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A Conversation With Jonathan M. Wasserstrum
Q. Tell me about your company.
A. It’s really a marketplace, but a large portion of the marketplace transactions are consummated with the help of brokerage services.
Q. How do your duties and responsibilities differ from those of the other two founders, Aron Susman and Justin Lee?
A. There are three main jobs, or three main goals, and everything I do falls underneath those.
One is to make sure that we’re properly financed. So I’m meeting with current investors, with potential investors, and making sure there’s money in the bank.
Two is to kind of set the strategy and the vision of the company, obviously not by myself. It’s with the input of my founders and obviously all of our investors and advisers.
And then, three, I make sure everybody’s on the same page with that strategy and vision, and everybody’s in the boat kind of rowing the same direction at the same time.
Q. What do the other two founders do?
A. Justin’s background is also in commercial real estate, like me. He’s head of brokerage. He manages all the transactions in the transactions team. Aron’s background is more on the finance side, and he’s like an operational C.F.O. He does all of our finance functions, as well as a lot of operational functions within the organization.
Q. Where did you get your start in commercial real estate?
A. I was with Jones Lang LaSalle in D.C. I was on the finance side. I worked in what was called, or still is called, the international capital group, which worked with the different capital markets teams throughout the country and throughout the world.
I did deals, but not leasing transactions — bought and sold buildings.
Q. Do you remember your first deal?
A. I don’t. But I remember my first leasing transaction with TheSquareFoot very well, because that was only three years ago. It was with an e-commerce tailoring company called Knot Standard. We did their New York showroom just off Madison Square Park, 1123 Broadway.
Q. How much of your business is in the New York area?
A. Well over 90 percent these days. Probably half of our deals are in Midtown South.
Q. Where’s the other 10 percent?
Probably 5 percent Texas and 5 percent elsewhere. We’ve done, in the last year, deals in most of the top 20 markets: San Francisco, L.A., Chicago, D.C., Atlanta.
Q. Is office your main property type?
A. Retail, office and industrial. But probably 80 percent, if not greater, is office, especially in New York.
Q. How does your company differ from all the other commercial real estate brokerages out there?
A. A couple of ways. First and foremost, we bill ourselves as a marketplace, so it’s a way for supply and demand to come together. One of those ways that supply and demand come together is with the help of our brokerage team in-house. And because of the marketplace, we’re actually able to work really small transactions.
We don’t represent the landlords; we represent the tenants.
Q. Are you focused more on smaller deals?
A. Part of the marketplace does that, and then part of the marketplace, with the help of our brokers, does transactions. We did a 30,000-square-foot transaction last year, a couple 10,000-square-foot transactions and a whole bunch of 2,000- to 10,000-square-foot transactions.
We work directly with forward-thinking landlords who know that online is where businesses are looking for space, and they want to be out there in front of businesses.
Q. Who are some of your clients?
A. All sorts of companies. We work with a lot of big technology companies, like Instacart and Casper.
Q. So business is good?
A. We’re happy, but not content. There’s still a lot to do. Last year we did just over 200 transactions.
Q. Where would you like to see the company in the next five to 10 years?
A. We just want to be the go-to destination for commercial real estate online. Most of our business is here in New York. There’s about 50 other markets in the U.S. and as many markets internationally that we would love to play in over time. Right now, I’m just having a lot of fun building a business with a couple friends.
Q. What’s your assessment of New York’s commercial real estate market over all?
A. Robust, but I’m sure it will soften over time. My crystal ball is broken, so I don’t know when.
The State of Real Estate
Whether you’re renting, buying or selling, here’s a look at real estate trends.
A lot of change is happening in the housing market. Here’s the outlook.
With a landmark legal settlement poised to upend a decades-old norm that has dictated who pays real estate agents and how much, economists, agents and lenders are beginning to worry that the burden could now be on first-time home buyers.
American homeowners could see a significant drop in the cost of selling their homes after a real estate trade group agreed to a landmark deal that would eliminate the standard 6% sales commission.
A pricey housing market and higher interest rates have made it harder to afford a house, but so-called closing costs — for items like loan origination fees, discount points, appraisal and credit report fees — are also adding to the challenge.
As the prices for office space in urban centers tumble, cities whose municipal budgets rely on taxes associated with commercial real estate are starting to bear the brunt.
Homeowners are adding hidden doors and rooms to foil burglars, eke out extra storage space and prepare for Armageddon.
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