There are many things I enjoy about what I do for a living, but if I had to identify the main thing that makes it truly fulfilling, it would have to be the way my work brings me in touch with so many facets of the community at the same time.
As I get involved in a project, I often get to see things come full circle between otherwise disparate parties for whom I happen to be the common thread. Take for example my recent listing of an 8-unit office building being sold at the end of Felker in Santa Cruz—for point of reference, Felker is the one-block street that starts at Denny’s and ends at the river crossing footbridge to Gateway Plaza.
Felker Street was a topic of discussion on a show I host on YouTube and public access TV (called Community Café) as part of a series of segments that we have run investigating the impact of homelessness because it has been directly impacted by the “Ross Camp” homeless encampment at Gateway.
In one of these segments I had the opportunity to interview several local political figures and members of the public and business community, including Brent Adams, director of The Warming Center, whose organization it turns out happens to be located in the building I now have listed and in escrow.
What led to my involvement in the project was my mention of recent events surrounding Felker Street in my last column, to which Hyko—an old colleague of mine from my days at Sherman & Boone—had responded to ask if I would be interested in helping him evaluate and list this very building around which all of this activity was happening.
In the course of the listing, marketing and sale of the building I have now been in regular contact with Brent at the warming Center, as well as a chiropractor with an office in the same building who it turns out has been working with one of my agents at my company to find another location to move to. And it so happens that another client of mine who I had helped first buy and then sell her home a while back had also had her office in this building for many years. Indeed, it seems like my world gets smaller every day.
Other connections worth mentioning include the architect working on the property’s proposed redevelopment who happens to be the former husband of the designer who developed the logo for my company. And another lady who recently contacted me about a different property I have listed in Capitola and needs to sell her current home, which happens to be located, of all places on—yes you guessed it—Felker Street.
I should probably stop here before this all starts to sound like some sort of psychic network story, or worse yet, another verse of “I’m My Own Grandpa” (apologies to Willy Nelson), but
suffice to say that the more I find myself involved in every type of real estate you can name in this town, the more these connections seem to keep popping up.
