PJMB Commercial Leadership Success | Mark Barkdull

About Marc Barkdull

Marc Barkdull is a real estate developer/investor with 25 years experience in the Bay Area. Currently Marc is President and CEO of PJMB Commercial, Inc., which manages his real estate investment portfolio of 2.2 million square feet of Office, Flex and retail properties throughout California and Utah. Marc has also developed and sold resort condominiums in Park City Utah and industrial condominiums in the Bay Area. Prior to establishing PJMB Commercial, Marc was with the PJ Livingston Company as Vice President in charge of development and asset management and continues to serve on the PJ Livingston Company board of directors. Marc graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in Economics.

 

Interview Transcript:

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with MarcF Barkdull. Marc is a president of PJ MB commercial. Marc, welcome to the show. Thank you leading up to what what brought you into this position today at the PJMB?

Marc
I’ve been in commercial real estate since I was just a laborer in high school as a summer job, I had a friend of the family who got me out on job sites just to shovel dirt and clean up and and he came became kind of a mentor to me. And I saw what he was doing. And I thought, oh, I want to do that. So, over the years, I worked for him off and on in summers. And then when I was in college, I actually worked as a commercial broker during that time to pay for college. And then when I got out, I actually got hired by a company in Palo Alto, Marcus and Millichap as a broker. And at that time, we were moving out to the Bay Area and my father in law, Joe Livingston was sure I think, you know, Joe, he was in commercial real estate, and he had had a position in his company that that he wanted, filled and offered me that job. So I said, Okay, with much trepidation. But then he became a great mentor to me as well. And over time. In fact, the PJ and PJ MB on the MB part, and he’s the PJ part. So we’re now partners and the real estate business.

Alan
It’s been a long road. How’s the commercial market today in the Bay Area?

Marc
Really strong, really, really strong? I would say that we’re probably, if not the top, but in the top two markets in the country. Driven, you know, San Francisco, of course, is is extremely tight and extremely solid right now. And it certainly spreads throughout the whole Bay Area, Silicon Valley in general, the East Bay. Now the the markets that are further out are catching up as well. So it’s really, really strong market right now.

Alan
What type of trends do you see going on?

Marc
Bigger deals are stronger than smaller deals, that the demand out there for large contiguous spaces, whereas in times past and and recoveries in the past, it’s been smaller spaces, smaller blocks of spaces that are needed, but for some reason that it’s really the large blocks of space that are really in high demand right now.

Alan
In Silicon Valley. We got about half the venture made in the world running right through. Are you are you focused in the heart of Silicon Valley concentrated in any particular area?

Marc
We have buildings in Santa Clara and San Jose? And certainly, you know, Sunnyvale is extremely strong Mountain View, as you go all the way up the peninsula, and it’s extremely strong and high demand. It tends to recover quickly on the peninsula. And then it makes its way to the East Bay in Fremont, and Newark and things like that, primarily right now we’re actually over the hill and Pleasanton, Livermore, and that area, the tri Valley area, and have seen significant growth, their strength and rents going up, and vacancy going down.

Alan
Do you find a lot of the demand is from new startups? Or is it from existing companies expanding,

Marc

I’ve got to say it’s existing companies expanding more so and that goes back to the large blocks of space that are in higher demand than the smaller. When you have startup companies, they generally start in smaller space, we call them incubators, sometime, we have a lot of properties that specialize in that where it’s a two or three or 5000 square foot unit, where a new company will come in, they have some seed money. And they are just starting, you know, starting to develop their products starting to, you know, not actually manufacturing yet. And so we have a lot of properties that, that we do do that. We see less of that right now than I think the existing companies that are just demanding huge space right now, you know, from 20 to 100,000 square foot is and it’s becoming harder and harder to find large block blocks of space to satisfy these people.

Alan
I’m visiting date with Marc Barkdull. He is the president at PJMB commercial. Marc I need to take a quick break. All right, and we’ll be right back after these messages with Marc talking about today’s Bay Area Real Estate Market.

Alan
Welcome back and visit me here today with Marc Barkdull. He is the president of PJ MB commercial real estate company here located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Marc before we’re you gave us a lay of the land, and you know that outlining that there is an increase for increasing demand for space right now, as you see people come through your facilities, or how do you identify a good tenant from, from the alternative?

Marc
Well, I don’t know that that’s an exact science, but we’ve had some that we thought were great tenants and didn’t turn out to be but you know, of course, we look at their financials, and study those and make sure that they’re able to pay what the rent that we’re charging, we talked to previous landlords to make sure that they were good tenants. And we’d like to see a business plan, especially if it’s a newer company, and we’d like to look at their business plan. But you know, honestly, it comes down to, I won’t do a deal unless I sit across the table from somebody and get a feel for them, I might be talking to them about nothing that has to do with real estate or their business, just to get a feel for them and who they are. And make sure that you know, there’s going to be a relationship there, I’m about relationships, we’re not about just doing business, for the sake of doing business, I like to have relationships and, and we have tenants that have been with us for 20 plus years in certain buildings, and, and we try to really make it a relationship basis business, because I know how I make my money is through renewals, you know, to not have to redo the space when they move out to to not have to pay a new commission to get somebody in there. Those are the expensive things. And so if I, if I can build a relationship where they want to stay with us, they, they like what we do for them, we like what they do for us, then, then we all benefit for him.

Alan
When you look at competition out there. And you’re about the relationship, how do you differentiate yourself from the other guy?

Marc
Has a lot to do with the type of property that we have to that we specialize in. And we, we have a lot of flex space that are smaller spaces, 2000 3000 square foot units, in multi tenant campus situations. And so a lot of times we get Mom and Pop companies, startup companies, you know, smaller local companies, and these kinds of tenants. You know, they want to come in, they want to deal with a face, you know, one person rather than institution, a lot of real estate now is owned by huge institutions, and you don’t even know who you’re renting from, you know, they’re just so big and so diverse and personnel changes and things like that. And it sometimes will take a long time to do a deal. You know, if it’s a large space with a with a institutional owner of some kind, it can take, you know, three months just to get a deal done, you know, after going through the attorneys and going back and forth. Somebody can sit in front of me, I can do a deal in an hour, I can sit down and say okay, that’s okay, and we’ll go for it. You know, there’s nobody above me, there’s no committee that I have to answer for. I think that gives us a real competitive edge to be able to do that to be able to satisfy those people who want to act quickly. And without a lot of hassle.

Alan
Being in real estate, gives you choice and in in your how you manage your time. You know, it’s what I call balancing out your life. What do you do when when you’re not at work? What Yeah, how do you find balance to your life?

Marc
Well, I have four boys so that that skews the balance way over to the family side sometimes. So you know activities with my family is probably the number one thing outside of the office that will do that I’ll do and I’m lucky to have four boys that are very athletic and adventurous and so we do a lot of things together. We golf together we water ski week, snow ski all My family activities that we enjoy, we just recently bought dirt bikes. So we’re exploring that a little bit. And so that’s a lot of fun. We have a cabin in southern Utah, that we go visit and go fishing and hiking and things and to get away from it all. And we’ve always enjoyed that as a family. My wife is well as, you know, very active and does all of those things with us. She’s right there with us all the time doing those activities and adventures. And so that’s really how family really has a way to balance balance you out.

Alan
Four soil, or boys, you’re involved in scouting program?

Marc
Yep, scouting program, I have two Eagle Scouts, two of the four boys are Eagle Scouts, and one just finished his Eagle project and is should get his eagle here in the next few weeks after getting his approval. So yes, we’re very involved in scouting. And in fact, I serve on the executive board for the San Francisco Bay Area Council along with you.

Alan
Yeah, that’s a we share that together. So I hear a lot of, you know, balancing out with family and.

Marc
Another, you know, aspect of my of my life to is a spiritual aspect and making sure that our family has that in their lives as well. And so it’s difficult, and especially in the Bay Area, the Bay Area’s the pace is just, you know, incredible, and for the kids, even in school. And so it’s really important and really important to me to find that balance. And so to strive for that I don’t always achieve it. But I really try hard for that.

Alan
And that is that the kids at home unless you’re teaching spirituality, or spiritual foundation, their life they’re not going to get it from school or Exactly, exactly. It comes from us, when everything comes in it down to the end of life, what how are you going to define success in your life.

Marc
Joy, you know, as long as there’s joy in my life, wherever it comes from, whether it’s from the business and I’m talking about not happiness, I’m talking about joy, real joy, which is a staining you know, feeling whether it comes from my family from the spiritual aspect or from the business and I do get pieces of joy from all of those. That’s success as long as I’m I’m feeling that joy and feeling content and that’s where my success comes from. It doesn’t come from how big my bank account is, or how many buildings I have or, or any of that it comes from that feeling of peace and joy.

Alan
Well said, Mike. Well, I appreciate you being on today’s show. Thank you

 

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

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