Tracy Ahearn has been a commercial real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Commercial Nicholson-Williams Realty for about six weeks.
WHERE WAS HE BEFORE?
“Prior to this I lived in Atlanta and was the director of retail operations for Payless Shoe Stores, Inc.” He oversaw 12 district managers with 315 locations, which employed 1,250 workers. Before that, he was a district manager for Thom McAn shoe stores.
WHY DID HE GET INTO COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE?
He was with Payless for 11 years and traveled constantly. “I was tired of retail and of traveling. I had opened hundreds of stores for Payless and I thought it would be a good area to go into. They would give me a market and I would have to develop a real estate strategy. I would do site selection, negotiate leases or even purchase a location, primarily in the Southeast United States.”
HOW DID HE END UP AT COLDWELL BANKER COMMERCIAL NICHOLSON-WILLIAMS REALTY?
“When I was in Atlanta, I decided that I wanted to get into real estate so I got my license in Georgia. Because my background was in retail, and that is close to commercial real estate, I started looking at commercial real estate companies. We decided to move to Jacksonville because we had family here. My father-in-law knows Nick Nicholson. I met him, he was an upstanding guy and he gave me a job.”
MOVED A LOT WITH PREVIOUS JOBS?
“Yes, it’s kind of like being military, because retail moves you around a lot. I moved 29 times in the last 30 years. Unless something unique happens, this is my last move.”
SPECIALITY
He will specialize in the sale and leasing of retail properties throughout the First Coast.
WHERE AREA DOES HE WORK?
Jacksonville and the surrounding markets. He also does some work in Deltona and East Orlando.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHERS INTERESTED IN GETTING INTO COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE?
“Learn to build your bridges fast. You have to have a lot of connections to a lot of people. Once you get to know others at other companies and know who to go to develop those relationships.”
MOVED BACK TO JACKSONVILLE?
In June. “I graduated from Nathan B. Forrest High School in 1969 and this is my third time living here. I lived here in elementary school, then in high school and now I’ve moved back again.”
WILL YOU HELP DEVELOP RETAIL DOWNTOWN?
“I don’t have a specific area that I am working on right now. I am working with specialty retailers to expand their store operations. I think downtown has a lot of opportunities. My history with downtown retail in all the places I have lived shows me that this downtown doesn’t provide the one thing that supports retail and that is residential. Until residential is really developed, retail won’t be successful.”
COLLEGE
He has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and transportation from Auburn University.
FAVORITE THING ABOUT COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE
“Developing strategies for retailers. For example, they might want to open a store in a certain location, but they don’t take in consideration opening more than one store to increase opportunities. I like helping them do that.”
MOST CHALLENGING THING ABOUT COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE?
“Getting certain information. There are a lot of good websites, but sometimes you are looking for certain data on certain locations and that can be grueling.”
BIRTHPLACE
Atlanta.
FAMILY
He has been married to Patricia, a loan officer, for 32 years. They have two sons, Joshua, 27, and Travis, 25.
RESIDES
Intracoastal West.
HOBBIES
Reading, fishing, golfing and watching sports. “Typical male things.”
FAVORITES
Ahearn couldn’t pinpoint a favorite movie. “I own about 430 VHS movies and just started a DVD collection and have about 60 of those. I’m a science fiction kind of person and I like action movies. It’s to hard to pick out a favorite.” A book he read recently and would recommend is “The Lord of the Rings,” by J.R.R. Tolkien. Because he just moved back here he doesn’t have a favorite restaurant yet, “but I do like Dolphin Depot.” When traveling, he enjoys visiting Seattle, and when relaxing at home, he enjoys M*A*S*H re-runs.
— by Michele Newbern Gillis