 99 percent occupancy. In this kind of market – with a building coming online just after COVID, with remote work happening, with companies downsizing, to have a new building hit 99 percent occupancy is a pretty amazing thing. This is a Class A property, and it proves the saying about “flight to quality,” meaning quality projects attract good tenants. It sounds like salesman talk but having a new building with all the bells and whistles and a great design, etc., proves that the “flight to quality” is for real.

SAM SCOTT: It’s not just the quality, but the amenity package that comes with it. You talk about a Class A, B or C building. There’s Class A – and then you have five-star Class A such as this building. It’s much more than just a space for people to work. There’s a whole lifestyle that goes with that – access to workout facilities, accessibility of childcare, to dry cleaning services, a nice food court and other routine things located nearby. There’s also the design of the building itself, with floor to ceiling glass, air conditioning right in the floor and higher ceilings.

When you look at the lease rates and talk to the tenants who are taking these spaces, you find they are not thinking in terms of price per square foot, they are really allocating it out as price per employee. It’s a cost involved in terms of recruiting and retaining the best and the brightest.

And if you look at who the tenants are who are moving into the Texas Tower – a lot of law firms and energy firms – these buildings are not just a workplace, they are emblematic of a company’s culture to really recruit and retain the top talent.

RALPH BIVINS: We opened this conversation with a plan to discuss a big, upcoming event that involves CommGate and Houston’s commercial real estate community. Tell us about it.

SAM SCOTT: This is sort of our late spring event. CommGate will hold its 2025 Development Showcase May 15 at the Houston Country Club. We have invited some of Houston’s most dynamic developers to come and present information about their projects. We are still firming up our list of presenters. We are not quite ready to put that out yet. I can say that the list skews toward industrial developers and retail developers. Some of them might be involved with projects located adjacent to new master planned communities that are getting rolled out in Houston’s exurbs.

Essentially, at the showcase, developers are to be celebrated. They are the people who bring the product to market, who create opportunities for brokers. Again, our organization, CommGate, is primarily dedicated to transactional brokerage professionals who really make the transactions happen. Every transaction road starts with a property and the process of finding the highest and best use for it. That is what developers do. We’re making sure the brokerage community becomes acquainted with those developers, their projects and view the opportunities that are coming along. We are looking forward to getting the brokerage community together with the development community, to take a look at some of their new projects. This will take place from 4:30 to 7 o’clock at Houston Country Club, in the old original ballroom and in the adjacent foyer as well.

Registration is at CommGate.com and there’s a registration link right on the front page. The ticket includes food and beverages. There’ll be some nice hospitality going on. We are really focused on participation. This is not a fund-raiser. This is really a member benefit to thank our members for the success we’ve enjoyed.

RALPH BIVINS: Mark your calendars for May 15. I’m going to be there. I’ll be one of the participants and I will have a little booth there. To all my old friends, I haven’t seen in a while, stop by and say “Hi.” I’d like to see you. This is a good time to get out and shake hands like in the olden days – before the pandemic.

SAM SCOTT: I’m a big believer in the Bivins communication platform. You have the longest reach into Houston’s commercial real estate marketplace than any other media. I’ve done an informal poll and found that Houston’s brokerage community tunes in to Bivins – your newsletter, news stories and podcast. This will be a chance for them to meet the man who is the legend.

Biography of Sam Scott

Sam Scott is the director of the Commercial Gateway for the Houston Association of Realtors. He manages the delivery of the commercial information exchange, CommGate, which focuses on commercial properties in Texas. He is responsible for coordinating data access policies and the procurement of information for use with the MLS.

Prior to joining HAR, Scott was the executive vice president of Landata, the real estate information subsidiary of Stewart Title. He holds an economics degree from Rice University.

CommGate listings are distributed nationally through the Moody’s Analytics CRE Network.

HOUSTON – CommGate has announced its 2025 Development Showcase will be held May 15, 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Houston Country Club. The event will provide Houston’s commercial brokerage community with an overview of significant Houston area commercial real estate developments. Discounted pricing is available for CommGate, CCIM, SIOR and HAR members. Register at CommGate.com.