Q&A with Catherine Esselman on reimagining real estate

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For three years, Catherine Esselman has worked independently as Cat Consulting, a real estate firm that reimagines the process of filling vacant commercial spaces by connecting creative, underrepresented locals with empty properties. Before that, Esselman worked in various commercial real estate roles at Develop Indy, the city’s economic development arm, and Downtown Indy Inc., the nonprofit that manages downtown’s advancement and promotion efforts.

This year was a huge one for her firm. Esselman kicked off 2024 by securing the real estate for the NBA All-Star Weekend Cultural Corridor on Washington Street. She also worked in tandem with the city of Indianapolis on St’artup 317, which this year filled dedicated spaces at The Stutz with pop-ups of local businesses. At the same time, Esselman consults for Downtown Indy Inc. on real estate strategy.

Her latest project, The Index, is a collaboration between Visit Indy and the Capital Improvement Board that serves as a downtown visitors center. The contemporary space—designed by Indianapolis-based firm Phanomen—is on the first floor of Pan Am Tower and offers more than 3,000 square feet of shopping and information on the city’s major cultural attractions, including The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum and the Indiana Historical Society.

Esselman spoke with IBJ about her experiences running a solo firm and why she loves finding tenants for underused spaces. The interview is edited for length and clarity.

Catherine Esselman’s latest project is The Index, a collaboration between Visit Indy and the Capital Improvement Board that serves as a downtown visitors center. It features more than 3,000 square feet of shopping and information on the city’s major cultural attractions. (IBJ photo/Mickey Shuey)

How did you find your niche?

Brokers are compensated on a commission basis, so they get paid a percentage of the deal. But if the deal is only a pop-up deal, or the deal is only six months or a year, then time, and money, just doesn’t make a ton of sense.

I really saw that when I was at Downtown Indy Inc. and [co-created] St’artup 317. That was when Carson’s had just closed [in 2018], and we have these beautiful windows.

I had worked for a shopping center developer in Cleveland, and so I really saw how long it takes to get a deal done. So my approach was, “OK, Simon and the city and whoever else can go, keep working long-term deals. But in the short term, these windows look awful. You have all these vacancies. Like, what if we tried something?” And so I set up a barter kind of system, St’artup 317, where I went to landlords and said, “Could you give me the space for a month? It won’t cost you anything, you’re going to get good promotion, people are going to call, it’ll bring awareness to your vacancy.”

We did our first pop-up installations in partnership with Pattern in 2017 and it was just for the month of May. Just by word of mouth and a Google form, we had, like, 80 groups apply. We really said, “If you got this space for free, what would you do with it?” and we got so many cool creatives just looking for a place to be visible.

That’s really the needle I’m trying to thread: high-traffic, high-visibility vacancies that otherwise will stay vacant unless this local community intentionally tries to eliminate barriers to bring our local creatives into those spaces.

Did you always have this focus on vacant spaces?

My dad’s in real estate; he only represented tenants. We would spend time driving around, looking at properties, and he would say, “What do you think that could be?” So my brain is wondering why it’s not something, what could it be?

I wanted to keep pulling on those threads to understand, “Oh, because the property sits in a trust and it’s paid off, and nobody wants to spend any money to fix it up.” And it costs money to get a tenant in the space, so that’s kind of how I really focused in on, “What are the low-hanging fruit?”

What was it like when you decided to go out on your own after working for these other organizations for several years?

That’s a great question. Timing is everything, right? So I had the opportunity in 2020 to be the executive director of the Indianapolis City Market for about six months. That was a really cool opportunity to get a new, fresh perspective on kind of autonomy, of running an organization, even if it was a short term and maybe just kind of Band-Aiding some things. I got to thinking like, “Well, I could probably do this and have more opportunities to have some interesting clients.”

I’ve known [GangGang founders] Alan and Mali [Bacon] for quite a long time. Mali and I were getting coffee right when I started Cat Consulting, and they had just been awarded this grant from JPMorgan Chase and The Urban League to do In The Mix.

She looked at me at coffee, and she was like, “Wait a second. So you’re telling me, like, I could hire you to run this program for me?” I was like, “Yeah, that’s exactly right.” So it was like she needed somebody to execute this really amazing opportunity with investment specifically geared to the problems I’ve been dealing with.

The city of Indianapolis was my first client, and GangGang was my second, and I’ve been really proud of what we’ve been able to do in that time frame.

Everybody touches real estate. They just may not see how they touch it, or what they need from it, or how to set themselves up, or how to negotiate or how to represent your value, what everybody gets out of it. So I can’t help myself. I give a lot of free advice.

When you think back, what has been the biggest challenge of having your own consulting firm?

Time management. It gets a little lonely sometimes.

But, man, going to grand openings and having ribbon cuttings—I didn’t get to do that in the same way when I was with the larger teams. There’s a lot of pride in doing it on my own. But you ask, what’s hard? I don’t know, man. I love it. I’m not going to lie. It’s good.

Do you have any advice for people who might want to do what you did and go from working for somebody else to working for yourself?

It’s advice that my dad gave, so you can credit him: “Be a rifle and not a shotgun.” So figure out what you’re good at, and also, what’s the problem you’re trying to solve for somebody else? You don’t want to come in and say, “Hey, did you know you had this problem? I can solve it.”

Do what you say you’re going to do, and pick up the phone. Oh my gosh, pick up the phone. Sending emails and texts are fine, but people remember when you call them to talk about how you want to work with them and make their life easier.•

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