An interview with Aron Weiner
The commercial real estate industry is a dynamic and challenging landscape that offers enormous potential for success. However, it requires a unique blend of skills, knowledge, and aptitude to truly excel. How does one establish themselves in such a competitive field? What does it take to consistently rise to the top in commercial real estate? How does one rise above the headwinds that are challenging the commercial real estate industry today? In this interview series, we are talking to commercial real estate professionals, brokers, investors, leaders of Real Estate Firms and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), as well as anyone who’s found significant success in this industry. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Scruggs.
Brian Scruggs is the managing director of industrial acquisitions at Westmount Realty Capital and has been with the company for approximately eight years. Before joining Westmount, Scruggs was the vice president at Colony Capital where he handled asset management and industrial real estate acquisitions in the Midwest. He has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Vanderbilt University.
“Be open to change. Sometimes career paths take you down a different road than expected. See it as an opportunity to learn.”
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would like to learn a bit about your origin story. Can you share with us the ‘backstory’ of how you got into the real estate business?
I grew up in a real estate household. From there, my curiosity about the business led to real estate internships while earning an engineering degree at school. It was really a path of natural progression after college that led to various roles in the real estate business where I gained valuable transactions and asset management experience.
Can you tell us about your company and what makes it stand out?
Westmount is an entrepreneurial real estate investment company that focuses on creating value in the industrial and multi-family asset classes across the country. It’s the people at Westmount that make the difference and we stand out with our problem solving culture and thriving desire to succeed.
Can you tell our readers about the most exciting new projects you are working on now?
Westmount recently hired Kyle Russell, a managing director of industrial development with the goal of developing new infill cold storage warehouse facilities. We see expanding tenant demand for this product type in major metro areas and a lack of available modern freezer/cooler space in the market.
As with any career path, the commercial real estate industry comes with its own set of challenges. Could you elaborate on some of the significant challenges you faced in your career and how you managed to overcome them?
Navigating down market cycles such as the Great Recession of 2008 to 2010 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 can shake our trust in the American economy but having the patience to stay the course and remain focused on fundamentals leads to success in the long run.
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