Counseling assignment for Southbridge Associates, LLC on the Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center, Southbridge, MA.

Nov. 2021: Rob Nahigian, FRICS, CRE, SIOR, MCR of Auburndale Realty Co., Newton, Mass. is pleased to announce that he has completed a counseling assignment for Southbridge Associates, LLC on the Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center, Southbridge, MA. The Conference Center contains two levels of office space that was leased to the U.S. Department of Defense for the last twenty years. The Hotel and Conference Center was formally the headquarters of American Optical for decades. AO eventually closed its operations and the property was eventually sold to Southbridge Associates, LLC. The new ownership converted the headquarters space into a 203 room high end hotel. The lobby traverses to a professional conference center that is engaged by outside professional associates and trade organizations. The property is part of a larger complex of over 1 million square feet of industrial and office space. Rob’s focus was on the 263,379 square feet of hotel and conference center. His research was to study the macro-economic development of the Southbridge marketplace and its future development opportunities.Rob spent from July to November, 2021 studying the entire marketplace, interviewing over 55 professionals, state and local public officials and local residents to create a strategic analysis, evaluation and plan that focused on Southbridge and the hotel/conference center. Recommendations were submitted as well as insight on the future of the Southbridge marketplace and how the marketplace would be repositioned.

Robert Nahigian

Author: Robert

Robert J. Nahigian, FRICS, SIOR, CRE, MCR has fifty years of real estate experience with forty-one years exclusively in commercial and industrial real estate. He has served as a developer, broker, advisor, litigation support/expert witness of approximately $ 5.2 billion of real estate totaling 43 million square feet. He is recognized as a global speaker and author in his industry and has served in many national leadership roles. Local and national real estate media and publications often called upon him for his expert opinion. He has received national and state real estate accomplishment awards for commercial real estate brokerage and real estate counseling and holds four of the most elite international commercial real estate accreditations in the industry (FRICS, SIOR, CRE, MCR). These designations are earned from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, The Counselors of Real Estate, and CoreNet Global. He was also elected to an honorary land economics society, Lambda Alpha International (LAI). He has contributed to the publication of four real estate books, has authored over 390 professional articles, and delivered a HUD report to President Carter and U.S. Congress on the most comprehensive study of public housing stock in U.S. history. Rob also drafted the first Economic Development Plan for the City of Bowie, MD. REAL ESTATE LEADERSHIP ROLES As an industry leader, he has served on many national, state, and local real estate committees (over 60 committees, subcommittees, task forces). He serves on the Counselors of Real Estate two task forces as a co-chair and member. He has served on the National Board of Directors; past National Vice-Chair Liaison; the National Executive Committee; National Budget & Finance; Presidential Task Forces; past National CRE Editor-in-Chief; past Chair of the James Felt Counseling Award; past New England Chapter President; past Chapter Board of Director and has served as a Chair and Vice-Chair of numerous CRE committees. ​For the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, Rob is a Legacy Member and served on numerous committees and leadership roles including National Editorial Board, National Communications and Branding Committee; National Chair Education; National Chair, Faculty Committee; Education Executive Committee; New England Chapter President; National Nominating Committee; National Budget & Finance; National Board of Directors; National Executive Committee; National Northeast Regional Vice-President; National Vice-Chair of numerous committees; Co-Chair of the Boston Convention; Presidential Task Forces, National Instructor and served over 23 years on the New England Chapter Board of Directors. ​He has served on the Boston Board of Directors of the Commercial Brokers Association (CBA) for over 13 years and LAI Board for 5 years. He has served on numerous committees for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and CBA including Government Affairs, Awards Recognition, Education Committee (in which he served as Co-Chair), Presidential Task Forces, etc. ACADEMIA AND NATIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS He also served on many academic faculties and/or has been an invited national speaker. He is an Adjunct Professor at Boston University, a Senior Instructor for SIOR, MA NAIOP, and a past instructor or invited speaker with MAR, Visiting Assistant Professor at RealtorU, CoreNet Global, NAR Commercial Signature Series, Harvard Graduate School of Design, MIT, BAC, Northeastern University, Suffolk University, Lehigh University, and DePaul University. He has spoken at many regional and national conventions for NAI, FIABCI, ONCOR, SIOR, CORFAC International, NAIOP, CCIM, CoStar, Coldwell Banker Commercial Global, AMPI, CRE, Latin American Real Estate Conference, CBRE, Colliers International, and many state Realtor Associations. APPOINTED INDUSTRY ROLES Mr. Nahigian was appointed by three Governors to the MADOT Real Estate Appraisal Review Board; was elected by the MA Real Estate Licensing Commission to its CE Education Subcommittee, and has been elected to the Advisory Committee of an NYSE listed real estate investment firm (NERA). He is a graduate of Lehigh University (cum laude) where he played collegiate Division II baseball and earned his Masters of Science in Urban Planning at Columbia University.