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March 31, 2000

Real Estate Buzz

It's true. As of the close of business today, I will be away from my desk at the Daily Journal of Commerce -- permanently. The Buzz? It's no more. My replacement says he's renaming it The Bore.

No, I didn't get canned. Fired folks aren't allowed to write good-bye columns. Nor are people who go from one newspaper in the same market to another.

You see, I am jumping from one career track, journalism, to another, commercial real estate. Sanctimonious newspaper types -- and really, what other kinds are there? -- call any sort leaving the fold Going to The Dark Side. It's especially appalling when someone departs for a career with lucrative earnings potential. (This is what a liberal arts education does to people.) My colleagues ask if the Lord's clerk has called to inform me that my reservation for purgatory has been downgraded.

I'd be a liar if I said money did not factor into my decision. But just as important is a desire to do something different. Life is too short and the world's too big to do the same work day in and day out. Besides, long-term commitment to a particular industry is so 20th century.

It's not as though I haven't gotten my money's worth out of my major. I've been toiling in the inky world of newspapers for almost two decades. Among the highlights have been chronicling numerous weather-related disasters and criminal court proceedings. Those were just the beginning.

Stiles and the Dome
Marc's last hurrah in his role of reporter, selflessly serving the public through his relentless pursuit of the truth. In the case of the Kingdome demolition, his inspiration also included several of the free pastries served by the good folks at First and Goal. We'll miss you Marc!
There was the time in the mid-80s when a group of self-righteous zealots, led by a portly matron with chronically pursed lips, deftly took over a Midwestern county's Republican Party. Never will I forget being barred from one of the group's planning meetings. Or their platform's outrage over public teachers wearing blue jeans in the classroom. Or when a strange little middle-aged man, a perpetual losing candidate for the state Legislature who still lived with his mother, rose at the county convention to denounce the "homosexual lifestyle."

When I joined the DJC two years ago, someone asked me to name the most interesting story I had covered. Without question that came when I worked in the Southend and the notorious Mary K. Letourneau burst onto the scene. I called the teacher, just after she had been suspended by the school district, to ask what on earth she had been thinking. The only information she kicked down on that rainy winter day was that her last name is spelled with a lowercase t; the real story, she added, would unfold in good time. Boy, did it ever.

Thanks to the World Trade Organization, the excitement continued even after joining the all-business, all-of-the-time DJC. And I got to go out with a much bigger -- albeit planned -- bang with a front-row seat for the Kingdome implosion.

But the biggest story was a personal realization: I am intrigued by a business that prior to my arrival here I knew nothing about. Now I want to sell commercial real estate. It's funny where life takes a person.

Despite the thrill of a new career, departing is far from easy. First of all, I'm leaving a position that pays a comfortable salary for pretty much a commission-only sales job at Colliers International. That is both terrifying (the commission, not the Colliers, part) and incredibly exciting.

Joe Nabbefeld
Joe Nabbefeld is the new real estate editor for the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. He brings 16 years of reporting experience to the Journal. Joe can be reached at (206) 622-8272 or joe@djc.com.
Then there is the guilt factor. The Brown family, which owns the DJC, has been very good to me. And editor Maude Scott is among the fairest and most even-handed bosses I've had. If only, I thought when I mulled resigning, we could land an experienced real estate reporter as a replacement. That is exactly what happened.

Joe Nabbefeld agreed to leave his perch at Brand X, and now the DJC real estate reins are in his quite capable hands. That makes leaving anxiety free.

I hope I've made an otherwise dry topic, real estate, fun and entertaining for DJC readers. I know it has opened up a whole new world for me.

Now for the shameless part: If you've got a building to sell or lease, you know where to reach me.

Marc Stiles has been the DJC real estate editor for nearly two years. As of April 3, he can be reached at (206) 276-8007 or by e-mail at marc_stiles@colliers.com.



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