by David Mendez
Jack Malek’s name might be familiar to anyone who spends an inordinate amount of time checking on real estate listings in the North End of metropolitan Seattle. He’s a long-time real estate agent, currently listed as a “luxury advisor, land specialist [and] commercial specialist” affiliated with Windermere Real Estate.
Malek grew up in the southwest before crossing the country to pursue a graduate degree in laboratory medicine. Before getting into real estate, Malek was a physician’s assistant specializing in surgical pathology. He had a medical school lined up, planning to take on an MD-PhD program (“I really liked the science of it more than the everyday practice of medicine, so to speak,” Malek told The Osprey) until he realized that medicine and technology just wasn’t making him happy.
Entrepreneurship, and real estate especially, called to him. In 2007, he hung up his shingle in the real estate industry — just as the Great Recession hit. “I didn’t know any different,” he said. He just worked, taking advantage of the opportunity he gained by other people leaving the industry. When the market rebounded, he learned to adapt. He’s also proud of building a network of developers that he feels comfortable working with.
Malek’s ties to real estate and developers have given some folks pause within the community, which he’s addressed flatly. “I have no problem recusing myself from a decision that might benefit me personally or people I’m representing,” Malek said, noting that other elected officials like former Shoreline Mayor Will Hall, would recuse themselves when appropriate.
Politically, Malek is keeping an arm’s-length from the two major parties. Though he’s named as the “best choice” in the King County GOP’s voter guide, Malek did not seek their approval. (Those who did are labeled as “endorsed” by the county’s Republican leadership.) He also declined to seek the approval of the 32nd District Democrats. The Dems, instead, have endorsed his opponent, Valerie Snider.
“I have voted Republican in the past — I vote for the best man or woman for the job, the best person for the job,” Malek said.
In fact, while he’s supported reformist democrats, like Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., he’s unhappy with local party leadership. “Part of my issue with the current administration, the current city council, is that they’re all endorsed by the 32nd District Democrats…and many of the leadership in that Dem group are also party to special interest groups, such as the Shoreline Preservation Society…and Save Shoreline Trees, that preservation group. I think the two of them are an extension of what you’d call NIMBYism, and it’s been a very big part of why we are not progressing as a town.”
Malek is a student of Shoreline history — especially as it relates to land-use, including Innis Arden’s history of covenants that restricted “any person or persons not of the White or Caucausian race” from owning property in the subdivision. And he’s deeply frustrated by the pace of housing development in the city. “There’s a lot of reasons to love this place, but we’re not going to fix these problems by demonizing developers and builders,” Malek said.
“We have almost a 22% [population] growth rate, and that’s over the 24 years that I’ve been here, give or take,” Malek said, adding that about “14,000 or 15,000 people have been added since I moved here.” (It’s closer to a 20% growth rate, with about 10,500 people since 2001, when Malek moved to Shoreline, per state data.) Shoreline is the 19th fastest growing city in the state by percentage population change over the last year, and added more residents than all but five cities between 2024 and 2025.
What that growth means to Malek is that Shoreline just isn’t providing enough housing.
“There’s not enough. We’re one of the slowest for single-family and for otherwise,” Malek said. Shoreline did add between “3,000 and 4,000 over the last three to four years...just in apartments alone.” But, he said, there would be more people moving here if there were more homes available for them.
According to Washington state estimates and federal census data, Shoreline’s city population has grown every year since 2006, and grew by nearly 3% — about 1,800 residents — from 2024 to 2025. The area’s housing stock has also increased each year, though data since 2020 is somewhat fuzzy — in part due to COVID-related building slowdowns around from 2020 onward, and the city holds 23,505 housing units as of 2022. (More current estimates typically provided through the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey are unavailable amid the current federal government shutdown.)
“We need for everybody to start building, but if we can provide a model system — something that works — you can darn well bet that takes a lot of the stigma out of it, for someone selling that idea to their constituents,” Malek said.
Malek is also calling to shore up job training programs at Shoreline College and attracting industry to Shoreline to increase the business tax base. “Bring in enough jobs to keep enough people here to really satisfy what we need for our growing demand. Everyone wants great restaurants, they all want this, they all want that…but they haven’t been given the blueprint or the navigation to get there.”
Malek has repeatedly advocated attracting firms — from biotech labs to business parks — to Shoreline, especially on the Fircrest land near the Washington State Department of Health’s Public Health Labs, as well as near the city’s light rail stations. But there’s no real momentum toward doing so, he said. “What we’re having, in my estimation, are people that are dragging their feet again” — which is to say, elected Democrats who are “very much sensitive to the voting population from these voting groups, and they’re vocal groups, and they’re funded.”
Current city council members, he said, “are afraid to go against the party grain.”
“I have been fighting for years to move things through what I feel is gridlock at city hall,” Malek added, saying that he feels “a small group of constituents who get the sentiment of a lot of people,” agitating against developments.
“It discourages developers who want to really come in here and do something special, so quite honestly, we need to get on that now,” Malek said. “We’ve got two train stations — goddammit, what’s wrong with these people? This is the best thing ever that we can develop out here.”
Malek is frustrated, to be certain. But he’s also hopeful that Shoreline can be a beacon for what the rest of Washington needs to meet housing and business demands heading toward the future.