Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Nelson.
Hi Mark, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The “Board Meeting” That Changed Everything
It was the most important board meeting of their lives – and it never happened in a boardroom.
In 2005, Michael Nelson was 25 years old and in the first year of what would become a decades-long career in industrial real estate. He and his older brother, Mark, had moved in their early 20’s from Durban, South Africa in 2002 to San Diego and then to Chicago with little money, no network and no guarantees of success.
Michael was working as an industrial real estate broker in Chicago under a senior broker, earning entirely on commission and trying to establish himself in one of the most competitive commercial real estate markets in the country.
Then came an unexpected phone call from his father in South Africa.
A spot had opened up on a surf trip to the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia, and his father invited him to come.
There was just one problem: Michael was in his first year of business, had very little money, and taking time away from work seemed almost impossible.
Still, he asked his boss.
His boss surprised him.
Having lost his own father at just 17, the senior broker understood that opportunities to spend time with your Dad like this don’t come around often. He gave Michael permission to go – and then offered to pay for his flights.
What had seemed financially impossible suddenly became a reality.
Michael boarded a plane and headed halfway around the world.
The Mentawais
The Mentawai Islands are a remote chain of islands off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, famous for extraordinary waves, adventure and isolation. By the early 2000s, they had become one of the world’s legendary surfing destinations.
Michael arrived with his father for an unforgettable surf trip.
Aboard the boat was a group of surfers brought together by one thing: finding the best waves in the world.
Among them was a 25-year-old South African just beginning his career in industrial real estate in Chicago – and a 55-year-old businessman named Steve Josepho from Oceanside, California.
There was a thirty-year age difference between them. They were at completely different stages of life.
Michael was a young broker trying to make it in industrial estate. Steve had already spent decades managing a family owned industrial estate portfolio. Michael remembers asking Steve what he did for a living, and Steve replied “I manage my families portfolio of industrial buildings in Oceanside, I collect rents and help keep the buildings stay occupied with great tenants”. Michael responded “that is my dream one day…”.
There was no obvious reason to think their paths would ever cross again.
But somewhere between the waves, meals, boat rides and chats in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago, Michael and Steve connected and a new dream was birthed in a young man.
No one could have known it at the time, but the most consequential “board meeting” of Michael Nelson’s career was taking place on a surfboard.
There was no conference room table, no PowerPoint and no investment memorandum. No discussion about cap rates, underwriting or acquisitions.
Just two guys surfing, talking and getting to know each other.
At the time, it was simply a surf trip.
But sometimes the moments that shape our future don’t announce themselves while they’re happening.
Back to Chicago
Michael returned to Chicago and went back to work with his brother.
He and Mark continued building their careers in industrial real estate, learning the business, taking risks and developing relationships. Over time, their brokerage business grew, as did their ability to recognize value in properties others might overlook.
Then, in 2010, in the middle of the Great Financial Crisis, the brothers took another major risk: they launched their own industrial real estate brokerage firm, NelsonHill.
They weren’t handed a roadmap but they found a way. Their journey was fueled by hard work, faith, persistence and a willingness to keep moving forward even when the next step wasn’t obvious.
Meanwhile, the connection Michael had made with Steve Josepho in the Mentawais faded into the background of life. But it wasn’t gone.
It would take nearly twenty years for their paths to cross again.
Twenty Years Later
By 2025, Mark and Michael had spent more than two decades building their industrial real estate brokerage business in Chicago while investing in real estate along the way. They had developed a deep understanding of industrial properties – not just how to buy and sell them, but how to identify hidden value and envision what a property could become.
After moving back to San Diego in 2019, the brothers began looking for investment opportunities closer to home. Then they found one in Oceanside. And the owner was someone Michael remembered from that surf trip twenty years earlier: Steve Josepho.
The property was unique: approximately 45,000 square feet across six buildings on roughly three acres, occupied by more than twenty tenants.
The Josepho family had originally developed the property more than 65 years earlier and had owned it ever since.
It wasn’t flashy.
It wasn’t new.
And it wasn’t the kind of property that
immediately attracted attention.
But Mark and Michael saw something different.
They saw potential.
They believed that with the right investment, management and vision, the property could be transformed.
In November 2025, they acquired the portfolio and began re-positioning it as The Machine Shop | Oceanside.
The strategy was straightforward: improve the physical appearance of the property, enhance the tenant experience, improve operations, bring rents closer to market and unlock value that had been sitting inside the asset for decades.
In many ways, the opportunity represented everything the brothers had learned over the previous twenty years: how to recognize value, build relationships, take calculated risks and see beyond what something is today to what it could become tomorrow.
The Board Meeting
Looking back, there is something almost poetic about the story. Twenty years earlier, Michael was a 25-year-old kid who almost didn’t make a surf trip to Indonesia.
A cancellation created a spot.
His boss gave him permission to leave.
Then his boss paid for his flight.
Michael went.
He surfed.
And he met Steve Josepho.
Twenty years later, that chance encounter had become part of the story behind an industrial real estate acquisition in Oceanside, California.
The connection between the two men had started thousands of miles away, on a boat in the Mentawai Islands.
No one knew they were beginning a relationship that would matter two decades later.
But something important was happening.
A relationship was being formed.
The Power of the Unplanned
The story is ultimately about more than an industrial real estate acquisition.
It is about how rarely life unfolds according to a straight line. That is what makes the story so compelling.
You rarely recognize the significance of a relationship when it begins.
The most important opportunities often don’t look important at first.
Sometimes they look like a phone call from your dad.
Sometimes they look like an unexpected opening on a surf trip.
Sometimes they look like a boss who decides to pay for your plane ticket.
Because the most important meetings in life aren’t always the ones you schedule.
Some happen by invitation.
Some happen by chance.
Some happen because a door unexpectedly opens.
And every once in a while, the most important “board meeting” you’ll ever have happens on a surfboard.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Mike and Mark Nelson are brothers, 14-months a part, they were both born in Ann Arbor Michigan, while their Mom and Dad were in the States while their Dad Derek Nelson was doing his post-grad studies at the University of Michigan Dental School. They returned to South Africa with their parents when they were 1 and 2 years old and returned to San Diego when they were 23 and 24 years old.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mannacp.com
