Message from CEO Dan Kennedy

After joining NAIOP NJ more than a year ago, the NAIOP NJ Board of Trustees authorized me to commission a comprehensive organizational assessment of your chapter. This assessment sought to:

• Gauge perception of NAIOP NJ at this moment in time – what it does well and ways to increase impact and value,
• Establish a shared understanding of NAIOP NJ’s current state across staff, members, and stakeholders, and
• Use these insights to inform the chapter’s priorities over the next three years.

To perform this assessment, Dana Bos of Bos Solutions interviewed NAIOP NJ’s stakeholders, conducted focus group interviews with members, and collected data from our staff through interviews and a survey. This data led to the following findings:

• The chapter delivers high value across its core pillars of advocacy, networking, education, and professional development.
• It’s time to refresh certain events, communications, and committees to continually improve.
• There is deep interest in further engaging the next generation of industry leaders.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is an industry-wide challenge that deserves the chapter’s focus.
• NAIOP NJ members appreciate and have high regard for NAIOP NJ staff.

The next step in this process is the development of a new strategic plan. Work is currently underway with the formation of five separate strategic plan working groups that are responsible for creating strategic objectives and goals. We optimistically anticipate sharing our work before the end of the year.

Looking back on my first year as NAIOP NJ’s CEO, I'm proud of the significant progress we've made on the organizational assessment as well as our advocacy successes, including beating back the Governor's proposed "Warehouse Truck Fee," bringing reforms for plan review to the Governor's desk, and working closely with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs to update mandatory flood disclosure requirements to better fit the realities of the commercial real estate industry. We have many challenges to face moving forward related to environmental regulation, energy policy, and a pervasive NIMBY attitude towards development and, at times, redevelopment. We have a new energy behind our Developing Leaders Committee and are actively updating networking and education events to ensure they are adding more value for you. We are also working more closely with NAIOP Corporate, ensuring our chapter’s voice is heard on federal level issues and the work they do is translated and accessible to NJ Chapter members.

I thank you all for the time you have spent with me to get a better understanding of your chapter, its culture, and what you want from us in the future. I look forward to the future with as much excitement as I am sure you are.