In the mid-1990s, Mitch Stokes got his brush with Hollywood fame when a building he was selling attracted the interest of actor Tom Hanks. The deal still resonates with Stokes to this day.
He helped Hanks secure the property when the film star was setting up his production company, Playtone. In September 1998, Stokes worked on the deal for the purchase of Playtone's offices at 1224-1228 5th St. in Santa Monica, California, for $3 million, according to CoStar data.
Stokes is still reminded of it every time he sees Playtone's fingerprints on something, and that's often. The company has won six Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and five Peabody Awards since it started in 1998, and just last year Apple TV+ agreed to a multi-year deal with Playtone to create TV, documentaries and other projects.
Asked what his family thought when he told them he worked with Hanks, he said, "They couldn’t believe it. They thought it was really cool."
Decades of helping clients — famous and not — get the right real estate has paid off in more than just memories. It's now led to Stokes accepting a new role of his own, as principal of Avison Young's west Los Angeles office.
Stokes departed Los Angeles-based commercial real estate firm Madison Partners, where he worked for nearly 25 years and was a senior executive director, taking part in more than $1 billion lease and sales transactions representing tenants and landlords over his career.
He decided to make the move to Avison Young after looking for a new company with a more global and institutional reach. He said he liked the firm's culture and people along with the services the company provides.
Outside of work, Stokes — who grew up in St. Louis, Missouri — enjoys spending time with his family, including his two dogs Rocky and Gracie. He also likes to play chess and play classic rock and blues on his guitar.
Much has changed since Stokes started his career in the early '90s when he began at the John Alle Company, especially when it comes to technology. However, Stokes said that many things about the business remain the same, including the need to stay patient when building relationships and completing deals.
Looking back, Stokes said he's stuck with the real estate business in part because of its unpredictability. To borrow from Hanks in his Oscar-winning role as Forrest Gump, real estate, like life, is like a box of chocolates.
"Every day is a new day, and you never know what it will bring," Stokes said.