Tampabay / September 18, 2017
Thank you to Ashley Gurbal Kritzer, Senior Reporter at The Tampa Bay Business Journal for featuring us in her latest article.
Melanie Jackson had been in commercial real estate brokerage for seven years when her husband, John, started to consider the field.
Melanie, who specializes in office real estate in Pinellas County, put a few stipulations on John’s career move.
“When John was looking to get into commercial real estate, and he wanted to be a land 
broker, I told him he couldn’t do it,” she said, laughing, “because we needed two incomes and we needed to eat.”
Demand for land is more cyclical and less steady than some other lines of brokerage, so John, who was previously in the construction business, heeded his wife’s advice. He decided to pursue industrial real estate along with land brokerage, joining the Tampa office of Colliers International, where Melanie was working.
“Melanie is my managing director at home, so I figured I would follow her wherever she went,” he said.
Now, the two are moving to a new brokerage firm together. The Jacksons joined Cushman & Wakefield of Florida Inc. as Cushman looks to expand its coverage in Pinellas County.
A spokeswoman for Colliers declined to comment.
“It’s nice to have brokers that live, work and play in the markets they’re covering,” Melanie, 38, said.
John said the two don’t consider themselves a package deal, but the opportunity came up at the right time for both of them.
“It gives us the depth and breadth and support we need to take it to the next level,” he said, “so it’s a big career move for us.”
They now sit two desks – maybe 20 feet – away from each other at Cushman’s office in downtown Tampa. They’ve set strict rules about bringing work home with them, and their sons, who are 7 and 9 help enforce them.
“My 9-year old scolds me if I’m looking at my phone,” John, 46, said. “Both of us feel like you’ve gotta have balance to be effective at work. If you’re over-engaged and it spills over into your personal life, you’ll burn out. We definitely have a good work-life balance, especially being that we’re in the same office space.”
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