We chatted up with Cushman & Wakefield's Greg Valladao and Jim Wilson, still glowing from their mega Apple deal here in the former First Solar facility taken by a mysterious blogster known as the Apple Insider. The duo remembers how the deal started with a simple phone call that led to a tour with a mystery group of engineers. The deal then went fast—all along neither Greg nor Jim knew what company they were dealing with. (Who says spies have all the fun?) All in all, 30 days.
And it was Greg (on right with Jim) who recognized the secret identity—as a former Apple employee, he says he recognized the address from where the $5M closing check was processed, and told Jim it looked as if Apple was the company behind the mystery. “Apple was fun because it was all a little cloak-and-daggerish,” Jim says. Greg ditched a career as a lawyer to be in the biz. After winning his second trial, his client complained about billing. At the same time, he noticed his uncle in the business going to a closing celebration at a restaurant. “The whole idea of an industry where you can do something where both parties were pleased with how it ended sounded like an industry I wanted to be in. It certainly wasn't in the legal profession.”
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