Martin Selig Featured at PSBJ’s Seattle Real Estate Expo

In a city with a crane at every corner, the real estate market has plenty to talk about these days. The Puget Sound Business Journal held a panel Thursday morning featuring some of Seattle’s premier players in real estate. Speakers included our founder Martin Selig, along with Matthew Gardner of Windermere Real Estate, David Sabey of Sabey Corporation, Jaebadiah Gardner of Gardner Global Inc, Maria Barrientos of Barrientos Ryan, and Greg Smith of Urban Visions.

When will the economy go down? I don’t see that happening here anytime soon, @MartinSeligRE says. #PSBJCRE

— The Business Journal (@PSBJ) June 22, 2017

During his remarks, Mr. Selig highlighted solutions to problems our city is facing including affordability and increasing traffic. He said the key to progress is being proactive on solving problems, and not waiting until they escalate to solve them. He highlighted his daughter, Jordan Selig’s, work on Seattle’s 2030 Districts Project Portal and how a commitment to clean energy and greener buildings makes for better business.

“A long time ago, when you had a LEED certification people would say ‘who needs that?’ Selig said. “Now many companies won’t sign unless you do.”

When asked his opinion on solving current building issues in Seattle, he shared a suggestion he made to the city of his proposition to pay workers overtime.

“I think the workers would be delighted to receive extra the funds,” he said. “We even threw in a caveat and said ‘why don’t you charge us double, give the workers the typical 1.5 times overtime pay, and give the remainder to low-income housing?’ Maybe it’ll happen maybe it won’t.”

Mr. Selig also offered advice to rising professionals on how to make it in the world of real estate. In his signature fashion, he told rookies in the business to jump in the deep end, and see if they can swim.

“You need a strong stomach and you need to be focused” Our founder to @jaebadiah on how to succeed in commercial real estate #PSBJCRE

— Martin Selig RE (@MartinSeligRE) June 22, 2017

“Jump in to the deep end of the pool and see if you can swim. You gotta have the gut for it.” Mr. Selig on success in business #psbjcre

— Martin Selig RE (@MartinSeligRE) June 22, 2017

He closed his remarks with his thoughts on where our city would be in 50 years. He proposed solutions for keeping old buildings new, and highlighted the promise he sees the up-and-coming tech sector.

“Seattle is not just Amazon, it’s not just Microsoft,” he said. “Those are both phenomenal companies, they really are, but this city has a lot more to offer.”

He used F5 as an example, saying the company moved into a Selig building years ago, taking up just a small space. Now they take an entire building downtown. The same goes for Big Fish, who came in as a thousand foot tenant in one of our buildings and now they taking up an entire building on the Waterfront.

“Seattle’s very lucky in the fact that it’s a technology hub in the United States,” he said. “In my opinion, technology is in the embryo stage. I get phone calls everyday of these tech and software companies. They start off like F5 did and they grow. That’s the future of the city and we’re delighted to be a part of it.”

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