November 15, 1999

Diamond's long career has been labor of love

By MARC STILES
Journal Real Estate editor

He helped start what today is the world's oldest parking company.

His fierce drive is so well known that it has been mentioned in Ann Landers' column.

And at 92, Joe Diamond, the oldest practicing lawyer in Washington state, shows few signs of letting up.

Naturally, Diamond, the son of Russian immigrants, has countless tales to tell and he's patient enough to recount many of them. Yet so voluminous is his history, that he's at a loss to explain just how he got going in real estate.

He looks out the window of his 30th floor office of the Well Fargo Tower in downtown Seattle. There's a long pause. "Well, I don't know where to start," he says humbly.

Diamond's resume is long and impressive. Law partner at Diamond & Sylvester for 49 years. Chairman of the boards of Diamond Parking, Washington Mortgage and other businesses. President of Madison Properties and Vine Investment Corp. Director of eight other enterprises and partner in 15 more.

Diamond

He also has been a fighter for equal rights. Consider that he convinced the once all-male Harbor Club to let women join. Pragmatism prompted him to act. Marilyn Harlan, then an executive with the parking company, was unable to attend functions at the club, and Diamond didn't think that was right.

He began building his list of accomplishments at a time when the odds were stacked against everyone. The world was stuck in the throes of the Great Depression when he graduated from the University of Washington's School of Law. Each day, Diamond walked through the office buildings in downtown Seattle seeking work at one of the law firms.

"I got turned down by every one of 'em," he recalled. It looked as though he would have to break his mother's heart by joining the Navy. At the last minute, he convinced one firm, Caldwell Lycette, to let him work for free for 30 days.

As Ann Landers noted in a column 13 years ago, Diamond was the first to arrive for work and last to leave. He worked weekends. After a month, the firm wouldn't let him leave. Four years later he was made a partner.

Diamond, however, is not known as a lawyer. His reputation is staked to the parking empire that his older brother Louis began in 1922. Louis founded Auto Maintenance Co. to service the cars of doctors who practiced in the Medical Dental Building. He charged them 10 cents a day to park.

"Louis acquired a lot of real estate -- mostly leases for parking lots," brother Joe explained, adding that as an attorney he did the company's legal work. If and when the market was ready, the Diamonds built on those properties.

World War II interrupted Joe Diamond's involvement in the business. He joined the Army and worked as an attorney on huge construction contracts. His service earned him Legion of Merit recognition. Later he represented various builders and construction groups, including the Associated General Contractors.

As the war wound to a close, Louis was frustrated by the labor shortage and offered to sell Joe the parking business for $30,000. But it wasn't parking as much as development that made Joe Diamond tick.

"Most of the large buildings we constructed were built on Diamond Parking lots," he said. "Parking is a temporary use until you can build something better."

He has bought and sold apartment complexes and office buildings across the Northwest. This is in addition to the more than 1,000 parking lots across the country.

There is more to Diamond than parking and building. He's also an accomplished businessman. He had Budget Rent-A-Car of Washington and Oregon, and he recalls one of his favorites, Gov-Mart, an early day version of what Costco is today. He loved the business, he explained, because it sold everything. "You name it, he had it."

Against his better judgment, he said, a partner convinced him to sell the business.

On its face, Diamond's career seems motivated strictly by profits, but he says it has been a love of labor. He still comes into the office and takes work home with him at night. "I haven't changed," he says. "Work is fun. If you don't like it, you won't succeed."

Remarkably, Diamond has succeeded with what many would consider a devil-may-care attitude. His slogan, "Wait to worry," is one of his guiding principles. He so believed in the saying that he had it printed on bumper stickers promoting the parking company.

"I heard it some place many years ago," he said. If a person has a problem, he or she can wait to worry. "It'll solve itself."

Such a laid-back attitude, however, is deceiving because Diamond is a man who was tireless in pursuit of what he loved, and today he remains driven. While his son, Joel, is CEO of the parking company, and his grandson, Jonathan, is president, he remains active as chairman of the board.

His activism is marked by desire. Consider the lot at Second Avenue and Pine Street. A Seattle regulation, which is aimed at cutting the number of commuters who drive to work, forbids the Diamonds from stripping and using the middle of the property to park vehicles.

"It just doesn't make any sense," Diamond says with passion but without raising his voice. "I'm awful tempted to pave it and use it and get into a lawsuit with the city."

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See also: For Smith, patience and integrity have paid off