Massey Looks to Grow CCIM Reach

Shawn Massey is a commercial real estate broker by trade, but he has a burning passion for education.

Massey has co-founded a business-focused charter school in Frayser called Memphis Business Academy and he teaches a master’s level real estate class at the University of Memphis.

“I’m passionate about real estate and it’s really beyond a career for me, but I love to teach” said Massey. “If I could find a way to teach full-time I would.”

So it should come as no surprise that Massey is trying to bring more educational opportunities to members of the Memphis chapter of the Certified Commercial Investment Member Institute.

“That’s the core of CCIM – educating commercial real estate professionals,” said Massey, 2014 president of the Memphis chapter. “We’ve really brought in top-notch speakers to our meetings, to make them more interesting and provide more value to our members.”

A broker with the CCIM designation is a recognized expert in the commercial and investment real estate industry. Commercial real estate professionals earn the designation after completing 130 hours of training and demonstrating real-world expertise and success based on their portfolios.

CCIM is open to more than just commercial real estate brokers. Investment counselors, asset managers, appraisers, corporate real estate executives, property managers, developers, institutional investors, commercial lenders, attorneys, bankers and others directly affiliated with commercial real estate can seek membership.

Massey said one of his main goals is to expand the Memphis chapter’s ranks to include more members, including reaching out to large local employers with significant real estate assets and operations.

“The CCIM designation is unique because it’s not just commercial brokers and I want to grow the CCIM designation beyond the perception that it’s only for real estate brokers,” Massey said. “Our plan was to promote the designation and promote bringing new real estate professionals in and offering them something of value.”

After graduating from the University of Memphis with a master’s degree in finance in 1986, Massey began his commercial real estate career in 1987, working with Mark Utley and then Ray Gill before joining The Shopping Center Group LLC in 2003.

“I was fortunate I had mentors like that and now I feel like it is my job to give back to the industry,” Massey said.

On Thursday, May 8, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Clark Opera House, CCIM Memphis is giving its members a chance to interact with some of the Memphis area’s most prolific commercial real estate professionals.

The “Titans of Real Estate” roundtable discussion features Leonard Lurie, president of Lurie & Associates; Dan Wilkinson, past chairman of Colliers International Memphis; and Rick Wood, executive vice president of Financial Federal.

“Sometimes people in the industry don’t have a chance early on in their career to ask the questions, to get the mentoring a lot of us had early in our career,” Massey said. “The three people we have this year have over 120 years of commercial real estate experience. We want people to hear from them, to talk to them and also to honor their success.”

Original article appeared here.