Faraji's Year in Review: 2017

If you got my year-end email about this time in 2016, you may recall it was pretty dark. 2016 was a rough year for a lot of people, myself included. We lost a lot of people, and gained a new president who people felt….differing ways about. I wanted to reflect the end of something trying and difficult and usher in something new. Bowie in his full Ziggy Stardust getup walking into the darkness really spoke to my sense of the year as being a frustrating, exhausting, disappointing slog. I assumed I’d get some flack for it, but I was surprised how many people shared my sentiment.

But boy did things turn around in 2017!

Mostly, thanks to you, my network, 2017 was a great year of personal and professional growth and I just wanted to share some of the highlights. I also wanted to highlight how quickly things can turn around. Looking at my various social media feeds, a lot of my friends and colleagues feel the way about 2017 I felt about 2016. Trust me, a few adjustments and some luck and things can go from 0-100 real quick. Like UGA in the 3rd quarter at the Rose Bowl quick. I look forward to a great 2018 with you all. Here are some of the things I enjoyed in 2017.

I took a solo trip to a country where I didn’t speak the language

I took a week and jetted to Cartagena, Colombia. I highly recommend it. If Miami and New Orleans had a love child that played soccer, this would be it. Great hospitality, amazing food, and a beautiful historic Walled City. Also, everyone was very forgiving of my horrible Spanish. I stayed in an AirBnB with a great host and another solo traveler from Argentina. We communicated well via Google Translate.

I did my biggest office deal to date (and more deals than ever before)

Thanks to a relationship referral, I represented a Turkish client in a nearly 8,000 SF deal at One Thomas Circle. Big thanks to Ben Plaisted and Taylor Caparosa at Studley for putting together a smooth transaction with a lot of moving pieces. Here are a couple other cool deals we put together.

615 15th St. NE

Condo conversion project sold to 11th Property Group. We received 14 offers on this off market property and ended up with a great deal for both buyer and seller in one of DC's hottest neighborhoods. Thanks to Sean Ponder at SNG Realty for his tireless work here.

Army Navy Building

We represented a high profile non-profit in finding a wonderful newly built spec suite. WREIT has really transformed that property and special thanks to Kristen Mathis at JLL for her work getting a deal done at light speed.

I became a Partner at Zawadi Arts

I’ve been a contributor for a while, but this year, I put my money where my mouth is and started the process of buying Zawadi. One of the best times we had was this lookbook photoshoot with Nasozi from xNasozi. Expect a lot more exciting things in 2018.

I got to watch Neymar score his last goal with Barca

I wanted to go to El Clasico in Miami but tickets were ridiculous. Luckily Barca-Man U at Fedex was pretty reasonable and watching Neymar in real life made me a fan. The Gametime App even got me better seats after my original seats were sold. That whole PSG move seems to be working out for him. See the great things that can happen when people change their scenery?

My buddy became the mayor of a major American city

It’s not everyday a man you call a friend does something this major. I’m not just happy for Randall, I’m happy for the people of Birmingham, who get a real fighter and a truly caring person as their mayor. I’m happy to have been able to do what I could to support him and really thrilled for Jarrod, Don, Calvin, and the Pine Street team that really made this happen.

Our Tomato plants blossomed beyond our wildest dreams

We are Farmers! Bum ba bum ba bum-bum-bum!

I went to my first Venture Capital Conference

I took a trip to an amazing one day conference in San Francisco hosted by Camelback Ventures, and met some of the most forward thinking, interesting people in the Venture Capital Space. We talked about the obstacles and opportunities for minorities and women in the VC space and a lot of the conversations resonated with the issues we face in the real estate space. Thanks, Aaron, for making me feel so welcome. I'll write more about it soon.

I re-established my romance with Design Hotels

On a lark, I ended up having dinner at the 1 Hotel in Brooklyn, and staying at Public, Ian Schrager's new digs in Manhattan. Public reminded me of the first time I walked into the Delano and felt the magic and care of the design. Really inspired me to shoot a little higher in my own projects. 1 was just spectacular in its grandiosity.

Overall, it was a great year. I’ll be announcing some exciting new developments over the next couple months, and I look forward to sharing a great 2018 with you.

Faraji