Most folks who know me would not guess that my first job out of college was working in the steel industry.
My first job out of school was working for Thypin Steel during their merger with Ryerson Tool. This big company out of Chicago acquired an East coast company, Thypin Steel, which is a family company located in Queens, New York.
It was a wild experience for me. Kind of a out of body, culture shock experience.
I was this suburban kid from Bethesda, Maryland plopped down in Queens, New York, where people didn’t like the way I pronounced certain cheese, though I do pronounce it correctly now. It’s mozzarella.
But funny enough, the Thypin family were really sharp. They didn’t sell the real estate when they sold their business. They kept all of their warehouses.
If you look up Long Island City, Queens now, that’s where there’s a whole bunch of high rises across the river from Manhattan.
That was a seed that was planted early on that I should pay attention to real estate.