St. Joe had recruited Herring from his regional executive post at Trammell Crow in Orlando in 2000 and established St. Joe's commercial division in Orlando, rather than Jacksonville, at the request of Herring. That division went from zero transactional volume five years ago to $50 million in 2004.

"We had a good run and I'm sure St. Joe will continue to do well" with the commercial division, Herring says. He supervised three million sf of commercial property for St. Joe and participated in the planning of 13,000 acres of new commercial space across Florida.

Kevin M. Twomey, president and chief operating officer at St. Joe, will take over Herring's duties until the company finds a permanent replacement, Herring says. Twomey couldn't be reached by GlobeSt.com's publication deadline.

Herring tells GlobeSt.com the parting was friendly but also concedes his departure decision wasn't a fact St. Joe officials had known far in advance. Herring says he "made up my mind one weekend and told them on a Monday that I was resigning."

"I had just turned 51 and with two daughters in high school, I wanted to spend more time with them and my wife but really couldn't do this when I was on the road [out of state] almost every other week," Herring tells GlobeSt.com. "St. Joe treated me very fairly during the five years I was with them, with compensation and stock options, and financially I realized I could now possibly do what I had thought about for many years--starting my own company."

Herring says he chose the Herring Co. name because of his name recognition in national commercial real estate circles. "I've been in corporate real estate now for about 30 years and I could see there would be good opportunities" for his new firm, he says. "We will be starting small and focusing on medical offices, infill housing projects in [suburban] Winter Park and Maitland and also doing deals with St. Joe."

He says he is particularly keen on the medical office development category "because doctors like to own their own real estate and they've got the money to do it." Herring is recruiting staff and partners this week but tells GlobeSt.com he will have "an announcement on a couple of new projects in a few weeks."

The Landmarks Co. of Atlanta transferred Herring to Orlando in 1987 to direct its Florida operations. He later joined the local office of Charlotte, NC-based Faison Associates and still later went with Trammell Crow Co. to be that firm's Florida regional director. He joined St. Joe in January 2000.

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Herring Leaves St. Joe to Start Own Company

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