Justin Korinis – President, SABRE Advisors

JUSTIN KORINIS
It's really nice to be driving down the road with a family member or talking to a buddy about ... He's like, "Oh, did you see that new whatever, Jim on Route 17 in Paramus?" You're like, "Oh yeah, we actually had a hand in that."

GREG SIMPSON
Today on the Built2Suit podcast, Nathan Griffis sits down with the president of Sabre Advisors, Justin Korinis, to talk about building relationships, adapting to industry changes, and why networking matters more than ever. From early career lessons to Sabre's growth vision, Justin shares insights on branding, community impact, and creating space for meaningful connection.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Justin, thanks for spending a few minutes with us. I'm glad we met. We go back a long time now. Actually, we were just talking about how Leslie Cook in our BD department, she has a way of just grabbing people in. That's part of the reason why we invite her to be a part of our team.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
And so here's a little warmup question for you. What's the first app that you open in the morning?

JUSTIN KORINIS
That's a good question. Probably my text messages.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay.

JUSTIN KORINIS
See if there's anything kind of overnight. Actually, no, I take that back. I know what it is fully. So recently I started using a device called a Pavlok. Have you heard of this?

NATHAN GRIFFIS
No. Is it anything like an Aura ring? Because that's what my last guest told me. It's

JUSTIN KORINIS
Similar.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay,

JUSTIN KORINIS
Got it. So I use the Oura Ring to sleep, but the Pavlok is a habit trainer. Okay. So it uses, you can use it, make it beep, you can make it vibrate, or you can actually make it shock you.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
I think they used to have collars for that.

JUSTIN KORINIS
All right. So it's supposed to be like Pavlov's dog's Pavlok. So it looks like a watch or like a

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Whoop. Okay.

JUSTIN KORINIS
And you wear it on your wrist. And my wife is a very light sleeper and hates when I get up early to go to the gym because no matter how much of a ninja I'm being, something wakes her up or the alarm wakes her up. So I recently started wearing this Pavlok to go to bed and it will shock me awake in the morning.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So you're clearly committed to a good marriage.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Correct.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
If you're willing to get lit up...

JUSTIN KORINIS
I'm trying very hard to make my wife happy.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yes. Yes.

JUSTIN KORINIS
So in order to turn it off, you can set up different things like you can get up and do jumping jacks, but I have it set up that I have to answer like a math question. Okay. So literally the very first thing I do is as I'm being shocked with my left hand, I'm grabbing my phone with my right hand and quickly answering a puzzle of some sort so that I can turn it off.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So how complicated are these math questions? I feel like half asleep. I've just been shocked to wake. I don't know that I'm all that encouraged to answer a math calculus question.

JUSTIN KORINIS
So initially they were pretty easy. I feel like they're getting harder. They're making it more difficult. And I don't know if it's intentional. So normally it'd be like, what's two plus two?

NATHAN GRIFFIS
But

JUSTIN KORINIS
It'll give you, it's like multiple choice, so you have to find four. So it takes a second.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah.

JUSTIN KORINIS
I don't know. The one, I think it was last week, the answer was like 81. So whatever- Nine times. It was not an easy one. Multiple digits. It was like brother out. Something like, how many times is 32? I don't know. So it's been getting more complicated, but the other ones that they have are memorization. So they'll show you like nine tiles and you have to, they'll say, remember where all these things are and find the pairs. Okay. So then the timer goes off, you have five seconds, then you got to find the pairs. God forbid you don't get it right. You're sitting there with a thing just shocking your arm as you're trying to turn this off. Yeah. It's ... Justin, I don't even know where to go with that. I think that's all we need. It's been great. Thanks for having

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Me. Yeah, but I don't know. Yeah, I feel like that's a showstopper right there. You're so committed, but I feel like I'd be waking up my wife as I'm chucking my phone across the room going, "I don't know the flipping answer. Stop shocking me." You can hit a button to snooze it, but then I also have

JUSTIN KORINIS
It set that if I snooze it, it'll shock me again to not snooze it. It's a complicated

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Thing. Okay. So obviously committed to getting up and working out and not waking your wife.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Yes.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay. All right. So wow, that's awesome. I'm so- What other prep did you have there? Listen, that was a warmup question that just has so many legs to it, but I'm going to dial it. I'm going to dial it back in. So how many years have you been coming to ICSC? Geez, 15 probably. 15 years. How do you prepare differently today than you did 15 years ago?

JUSTIN KORINIS
When I first started, I want to say it was a lot more sort of granular in terms of what my responsibilities were. I was working with a senior partner at the time. I was responsible for setting a lot of the meetings, making sure that every deal and LOI and everything that I had going on, I kind of had something to show for it. I also made a habit of trying to fill every available space, right?

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Or I get shocked. Correct.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Yeah. I mean, I should have had that thing back then. He would have been shocking me like-

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yes.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Actually, sidebar, you can unlock it and have a friend download the app and shock you. It also helps, I guess, if you're a smoker or other things, like you can have it shock you every time you raise your hand to your mouth.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
You got to have a lot of trust with the person you're giving that to.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
I don't have that kind of friends.

JUSTIN KORINIS
I don’t think I have that person.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Yeah. So anyways, but I made a habit of filling all the space because especially early in my career, trying to understand and know who everybody was, meet with people for the first time. I think sort of trying to make as many relationships as possible, I was using that time to

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Fill that out. Maximize.

JUSTIN KORINIS
So in a full day of, we'll call it 8:00 AM to 5:00 AM, almost every half hour slot was full. And I drove myself crazy going around to different meetings. And that habit that I built kind of continued for many years. I remember in, I think it was 2014 maybe, I tore my Achilles tendon two weeks before the show, had surgery one week before the show and went to Vegas on a scooter.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Scooter.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah.

JUSTIN KORINIS
It was one of the more difficult shows I've ever been to. And even like going back and forth from South to Central and all of that was super complicated. At the same time, I think I made more relationships- In the lobby. In the taxi stand lines, in the lobby, in every cocktail party and everything that we went to, there were always people there and it was an easy conversation starter. People were very nice about allowing me to go in front of them and all this stuff. So all of those moments, I think that year specifically, I built so many new relationships with folks around the country that I'd never met before and maybe would not be dealing with otherwise, but ultimately those relationships turn into business and potential business down the road, which was fantastic. To answer your question, I think what I do now, I have meetings, I have things scheduled.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
I try to keep open space.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah. Leave a buffer. I agree. I agree. I've done the same thing where I've just been, okay, I have to lock up all this time, but you miss the opportunity for the interruption and that those are some of the most valuable accidents that happen and that's where the best deals, the best relationships, the best opportunities. I agree with that 100%.

JUSTIN KORINIS
To me, where we are in the world today, the need for the deal making sessions is probably less than it was 10 years ago.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah.

JUSTIN KORINIS
We had video conferencing and stuff back then, but it wasn't ubiquitous. Fast forward to COVID, now everyone's got Zoom and Teams and Google Meet. And I have more Zoom meetings than I do conference calls at this point, right? Yeah. I remember a time where we were doing with deals with people that I'd never met in person and the first time I was seeing their face was, as an example, New York or Vegas or whatever. That's not the case anymore. You meet people pretty early on, you see their face pretty early on. Not to say in person is, I mean, it's significantly more valuable, but it's like an in between, right? Sure. But the value is having everyone here in the same place.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yes.

JUSTIN KORINIS
To me, the socializing, the dinners, the networking, the cocktail parties, quite frankly, I think there should be more ICSC sponsored kind of events and things like that.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay. Well, so I know a guy. So Bill's on that committee, one of our BD guys. So let's say, "Hey, ICSC!. What about some more sponsored happy hours?"

JUSTIN KORINIS
The regional shows specifically and some of the smaller ones, a lot of them ... I mean, look, it's old school, but those diner rounds, if you go to good restaurants

NATHAN GRIFFIS
And

JUSTIN KORINIS
Bring a bunch of people and stick them in a room, that's amazing networking and conversation and the ability to actually have time to talk to people about their personal lives and what they're into and what they do when they're not making deals and this kind of stuff, right? The deal making can still be done elsewhere. It doesn't really need to be done here. So I mean, there's still value in it, but just the value is everyone being in the same place at the same time.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
100%. 100%. So getting to know people. So like I said, we haven't known each other long. I was joking about we were probably going to talk about your physique at some point. So you're kind of jacked. I'm slightly jealous, but no. So obviously that's a part of it, but that's not all. I'm sure that's not all of it. So tell me what are some of the other things you're into.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Spend a lot of time with my family. I have two young kids.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
How old?

JUSTIN KORINIS
I have a nine-year-old boy and an almost three-year-old girl.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Okay.

JUSTIN KORINIS
They keep me very busy.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Game changers.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everything you thought was important doesn't mean anything.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Nothing else is important

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Anymore.

JUSTIN KORINIS
We fortunately or unfortunately, our lives revolve around their activities and their things and their schedules. So that keeps me very busy. If you'd asked me sort of in a vacuum or if I had a free weekend to myself, what I might be doing. I mean, I play lacrosse regularly. It's a big part of my life. Coaching for many years, coached my son's rec team this year, which I was really happy about. I love board sports and being outdoors, like snowboarding, wakeboarding, that kind of stuff. I like to just be active and doing things. I feel like socializing, outdoors with people, patio bars and that kind of thing is always fun. Yeah. I like to keep moving and I like to be around a lot of people and that's kind of what I'm good at, I guess.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
So if you weren't in commercial real estate, what would be the career that you feel like you would go after or do?

JUSTIN KORINIS
If I were independently wealthy and no longer needed to work-

NATHAN GRIFFIS
And had to feed your nine-year-old and your three-year-old. Yeah. Yeah. And then pay for all the sports camps and all ... Yeah. Yeah.

JUSTIN KORINIS
But I didn't have to pay for all their shit.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah.

JUSTIN KORINIS
I don't know if I can say that.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
No, it's okay. This is private.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Okay. All right. All good. I think I would probably be coaching lacrosse or involved in that. I think that's kind of one of my life's passions, honestly. I think it's the kind of thing that I caught the bug early as a kid and started coaching even fairly early, helping at camps and that kind of thing. I'm 43 now and I'm still playing competitively. It's something that means a lot to me. I think someone will have to rip that stick out of my cold, dead hands at some point. There's some tournaments nationally where they'll have guys in their 60s and 70s playing on teams. The feet don't move around much. The ball moves just fine, but that'll probably be me at some point.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
I'm meeting with a guy tomorrow. He's a hockey player and he's in his 50s. Still plays two games on Sundays. And what he said is, "I learned the angles." He said, "I no longer can do the things physically, but I learned I'm playing with my head where I can outplay some of these young kids because of how I know how to skate and approach different things differently." So yes, I think it's okay to hold on to stick to your cold dead hands.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Yeah.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Northeast, right? So you're down here in Florida. What's the connectivity for your group to be at the show? Obviously, I got it Super Bowl, all of that stuff, but what's the connection that you feel between the state of Florida and kind of your home turf in New York, New Jersey?

JUSTIN KORINIS
I'll answer in two different ways. I think one, Florida and specifically South Florida, although now it's changing, but in some ways it's like a sixth borough to New York City in so many ways. So many of the people that we deal with on a regular basis are in both markets. Obviously, historically the snowbird thing and people moving down here as

NATHAN GRIFFIS
They're retiring. It is

JUSTIN KORINIS
A thing. Yeah. But the developers, the owners, the tenants, they're in Miami and they're in New York as an example, right? So there's been so much of that that it's been kind of easier for us to sort of navigate this market as opposed to some other ones. But the other part of it is we do a lot of work nationally on behalf of different brands that we represent. We have a lot of deals working within the territory. It's important to us to maintain our relationships, our connections. Quite frankly, I think one of the things that you get at some of these regional shows that you don't get at others, there's a lot of tenants here.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Yeah.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Yeah. Retailer row, unbelievable. So having some face time with some of these tenants, especially the ones that maybe aren't expanding in the Northeast yet, as much as we are doing obviously like a lot of national work, like I said, but our bread and butter is still kind of New York Metro and the Northeast.

JUSTIN KORINIS
So when we're meeting with some of these brands, it's a great way to say, "Hey, you're not up in our market, but what are you looking for? How do we bring you up to our market?" That kind of thing. Old school

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Mentality

JUSTIN KORINIS
A little bit, but it's tried and true.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
No, I think there is something ... I mean, I kind of refuse to talk about AI a little bit during this time. I think there are certainly, there's a lot of technology that helps to expedite and different stuff like that, but I think there is something true about just a little bit of the old school relational thing and that's all based on trust. There's not an amount of AI that's ever going to generate a trust that says, "I want to do deals with you over and over and over again." You may find somebody new to pursue, okay, I got that. You may find a piece of dirt, you may find whatever, but a little bit easier, but at the end of the day, you still have to have confidence of who I'm getting in bed with and it's going to help me execute it.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Yeah, for

NATHAN GRIFFIS
Sure. Last question. Last question. I'll give this bonus one. What's your mission beyond the next deal or project?

JUSTIN KORINIS
As a company, I think something that's important to us is growth over the next two to three years. We've spent a lot of time getting more efficient coming out of COVID and the following years. And I think where we really want to be now is growing again. Small plug for ourselves, I guess, but Sabre has been ... It's 13 years we've been in business and at this point we've got a lot of senior level people. I need very capable younger people to come in and kind of help bring us up from the bottom, if that makes sense, create a wider base. So company wide, that's a goal over the next couple of years. I think we also really pride ourselves on having, in some ways, a brand that stands apart from the clients that we represent. We are a company with a brand. We happen to be very visual.

JUSTIN KORINIS
My partner, Jay's podcast of his own. We did a vlog for many years that was very popular. Our branding and our social media has a presence. I want to continue that. I think so many brokerage firms, you either think of the personality of these big behemoths as so far apart from the individual brokers that work there, or in some cases it's these smaller firms that you clearly tie the identity to some of the flagship tenants that they represent. And both of those things are fine, but I want to be something different. And I think for me personally, I love in our business being able to impact communities in a really positive way. It started my career early on in industrial and office properties, and nothing wrong with that, but it's really nice to be driving down the road with a family member or talking to a buddy about ... He's like, "Oh, did you see that new whatever, Jim on Route 17 in Paramus?" You're like, "Oh yeah, we actually had a hand in that.

JUSTIN KORINIS
" So to be able to bring new life- To a community. ... to a community is such an exciting thing to work.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
That's our why. I totally get it. I totally get it. So it sounds like you guys are ... So part of why we wanted to have this podcast is shine a highlight on some people in the industry. And so no, you're allowed to brag on yourself and the vision to grow and sounds like you've got some very seasoned staff members that are positioned to do that and you're ready to grow it from the bottom, which is a great, great plan, bring in some different energy and some ... Somebody's got to be the person on the first show who's backing up the meetings back to back to back to back so that you can have some margin.

JUSTIN KORINIS
That's a good point.

NATHAN GRIFFIS
But I appreciate you taking some time, Justin, sitting down with us. Thank you. Hopefully this was a good accident and a space in your time, but we appreciate it and look forward to many, many connections and time spent in the future.

JUSTIN KORINIS
Thank you.