Jordan Selig, once seen as the heir apparent to her father’s prominent Seattle real estate firm, has left the company to strike out on her own.
Selig, 38, stepped down from her role as executive vice president of Martin Selig Real Estate (MSRE) after more than a decade at the company, which is a major owner of office properties in Seattle.
In a statement Friday, she said she plans to “focus on my own ventures in real estate and technology.”
“For some time, I have had a vision for the future of urban environments and the interplay of real estate and technology in those environments,” Selig said in her statement. “The depth of character, resilience and expertise that I have been lucky to be a part of at MSRE will always set the standard for anything I do.”
In recent years, the younger Selig played a major role in negotiations with the company’s creditors as stubbornly high office vacancies and interest rates forced Martin Selig Real Estate to default on debt to kick-start renegotiations.
The firm is still trying to work through this tough market. Last week, the company announced that it would lay off 86 people — roughly half of its workforce — as seven properties enter receivership after the firm defaulted on a $239 million loan.
Martin Selig Real Estate said it’s still in talks with the special servicer to potentially take back control of those buildings, according to a company statement.
“MSRE remains dedicated to its long-standing presence in Seattle’s commercial real estate market,” the company said.
Martin Selig, 88, has weathered previous economic downturns, earning him the nickname “the Houdini of Seattle’s office market” from the Seattle Times. In the 1980s, he faced a cash crunch and had to sell the city’s tallest building, the Columbia Center, a few years after building it.
But his concentration in and near downtown Seattle has made the company more vulnerable in recent years as office work and retail habits shifted dramatically. The rate of office space available for lease in the Seattle and Puget Sound area was nearly 30% in the first quarter of 2025, according to Savills PLC. While that’s below the 36% rate in San Francisco, it’s higher than the 18% rate in Manhattan and 28% in Los Angeles.
Several Selig projects, including a building that formerly housed a branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and one called 400 Westlake, now face an uncertain future after the company defaulted on the more than $200 million loan that listed those buildings as collateral.
Jordan Selig said she was grateful for her time at her father’s firm, which gave her “deep insights into both market dynamics and leadership.”
“These are challenging times for the commercial real estate industry, and I know that the MSRE executive team will continue to navigate these waters with resilience and vision,” she said.