CCIM Feature
CCIM Spotlight: Partners' Potential
A CCIM evolves his business using this networking strategy.
By Stephanie Bell |
While evolution usually brings scientific theory to
mind, sometimes it also can apply to business. Through the use of networking
strategies, Jim Nowak, CCIM, president of Site Systems in Seattle, helped his
commercial real estate company evolve into a success. This business strategy
worked so well that it earned him the CCIM Partners Deal Maker of the Year
award at the October 2005 CCIM conference in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Using networking to create and expand business channels is the model for
Nowak's company. Working solely on assignments from a select group of institutional
investors, Nowak and his team facilitate complex tenancy-in-
common transactions while interacting directly with corporate real
estate professionals. By treating them as future business partners, Nowak has
established a network of brokers and owners nationwide.
Nowak stresses that he "always has a huge welcome mat out for
brokers and institutions" whether he is working with them or not. He
believes a good transaction business model is based on gleaning strategies from
other commercial real estate professionals' successful deals. It all boils down
to creating and sharing opportunities with others who can benefit from his
company, he says.
In addition, being a CCIM has created many benefits that he was not
aware of when he first earned the designation in 1988. "Because my work
has generally been evolutionary and not static, my CCIM education gave me a
basis of knowledge ... a foundation on which I have been able to improvise.
Like a piano student, I would never have been able to participate in a jam session
had I not at least learned the scales and practiced. The CCIM program is the
most focused and efficient way that I have yet discovered to do this," he
says.
Nowak also credits the CCIM Institute for helping him be at the
forefront of technology. He has used the CCIM broadcast e-mail system to find
qualified CCIMs from various business backgrounds around the country and has
worked with them on several business deals.
Nowak achieved the CCIM Partners award through a series of transactions
totaling more than $100 million that he negotiated with several other CCIM
Partners throughout the United States. Similar to his own business model, Nowak
sees the CCIM Partners network as a valuable professional strategy and a place
to generate new business. In 2005, Nowak worked with another CCIM to close
three transactions totaling more than $28 million in Colorado. He also helped
another member in Knoxville, Tenn., leverage his local contacts into a $41
million high-rise office building sale.
In the future, Nowak expects to broaden his business to include
international real estate. Globalization is another trend that cannot be
overlooked, he says. So far, he has been working with a large Los Angeles-based
TIC buyer who wants to establish offices throughout Asia. No doubt the CCIM
Partners network will be a crucial link in his business' continuing evolution.
Photo credit: Chuck Pefley