Lee & Associates Opens Orlando Office Via Southern Merger

ORLANDO—Lee & Associates is still on the expansion path, establishing its second Florida office and 47th overall. Lee merged with Southern Commercial Real Estate Advisors, an industrial-focused brokerage. Lee opened an office in Naples in Dec. 2011.

“Our goal in all of our expansion efforts is to partner with top-notch brokerage firms in a targeted region,” Edward Indvik, CEO of Lee & Associates, said in a statement. “This has been realized with this move. Their reputation as a top brokerage firm in the industrial markets in Central Florida is truly noteworthy, particularly since Southern Commercial Real Estate Advisors was founded a short five years ago.”

Lee & Associates has seen rapid growth through the recession. Although the firm was founded in Los Angeles in 1979, it opened 16 new offices since 2007 and has more than 700 expert brokers nationally. Lee’s Florida territory now spans Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Brevard, Lake, Marion, Polk, and Volusia counties.

Lee & Associates Central Florida is headed by Southern Commercial’s founding principals William “Bo” Bradford, Jr. and Tom McFadden. Bradford and McFadden are Central Florida industrial experts. The duo launched the firm in 2007 with one client and 400,000 square feet of assignments.

Just before merging, the firm had reached more than 9 million square feet of assignments, as well as an additional 2.1 million square feet of planned industrial inventory. Bradford and McFadden have completed more than 650 commercial real estate transactions valued in excess of $492 million.

“We maintain 100% local control, so it was a merger as opposed to an acquisition, which was very attractive,” McFadden tells GlobeSt.com. “The merger gives us access to a much broader scope and platform and an immediate opportunity to expand our service lines into office, retail and investment sales.”