Colorado Real Estate Journal - July 6, 2016
Barry Dorfman is a player coach who likes to borrow a phrase from friend and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach: “There aren’t a lot of traffic jams on the extra mile.” “Always, always do the right thing for your client and go that extra mile for them,” advises Dorfman, market director for JLL’s Rocky Mountain Region and a JLL international director. According to Dorfman, the secret of success in commercial real estate “is there are no secrets. It’s all about working hard, putting in the time and the effort. Business doesn’t come to you. You have to find it and then you have to earn it.” Having built a nearly 35-year career on that kind of thinking, Dorfman was NAIOP Colorado’s choice to receive the chapter’s inaugural Legacy Broker Award earlier this year. The award recognizes an individual with a high level of achievement and leadership in the industry who is respected by peers for his honesty and ethics. Part of it also is mentoring and guiding the next generation of industry professionals, something that comes naturally for the former teacher. “As a special education teacher, you’d have 15 students at 15 different levels and be teaching five different subjects, so you had to do a lot of things at once. I think in real estate, to be successful, you have to be able to do a lot of different things at one time,” said Dorfman, who keeps his hands in brokerage despite running one of the bigger real estate organizations in Denver. “I really enjoy working with clients. You establish relationships of trust and confidence, and I truly enjoy negotiating creative deals and going the extra mile for our clients, and ultimately creating a great work environment for their businesses and establishing the lowest occupancy cost possible for them,” he said. Dorfman was 31 when he entered commercial real estate, thanks to the influence of friends like Don Cook of DPC Development Cos. and Frank Kelley of CBRE Inc. “You do burn out in special education,” he said, explaining he was on a sabbatical and working his master’s of business administration when he got a job with Grubb & Ellis Co. He opened the local office of The Staubach Co. with partner Joe Hollister in 1996, and in 2008 the company merged with JLL. He’s done deals for, among others, Janus, Xcel Energy, EKS&H, Halliburton, JPMorgan Chase, Visa USA, DirecTV and CoBank, whose new headquarters is a NAIOP award-winning development. “I think it was a great headquarters project and a very creative deal structure we put together,” Dorfman said. Originally from the Bronx, Dorfman, despite his many years in Colorado, hasn’t shed his Northeastern accent. That lends itself to a great imitation of Bernie Sanders because, although he works hard, he also likes to have fun. One of his office’s annual events is Cinco de Guac, a May 5 guacamole making contest. “I enjoy being part of a team and especially a team that embraces a culture of teamwork and collaboration. We have such great people here. I think if I’m good at something, I’m good at recognizing the importance of surrounding yourself with teammates who have complimentary skills. That enables us to really work together and create and negotiate great real estate deals for our clients.” Dorfman, 64, has served on numerous nonprofit boards, including Big Brothers Big Sisters. He feels fortunate to be in a position to give back and also to be part of the tight knit Denver commercial real estate community. “There are so many great people in this real estate community,” he said, noting NAIOP pulls together professionals from all aspects of the industry. “I think it’s an organization that cares about doing the right thing for the community.” Dorfman and his wife, Dana, met at a broker function and have two grown children, Brian and Abby. Dorfman likes to play golf, travel and, despite knee surgery, continues to ski. He was “completely honored” to win the Legacy Broker Award “because I think there are so many other people in this real estate community that are every bit, if not more, deserving. You look back on your career, and you feel really proud of what you’ve done – a lot of hard work, a lot of long days, but also being part of a great team and feeling good about creating an environment for a lot of people to be successful,” he said. He feels equally gratified to have won NAIOP broker achievement awards a half-dozen times over his career and is proud of others who have earned those awards. “I think I get way too much credit, but I’m smart enough to surround myself with good people,” he said, noting there is one other honor that will always be special: the Rookie of the Year award he earned his first full year in commercial real estate brokerage.