Just two months into his new project management gig at Colton Commercial & Partners, Adam Felson gave us the scoop on two S.F. projects keeping him busy, one of which involves ashtrays.

The first is for Premier Staffing, which inked a 10k SF deal for the 18th floor at 353 Sacramento (below) and will move their offices from 111 Sutter. Adam is overseeing the build-out, which will wrap up at the end of February. The other was a large-scale move coordination for Concordia-Argonaut, helping them plan the emptying out of their 52k SF property at 1142 Van Ness. The occupant had been in the place for 125 years, so Adam's job was to inventory the thousands of items that they collected over time. (The buyer, which is undisclosed, is unclear on the scope and timeline for occupancy.)

With a background working under mega landlords EOP and Vornado, forming his own PM firm seemed “intimidating,” Adam says. So, he linked up with boutique brokerage Colton Commercial & Partners to launch a new PM division inside. (He’s also good pals with Colton co-founding partner Jay Shaffer.)

Among the treasure trove of items Adam found in the Concordia-Argonaut: ashtrays with the historic logo, poker tables, a grandfather clock, high-valued paintings, fancy dishes, antique furniture, old books and decorative mirrors. (He even brought in a book expert to make sure he wasn't overlooking a Shakespeare gem.) Adam says he treats buildings like people and cares about keeping them alive. He handled all the ongoing construction work at 555 Cal for five years, overseeing build-outs for Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. Before that, he worked on EOP’s extensive 10-building portfolio of 4M SF before the trade to Blackstone.

These days, tenants don’t want to be stuck in their offices all day, so more are requesting a “third place” to break up the grind. One example he worked on in S.F.: dotting a floor with a dozen small telephone booth-sized rooms, designed for private phone calls and laptop typing. The East Bay native's construction genes began with his grandfather’s great uncle, who secretly immigrated to S.F. by hiding as a stowaway on a Chinese container ship.  In California, he learned to be a builder and inspired three future generations of the family. Scroll down in this issue to find out why we strategically included this pic of Adam next to an outlet.