William Watch and Warren Terrace met while attending the University of Michigan.
Fast forward to 1988. Warren Terrace, who just had spent the better part of a decade working at Schostak Brothers & Co., had decided to branch out on his own and was running a self-founded brokerage firm.
Concurrently, William Watch found himself a casualty of the declining real estate market, having been laid off from his position with drugstore chain Perry Drugs’ real estate department, and shortly after, his position with the leasing department of ClothesTime, a national retailer. Watch elected to put his 11 years of real estate experience, his MBA from the University of Michigan, and his outstanding leadership skills to good use.
The subsequent partnership founded between Terrace and Watch led to the birth of First Commercial Realty & Development Co.
The earliest days of First Commercial took place in the office Terrace had leased in Plymouth, Mich. The company moved to a larger space Southfield, Mich., in April of 1988, where the new sign officially bared the name “First Commercial Realty & Development Co.