San Diego’s Jason Hughes Shares the Pandemic-Proof Plan That Buoyed Hughes Marino’s Success

Despite the pandemic taking a catastrophic toll on many U.S.-based businesses, Jason Hughes bolstered the reach of his San Diego-based brokerage firm Hughes Marino by adding a Denver office to his fleet of locations, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, Seattle, San Francisco, East Bay, and New York. And the company is busier than ever before, with revenue more than 50% higher than the brand’s best year to date.

“We added [the new offices] in the fourth quarter of last year, while the grand opening of Denver was in January of 2021,” said Hughes Marino CEO Jason Hughes. “We were growing when everyone else was pulling in the reins. And we’re really proud of how our company handled this. We’ve gotten stronger in a lot of ways.”

Hughes admits that corporate real estate was the last thing on anyone’s mind when the pandemic hit. “In fact, most people just wanted to shed it, and they were forced to work from home,” Jason Hughes said from his office in San Diego. “And the last thing they were thinking of was leasing more office space.”

Hughes likens the impact of the pandemic to an ice age hitting the commercial real estate world. “Everything was essentially frozen, and there was zero velocity. It was really chilling,” Hughes said. “For a couple of months when the pandemic started, we were really concerned and analyzing: ‘What does this mean to our company? Will our company survive? Will the industry survive?’ And nobody knew how bad it was going to get.”

Hughes Marino went into immediate triage mode with all of its brokers. “Our brokers are the front line,” Jason Hughes said. “They’re the ones that are client-facing, meeting with business owners and helping them make decisions every day. They’re the tip of the spear, and then it trickles down to all of our other divisions, including lease auditing, lease administration, program, project and construction management, and planning and design. From there, we have all of our operational team that supports the brokers, so if our brokers aren’t successful, we’re not going to have a company.”

Hughes then implemented weekly broker townhall meetings lasting one to two hours to boost morale, connect and keep the Hughes Marino team inspired from its San Diego headquarters and beyond.

“We had everybody on WebEx, and each week, my mission was clear,” Hughes said. “Not only am I still a player-coach, but I spent a lot more time coaching because, from my own transactional volume, everything stopped. My new goal was, how do I give emotional and mental support to our brokers? And how do we keep this fighting stance or just be mentally strong enough to continue to do business development and wait for the ice to thaw?’”

On Tuesday mornings, Jason Hughes found himself motivating his team and doubling down on the company’s technology, investing millions. Hughes acknowledged it could be a rare opportunity for expansion if his team had the proper tools, support, and guidance to succeed.

“Many of our brokers said that made all the difference,” Hughes explained. “That kept our team and their spirits alive during a time when other industry brokers left the business.”

Jason Hughes then decided to be proactive and reached out to Hughes Marino’s clients to help them renegotiate their leases. “We began examining what some of the smartest companies out there were doing for their team,” Hughes said. “What are they doing to help control their expenses while we’re in this COVID storm? How do we renegotiate with landlords?’ And it really ranged from local, to state, to national protection with tenants for evictions, for non-payment of rent, for protection against lawsuits because a lot of these companies, their business just stopped.”

As Jason Hughes watched most landlords shift into lawsuit mode, Hughes remained focused on the plight of struggling tenants.

“When you’re a tenant, you’re able to pay rent because you’re getting revenue to help pay these and other costs, but if the revenue just stops, how are you supposed to pay?” Hughes said. “Helping them navigate all that was happening from a local and state standpoint on protection and giving them peace of mind, we became financial counselors in a way on how to prevent these companies from going out of business.”

With thousands of clients under the brokerage, Hughes Marino recognized that while trillion-dollar companies can withstand years of no revenue, many of their smaller clients couldn’t afford the same luxuries.

“It really comes full circle to our broker townhalls,” Hughes said. “Our clients need us now more than ever. Let’s give them ideas. Let’s help them through these challenges. Let’s protect them against these landlords who are saying, ‘Hey, you need to pay up.’”

“We get a lot of satisfaction out of this company and what it’s done for so many people’s lives,” Hughes said. “We do the best we can at making this company successful and having it be a great place for everybody to work. We’ve earned tons of awards for everything you can imagine, and it’s not anything you could pay for. Our team loves being here. They love what we represent. They love what we’re all about, and the feeling’s mutual.”

Hughes is also extremely grateful for the loyalty and longevity of his staff. “We’ve been very excited about the success that we’ve had as a collective team. A lot of these people have been with me and [my wife] Shay for 20 to 25 years, and we’ve seen their whole lives change for the better,” Hughes said. “They get married, and they grow families, and they buy their first house. It’s really rewarding and fulfilling for us.”

After a tumultuous 2020, Hughes says his passion for helping his clients and his teammates has grown. He credits that same passion with fueling Hughes Marino’s elevated momentum.
 

“When the storm hit, we rallied and hit back with our experience, passion, and perseverance for the needs of our clients, the tenants - companies large and small providing services for us all – from BioMed, industrial, energy to corporate,” he adds. “They are in the business to serve, so we had to pivot and serve them any way we could.”