A problem solvers journey to Assistant General Manager

From an early career in fashion retail to insurance to serving as an Assistant General Manager at JLL, Ciara Wilson has known one thing: it’s always about the people — and planning.

A self-described “people person” and “problem solver,” Ciara’s days are spent traveling to the three properties she helps to manage — Panorama Tower, a 115,000-square-foot office building and the multi-building Oakhurst Commons in Charlotte, North Carolina and Edgewater Corporate Center in Indian Land, South Carolina, just over the state line.

“On a typical day I may start off at one property, check in with tenants or clients, walk the property and respond to emails,” she says. “Often, we’re working on new projects, so I may be reviewing proposals, work orders or appointments with a vendor. And then it’s off to the next building.”

Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Ciara earned a bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising from SUNY Buffalo State University. Being the first in her family to graduate from college was a major achievement for Ciara.

“It was hard to create a path of my own,” she says. “It taught me to be independent.”

She started her retail career as a store manager at Abercrombie & Fitch in Buffalo, New York. But one cold, dreary Upstate New York winter too many saw her picking up and moving to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2013, where her two older sisters had already settled.

She began to look at other industries, eventually taking what was supposed to be a transitional job at Allstate Insurance as a claims adjuster. Instead, she stayed for five years because of her team.

Looking to start on a long-term career path, Ciara turned to real estate, and after planning and saving, she got her residential broker’s license, then turned to the stability offered in the commercial side. She joined JLL as a tenant services coordinator at the Johnston Building and has been promoted rapidly, thanks in part to General Manager Maricela Fregoso, her first manager.

“She always put me in an area to take on a challenge and pushed me to speak up first and volunteer,” Ciara says. “With her being a woman and a minority, too, I had a level of trust to express my goals of becoming an Assistant General Manager one day. Her work ethic inspired me, and she taught me how to handle the job better.”

Ciara’s reputation and work ethic grew quickly — without ever working together, General Manager Lonjezo Miller, recommended her for her current position. But all her previous experience helped.

“With property management it’s a lot of time management, especially if you have more than one property,” she notes. “When I was a store manager at Abercrombie, I had to make sure my interactions were top notch. At Allstate, I dealt with all kinds of people, in a competitive environment. Selling homes gave me the background in reading contracts and dealing with different types of personalities in a timely manner.”

The five-building Oakhurst Commons is in the midst of a major remodeling, with some existing tenants also undertaking renovations through the spring, requiring a lot of coordinating for a small team of Ciara, Lonjezo and Tenant Services Representative Caelin Paige.

And sometimes, her day is just about something fun, such as planning tenant events, or delivering pies to make a building more than just a place to work but a community.

Expanding her own community is important, too. Ciara serves as the Membership Coordinator of JLL’s Carolinas Empower Black Professionals Network in North Carolina, whose mission is to attract, develop and retain top Black talent at JLL. The EBPN has different chapters throughout the country, part of JLL’s commitment to promoting diversity, and encourages all professionals, not just those who are Black, to participate.

“Because I travel between properties every day, for me, it was a way of connecting with other people in different areas of JLL,” Ciara says. “Being in property management can make you feel like you are on our own island. Now that I’m the leading the membership committee, it’s helped me to be able to network with others outside of property management.”

Having attained her goal of becoming an Assistant General Manager much faster than she expected, Ciara is already planning her future at JLL, perhaps in another area such as project management.

“JLL is a good company — you can be yourself and interact with others,” Ciara observes. “You don’t have to be or look a certain way. I have never worked for a company where I felt so comfortable. I feel accepted. I feel heard by my direct managers.”