Boise: One of the West's Top Growth Markets (I-84, Micron & Highway 16) | Nick Provenzano, SIOR Recorded November 3, 2026 Host: Justin Smith, SIOR (Lee & Associates Irvine) Guest: Nick Provenzano, SIOR (Principal, Lee & Associates Idaho) [00:00] Justin Smith: welcome to the Industrial Insights Podcast. We got Nick Provenzano of Lee and Associates, Idaho, with me today and excited to learn more about your journey and then open up what Boise looks like in the industrial markets. So welcome. Thanks for joining me, Nick. [00:16] Nick Provenzano: Thank you, Justin. Happy to be here. Appreciate the invite. [00:18] Justin Smith: Yeah. when did your journey begin in Idaho? Everybody's got a story. [00:23] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, so I was recruited to come play football here in two thousand sixteen. out of by way of Southern California, Glendora, California. so [00:34] Justin Smith: Okay. [00:34] Nick Provenzano: spent a lot of time hanging out in Orange County, Inland Empire. two thousand sixteen, came as a preferred walk on, played football for the Broncos and Had a nice career, got my degree, earned my scholarship, wrapped up my career in 2020, had some internships in the real estate brokerage world during those times, because in the summer, you we had to be here. Like a lot of the students leave town except for some of the athletes. so we're here all summer from [01:05] Justin Smith: Yeah. [01:05] Nick Provenzano: a.m. to noon. And then you're trying to fill the second half of your day with something productive. For me I figured [01:12] Justin Smith: ha. [01:13] Nick Provenzano: pretty fast that going to the NFL wasn't in the cards. So my dad was like, you better find some internships that are gonna be applicable to maybe some industries you'd find your way in and I was like, what's that gonna be? And he was like, I don't know, maybe just like maybe sales. he kinda pushed me in that direction just based on some of the experiences he had. He's retired longtime Southern California Edison employee. So he [01:35] Justin Smith: Okay. [01:36] Nick Provenzano: pushed me towards the entrepreneurial route a little bit. And got ha got my foot in the door interning at Lee & Associates in the summer of 2020. And then in January or winter of twenty, new year of twenty one is when I got my Idaho real estate license. And just hit the ground running. That's been my first and only job since graduating college. So it's been like six years now. I've been a principal for a couple of years and it's going good. [02:04] Justin Smith: That's exciting. Yeah. [02:06] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [02:07] Justin Smith: What's so you had the starting during the pandemic experience. [02:12] Nick Provenzano: Mm-hmm. [02:12] Justin Smith: My partner Grant had that. He started two months beforehand, [02:16] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [02:17] Justin Smith: and then I remember it well because I'm working out of my kitchen because we're not going to the office for a period of time, and we're just thinking like, what are we gonna do? What's the plan here? Things are all crazy. There's no door knocking at present, even though he would like try and then they're like, Hey, not today. So I could only imagine you had some moment of like, are we even gonna have runners? Are we gonna have associates? How long's my runnership gonna take? I'm gonna be a I'm never gonna be an associate, or maybe I gotta go find a new job. Did you have any of those struggles? Or what was how did that all line up? Or it was like, Nick, you're in, let's [02:55] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [02:56] Justin Smith: go. [02:56] Nick Provenzano: Well in Boise that the whole COVID like scare and shut down, like that plane took off and landed very quickly. Like and that's what really got the party started here [03:08] Justin Smith: Yeah. [03:08] Nick Provenzano: in Idaho was people were noticing on like this place really hasn't closed down. People here are still [03:14] Justin Smith: Yeah. [03:14] Nick Provenzano: doing things. [03:16] Justin Smith: It [03:16] Nick Provenzano: People [03:16] Justin Smith: was [03:16] Nick Provenzano: are being [03:17] Justin Smith: not such a big deal, yeah. [03:18] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, but people weren't it wasn't such a big deal for some reason. And I think that was had a little bit of the influence on the inward migration that really accelerated [03:27] Justin Smith: Yes. [03:27] Nick Provenzano: here like mid two thousand twenty one throughout the entire year of two thousand twenty one. [03:32] Justin Smith: You [03:32] Nick Provenzano: So [03:32] Justin Smith: got like a double boom. Yeah. You got the boom of like inventory and companies and then you got the boom of the migration. [03:39] Nick Provenzano: right. And then in two thousand twenty one is when people who were in the industry for, you know, five plus years really benefited from the growth and their pipeline and the values just skyrocketed so fast. I didn't get I didn't catch that tailwind. I didn't know anybody [03:57] Justin Smith: Yeah. [03:57] Nick Provenzano: in this industry besides the people in my office. I didn't know a single person who owned commercial real estate in my [04:04] Justin Smith: Yeah. [04:04] Nick Provenzano: life. So for me [04:05] Justin Smith: Yep. [04:05] Nick Provenzano: it was like really starting from scratch here. So I miss that take off by a couple of years but so but it was a good time to, you know, start planting some seeds that would you know, start producing fruit over the next few years till to now. [04:20] Justin Smith: Yeah, that's awesome. It's you still got to ride it and hopefully you guys probably also didn't have as much of peak to trough. Like I know we had a big trough here where it took a long time to let the air out and let things like a cool down a bit like rental rate wise. Although you guys probably had a lot of new construction from what I gather. [04:39] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, we have had a lot of new construction. we there was probably like a six to eight month period when that rate hike went down in two thousand twenty two where people kind of maybe put the pencils down a little bit, but we were still moving around, you know, tenants and owner occupants who were just like, hey, I don't care what interest rates are doing. I'm out of space and I need more of it now. So we were still able to capitalize on some of those deals and it didn't last very long. That slowdown didn't last very long. It kind of ramped back up and still at our peak. Like right now in Boise industrial real estate, our lease rates are at ATH like they say in the stock market all time high. So it's kinda strange to say that because I don't know how many you know Western state markets can say that right now. So we're there is a little bit of a anomalous. [05:30] Justin Smith: Yeah. Every market is different. that's the fun part about doing deals in all these different markets is you figure out the dynamic and it you can't bring your assumptions from whatever market you came to. It they're all unique. [05:42] Nick Provenzano: That is a little bit of challenge. [05:44] Justin Smith: Yeah. win reversing back to when you guys got started, do you get some Matt Mahoney time as you got started? I'm working on a deal with him right now, so I'm getting a lot of Matt time and I'm enjoying it. He's a great guy to learn from and to work with. He's got a lot of experience, he knows what to do, and it's been a real blessing to get to know him and spend some time and work on a deal. I was curious if you've gotten some Matt time coming up through the ranks. [06:09] Nick Provenzano: yeah. Matt's been a great mentor for me and has grown to be, you know, a friend to me now being here for long enough. And yeah, he does a good job kind of showing, you know, what profo professionalism and commitment looks like to your career. all the principals in our office were great mentors to me. Him, Jason O'Very, just the name of a few, all really help me out. [06:29] Justin Smith: and can you bench more than Matt can? [06:32] Nick Provenzano: I don't know. I don't know what he's benching right now. [06:36] Justin Smith: Okay. [06:37] Nick Provenzano: I kind of I definitely probably peaked on that when I was playing college football and I'm more focused now on you know, my cardio and mobility and whenever when I bench too heavy my shoulders kinda flare up. So [06:49] Justin Smith: Yes. [06:49] Nick Provenzano: more focused on mobility [06:50] Justin Smith: Yes. [06:50] Nick Provenzano: right now and flexibility and [06:51] Justin Smith: Yes. [06:51] Nick Provenzano: cardio. [06:52] Justin Smith: friendly question I had to ask 'cause I was [06:55] Nick Provenzano: No, [06:55] Justin Smith: like, dang Matt, [06:55] Nick Provenzano: he [06:55] Justin Smith: okay, you [06:56] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [06:56] Justin Smith: know what you're doing over there. [06:58] Nick Provenzano: he does stay looking buff. [06:59] Justin Smith: Yeah, I love it. That's awesome. And then you came in, you got a partner now? [07:06] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, [07:06] Justin Smith: you [07:06] Nick Provenzano: so [07:06] Justin Smith: work a team or how does that work? [07:08] Nick Provenzano: yeah, so I work a team. you know, we all kind of team up as much as we can in our office. some of the mentors that have been here for me, we still have clients that we share relationships with. but I've kind of I've built I've started building a team myself. My partner Mike, he's an associate in our office, been here for two years now and we're really out trying to try to take some market share together. [07:29] Justin Smith: Yeah. That's awesome. What made you decide to do that? [07:32] Nick Provenzano: it was just I I've just really loved the idea of teaming up with somebody that was kind of, you know, similar to my age, running the same speed as me, hungry. and he's an Idaho native and we were friends in the past. we met through some mutual friends, went to Boise State together, so it was just a good fit, good time and good opportunity. [07:52] Justin Smith: Yeah. I love the entrepreneurial vibe, right? Nothing better than okay, let's build a squad and like a figure out what the team needs to grow the best and then like you're in charge and like you can make those calls and you can have the vision and you can go execute it. [08:08] Nick Provenzano: That's right. Yeah, I wasn't really, you know, set out on saying, Hey, I need to go hire someone to build a team. It was more of just the right opportunity with Mike coming in, it just felt like the right time to kind of form a team. [08:18] Justin Smith: Yeah. I love talking with the young guns that are digging up deals. So walk me through like what's the general program for a day when you're like, okay, it's time to go hunting. What happens next? [08:31] Nick Provenzano: So every day we kinda I like to model my business kind of just the way we modeled you know our process for success playing football at Boise State. And for me we have like our four step process and every day we come in we have to know like are we spending time completing activities in one of these four things. It and it's kind of like my flywheel, it's all in order, it's all through the coaching program, the Massimo coaching program that I went through. But [08:59] Justin Smith: Nice. [08:59] Nick Provenzano: it's build market presence, run effective prospecting campaigns, work with high quality clients in my niche. and exceed client expectations in every deal. So if it's not one of those four things, it's like, hey, we're getting a little distracted here. what what's a revenue producing activity we can do? Lately, [09:17] Justin Smith: Yes. [09:17] Nick Provenzano: you know, for us it's been that fourth one that exceed client expectations on each deal, come in and make sure that you know the deals we have on our contract, the listings we have marketed, like what are we doing to make sure that we're moving that deal relationship forward and the client knows what we're up to make sure they know they're getting a great service from us. As we've been getting busier, that's been kinda taking up a lot of our time, but I mean you still have to time block those hours to make sure you're, you know, running your effective prospecting campaigns. If we have listings, we're gonna make sure that we're gonna turn over every stone. We wanna make sure everybody in the immediate area knows about that opportunity and why they should be considering it. And then building market presence is something that I've really tried to take I guess control of as I have more experience that I can, you know, advertise to people going [10:07] Justin Smith: Yeah. [10:07] Nick Provenzano: out in public and really knowing what my value is and what people might need for me. So whether it's going to my networking clubs or taking, you know, a client out golfing to see, you know, where I can help them next or if they know anybody I can help out with. So that's kind of what our days look like right now. [10:26] Justin Smith: I love it. That's great structure. The Massimo [10:28] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [10:28] Justin Smith: coaching is great. And just like a coaching in general. Like [10:31] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [10:31] Justin Smith: investment in yourself, you know that. And then which coach or coaching program resonates with your style, your age, your trajectory, your experience, et cetera. it's always funny to think of do you split those in given days or within the same day? And like it's very easy, I think, to start with the client work. I think of what deals are closest to the end zone. You want to push them across and then you can [10:56] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [10:56] Justin Smith: like work back a little bit to make sure that like done gets done, like deals get completed. but then if you always work that way, then whatever is last doesn't always get like a done. So that [11:12] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [11:12] Justin Smith: is a total challenge I'm sure you're now very familiar with of the busier you get, the more you still need to like prioritize those time blocks, so to speak. [11:20] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, sometimes you're a little more reactive than you'd like to be, versus having control of like, no one's gonna take away my prospecting hour, but sometimes it's like, [11:29] Justin Smith: Don't [11:29] Nick Provenzano: Hey [11:29] Justin Smith: touch [11:29] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [11:29] Justin Smith: that prospecting hour, I'm sorry, I'm locking the door. [11:32] Nick Provenzano: don't touch that prospecting hour, but hey, sometimes like we just got this deal this new deal in our contract and this owner needs to get this property, you know, or we just got this new deal listed and this owner needs to get this property marketed ASAP. Like they're counting on us to get going because they have plans and they have stuff they need to do. So there's a few things that I need to handle on my back end so that our marketing team can have what they need to get their process going. Whereas if I spend the whole morning prospecting and I don't get to that new listing till the afternoon, now I just pushed it back another half day. So [12:04] Justin Smith: Yeah. [12:04] Nick Provenzano: yeah. [12:05] Justin Smith: It takes time to market listings, no doubt. [12:08] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [12:09] Justin Smith: And then you focus primarily on industrial. I figure some in markets your size you would have people who do the generalist approach and then people that do like the asset specific approach. What made you do that? [12:23] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, I mean, no doubt, there are stuff that will we will work on outside of industrial. We just kind of like targeting our prospecting towards industrial because we really enjoy the clientele of working with, you know, owner occupants and developers that kind of personality just fit who we enjoy spending time with. but yeah, when you're in a market at that size, you're definitely not gonna say no to many deals that are outside of what you like to prospect. Like a lot of time you know, industrial building owners in our market could also own an office building and they say, Hey Nick, can you help us sell this office building? Well industrial and office kind of go hand in hand. Like we know how to sell an [13:01] Justin Smith: Why, [13:01] Nick Provenzano: office [13:01] Justin Smith: yes, I can. [13:03] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. We know how to sell an office building and we know who the buyers are for that and how to find the tenant for it. so that's like stuff we'll work on too as well. [13:13] Justin Smith: Yeah, and so you make all your prospecting calls, you get referrals, you're talking about a networking group. It's so funny to think of where deals come from and how much of that is repeatable and a lot of it just comes down to being in the mix. [13:29] Nick Provenzano: That's right. [13:29] Justin Smith: And then you Yeah, so I'd be curious where most of your deals come from or if you have any stories of ones that have come to you from places you didn't expect. [13:38] Nick Provenzano: You know, most of my deals have came off of you know piggybacking off of other people's listings and just being proactive and prospecting. So when you first start out, you don't really have anybody that's gonna trust a new guy or you haven't built those relationships yet to go out and have someone hire you to list their property for sale or for lease. So what you gotta do is take other people's off other people's listings in your office as your own. And they'd be glad to have you go peddle their listing to help them get it leased or get it sold and everybody wins. So [14:12] Justin Smith: Yeah. [14:13] Nick Provenzano: some of my best deals is have just been saying, hey, this is a sellable or leaseable property. let me see if I can go find a buyer or tenant for it. let me go canvass the neighbors or call people on that submarket. And I've made hay that way. [14:27] Justin Smith: Yeah, having a listing, like that's no higher probability or like hit percentage of having a listing when you start your prospecting and [14:36] Nick Provenzano: That's right. [14:36] Justin Smith: like having that be the reason why and what you're talking about. [14:40] Nick Provenzano: sure. [14:41] Justin Smith: I love that. And then are you I was doing a little digging around. Idaho Power is maybe you're selling land for. You've done some land deals too. [14:51] Nick Provenzano: That's right. [14:52] Justin Smith: land deals for you are probably more prevalent than they are for me. We have like a lot of infill and not a lot of available land, and then like a land listings that require infrastructure, entitlements, approvals, or some like a change of use. those have been tough for me, I would say. Those are the ones that can sit a long time. You gotta be super proactive and you need to already know what the plan is for how someone's gonna walk the path on land. So I'd love to hear more about your land experience. [15:22] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, so you were [15:24] Justin Smith: All [15:24] Nick Provenzano: looking [15:24] Justin Smith: my gnarly [15:24] Nick Provenzano: on some [15:25] Justin Smith: stories are from land. [15:26] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, you're probably you're oh yeah you were probably looking at the blog on our website, some recently sold land deals. yeah, so when I started, and I hadn't really found my niche yet you know, working with industrial property owners and occupants and developers. My first assignment when I when one of my mentors gave me Jason, he he's got a pretty good longstanding relationship with one of the national home builders in town. So he was like, Hey, this would be a great way to get your feet wet and learn about land development very fast was start calling on you know 20 to 40 to 100 acre sites that might be fit for residential development. And if you find someone that says, you know, they've maybe sell or look at an offer, we'll kick it to these guys and they'll make an offer. So I started learning really fast what the difference between current zoning is, future land use designations and what the future zoning is gonna be. Annexation, I had no idea what that was as a property in city limits or is in the county jurisdiction, I started learning how to look at a site and see where the utilities are. access, shape, topography, what makes a land development site interesting to a home builder. It could be more efficient with their site planning if it's square, if there's access points, if there's no way to access it from a rain main road, how are they gonna access it? Who's gonna put in that road? If it's not in city limits, can it is it contiguous to city limits so it can be annexed and have those city services if not is their capacity to dig a well and build septic tanks. So I learned about all that stuff really fast and then that's obviously kind of translated to you know being able to look at a development site and say, man this could be good for you know what's the highest and best use for this site? Is this gonna be good for you know multi-tenant industrial? Is it just gonna be you know single tenant industrial? Is it gonna be spaces is this just gonna be is this need to be farmland for a while if so maybe it's not priced industrial right now maybe it needs to be priced for ag land prices so it that experience just kind of in the ringer learning and I guess bird dogging for a home builder taught me a lot about land development. [17:42] Justin Smith: Oh, that's the best. [17:43] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [17:44] Justin Smith: that's gonna get you closer to industrial land development and that's the that's [17:49] Nick Provenzano: That's right. [17:49] Justin Smith: where the home runs live where you could sell the land, lease the building, sell the building. [17:53] Nick Provenzano: That's right. [17:54] Justin Smith: So good, yeah. And dealing with home builders, they are their own like food group. I felt like sharky was the vibe that I got, but like they just don't have the ability to carry land on the books for a long time and like they can't take a whole lot of risk oftentimes, and then they see a lot of sites, so they just kind of are their own unique buyer profile that you gotta get to know and be more familiar with. [18:18] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, and there's just a lot more like social challenges to building houses. Whereas if there's a public hearing for someone to go build some warehouses, you know, on Main and Main, that's not gonna be very contentious. But if there's a public hearing for someone to go build a hundred and fifty homes on a tract on a farm tract, you know, next to another couple hundred homes, none of those neighbors want more homes behind them. So it's just it yeah. [18:45] Justin Smith: Really? They would rather have a warehouse? [18:48] Nick Provenzano: I mean the [18:48] Justin Smith: Or they [18:49] Nick Provenzano: warehouse [18:49] Justin Smith: or [18:49] Nick Provenzano: just [18:49] Justin Smith: they'd [18:49] Nick Provenzano: doesn't [18:49] Justin Smith: rather [18:49] Nick Provenzano: get much [18:49] Justin Smith: just have open space. Yeah. [18:51] Nick Provenzano: they'd rather just have open space. The warehouse doesn't get as much publicity or attention. [18:55] Justin Smith: Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. [18:58] Nick Provenzano: Unless it's [18:58] Justin Smith: I [18:58] Nick Provenzano: a [18:58] Justin Smith: could [18:58] Nick Provenzano: data [18:59] Justin Smith: see [18:59] Nick Provenzano: center as of recently. [19:00] Justin Smith: Yeah, in the Central Valley where we have a lot of farmland, right? That's where there's been a lot of new development and then industrial is now a food group that like every site you see up there you can see what it used to be proposed as, what it is now and to see which ones actually like make it across the finish line. [19:19] Nick Provenzano: Right. [19:20] Justin Smith: you get to compete with all the big shops I would imagine on occasion. you find that very often or most of the time are you finding things before there's much competition to be had? [19:30] Nick Provenzano: No, it's definitely competitive in our market. You know, a lot of my [19:33] Justin Smith: Even [19:33] Nick Provenzano: competitors [19:33] Justin Smith: brokers are moving up there. [19:35] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, there's no, a lot of my competitors do a great job as well. And it's definitely a small town still. Like it you'd be it's very tough to find a piece of land that, you know, a developer doesn't already own or is open to, you know, for a new developer to come in town. There's a few players in town that kind of have their flag already planted on almost every corner. So there the it's definitely you gotta that's that kinda goes back to my point when saying that if you say I'm only gonna you know, sell industrial land and lease up those projects and sell 'em, that's all I'm gonna do. There you might not, you know have enough on your plate, which is why if somebody says, Hey Nick, can you help my brother purchase a four million dollar office building then yeah we'll [20:19] Justin Smith: Yeah. No doubt. [20:21] Nick Provenzano: Come on. [20:21] Justin Smith: it is wild to see that land is always old game or like [20:26] Nick Provenzano: It is. [20:27] Justin Smith: that yeah, like a generational and just figuring out why is there now a moment to transition to a new relationship or and something that has changed that might open up a new opportunity. [20:41] Nick Provenzano: Right. [20:42] Justin Smith: I was looking for a company in Seattle. that was looking to move out of Seattle being high cost of labor, high cost of real estate, trying to move closer to customers that they ship to that's generally widespread throughout the country. And we were looking at adjacent markets. I was looking for like a two hundred class A and I was looking in Boise and the adjacent areas. With some family up in McCall, I've heard a lot of stories of some of the big boxes now being built and where they're being built. And then of course when I go to find opportunities in a handful of different markets, it was thin. It was hard to find like stuff that had already been built as opposed to stuff that's on paper going through the entitlement process. I would love if you wouldn't mind going through some of the sub markets of like which sub markets are having new construction or like how far east we're going or like some of that context that would certainly be helpful for people that are getting like acclimated to the Boise industrial market. [21:51] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, so we really only have one interstate freeway that runs east and west through our market. And you've gotta be along that corridor to attract tenants. So like for us, a lot of people in Boise when they think of inward migration and nice places to live, a lot of people think of Eagle Idaho. Well, Eagle Idaho is up north about twenty minutes from the interstate, so there's no industry in Eagle Idaho. It's a luxury bedroom community. So [22:18] Justin Smith: Yeah. [22:19] Nick Provenzano: you're [22:19] Justin Smith: You could buy [22:19] Nick Provenzano: it [22:20] Justin Smith: your house there. [22:21] Nick Provenzano: you can buy your house there, but you won't find a warehouse there. Or if you build a warehouse there, you might be having trouble getting a company that wants to be there. Or you really won't find land-zoned industrial there, anyways. But basically, our market kind of starts with Boise and it really right now only runs one way west, which goes to Meridian, Nampa, and Caldwell. Anywhere between Boise, Meridian, Nampa, and Caldwell along the I-84 is gonna perform pretty well if you're close to an interchange and you're zoned industrial. We southeast is where things are starting to change a lot pretty fast. That's where Micron is making their major, you know, whatever it is now, $25 billion expansion to their fabrication facility. And if you go southeast there's a little bit more develop it development happening now. there's a big developer in town putting some more houses out there and gonna do some business parks and gas stations, a little bit of retail there too. But it gets more challenging to go southeast because of the landscape. It's a little bit more like lava rock they call it, and it's just it's more expensive to blast and grade and design. [23:28] Justin Smith: The soil. [23:29] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, [23:29] Justin Smith: Yeah. [23:29] Nick Provenzano: soil. When you go west, that's where all of our farm ground is and that farm ground's a little bit more [23:34] Justin Smith: Interesting. And the micron deal's a big deal. I don't know anybody in Idaho that's not like did you hear? [23:39] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, that's it's kind of our low hanging fruit to talk about right now. [23:44] Justin Smith: Yeah. It is a big deal though when you think of like what growth will come from that. And I wonder how they're building on the lava or if they just like they needed the land and needed to be close to the talent and just that's price they're willing to pay. [23:59] Nick Provenzano: Well, they've owned that land around them for a long time. So [24:02] Justin Smith: Okay. [24:02] Nick Provenzano: th I guess when you're when your basis is so much lower than what the market rate is today, you can make things pencil and you're just a billion dollar company, it's all it it's just a different world, right? [24:13] Justin Smith: So they weren't new to town, they were established player, but they made a big investment in saying this is where we're gonna go with our big fab. [24:21] Nick Provenzano: That's right. Yeah. They've Micron has had an office here and all their land holdings out there for, you know, longer than I've [24:29] Justin Smith: Who does their real estate Nick? [24:31] Nick Provenzano: You know, I they I don't know how much [24:34] Justin Smith: Pop quiz. [24:35] Nick Provenzano: yeah, [24:36] Justin Smith: Yeah. [24:36] Nick Provenzano: I don't know how much they're really buying more stuff. I've heard of them, you know, kind of just leasing some of the warehouses around 'em for overflow and storage, just kind of going direct to, you know, whoever's building it and whoever's listing it. But yeah, no, that's that would be a pretty large account. [24:52] Justin Smith: Yeah. back to the sub markets. Can you tell me more about 'em? So I eighty four, we're going west, and then that's the path of progress. So I would imagine if you're a big company or if you're building buildings, you start as far east as you can get, and then just certain people will go east, certain people go further east, maybe [25:13] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [25:13] Justin Smith: the biggest of the boxes or the furthest east. Is that generally how it all plays out? [25:19] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, I I'd say that I'd say the lar the largest buildings in our market are probably near the Boise Airport. and a lot of new construction for Class A concrete tilt ups has sprawled as of recently, as of the last five years, into Meridian, Nampa and Caldwell, where not too long ago, those were markets where you would drive along the I-84 and see zero concrete tilt-ups [25:42] Justin Smith: Okay. [25:42] Nick Provenzano: from the freeway. And now there's a lot more. One interesting sub market in that, right in the middle, kind of like they're what people are saying is we're resetting you know the 50 yard line in the center of the valley with our new highway [25:56] Justin Smith: Okay. [25:56] Nick Provenzano: 16. So you may have heard of that along the I-84 you'll have a new highway 16 that runs north and south and that'll get you better connection from the I-84 if you live in some of those northern bedroom communities like North Nampa, East Caldwell, Star, Eagle, even all the way up to Emmett, Idaho. And if you if you look at what they're doing in the new fifty yard line or center of the valley, you'll see like a lot of stuff that reminds me of what went down kind of like when the two ten got expanded when I was a kid over in the Inland Empire where all of a sudden along that I along that new highway sixteen is a high school, a gas station, some more industrial buildings, some more houses. So that's a really interesting sub market to be looking at right now. [26:47] Justin Smith: Yeah, that's anyone who's been there, I know when you leave the airport and you're going to McCall, it's not a straight path. There's two, three ways you could go. You're going through city streets or you're going around like a further around on the freeways than you would expect. So it seems like that's just part of the growth and for sure that'll open up new opportunities. [27:08] Nick Provenzano: That's right. [27:09] Justin Smith: I love it. That's awesome. Yeah. It's I would imagine there's a lot of stuff flowing out of the Pacific Northwest that'll also migrate your way too of just companies that like too many taxes, too high infrastructure, labor's too expensive, and that a lot of people would like like this will be on their radar more and more as time goes by. [27:29] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, definitely. That's definitely been a big driver for our market. our I say our commercial real estate driver, I would pinned down to one thing is probably our inward migration, not just of people come to live here, but companies following that as well. we I mean we get calls and tours weekly from coastal markets of companies of all sizes and all types that wanna be here that just say, Hey, we really just kind of need to get started with, you know, a three thousand or two thousand square foot office space, just the lease, because we have enough jobs going on over here now. We need to we need engineering company. We need administration here in this area now. And then we're gonna expand that to, you know, an IOS yard where we have a regional kind of hub for us to get all the way around Idaho and Eastern Oregon. but yeah it it's definitely happening. We see that coming from Washington and California and Oregon. [28:22] Justin Smith: And then you said the magic word IOS. I was gonna ask you about like shallow bay, small bay and like the business parks or the incubators. I imagine you play in the IOS space. [28:36] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, definitely. [28:37] Justin Smith: Yeah, and that there's a good amount of product there. How would you categorize that market? And then are people still building small bay and business parks? I would think that's on one hand like they're expensive oftentimes. If they're tilt wall, a lot of people do like a metal construction. and then I would think in Boise they would have somewhere it's part industrial, part retail maybe. So I love as a investment to purchase to buy like a small bay properties. So I'm always looking at markets that have them and preferably without snow if possible. But I would think that would be also two places where you would play and like that there'd be a market for 'em here. [29:20] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, the small bay stuff is definitely has a little bit of a barrier to entry because it's so much more expensive to build. You don't get the economies of scale like you do on a, you know, 200,000 square foot concrete tilt-up. And some of those projects are really setting the benchmark for new rate rental rates in our market. Like some of these new small bay projects that are in the you know two thousand to four thousand square foot units are getting lease rates that our market has never seen, like a dollar fifty or a dollar sixty a square foot. triple net with triple nets in our market somewhere in the twenty to thirty cent a square foot range monthly. [29:55] Justin Smith: Yeah, you're on the monthly, Nick. There [29:57] Nick Provenzano: yeah [29:57] Justin Smith: we go. Get in there. [29:59] Nick Provenzano: and IOS How do you rebuild IOS? You can't. That IOS is the lowest vacancy in our market, in my opinion. just because it really can't be replicated. It's so strange to, you know, go buy a parcel of land that's ten acres and only build a building on it that covers about fifteen or ten percent of that land. It just it's impossible to make work. So replicating that stuff is a challenge if you can find it. there's pretty quick turnaround to getting that. [30:29] Justin Smith: Yeah. It's in McCall there's like a boat storage places that are like well, you know, we don't have a whole lot of boat storage places out in Orange County, but that's like its own version of IOS maybe that I feel like that's pretty popular too. cool. And then would ya start buying property on your own? Have you started doing that? I'm sure you aspire to and you have a board on your wall somewhere that shows all the [30:53] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [30:53] Justin Smith: properties you're gonna buy someday. Where are you at in that mental journey? [30:57] Nick Provenzano: You know, my wife and I, we just bought our first house a few years ago and we're doing well on that. We're getting some appreciation. it's in a good market in Boise South East and I think we're catching some synergy from, you know, the micron wealth that's being created and [31:13] Justin Smith: Nice. [31:13] Nick Provenzano: the incomes that are going up over there and their stock price that's going up over there. I think we're catching some synergy there. so and we have a six week old, seven week old now daughter now, I'm a new dad and Alright, my focus [31:25] Justin Smith: Congratulations, that's [31:26] Nick Provenzano: Thanks. [31:26] Justin Smith: a big deal. [31:27] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, my focus is just kind of you know, taking care of them and taking care of my clients. But yeah, I don't own any commercial real estate yet, but I would predict that it's probably in my retirement plan someday to, you know, be a landlord, but not quite yet. [31:42] Justin Smith: Yeah. I when I got married and before we had our first kid we bought a three unit apartment. We moved in there and then cleaned the other two units up and we thought we'd never sell it. We lived there for a few years until we had our second kid and it was like we need a bigger place, we're gonna have to move. [31:58] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [31:58] Justin Smith: And we sold it, we bought an industrial property with it and I just remember after that I had purchased or actually in between the triplex and the industrial I'd purchased some single family rentals [32:11] Nick Provenzano: Nice. [32:11] Justin Smith: in Austin, Texas. And it was interesting being like a young family, young kids, and you're gonna sp put all our money investing into what? [32:21] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [32:21] Justin Smith: And that was like maybe not a leap of faith, but it was something that was new. It was a good pile of money. It could have gone towards your five twenty nine plan or, you know, just be a safety net, be cash in the bank and That was one of our first starts that like we're so thankful that we did. And then we turned it into a second one and a third one and then built that and turned it into something bigger. And what's super fun is you can invest with people in your office and then you can invest as like a LP in other people's funds. So you have [32:52] Nick Provenzano: That's [32:52] Justin Smith: a million [32:52] Nick Provenzano: right. [32:52] Justin Smith: different ways that you could do it. But I would imagine buying property in a market like this where things are growing and there's a lot of growth potential, that's exciting place to live and to put some of your money. [33:02] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, I'd say right now I definitely don't have interest in buying myself another job, which was is kind of the situation I see sometimes with being a landlord is buying yourself another job and my time needs to either be going to taking care of my clients, drumming up opportunities in my business, or taking care of, you know, my wife and daughter. But like you said, there's those opportunities to have, you know, great clients who, you know, will let you invest with them and you don't really have to think about it, which sounds pretty attractive. [33:30] Justin Smith: Yeah, that's not too bad. They get a lot of the upside for doing the work though. I think that's where everybody is like, hmm, that's a good and [33:38] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [33:38] Justin Smith: bad. super. Well, I feel blessed to have had a moment to spend with ya. I feel like that was a pretty good primer on Nick and Boise and what's going on over there. Is there anything you'd leave us with for people that are in your shoes in other offices that might be listening that are looking for some A pump up jam or some words of wisdom? [33:58] Nick Provenzano: let's see. Well I guess there's business out there to be made, so it's yours to go take is kind of what I think about every day. So if you have I guess your goals without a plan, then our coach used to say, That's just a dream. You gotta have a plan and you gotta stick to it. Doing your you and executing that plan every day and not necessarily thinking too hard about those goals will get you there. So whether it's you know, being an entrepreneur or being a successful real estate broker or being, you know, a successful real estate investor or developer, I think everybody knows that sticking to your process and not really expecting, you know, instant gratification is what will get you places, especially in this industry when it's such a long sales cycle. I mean, this is not an industry where, you know, we're selling you know, doormats and you get someone who's gonna close right on the spot, you catch them like, Yeah, I actually needed a new doormat in here. Whereas Our sales cycle can take, you know, one, two, five, ten years before some you know, a seed you plant turns into, you know, some fruit and it's a client you can help out with or a deal you can make some money on. so that long game is paid dividends. [35:09] Justin Smith: I love it, that's great advice. And [35:11] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [35:11] Justin Smith: I love that when I asked you what your day looks like, you had sports experience, a coaching experience, you knew your four food groups, and you're like, if I just do these four things, I know what they are, I know they need to get done, I can rely on them, and that keeps you from getting distracted. That was a great way that you started that like helps embody that. [35:31] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, absolutely. [35:33] Justin Smith: Well cool, thank you, Nick. I appreciate you spending time. It's good to get to know you and I'm sure we'll have some more inbound business if people are looking in Boise and know that you know what's going on over there. [35:43] Nick Provenzano: Yeah, it'd be great to do some business together and even just hang out as well. I'll be down visiting Southern California probably this holiday season, so if I catch myself and you're in Orange County, I'll reach out and reciprocate it when you're back in Boise visiting and call. [35:57] Justin Smith: Look forward to it. That'd be awesome. [35:59] Nick Provenzano: Yeah. [36:01] Justin Smith: Right on, thank you, Nick. Have a good one. [36:02] Nick Provenzano: Thank you, Justin. See ya. [36:04] Justin Smith: Yep, bye-bye.