Jenna Bucino closed her first commercial real estate deal before she ever worked in commercial real estate.
A friend with a background in restaurants and bars wanted to open a coffee shop. Bucino, a born-and-raised Hoboken girl, knew the perfect spot. The friend had already lost out on another location, and Bucino had to sell him on this one — a block off Washington Street, with office buildings nearby.
At the time, Bucino was working in residential real estate.
Lisa Ricca, Executive Managing Director at RIPCO Real Estate, the broker on the deal, liked what she saw.
“She said, ‘Why don’t you come work for me — try the commercial end of things?’” Bucino said. “And the more I got involved in doing that deal, the more I found out that it was the spot for me.”
Bucino, an Associate, is the newest member of a RIPCO retail team that turned out Thursday at Real Estate Rush, an event for women in commercial real estate at Basking Ridge Country Club.
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Ricca has been in commercial real estate for 12 years. She did both residential and commercial for years before switching to commercial only.
“It’s just more interesting,” she said.
Ricca said being a woman in a male-dominated business has its challenges — just not the ones you might think.
“It’s not a challenge because we’re smarter, but it’s a challenge because there’s not a lot of us,” she said. “So we try to stick together and help each other and lift each other.”
In retail, Ricca said, women bring something to the table she feels many men can’t: Depth of experience as the customer.
“For us, when we go talk to a landlord, we’re the consumer,” she said. “We know more about Pilates than a man.”
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Samantha Zawadzki, an Associate, has been at it for three years. She represents tenants and landlords in retail leasing, and she said she sees the work as more than deals.
“I love doing the retail leasing,” she said. You are building community. It’s not a challenge, it’s more of an opportunity.”
Zawadzki isn’t worried about more women coming in and competing for business. She wants them.
“I hope women are inspired to join the industry, too,” she said. “They shouldn’t be intimidated by it.”
Her advice to anyone who is?
“You should be confident, and as long as you know what you’re doing and have the right team behind you, there’s no reason that you should feel intimidated to be in the industry,” she said.
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Bucino took a winding road to RIPCO. She went to Ramapo College, started in the insurance industry and moved into sales. At Snow Joe, she worked on product development for items such as snow blowers and hammocks.
She said commercial real estate puts her back in a business world she knows. Residential, she said, is a different animal.
“Resi, you’re dealing with people who don’t know the market,” she said. “They say, ‘My home’s worth a million dollars,’ and you know it’s not,” she said.
Residential is emotional, she said. Commercial is about business.
“It’s all about a sale,” she said.
Bucino said being in a male-dominated industry is a challenge. That first deal, however, showed her how little it matters.
“If you have the right tenant and you negotiate the right deal, being in a male-dominated industry means nothing,” she said.
