vice president, Grubb & Ellis|Apex Commercial Inc.
Company: Grubb & Ellis|Apex Commercial Inc.
Title: Vice president
Education: Bachelor’s degree, St. Norbert College, Green Bay
Family: Wife, Kathryn
City of residence: Cedarburg
Hobbies: Golf, curling, travel and “working on our 100-plus-year-old house”
What are you working on? "Office and land transactions are taking up the majority of my time. An interesting project that I am working on currently is the sale of 133 single-family and duplex style homes in Milwaukee (between I-43, Capitol Drive, North Avenue and North 35th Street). The properties are occupied and kick off a considerable amount of revenue. On one level, it’s an easily understood opportunity. On another level, it’s a lot of property to take on for a buyer. Asking price is shy of $12 million."
How does the market look to you? "Rates are going up, and banks are tightening their lending policies. Office leasing is slow overall, with some small and medium size transactions taking place in the suburbs. Downtown continues to be weak. Land sales in the right market, and at the right price, are doing well. So, I am positive on the development market for owner/occupied, retail and medical."
What was the best deal you’ve ever been involved in? "I have a good working relationship with Lang Cos. in Delafield. We have had the good fortune to welcome a handful of established medium-size retailers to the area. Our largest transaction took place in 2006 – BE Fitness. The tenant opened a 35,000-square-foot full service, high-end fitness and wellness center in downtown Delafield. BE took over one of the Lang Campus buildings and is one of two large anchors in downtown Delafield, the other being the Delafield Hotel.”
What was the funniest moment of your career? “I don’t know if I would call it a moment, but I thoroughly enjoy sharing stories of transactions or ‘non-transactions’ that took place early in my career. I share these stories with people new to real estate brokerage. Hopefully these stories can help the newer people with negotiating deals early in their career. When I ‘impart this wisdom,’ it’s a road map of what not to do or how to work in a difficult situation. My early difficult situations weren’t funny at the time, but the stories now are awfully entertaining.”
