NAIOPWA Member Profile: John Pietromonaco, Pietromonaco Jackson Properties
John Pietromonaco of Pietromonaco Jackson Properties has been a NAIOP Washington member for a very long time – 32 years, to be exact – and has enjoyed a distinguished career as a developer in the Puget Sound area. After serving as president in 1999 and spending 20+ years involved heavily in NAIOPWA’s annual Community Enhancement (CE) projects, Pietromonaco is a wellspring of NAIOP memories and institutional knowledge.
A lot has changed since he joined in 1988, between technological advancement and market fluctuations. John says that “real estate is more complicated [now] than it was in the 70s-80s,” but that ultimately, the industry is very reliant on community and connection. “The only way to get the info you need is through contacts… I even talk to people who are competitors (friendly competitors). It makes the job easier than being a lone wolf and doing it from scratch.”
John seems the opposite of a lone wolf; he’s been staying connected to NAIOP since the start of his membership, investing himself in an array of programs focused on the connectivity many of us crave in this COVID era. From government affairs work to volunteering through CE, the theme of John’s time as a NAIOP member has been community -- so vital to the success of the commercial real estate industry. In fact, John’s deep care for his community has led him back to the CE committee each year, revitalizing schools, parks, community shelters, and other local organizations in need.
John gets it: being a NAIOP member matters. This seems most poignant when John speaks of his early mentors – Gus Raaun and Harold Hill – who John says were the best mentors he ever had. “It was like carrying around a platinum card. They taught me a lot. I listened… Now I am on my own doing the same thing.”
Without a doubt, many within NAIOPWA may feel similarly about John’s work as a leader, as he has informally mentored some within the association for years. More formally, though, he has incubated talent within his own company, which recently underwent a name change to reflect the future aspirations of the firm. His son-in-law, Danny Jackson, now shares the eponymous company with Pietromonaco, who says “It is great to have Danny on board… He’s just got so many positive qualities – everyone just loves him. It has worked out well. He has soaked everything up and is doing a great job.”
The value of his long-time membership is clearest when John mentions NAIOP national conventions, where he has been able to connect with industry leaders and professionals across the country. However, the bread and butter of John’s appreciation of the organization seems to come from local chapter programming, like monthly breakfast meetings (which have been temporarily transferred to a digital format during the pandemic). Between getting to see familiar faces at events, to connecting to fellow members through informal channels, his appreciation for the community cultivated by our chapter is evident. Ultimately, it is because of the value of networking: “every contact gets you ahead with the next person.”
John wasn’t always committed to the commercial real estate industry – at one time he was a chemist. According to him, that experience early on gave him great appreciation for what he does now, but there’s a part of him that wishes he had dipped his toes into more waters at the start of his career. He hopes new NAIOPWA members “learn everything [they] can until 30, then decide what to do on a fulltime basis after that,” so that they have experience in all corners of CRE. Mostly, John encourages newer members to evaluate their own love of the field: “If real estate isn't fun for you, something is wrong. [This industry] is about learning things every day because we are dealing with so many different aspects [of the industry] every day.”
For John Pietromonaco, 32 years as a NAIOP member has been decades well spent.