Joe Ritchie on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Tishman Speyer

Tishman Speyer has long been committed to increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion within the real estate industry. The firm embeds diversity into everything they do, and strives to make a positive impact on the communities where they operate. “We believe that healthy neighborhoods make for more valuable assets,” explains Joe Ritchie, the New York City-based Managing Director of Business Development and Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the firm.

Irrefutable evidence supports the value of diversity, showing that increased diversity benefits companies in myriad ways. These include greater revenue and profits, higher market share, better long-term value, enhanced employee engagement, lowered staff turnover, and heightened productivity. Tishman Speyer’s commitment runs deep, ranging from encouraging small and diverse suppliers to do business with the firm, working with Minority Depository Institutions, and creating investment partnerships with individuals and organizations previously excluded from such opportunities.

In his role, Ritchie is focused on driving business development with a specific focus on creating more diverse and inclusive communities and relationships across the firm’s platform. He also provides thought leadership on DEI within company culture.

Diversifying the supply chain

Diversity is a crucial component in all of Tishman Speyer’s business activities, including its supply chains. In 2020, the firm launched a Supplier Diversity & Economic Inclusion Program to open doors for small and diverse suppliers interested in either starting new or growing existing business with the firm. As a part of this program, Tishman Speyer set a target to triple its U.S. spending with diverse suppliers by 2024. In addition to awarding business to diverse suppliers, the firm also provides support to individual suppliers in an effort to promote strategic change within the industry.

“We have the opportunity to add value through diversity in a host of ways,” Ritchie says. “It aligns us with our customers and investors, all of which are thinking about diversity, and looking for evidence of diversity, both in the ranks of those they do business with as well as in their business practices.”

Many of Tishman Speyer’s partners share a similar commitment to diversity, including its development partners. “As we work to get entitlements for our projects, cities are really keenly focused on this,” Ritchie said. Tishman Speyer ensures that diversity, equity and inclusion is considered at every new development project with the goal of promoting economic inclusion and job creation. The firm has enacted a Diversity and Inclusion in Major Project policy in which every new development project is required to create a diversity and inclusion plan and commit to project-specific goals for Minority-and-Women Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) contracting and local, minority and women labor content.

Expanding diverse partnerships

The firm has expanded its DEI commitments to its capital raising activities with the aim to increase diversity among partners and offer wealth-generating opportunities for underrepresented groups. Most recently, Tishman Speyer secured the Basis Investment Group (BIG) as an equity partner in the Santa Monica Collection, its portfolio consisting of eight development sites across nearly 3.1 acres in Downtown Santa Monica, CA. A certified minority and woman-owned commercial real estate investment manager, BIG has committed $30 million—11 percent of the total equity—to the development.

Listening to our communities

With an understanding that healthy neighborhoods tend to generate higher property values, Tishman Speyer has long cultivated opportunities for community involvement in the areas where it conducts business. The firm’s approach to community involvement begins by listening intently to what residents say about their priorities. Says Ritchie: “We need to show up, we need to have conversations with the folks in those communities, we need to listen to what’s important to them.”

Every year, the firm hosts a Global Volunteer Day in which Tishman Speyer employees give back to their local communities. In 2022, over 600 employees supported 24 charitable organizations, participating in activities including gardening projects, trash collection on parks and local neighborhoods, preparing meals for the homeless, packaging school supplies and painting murals.

Ritchie’s driving motivation is to help give the next generation a hand up, not a handout. “What I’m passionate about is finding opportunities to find folks, nurture folks, get folks up to, into and through the ladder,” he says. “So that 10 years from now, 15 years from now, 20 years from now, they’re sitting where I am, reaching their hands back down to others.”