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How did you end up at Grubb & Ellis/Mid-America Commercial?

Iowa City is where I started my real estate career. I did mostly residential work. Then my wife got a job at Des Moines University, which brought me to Des Moines. I worked at Hubbell [Realty Co.] for about a year and a half in their property management department and then came here.

What attracted you to the job?

Just the growth opportunities. Hubbell is pretty set with Krista Capp being a great vice president, where here I could see there was that opportunity to move up faster with the company.

What are you doing in your role?

For about a year now, I’ve been more or less overseeing all the day-to-day operational issues within the property management department. I supervise our different maintenance staffs as well as deal with new business development, finding new clients to manage and looking for new markets to try to get into.

What excites you about the job?

This year, it’s been really interesting looking for new markets to get into. The way today’s financial issues are going, a lot of businesses are looking for new areas that other property management companies haven’t found. We actually came up with a new area we call facility services. There are a lot of businesses that have the accounting side of it, but they didn’t have people who knew the contract services side with the different vendors. We’ve gotten close to 22 properties doing that. Some bigger ones are Taco John’s and Bank of the West. And we’ve really tried to get to where we can do more in-house maintenance services than any other company. At this point, our maintenance engineers can do anything from backflow testing to your general light bulb changing.

How much property do you manage?

If you added it all up, we’d probably be close to 900,000 to 1 million square feet. We have 57 properties that we oversee. We even oversee a synagogue.

Has the industry become more competitive?

It definitely has. It seems like more and more companies are looking to bring it in house. One of the bigger differences with Grubb & Ellis compared with other companies is all of the properties we manage, we have no ownership in those proprieties. A lot of other businesses have their properties they own, which is their base for their departments’ income and then they look for the additional third-party accounts.

Did you see yourself in real estate when you graduated?

I graduated with the idea that I would be working for a pro sporting team, either on the operational side or the marketing side, but no jobs were out there.

What’s the most challenging part about your job?

You always run into difficult things that cost either the owners money or the tenants money. You never want to hurt somebody, especially with everything going on right now, but sometimes it’s inevitable. You’re going to run into those issues and I always just try to figure out the best course of action for both sides.

What do you like to do for fun?

Lately it’s been spending time with my new boy. But when the weather’s nice, I’m a pretty avid golfer, too.

What’s your favorite course?

Copper Creek.

Are there words you live by?

I always just try to live life to the fullest in my work and my life. My friends will let you know, I’m a pretty easygoing guy with a work-hard, play-hard type of attitude.