The Real Finds Podcast connects global trends to real estate decisions across Chicago and the Midwest. Hosted by Gordon Lamphere, a fourth-generation commercial real estate broker at Van Vlissingen & Co., each weekly episode explores how macroeconomic shifts in supply chains, interest rates, automation, public policy, and culture drive commercial real estate outcomes. Moreover, Gordon and his guests take high-level insights and apply them to better understand high-transaction markets, including:
Chicago (downtown office, adaptive reuse), Elk Grove and O’Hare (industrial/logistics), Kenosha (SE Wisconsin distribution), Oak Brook and Schaumburg (suburban office), Naperville and the I-88 Corridor (flex and R&D), Bolingbrook and the I-55 Corridor (warehouse/fulfillment), and the collar counties: Lake, DuPage, Will, Kane, and McHenry.
Guests include developers, investors, operators, and public-sector leaders shaping the built environment across the Greater Chicagoland Area and the Globe.
🎧 New episodes every Wednesday at 3 PM CT.
Investing In Data Center Development With Anita Verma-Lallian – RFP 86
Data centers have quietly become one of the most strategically important asset classes in commercial real estate. They sit at the intersection of technology, energy infrastructure, capital markets, and land use planning, requiring a very different mindset than traditional industrial, office, or residential development. In this episode of The Real Finds...
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Is Mass Timber Is the Future of Commercial Buildings with Justin Den Herder – RFP 85
Mass timber has moved from architectural eye candy to a serious contender in commercial development. On this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, I sat down with Justin Den Herder, structural engineer, professor at The Cooper Union, and principal at global engineering firm TYLin, to talk through what mass timber really...
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The Office Crisis & Why Work Feels Broken With Cali Williams Yost – RFP 84
For nearly five years, boardrooms across America have been stuck in the same argument: How do we get people back to the office?Policies have been written, rewritten, enforced, rolled back, and reworked. Incentives have been tried. Mandates have been pushed. Threats have been made. Yet many companies are seeing the same...
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What’s Fueling Industrial Outdoor Storage Deals With Andrew Wiesemann – RFP 83
The Real Finds Podcast: Why Industrial Outdoor Storage Is Becoming the Most Misunderstood Opportunity in Commercial Real Estate Every so often, The Real Finds Podcast brings on a guest who reframes the way we look at a corner of commercial real estate. This week, that guest was Andrew Wiesemann, an operator...
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How To Right-Size Your Office Without Crushing Culture With Prof. Alana Dunoff – RFP 82
What Kindergarten Can Teach Us About Office Design When you think about the modern workplace, kindergarten probably isn’t the first model that comes to mind. Yet according to Alana F. Dunoff, a facilities strategist, Temple University adjunct professor, and principal of AFD Professional Services, it might just be the perfect blueprint...
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The Midwest Rebalance: Industrial Winners and Losers With Xander Snyder – RFP 81
When the industrial market peaked in 2022, nearly 800 million square feet of space was under construction across the U.S.—the largest development pipeline in history. Two years later, that wave has finally hit the market, and the story is shifting from euphoria to equilibrium. To unpack what’s really happening behind the...
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How CEOs View The 2026 Economic Outlook & Return To Office With Joe Galvin RFP – 80
What CEOs Really Want in 2025: Certainty, Skills, and a Smarter Office When the economy wobbles, tariffs shift overnight, and AI tools promise to do tomorrow what entire departments do today, CEOs start watching every variable that matters: confidence, people, and productivity.That’s exactly what Joe Galvin, Chief Research Officer at Vistage,...
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50% Faster, 10% Cheaper: Factory-Built Housing That Pencils With Rory Rubin – RFP 79
When most people hear “container home,” they picture a rusty shipping box dropped in a field somewhere. But in Chicagoland, Rory Rubin, founder and CEO of SI Container Builds, is proving that perception wrong and building a new model for sustainable, affordable housing that actually pencils. Her homes are steel-framed, code-compliant,...
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The Sensor Stack Powering Tomorrow’s Workplace With Bob Cicero – RFP – 78
If you’ve spent the last three years trapped between “RTO mandates” and underused floor plates, you’ve probably felt the gap between big promises and practical change. On The Real Finds Podcast, I sat down with Cisco’s Bob Cicero to talk about a better path: start with the user journey, treat technology...
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The Business Of Billion Dollar Public Projects With Ray Garfield – RFP 77
When you talk about longevity and influence in American real estate, few names carry the weight of Ray Garfield. Over a career spanning more than five decades, Garfield has built, financed, and restructured billions of dollars in commercial real estate across every major asset class from Dallas land syndications and Wall...
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Why Investors Are Whispering About Chicago’s Commercial Real Estate Market? (2025 – Q3) – RFP 76
The State of the Chicago Commercial Real Estate Market: Q3 2025 Insights Chicago’s commercial real estate market in Q3 2025 is sending mixed signals. On one side, downtown office vacancy hovers at record highs. On the other hand, industrial space near O’Hare and Elk Grove is essentially tapped out, with vacancy...
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The Hidden Real Estate Crisis in Higher Ed With Chris Morett PHD – RFP 75
How Universities Really Use Space And What Commercial Real Estate Can Learn (A conversation with campus space strategist Chris Morett distilled for investors, developers, and occupiers.) https://youtu.be/iXDVXcVtgA8 Higher ed real estate rarely makes front-page headlines, but it quietly moves billions of dollars in construction, leasing, operations, and community impact. In this...
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Zoning, Permits, and Politics: Why Illinois Housing Costs Keep Rising With Joshua Bandoch – RFP 73
Illinois Housing Crisis: Why the Nation’s Worst Housing Shortage Starts Here Illinois has long been home to world-class universities, two major international airports, and one of the most diversified economies in the country. But behind that strength lies one of the state’s greatest vulnerabilities: housing. The Illinois housing crisis has become...
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Cold Storage, Industrial Growth & The Future Of Value-Add Real Estate With Clifford Booth – RFP 72
When most investors think about commercial real estate, their minds go to familiar asset classes: office towers, multifamily apartments, or sprawling retail centers. Yet one of the fastest-growing, most misunderstood, and most lucrative sectors in the industry is hiding in plain sight: cold storage. https://youtu.be/gQxrAkThLMY On a recent episode of The...
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Avoiding AI Traps: Supply Chain Tech That Works With Rob Kress – RFP 71
In today’s volatile trade environment, supply chain resilience has become a boardroom priority. Tariff fluctuations, geopolitical uncertainty, labor shortages, and rising transportation costs have put unprecedented pressure on manufacturers and distributors, especially mid-market companies operating under $1 billion in revenue. To unpack how these companies can adapt, The Real Finds Podcast...
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What Real Estate Investors Get Wrong About Robotics With A.K. Schultz – RFP 70
The Hidden Complexity of Warehouse Automation and What Real Estate Investors Are Getting Wrong? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZdAalY1QfA In the latest episode of The Real Finds Podcast, Gordon Lamphere sits down with AK Schultz, the co-founder of SVT Robotics, to break down the gritty reality of warehouse automation, beyond the hype, and into the...
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Building A Team That Performs With Megan Gluth – RFP 69
What happens when a small-town kid from Iowa becomes a corporate attorney, transforms into a CEO, and then buys the company she once served? You get Megan Gluth, the unapologetic capitalist behind Catalynt, a global chemical supply and manufacturing company with a mission as bold as its leader. https://youtu.be/8bGwSfxfpsU On a...
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The Quiet Collapse in Construction No One’s Talking About With Hunter Kosar – RFP 68
In Episode 68 of The Real Finds Podcast, we sit down with Hunter Kosar, founder of Twisted Nail, a Texas-based logistics firm specializing in aggregate delivery for major commercial projects. But this isn’t just a story about hauling rocks. https://youtu.be/04M249ag1vE It’s about the silent unraveling of the construction pipeline and how...
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Who Is Winning The Amenity Arms Race? With Jared White – RFP 67
In a bifurcated real estate market where only best-in-class assets seem to thrive, Jared White, Managing Director at Quadrum Global, has built a career and a portfolio on clarity, creativity, and conviction. On this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, I sat down with Jared to talk about what it really...
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What Manufacturers Gets Wrong About Supply Chain Risk With Phillip Gulley – RFP 66
In episode 67 of The Real Finds Podcast, host Gordon Lamphere sits down with Phillip Gulley, co-founder of Cofactr, to explore the opaque and high-stakes world of global supply chains. What starts as a conversation about electronics procurement quickly expands into a wide-ranging, eye-opening discussion about geopolitical risk, tariffs, duty drawback,...
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