Last year, around this time, I wrote a message about being prepared during times of uncertainty. Little did I know then how prophetic those words would really be during 2016. And now, as we cautiously welcome 2017, we face even greater uncertainty in our industry—and the country as a whole. So, being prepared is even more critical today than it was a year ago.

As we look back on 2016, we have faced many challenges. We’ve weathered an unstable economy, low oil prices, and community unrest. We lost a beloved Stirling Properties employee. We experienced unprecedented flooding in our region that killed 13 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes and businesses. Several of our own retail centers and multi-family properties in Southeast Louisiana were significantly damaged. But, through it all, we have persevered.

Amidst all of the trials, Stirling Properties has made significant progress during the last year as we continue to grow and build on the comprehensive services and value that we bring to our clients and communities across the Gulf South region.

In 2016:

• We, along with partners CBL & Associates Properties, Inc., celebrated the grand opening of Ambassador Town Center, a 430,000-square-foot retail center in Lafayette, Louisiana. It was 100% leased within 6 months of development! Anchor tenants include Costco Wholesale, Dick’s Sporting Goods/Field & Stream, and Nordstrom Rack.

• We completed the development of Stirling Bossier—the last of 6 planned phases—in Shreveport. The 682,000-square-foot hybrid retail center is now 100% leased. Anchor tenants include Academy Sports + Outdoors, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy and ULTA Beauty.

• We broke ground on the new Offices at River Chase in Covington and announced the 1^st tenant, Duplantis Design Group, PC. We also announced that Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar will be joining the River Chase mixed-use development later this year.

• We welcomed Whole Foods Market to Premier Centre in Mandeville, Louisiana, marking the 1^st Northshore location for the popular upscale grocer. Whole Foods Market, along with Forever 21 Red, re-tenanted the space occupied by the former Albertson’s grocery store.

• We announced the development of a new mixed-use medical facility in LaPlace, Louisiana. Phase I of this development includes a lease to Ochsner Clinic Foundation for a roughly 20,000-square-foot freestanding emergency room and diagnostic center that is scheduled to open in the summer of 2017. This is just the beginning of our planned diversification strategy into healthcare.

• After many years of discussion, we announced The Home Depot is joining the tenant line-up at Hammond Square. This is the first location for The Home Depot in Tangipahoa Parish. Construction commenced late last year and the store plans to open by late 2017.

• We transformed the 1^st floor of the Pan American Life Center in New Orleans and secured retail options such as Starbucks and Tsunami. We also welcomed Morris Bart Attorneys At Law to the center.

• We relocated our New Orleans office to the Pan American Life Center. This move is more representative of Stirling Properties’ future than just a new office. It demonstrates our unwavering commitment to the city, the region, and to the future, as we continue to build our brand.

In difficult circumstances, preparation and leadership are vital to an organization. Over the past year, I have witnessed first-hand how well our Stirling Properties team can come together to respond to crisis and uncertainty. What we have successfully overcome—and achieved!—this year, gives me the utmost confidence in our leaders and employees moving forward.

The financial market, unemployment, tax reform, a new Presidential administration—you name it—there’s still much uncertainty in the year ahead. There’s a lot of unknowns and “what if’s.” But as the saying goes, “When nothing is sure, anything is possible.”

With that in mind, Stirling Properties is embracing the unknown, thinking towards possibilities. We have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline for 2017. We’ve laid out some lofty goals for the year ahead. We will continue to diversify our services, explore new areas of growth, and expand our client base.

Who knows what obstacles we may face, but I know we have the right team in place to succeed. As we embark upon the unknown, I am more confident than ever that we are prepared to take advantage of any, and all, opportunities that may come our way.

So, let’s celebrate a year of uncertainty and infinite possibility!

Recently, I attended a seminar at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week titled CEO Disrupt Breakfast featuring Steve Case, founder of AOL and one of America’s best-known and most accomplished entrepreneurs, and (New Orleans native) Walter Isaacson, president & CEO of the Aspen Institute and national writer and journalist.

The rudimentary theme was that companies must disrupt themselves from time to time, or they will be disrupted by external forces, and eventually decline or fail. I considered how this applies to Stirling Properties and the commercial real estate industry as a whole.

Business disruption is a reality that companies face on a regular basis. The largest cause of disruption is the rapid progression of technology and globalization, which allows new business models to be introduced at an ever-increasing rate. Companies must disrupt or be disrupted—we must shake up the status quo—and deviate from the normal way of doing things.

But business disruption is nothing new. We see multitudes of instances throughout history. For example, plastic disrupted the production of metal and wood, typewriters were disrupted by word processing software, electric cars disrupted the automobile industry, Wikipedia displaced traditional encyclopedias, iTunes disrupted the music industry, Uber disrupted the transportation industry, Airbnb is disrupting hoteliers, and the list goes on and on. Companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Starbucks are constantly finding new ways of disrupting themselves to stay relevant and remain a crucial part of our daily lives.

So how do we survive in a world of disruption, continually improve our position, and seize opportunities? We must be proactive and adaptive. Disruption is necessary to create opportunity. Many leaders agree, “If you are not growing, you are dying.” Change is inevitable, and businesses must be willing to adapt in order to prosper.

According to Disrupt author, Luke Williams, “In a business world of nonstop change, there’s only one way to win the game: transform it entirely. This requires a revolution in thinking—a steady stream of disruptive strategies and unexpected solutions.”

There are many factors that threaten to disrupt us locally. The economy and state budget shortfalls, the oil & gas industry, and even politics, all have the ability to considerably change our environment.

Additionally, the commercial real estate industry is evolving at lightning speed. E-commerce and Internet shopping have already significantly disrupted the retail industry! Many companies are quickly adapting to new trends, such as embracing technology, incorporating omnichannel marketing strategies, integrating mixed-use developments, and engaging millennials. In order to get ahead, we have to move away from traditional real estate models. We have to transform the market landscape.

I am proud to say that Stirling Properties has done this throughout its history, most notably over the last five years. Our leadership recognized that in order to thrive in this market, we had to identify new and unique opportunities to grow and diversify.

We expanded our business model and strategically focused our attention toward property acquisition and creating opportunities for investors to put capital into real, tangible property across the Gulf South. Earlier this year, we purchased Turtle Creek Crossing shopping center in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, marking the largest retail acquisition in our 40-year history! Since 2010, we have acquired over $200 million in property, totaling 2.1 million square feet—including the Pan American Life Center, which has become the hub of our New Orleans commerce.

We are continuing to invest in multi-family housing. We’re increasing our company reach and footprint by expanding into new geographical areas throughout the Gulf South, as well as new industries, such as healthcare. These are all examples of projects and strategies that differ from our normal. Consider the results of this since 2010:

• Total gross revenue has increased by 140%
• Management fees are up 67%
• Square footage under management has grown by 50%
• Development fees have increased by 145%
• Watch our complete Stirling Properties highlight video

We can be certain there’s going to be more change in the next five, ten and twenty years. But the potential for improvement is all around us, and it’s a truly exciting time for Stirling Properties, our community, and our industry.

Stirling Properties will continue to explore new ways to disrupt ourselves, and we look forward to reaping the opportunities that are produced!

We are ready!

The New Year celebration has come and gone. The world has taken a moment to reflect on the past year and now we redirect our attention to goals for the new one. As we close out the first month of 2016, this is usually the time that most people abandon those well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions they so ambitiously made.

Nevertheless, I think there is still a real purpose for continuing these rituals each year. It presents a new set of opportunities to make ourselves better and to strive for loftier goals. Here at Stirling Properties, that reason is for us to try to prepare ourselves as best we can to deal with what the future holds: uncertainty.

Every day, we hear and read of crises, turmoil and drama in the news. And in times of greatest uncertainty, it is more critical than ever to prepare for opportunity.

Stirling Properties’ goals for 2016 have been finalized. Our pipeline is full and we have many exciting prospects in our future. However, the only thing I can really be certain of is that the year will provide uncertainty.

Basketball coaching legend John Wooden said, “When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.” If his players were not prepared for the game, they would not be able to take advantage of the opportunities within it. His point was that opportunity comes to those who are ready for it.

With that in mind, we ended 2015 and begin 2016 with many great opportunities.

• Turtle Creek Crossing in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is the largest retail acquisition by Stirling Properties in its 40 year history! The transaction occurred last week for the 295,000-square-foot shopping center at a purchase price of $48.1 million. Anchor tenants include Target, Kohl’s, Ashley Furniture, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ross Dress for Less, Old Navy and PetSmart.

• Our Mobile Office is experiencing remarkable growth throughout South Alabama. New restaurants, shopping and retail expansion — including Alabama’s first plaza-type development — is in the works with new tenant leases being announced often. From 2014–2015, total commercial volume for sales and leasing in Alabama increased by 169% and total transactions increased by 113%.

• Stirling Properties and CBL & Associates Properties, Inc., celebrated the Grand Opening of Phase II of Fremaux Town Center in Slidell, Louisiana, adding 283,000 square feet to the existing shopping center. Anchored by Dillard’s, the second phase allowed us to add even more great retail and restaurant options that will further solidify Fremaux Town Center as a premier regional shopping and entertainment destination, as well as a vital economic contributor to the area.

• We welcomed our first tenants to the recently completed Offices at Mid-City Market, a 54,000-square-foot, mixed-use complex in New Orleans. Orangetheory Fitness joined previously-announced Gallo Mechanical, LLC, Exceptional Dental and H-3 Aesthetics & Dermatology. We are anticipating new tenant announcements soon.

• Stirling acquired the 384-multi-family-unit “Retreat at Acadian Point” (formerly South Point Apartments) in Lafayette, Louisiana, bringing Stirling’s total number of units under management to 1,512. Upgrades are in progress and we are providing Lafayette residents with affordable luxury at a time when the local economy faces some challenges.

• Last year, Stirling Properties leased or sold nearly 4 million square feet of properties. From 2014–2015, our total transactions increased by 13%. Equally exciting, we are thrilled to welcome 45 new members to our Stirling family.

We’ve accomplished so much over the past year, and the best is yet to come. Stirling Properties continues to substantially increase our portfolio and expand our footprint across the entire Gulf South region, shaping us to be one of the most diversified full-service commercial real estate companies in the country.

So I don’t know when or where more opportunities will come, but I know that our Stirling Properties team is equipped, eager and more prepared than ever to meet them. Even John Wooden would be proud.

Therefore, when, where and how opportunity knocks, we are ready!