When real estate veteran Chuck White decided to get back into the business, he didn't have much trouble finding a job — or, rather, selecting from the handful of offers that showed up at his feet.
It was an easy decision to go with Prime Realty, the full-service commercial real estate firm run by CEO Tyler Saldutti, who worked for White when he was the owner and president of NAI Commercial Jacksonville.
"When I went on the Web and saw all these young guys ... they opened a door to a whole new world of technology," White said.
White, 60, has a long track record in commercial real estate, working at a variety of companies in the Jacksonville area. He began his career in the early 1980s with CBRE as an associate broker and left as a vice president. In 2002, he formed his own company called Commercial Jacksonville, which operated in coalition with Cushman and Wakefield.
He was named Office Broker of the Year for 2003 and 2004 by NAIOP's Northeast Florida chapter. White was president of NAIOP in 2008.
"Like anything else, you become dinosaurs to your profession," he said. "I listen to these guys and soak it in."
White joined Prime Realty after a four-year stretch as a conservative radio show host while working as CEO of Commercial Jacksonville, excluding a brief stint with Hallmark Partners in late 2011.
Nowadays, everything is computerized and programs are run on an open format — as opposed to using proprietary software programs, which he said made the job more competitive but not in a good way.
"Commercial real estate hadn't run like that with the older generation. It [open format] stops you from interfering with other brokers' deals, and provides updated information on a platform that allows the whole staff access."
"It creates an openness and synergy in an office that we didn't use to have," he said.
As the oldest broker in the office by about 30 years, White said more companies in the industry should be more open-minded to age integration.
"It's a forward-thinking trend on a small scale that should get larger," he said. "Other brokers have teamed up with younger ones to offer a better overview of the market ... there's a nice blend that comes together."
Saldutti, 33, echoed the same sentiment: "With Chuck's experience and know-how backed by our cutting-edge marketing platform, we're able to offer the most effective leasing and sales services to office properties in the marketplace."
Written by: Andrew Thurlow with the Jacksonville Business Journal. http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/print-edition/2015/02/06/jackson-likes-working-outside-the-box-in-new.html
