by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
The Citrano name has long been associated with commercial real estate in Jacksonville. As local managing director for CB Richard Ellis, Jim Citrano Sr. has been a fixture in not just the commercial real estate community, but the downtown Jacksonville community as well. He was a longtime member and former chair of the now-defunct Downtown Development Authority and helped negotiate - from a public servant’s, not commercial broker’s, perspective - many of the development deals that paved the way for today’s projects.
His son, Jim Citrano Jr., is also in real estate these days. But, he’s the National League’s version of his dad’s American League. Citrano Jr. is the project manager of Old San Jose on the River, a 14-acre McGarvey Residential Communities project in the heart of San Jose. When completed, the residential condominium project will have 240 units in 17 buildings with about 80 of the units facing the St. Johns River.
“What we are creating is not a condominium complex, it is a multi-family neighborhood,” he said. “Not many condominium developers have that opportunity because they don’t have 14 acres to work with. Most the condominiums today are little postage stamps, one-acre sites where they build vertical into a tower. Our project is unique in that aspect and especially unique in that it is located right smack in the middle of the San Jose/San Marco area.”
Sitting down with the two Citranos, it’s easy to see they are close if it’s not easy to see the physical resemblance. Publicly, their personalities also differ but complement each other.
Citrano Sr. is outgoing, almost gregarious. Citrano Jr. is soft-spoken and more reserved. But, the relationship works on every level, from business to family.
“Our father/son relationship has been great,” said Citrano Jr. “He has always been very a interactive and involved parent my whole life. I talk to him everyday and live four-tenths of a mile from him. From a business standpoint, I have obviously used him as a resource. We have not had the opportunity to do business together, but in my business dealings and career I have used him as a resource. He is a great resource to have because he has such a wealth of knowledge.”
Citrano Jr. went to Florida State where he got his degree in finance. He spent 13 years in the banking industry, the last five with Wachovia in its real estate financial services group, where he met and helped negotiate the financing for developer Jay McGarvey. Today, McGarvey is the boss and Citrano Jr. is learning the residential real estate industry from a different perspective.
“It’s dramatically different,” he said. “Everyone is involved in their specialty from the contractor to the banker to the architect. As a banker, I dealt with one aspect. As project manager, I oversee everything.”
As a near career-long commercial real estate broker, Citrano Sr. knew perils of the business and discouraged his son from pursuing a similar path. Living off commission checks was no way to raise a family.
“Some weeks we ate steaks, some weeks we didn’t eat,” said Citrano Sr. “That was life living off straight commission. Closing deals had a direct correlation to going to the grocery store.
“I encouraged him to go into other fields. There are a lot of ways into real estate.”
Citrano Jr. took that advice for over a decade.
“He always told me not to get into real estate,” he said. “I worked my way into banking, which made sense in Jacksonville. By accident, I ended up in real estate financing.”
Looking back, real estate was a very natural fit for Citrano Jr.
“Growing up, the real estate community here in Jacksonville is very tight-knit,” he said. “So, it was real easy for me to make the transition as far as my business career into real estate because I knew all the players. A lot of the developers, brokers and Realtors in town were either business associates or personal friends of my father.”
Count McGarvey as a member of that list.
“I knew Jay 35 years ago,” said Citrano Sr. “My son couldn’t have picked a better guy.”
As the project manager of Old San Jose on the River, Citrano Jr. is learning on the job. He’s traded the tie for a more casual look, but he’s also taken on plenty of new and different responsibilities.
“My job is to coordinate all the experts in all the various disciplines, whether it is the architects, contractors, advertising agency or the sales team,” he said. “So, we have a relatively large group of experts who contribute to the project. My responsibility is to coordinate all of their activities, make sure everyone stays on the schedule and make decisions when they need decisions to be made. Obviously, Jay’s experience guides everything from the top, so I implement Jay’s vision, if you will.”
In addition to his role as project manager, Citrano Jr. is helping McGarvey analyze new projects from a financial perspective to determine if they will work.
“That’s one area where my financial background has definitely helped,” he said, adding the career change has been interesting. “It is huge challenge. This is a very large, complex project and so there are new challenges every day and that is exciting and fun. At times it can be stressful, but I don’t look back and am very happy I made the transition from the banking side of real estate to the development side.”
Citrano also recognizes that community involvement is a big part of professional success.
“One of the things that I think that have made my dad successful is that he has involved himself in so many community and civic activities,” he said. “I think that has benefited him from a professional standpoint. Being on so many boards helps you from a networking standpoint, but also developing relationships with people that work for the city, developers or community leaders helps in the long run.”
Personally, the two are close. Besides living less than a half mile away, Citrano Sr. gets to plenty of Little League games and his wife takes the grand kids to school every day.
“What’s most fun for me is to see his son playing baseball,” said Citrano Sr. “All I have to do is go over and enjoy.”
(Reporter Mike Sharkey also contributed to this story.)