Andrew Dick: Hello, and welcome to the Healthcare Real Estate Advisor podcast. I’m Andrew Dick, an attorney with Hall Render, the largest healthcare focused law firm in the country. Today we’ll be speaking with Matt Coursen, the Mid-Atlantic Healthcare lead at Jones Lang LaSalle, JLL. JLL is a Fortune 200 commercial real estate advisory firm with a robust healthcare real estate practice group with over 2800 professionals across the country. We’re going to be talking about Matt’s background in the industry and the group that he leads within JLL. Matt, thanks for joining me today.

Matthew Coursen: Thanks, Andrew. Happy to be here.

Andrew Dick: Matt, before we talk about your role at JLL, let’s talk about your background. Tell us where you’re from, where you went to college, and what you aspired to be.

Matthew Coursen: Sure. I was born and raised here in the suburbs, just outside Washington, DC, actually about less than a mile from where I sit right now. Early in my life, I think I had an indication I would be in sales in some form. But after graduating from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia with a degree in journalism, I went to work for USA Football, which is a JV between the NFL and the NFL Players Association. I thought I wanted to be in the sports industry and work in that sports marketing world and use my communications degree. But after a couple years, I realized I wasn’t using all of my skill sets to my advantage. So I had some friends in real estate and they suggested I take a look at that industry, and I did win an interview with a small real estate firm called Swallowing and Fly, and very shortly thereafter we were acquired by JLL, and I’ve been there ever since. That was about 17 or 18 years ago.

Andrew Dick: So Matt, how did you end up in the healthcare real estate business. When you joined that smaller firm, were you thrown into healthcare real estate assignments, or did your work evolve?

Matthew Coursen: No, it evolved over time. Most commercial real estate brokers get into the business as generalists. You’re really trying to close any deal you can,