Marta Villa got the idea for Real Estate Rush the way a lot of parents get ideas — by watching her kid.
Her daughter went through sorority recruitment at the University of Alabama, where roughly 3,500 women compete for spots in 17 houses. The young women showed up with headshots and resumes. Villa signed up for LinkedIn Premium so she could reach out to people she had never met and ask for recommendations. She came away impressed by how organized they were.
“I’m convinced that those young ladies could run governments,” she said.
So Villa, a Senior Vice President at CBRE, borrowed the model for commercial real estate. It’s working.
The first Real Estate Rush, last year, drew 87 people. The second, held Thursday morning at Basking Ridge Country Club, sold out at 150.
Villa told the crowd they are all part of something bigger.
“Each and every one of you is an important sister in commercial real estate, and that’s kind of our slogan: Sisterhood of Commercial Real Estate,” she said.
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Don’t let the pink fool you, Villa said. There is real business in the room.
“This room represents hundreds of millions of dollars of transactions throughout the state of New Jersey and beyond,” she said.
She has an answer ready for anyone who asks what the event is really about.
“When people ask me if Real Estate Rush is part of the Me Too movement, I say no,” she said. “It’s more of the take notice.”
Villa laid out five pillars for what she calls a sisterhood built for business.
Deal flow: Everyone in the room needs it — to transact, build, design, engineer or finance.
Economic advancement: That not only is for companies, Villa said, but also for the women themselves — single parents, mothers paying tuition, people just starting out.
Professional development: Villa said there is not a deep bench of young brokers coming up through the ranks, and she wants the event to sell commercial real estate as a career path.
Access: That’s the relationships. “It’s great if you leave with a new friendship, but it’s even better if you leave with a new colleague that you can conduct some business with,” she said.
Accountability: “I’m a big solution finder,” she said. “I don’t tolerate a lot of whining with my kids or otherwise. And so, if there’s a problem, be a part of the solution.”
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So, what’s coming in 2027?
She knows calendars are crowded — most of the room already belongs to CREW, ULI, ICSC and more — so she plans to keep the list short. Nothing is set in stone, she said, and she is looking for collaborators, sponsors, speakers and attendees.
Here’s what is planned.
CRE Hockey Night (Feb. 23): A commercial real estate hockey night with the Devils, with pre-game networking at 5:30 before everyone watches the game together.
CRE Kickstart (March 4): Villa said she is negotiating for the end zone party room at Rutgers’ SHI Stadium. The timing goes back to the old ICSC calendar: Retailers cash in at Christmas, liquidate in January and free up storefronts by February — traditionally the start of leasing season.
DevelopHER (June 3): A morning program for women who want to become developers and owners. It would cover the basics, such as finance and sourcing deals. And it will be a morning, not a whole day. “We all work on commission,” she said. “We need to be out and about.”
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As for the future, Villa said she hopes the program continues to grow.
“It’s very exciting, and I think there’s a need,” she said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Part of that need is getting people out from behind their screens.
“It’s so funny because there’s such a comfort level to sit behind a desk and behind an email,” she said.
That’s why the morning includes two rounds of rapid-fire networking, with a goal of 20 new contacts per attendee. Villa said she got eight or 10 personal letters after last year’s event, all praising the rapid-fire sessions.
It’s the same lesson those young women at Alabama already knew: Show up prepared and meet everyone you can.
