by Michelle Newbern-Gillis
Staff Writer
Two women commercial real estate agents, Kate Clifford and Jeffrie Hood, have come together to create a new commercial real estate company, Strategic Sites, located in Jacksonville Beach.
The company opened in September 2005.
“I was at the point where I wanted more control of my destiny,” said Clifford, who was with Coldwell Banker Nicholson-Williams Realty for 10 years. “I have a personal perception on how we do business and how I wanted my clients handled. I did not see my business growing in direct response to being affiliated with Coldwell Banker, so I didn’t see any reason to continue to participate if there weren’t any returns just from the Coldwell Banker affiliation.”
Clifford said she looked at several different options, but after several conversations with Hood, formerly of JL Hood, LLC, they found that they had a lot of the same attitudes about client service, how they wanted their reputation to be in the market and creating your image within the market.
“We agreed on just about everything, so we decided to open a company together,” said Clifford.
The office, located at 484 Jacksonville Dr., is amid many other professional offices and close to the beach and J. Turner Butler, allowing easy access to other parts of the city.
“The bulk of my business is still at the beach,” said Clifford. “I bill myself out as an expert on beaches commercial real estate. But, I still have a select number of clients I still represent including Panera Bread, Hooters, Jason’s Deli and other restaurants. I also have a number of clients who are beaches clients, but have projects elsewhere.”
The name Strategic Sites was based on the fact that they both do site selection, but in different arenas.
“She does a lot of site selection for retail and I do a lot of tenant representation for office,” said Clifford. “Sites are what we are selling whether it’s an office site, or a site to build a building or a site to put a retail center. We liked the alliteration.”
They worked with a marketing company but came up with the swishy arrow on their own.
“They had their ideas, but we said we wanted the swishy arrow,” said Kate. “Now everyone said they love our swishy arrow.”
Their website, www.strategicsites.com, is currently under construction, but will be up and running soon.
They have two other agents working in the office, Tom Mundy and Patricia Ownings.
Though Clifford is well known in the commercial real estate world in Jacksonville, Hood tended to focus more on the Southeast including Florida, Georgia and Alabama.
“While, I’ve done some land work and retail tenant representative in Jacksonville, most of my work has been around the Southeast,” said Hood. “For the most part, most of my transactions weren’t even heard about in Jacksonville. Where Kate tends to be all over the place and everyone in Jacksonville knows Kate, I have very little history here.”
Even though you haven’t heard of her she specializes in big box tenant representation and is responsible for bringing some of the big box companies to Jacksonville including Kohls, Office Depot and CarMax superstore.
“We are beginning to be able to share resources, opportunities and clients,” said Hood.
Hood handles clients who want to buy big tracts of land for development, whether it is retail development or mixed use development.
“On some of the dirt that she works on, they’ll have an office component and a residential component,” said Clifford. “I’ve never sold 100 acres or represented anyone who bought 100 acres. I don’t normally work with tenants larger than 15,000 square feet and she doesn’t do any office. I look at some of the projects she is working on and believe that there is opportunity for some of my office development to be part of the larger tracts of land that she is working on.”
Hood owned her own company, JL Hood, LLC prior to opening Strategic Sites and has been in commercial retail real estate for 20 years. Before her own company, she worked for Centennial American Properties and Trammell Crow.
“My background is primarily retail tenant representation,” said Hood.
The two met when Hood was looking for a house to buy in Jacksonville and Clifford was selling her home.
“I had heard about her and liked her house, but didn’t end up buying it,” said Hood. “I did buy the house down the street from her. We’ve been neighbors for years. Then she moved and last year, I bought another house down the street from her.”
Clifford was with Coldwell Banker Nicholson-Williams Realty for 10 years before opening Strategic Sites.
Her background is in business. When she got out of school she was on the consulting side and marketing side, primarily in the hospitality industry.
“I ran a chain of restaurants in Washington, D.C. before moving to Florida in 1990,” said Clifford. “We moved here and opened and owned a restaurant and did a lot of consulting with local restaurants including Sliders and Harry’s Seafood. Then I started running the two Sliders restaurants and 24 Miramar; I ran that group of restaurants for Michael Thomas.”
The woman who sold her a house was the wife of Nick Nicholson of Coldwell Banker Nicholson Williams Realty.
“So, I met Nick and he was a commercial broker at the time,” said Clifford. “We kept in touch and he kept telling me I would be good at commercial real estate. About 10 years ago he convinced me to get my license. So I got my license and handed it to him and said ‘OK, here I am ready to work.’ So I started working in his office. If it weren’t for Nick, I would have never thought about coming into commercial real estate.”
Clifford will be president of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties next year.