Atlanta commercial real estate can be insular. Here’s how she broke in.
Melanie Wolfe knew she had to overcome an obstacle many young people face early in their careers: Building relationships in an industry defined by who you know.
She notes that women and people of color have historically not been afforded as much opportunity to build those bonds in her field, commercial real estate, which is predominantly white and male. In cities like Atlanta, inking deals can rely on knowing the right people or on multigenerational relationships.
Wolfe said what truly opened those doors for her was a diversity program established by the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors aimed at supporting the sector’s next generation.
In 2023, she was one of 10 mentees in the program, which provides support and advice to budding office, industrial and retail brokers.
Two years later, she was selected to oversee the program, mentoring peers searching for the same opportunity.
“I don’t want them (the mentees) to feel like you just got this because you maybe look different or you’re a minority,” said Wolfe, now a vice president of office leasing at real estate services firm JLL. “I want you to know that you got this program because you showed up, you interviewed well, and you’re willing and able and prepared to build genuine relationships.”
Veteran commercial real estate brokers T. Dallas Smith and John O’Neill started the diversity initiative in 2014. Smith built one of the country’s largest Black-led CRE firms and has beaten the drum for more diversity in the industry. O’Neill, who is white, echoed those efforts, adding that the next generation already faces a tough time getting their footing in the field before accounting for race, gender and access.
“When you’re beginning to learn the business, and you have an at-risk comp structure, it’s hard,” said O’Neill, president and managing partner of the Southeast for Partners Real Estate, referring to commission structures for brokers.
“Every day, you’ve got to keep getting back on the horse and keep going,” he continued. “And if you don’t get a lot of early rewards, it can frustrate people early in their career, and they choose a different path as a result.”
Career expectations
The formative years of Wolfe’s career did not go as she expected.
She’s the child of two Peachtree City “old-school accountants,” to use her words, who worked their entire careers at the same firm. Wolfe said she expected something similar after graduating from the University of Georgia in 2019, envisioning a long tenure at a single company.
But the COVID-19 pandemic a year later roiled many industries, few more so than her chosen field of commercial real estate. More than six years later, Atlanta’s office market is still grappling with a glut of unused office space while employers evaluate how to coax employees back to a physical office.
Because brokers rely on commissions, their Rolodexes and portfolios, they tend to move from job to job seeking opportunities. Wolfe is now at her fourth job, which she said highlights how career expectations don’t often play out in reality.
While searching for mentorship opportunities outside her employer, she discovered the Atlanta Commercial Board’s Diversity Mentorship program in 2023. The program provides meeting opportunities with professionals across the city’s commercial real estate industry, not just brokers, and a group of peers to learn alongside.
She still keeps in touch with her mentor, Jennifer Koontz, at developer and property management firm Pope & Land. That dynamic is something she wanted to continue once she took over the reins of the program as the diversity mentorship committee chair last year.
“When things come up, it’s just nice to have a neutral third party to go to and ask questions,” Wolfe said. “ … This program is on you. What you put in is what you’re going to get out.”
In August, she helped bring the latest group of mentees to Chicago for architecture tours and real estate scouting, drawing market comparisons that could prove helpful in Atlanta. It’s the first time the diversity mentorship program has left the state for such an exhibition.
O’Neill said the fact mentees have taken over leading the program highlights its success and speaks to its sustainability. Many other diversity programs only manage to last a few years, while this one is still going strong after more than a decade. It’s also become one of the organization’s largest initiatives.
“That told you right there that there’s a lot of people that are very passionate to try to make a real change in the industry,” he said, adding that the mentorship support provides “a network of people who are cheering” on each year’s participants.
Alfred Chambers Jr., association manager at the Atlanta Commercial Board, added that Wolfe has made the most of the opportunity, being named the board’s 2023 Outstanding Young Realtor of the Year.
“She is the next generation, but she’s also bringing the next generation up with her,” Chambers Jr. said of Wolfe. “When we look for leadership, we’re looking for people who care about the CRE community as a whole throughout Atlanta.”
In addition to her work with the Atlanta Commercial Board and JLL, Wolfe helped launch the Arche Women’s Network’s Atlanta chapter that now includes about 250 members. She described it as “a safe space for women” in a male-dominated industry.
As for the future, she said she knows where to look to find the next rising stars in Atlanta’s commercial real estate sector.
“Take down the names of the mentees … They will probably be leaders in the next few years,” Wolfe said.
“That’s the whole point, right?”
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