Growing up in Houston with a father who wrote about real estate influenced Analee Bivins when she decided to try a career in journalism. But it was the beat her dad covered where Bivins found her true calling.
She initially landed a job as a research analyst at brokerage giant CBRE, where she wrote market reports. But after nearly six years doing that, she decided to follow in her father Ralph Bivins’ footsteps and give business journalism a try, landing a job at GlobeSt.com, a commercial real estate news outlet.
Analee Bivins quickly found she didn’t enjoy being a reporter. So she walked away from journalism about eight months later and rejoined CBRE.
What Analee Bivins did know — and like — was commercial real estate. That’s the industry where she ended up, thanks partly to spending time with her dad, who worked as the Houston Chronicle’s real estate reporter when she was growing up.
But a job in commercial real estate wasn’t top of mind earlier in her life.
“I tell a lot of people that when someone ends up in commercial real estate, it’s never a dream of theirs as a child,” Bivins said in an interview. “Usually, you sort of stumble into it. That’s kind of how I got in.”
As a child, though, her trips to developments with her father, who now runs a real estate news site in Houston, had a lasting effect.
“My dad would drive us around on Sunday afternoons and look at properties and talk about development and builders and architects. I grew up with an understanding and foundation of commercial real estate in an applicable way,” Bivins said.
She said half-jokingly that she grew up with her father telling her bedtime stories about the late Gerald Hines, the founder of prominent Houston-based development firm Hines.
Her career path and success have impressed her dad.
“I’m very proud of the way my daughter has become a professional in the real estate industry,” Ralph Bivins said in an email. “Her tenacity and innovative thinking will serve her well in the years ahead as the next generation emerges.”
While Analee Bivins ultimately found success in commercial real estate, she said in the beginning it wasn’t easy being a woman in a male-dominated industry.
“As a female in commercial real estate, the environment has become so much better than when I started almost 15 years ago. But it was really difficult for a female to be taken seriously,” Analee Bivins said. “It took me a long time for people to take me seriously and get that respect.”
Her father’s connections in the industry, however, helped her make a name for herself, as she was able to leverage his network to meet people and move up within commercial real estate in Houston.
After studying literature and journalism and graduating from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas, Bivins spent time living on both coasts before returning to Houston to explore what she could do in the commercial real estate space.
“This was not a grand plan of mine, but when I returned to Houston, I started talking to people in the industry, just to see where I could go. I met with a woman at CBRE, and she said, ‘I don’t have a position for you, but I love you and want you to start working for me.’ So, I just sort of started, randomly got adopted into the CBRE family and from there I really fell in love with real estate. I love the excitement of the deal. I like the hunt, the chase and the kill that comes with all deals.”
She ended up working as an analyst at CBRE from 2008 to 2013 before deciding to get into journalism at GlobeSt, and then quickly returning to CBRE.
Just over a year ago, Bivins left CBRE for 5Rivers CRE, a Houston-based firm that’s owned and managed shopping centers for 26 years. At 5Rivers, she works on large deals, including a recent transaction in Birmingham, Alabama. In that deal that closed last month, 5Rivers bought a 164,003-square-foot shopping center at 1705-1735 Montgomery Highway. Riverchase Promenade is anchored by retail tenants 2nd & Charles, JOANN and David’s Bridal.
“Our firm focuses on retail products in the Southeast U.S. The state of Alabama is one of our key target markets,” she said. “We’re looking to solidify our presence in that state. This was a targeted acquisition. The location in Birmingham really made sense for us.”
5Rivers CRE has a portfolio of properties in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.
Bivins said she’s glad she ended up in the industry her dad writes about, though for a while she was concerned about being in his shadow.
“In Houston, Ralph Bivins is a legend. He’s a highly respected journalist. This was back in the old newspaper days,” Analee Bivins said. “I was a little apprehensive, getting into commercial real estate. I didn’t want to be necessarily known [as Ralph’s daughter]. I wanted to be known for my own work. I fought that for a long time.”
