AUSTIN--SRS Real Estate Partners has hired Alison Barnwell as senior vice president in its Austin office.

“Being in a local shop with a national platform [like SRS] is very important in retail,” Barnwell told GlobeSt.com.

With more than 14 years of retail brokerage experience in central Texas and long-standing ties to the development and brokerage communities, Barnwell knows the sector. Prior to SRS, she worked with Live Oak-Gottesman where she managed a retail-leasing portfolio totaling more than 1.5 million square feet. Barnwell was also responsible for the oversight of the retail department's brokers and support staff.

She also has worked at Trammell Crow Co./CBRE Group in retail brokerage services where she specialized in landlord and tenant representation, global corporate services accounts, land brokerage, acquisitions, dispositions and investment sales. In the new position, she will focus on tenant and landlord representation, disposition and land brokerage, alongside the Austin team.

With many notable landlord and retailer clients such as Crow Family Holdings, HEB Grocery Co., Bank of America, Papa John's Pizza and Sprint, colleagues feel she's a great addition to SRS.

"Alison is a well-respected individual in the Austin commercial real estate community," Will Majors, senior vice president and market leader for the Austin office, said in a release. "We are very fortunate to have her join our team and share her knowledge with us."

Above all, Barnwell is excited to continue to tackle the city's innate retail challenges. With its tight occupancy rate (currently 96 percent) and geographical quirks, it is unlike any other city in the state.

“Austin's not the sleepy small town it used to be,” she says.