New England SIOR Chapter holds Annual Summer Golf Outing

The New England Chapter of SIOR held its annual summer golf outing for its members, associates, sponsors and prospective members. It is an invitational event that goes back to the 1990s with the New England Chapter. This year’s golf outing was held at one of the state’s most prestigious private clubs, Dedham Country and Polo Club. The Dedham club was founded in 1887 with over 6,235 yard course. The event was held Wednesday, July 14^th at 11:30 a.m. The best ball golf started at 12:30 p.m. and was followed up with a cocktail reception and golf awards.

Despite the record rainfall in July, the golf event was held on a nice but humid day. Approximately 32 people signed up for the golf outing including the SIOR national president Mark Duclos who traveled up from Connecticut to attend this event. There were eight teams of four for this tournament. Greg Klemmer the in-coming chapter president welcomed everyone at lunch prior to teeing off. He thanked the sponsors Dacon, STV, DPM and Vantage Builders for their support. Klemmer also congratulated Mike Dalton for recently becoming an SIOR member. Dalton is a principal at Avison Young and is a long-time veteran in the industry. He has been in the real estate business for thirty years, and concentrated his efforts on working with corporate clients and institutional owners in the northern suburbs of Boston. During his tenure in the real estate business, he has represented numerous corporate clients in New England and throughout the world in the acquisition and leasing of office, manufacturing, R&D and laboratory facilities.

The golf format and awards were then explained to the attendees and box lunches were served as members teed off. The golf event completed at 5 p.m. and a cocktail reception with awards ceremony was then held in the clubhouse. Golfers were asked to walk the course due to the wetness and two holes were eliminated due to the flooding. Therefore, the tournament was 16 holes.

At the clubhouse, approximately 35 people attended the ceremonies and scholarship portion of the day. SIOR members were from other states including Maine and Rhode Island. There were also a number of female brokers invited to the event that Klemmer mentioned including Margaret Fee from Newmark Knight Frank, Elizabeth Holmes from RW Holmes Real Estate, and Claire Richardson, The Boulos Co. Richardson, Klemmer and Rob Nahigian coincidentally were all Lehigh University alum.

Klemmer then welcomed everyone and thanked Duclos for attending as SIOR national president. Duclos gave some remarks to the attendees as the chapter’s first live event for 2021. Duclos announced that SIOR is now back on the road since the pandemic. He was excited to resume traveling to chapters and expected to be traveling once a week. He also announced that Robert Hammond, CEO and Tom McCormick, chair had both retired at the beginning of the year and that Robert Thornburgh, SIOR and past SIOR national president was the new CEO. Duclos said that Thornburgh was making some great value differences and that there would be some big news in the near future. There was also a new COO and new Head of Membership at SIOR. Duclos talked about the virtues of SIOR and that it was a person-to-person organization. Virtual was okay but we needed to get in person and connect with each other. Duclos thanked the sponsors and said that SIOR is embedded in many of our lives, our families and even kids. That many SIORs nationally help other SIORs, not just in business but in personal matters. He said that protecting the value of the SIOR pin was now critical to our industry. Duclos stated that people look to gain new knowledge, opportunities and relationships. He expressed to current members that the convention was a way for us to extend our networks and Nashville would be explosive with activities.

Klemmer continued that the chapter had a full calendar coming up over the next few months including the RW Holmes Scholarship fall golf event and some joint real estate events. He remarked that the SIOR Global Conference in the fall was anticipated to be outstanding with elite speakers.

Klemmer  then announced the winners that would receive gift certificates to the Dedham Pro Shop. The golf course is a par 70 but was difficult with hills and narrow fairways. The winners were the first and second place teams on a net par basis and an award for closest to the pin. There was also the longest distance for male and female golfers. He first announced the first-place team with a net par at 53. That team consisted of Mike Dalton, Shawn Hawthorne, Garry Holmes and Dan Driscoll. Congratulations to them. The team that was runner-up was a tie with a net par of 56. The first co-runner up team included Nahigian, Drew Sigfridson, John Waitkunas and Rob Glor. The second co-runner up team included Mike Ogasapian, Austin Smith, Jr., Austin Smith, Sr., Chuck Reilly and Josh Berman. Congrats to all the winners.

Klemmer then announced the closest to the pin, Matt Sargent at 15’15” on the par 3, hole #3. Hole 3 is 203 yards. The longest distance was awarded to both a male and female for hole #15, 379 yards. For the males, Austin Smith, Jr. won the long distance. For the females, Margaret Fee won the longest distance. Klemmer then thanked everyone as the cocktail reception resumed.