Mental Health Awareness Month begins today!

According to the CDC, “Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices.”

Here at York, we believe our York-life balance helps to foster a work community of happy and mentally healthy employees. But we understand and recognize that sometimes things get stressful, so we hope our team will enjoy, learn, and reset from the experiences we have planned this month!

It was great to have a member of the youngest generation of Yorks with us in the office today!

Bowen York, one of our President and CEO’s three sons, had the opportunity to spend the day shadowing our marketing team. Bowen is a sophomore at Broughton High School, which offers a Job Shadowing Program for students through their Career Development Center. This program was created with the intentions of helping students get first-hand information about job skills and careers, building community partnerships between schools and businesses that enhance the educational experiences of students, and helping students prepare to join the workforce.

Bowen is pictured here with his grandfather (and our Chairman), Smedes York. Bowen was very grateful to be able to shadow at his family’s business and learn more about the marketing industry.

We celebrated our Q1 employee birthdays today with some delicious treats made by our friends The Cookie People over at Mission Valley Shopping Center. ​ We are so happy to acknowledge our amazing employees and everything they do. Happy birthday to all of you!

JANUARY

• Mecca Fowler
• Van Radford
• Pedro Jandres
• Karen Brown
• Pablo Turcios
• Skipper Day
• Tad Thornhil

FEBRUARY

• Larry Harper
• Trey Farid
• Mary Kraft
• David Owens
• Smedes York
• Beth Boyer
• Brian Wallace

MARCH

• Brooke Hanford
• Tracy Parker
• Virginia Davis
• Gardenia Buendia
• Alex Christian
• Malcolm Lewis
• James Troxler

Parker and George York are proud to serve as the honorary chairs of the 2022 First Night Raleigh celebration in Downtown Raleigh!

First Night Raleigh is the party of the year as Raleigh comes together to celebrate the end of a prosperous 2022 and kick off 2023 in style. Parker and George have been longtime supporters and participants in the First Night Raleigh celebration, as well as advocates for the host organization Artsplosure.

Artsplosure is a nonprofit arts and cultural event production studio in Raleigh that is committed to enriching and inspiring the community through visual and performing arts. Artsplosure works to achieve this by producing accessible events for artists and the Raleigh community alike.

First Night Raleigh brings together representation from many of Raleigh’s local arts community in a fun and festive family event. The festivities begin in the afternoon on December 31 and continue late into the night for attendees to watch the Raleigh Acorn Drop and a fireworks show when the clock strikes midnight. Other activities include a parade, silent disco, an interactive projection exhibit, a pop-up skate park, and more!

Parker and George are honored to have been selected as this year’s honorary chairs and they look forward to celebrating with our amazing community.

Visit their website to purchase tickets and learn more about this event.

Our brokerage and marketing teams recently enjoyed a beehive tour led by much-appreciated client Bee Downtown. After the tour, the crew enjoyed food and drinks at nearby Boxyard RTP. This was a beautiful day and a great fall outing!

Bee Downtown developed the Bee Downtown Corporate Hive Program, which creates experiences such as beehive tours, honey extractions, and beekeeping classes to allow employees to engage with bees, agriculture, their workplace, and each other. Participants are able to understand the environmental and economic impact of pollinators and how they and their organization can help.

A huge thank-you to everyone who was able to attend and support Bee Downtown with their goal to achieve sustainable urban agriculture and create healthy honeybee populations.

To learn more about Bee Downtown, visit their website.

We hope you can join us for this special “fireside chat” featuring oral histories from key citizens in our community, including Dick Daugherty, Joe Holt Jr., Wade Smith, and Sherry Worth.

This is the second book that Smedes York has produced in conjunction with John Sharpe, and we are excited to learn their stories! There is no fee to register. Light refreshments will be served.

Sunday, September 25 at 3:00 PM
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
11 W Jones St, Raleigh, NC

Efrain Ortiz joined Bloomsbury Landscapes, a division of York Properties, as its Operations Manager in January 2021. Since joining the Bloomsbury team, he has been instrumental in making our landscaping business more streamlined, increasing revenue, and bringing our crews together as one team.

Efrain was born in Mexico and grew up in Southern California. He has lived in North Carolina for 12 years and is married with 2 kids; a daughter, age 4, and son, age 11. He enjoys training his German Shepard, Togo, and spending time with his family. As a family, they love going the extra mile decorating the house during Christmas – they even do a light show in the neighborhood!

When asked about his job, Efrain says he loves the industry he’s in and especially enjoys leading his employees to success. He is thankful for the support from upper management, corporate staff and Bloomsbury General Manager, Joe Sweet, for making it the best company he’s worked for.  “It feels like home,” he says.

One of Efrain’s favorite quotes that he tells the crews is, “Treat it like it’s yours.” That bit of advice applies across the board – from the mowers, trimmers and trucks, to the properties themselves.

We are so happy to have Efrain here!

Celebrating a great Q1 with our landscaping division, Bloomsbury Landscapes by throwing a taco party for the crews! Operations Manager, Efrain Ortiz, made authentic tacos and they raffled off lots of great prizes.

Thanks to General Manager, Joe Sweet, and Operations Manager, Efrain Ortiz, for your leadership.

Meet Brandi Weaver, founder of the WORLD L!T STREET FOOD FESTIVAL:

Brandi is a Charlotte, NC based creative and catalyst for change, championing cross-cultural exchange.  She is a Durham native and NC STATE grad, with fifteen-years as an engineer at Duke Energy. She recently traded in her STEM career for a focus on multiculturalism, working to bring the community together across cultural divides.  She founded a platform called WORLD L!T where she promotes and curates local cultural events.  Its purpose is to highlight the rich cultural fabric of her community and help guide people to opportunities to experience different cultures.  She feels very strongly that exposure to persons of different heritage within our own communities can help dissipate the divisiveness of ignorance, and thus make us stronger.

The highlight of her work was the WORLD L!T STREET FOOD FESTIVAL. She founded and produced this event which debuted in Charlotte, NC at Camp North End on September 2019 and attracted over 2400 attendees. The WORLD L!T STREET FOOD FESTIVAL was the manifestation of Brandi’s vision to give people a chance to connect and experience a variety of cultures. The goal was to curate a fun, experience that was enriching for US natives, as well as for those who have journeyed here from afar. Recognizing the challenges (economic and otherwise) faced by newer members of our community, the WORLD L!T STREET FOOD FESTIVAL was designed to give them a taste of home at one of Charlotte’s hottest venues.

Brandi is working to grow this festival to increase its impact on the greater community.