The Winning Combination? A Passion for Teambuilding and Solving Problems – And Maybe a Round of Pickleball

A Q & A with Kiesland’s Andy Mauk

Andy Mauk

Andy Mauk is Kiesland’s vice president of sales. With more than 35 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, Andy combines his strengths in building rapport with clients and his passion for solving problems and delivering new ideas. Here, Andy gives a peek at what makes him tick and what’s ahead for Kiesland.

Q. Tell me about your approach to sales. What do you offer your clients that sets you apart from your peers in the industry?

A. I’d like to think I have a lot of empathy, and I can see things from the client’s perspective. I like taking a look at a problem from different angles, and I also like to build the right team to ensure a project achieves maximum success. It takes the right financing, the right architect and engineer, a good legal partner, and trusted broker-partners. Each opportunity is unique, and convening the right team is critical. And, of course, Kiesland is lucky to work with excellent clients, too.

Q. What gets you excited about waking up in the morning and getting into the office?

A. The most exciting thing about this industry is the opportunity to come up with an idea and try to figure out how to execute it. That’s how Kiesland’s project with The Pickle Lodge happened. I said, ‘Okay… I want to build the first major indoor pickleball facility in Cincinnati.’ That was a wonderful project. I like finding a project, developing a trusted partnership with a client, and building the goodwill and trust that Kiesland is the right company to execute it. I’m excited that Kiesland has an excellent team with multiple skill sets. We work well together. We execute what we tell our clients we will. Our strengths together allow us to execute a project successfully.

Q. Peeking into the future, what do you see on the horizon for the Kiesland team in 2025?

A. We’re chasing some bigger projects where we are looking for opportunities to act as both developer and contractor. We have all the capabilities and, in many cases, more capabilities than some of our peers. We have a strong team in the field, and our superintendents and project managers work together seamlessly. We have all the people and tools in place to take on bigger jobs. And we can tackle a variety of projects – medical office buildings, industrial, office. That’s what I see for Kiesland in 2025. Our senior leadership has the experience and we’re ready to take our company to the next level. We know how to pull a team together. It’s just a matter of finding the right projects.

Q. You’ve talked about the quest to find the right project, and your passion for seeing an idea through to completion. Do you have work on the brain 24/7?

A. All the time. Whenever I’m driving around, I’m looking at stuff. If I grab a brochure, I look at it to see if there are any great ideas to expand on. When I’m out of town, I look for projects or developments that might work well in Cincinnati. I saw this great venue in Greenville –  a big multi offering entertainment venue including options like miniature golf, pool, ping pong, and kid-friendly games. Back in Cincinnati, I reached out to several retail brokers with large unoccupied space to make the connection: ‘You should really take a look at this. It could be a good thing for Cincinnati.’

Q. What’s been your favorite idea to bring to reality?

A. Favorite idea has got to be the pickleball project. For several years I was thinking about a significant indoor pickleball facility. I first played pickleball in 1978 noticed so many outdoor venues popping up across Cincinnati, but no major indoor venues. And so, I wanted to build something like that. And I went after it and got it. It wasn’t something that fell in my lap.

Q. Pickleball? Are you a big time pickleball player? That’s an interesting project to obsess about for a few years.

A. Well, that’s a story for another time.