Florida Brokers Head to Orlando, Jacksonville

ORLANDO—Although Downtown Miami has been the story in Florida's commercial real estate renaissance over the past year, Central and North Florida are seeing renewed interest from investors and the brokerage firms that serve them. Several commercial real estate service firms have either opened offices or expanded their presence in Central Florida to tap into the opportunities they see from Tampa to Orlando and Jacksonville.

"We have seen a lot more transaction volume and activity in North and Central Florida," says HFF managing director Brad Peterson, who just opened an HFF office in Orlando. "More institutional clients are focused on buying and banks and other owners are busy selling. It made sense to be on the ground here to service our clients."

Just weeks earlier, Lee & Associates merged with Southern Commercial Real Estate Advisors, an industrial-focused brokerage in Orlando. Lee Central Florida is headed by Southern Commercial's founding principals William "Bo" Bradford Jr. and Tom McFadden. Just before merging, the firm had reached more than nine million square feet of assignments, as well as an additional 2.1 million square feet of planned industrial inventory.

Promoting from within, Jones Lang LaSalle has given one-time Staubach brokers a new assignment. Chris Butler and Chadd Rup have been named managing directors and will head the firm's brokerage business for Central Florida. Based in Tampa, the duo aims to manage and grow the landlord and tenant representation teams for both office and industrial real estate in Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tallahassee.

"We recently made the decision to organize ourselves into more of a Central Florida brokerage operation," says Kurt Keaton, Florida market leader for JLL. "We'll gain some internal efficiencies and take advantage of some similarities of the markets as you cross the I-4 corridor from Tampa and Orlando and up into Jacksonville."

Finally, Continental Real Estate Cos., or CREC, is redoubling its efforts in Central Florida. The firm is expanding its retail practice in the Orlando region, adding Josh Busby and Lisa Schummer to its roster to take its leasing, property management and construction management practices to the next level.

"The need to bring in workout expertise in Central Florida is greater because there are fewer restructuring opportunities in that market," relates CREC's president and cofounder, Carol Brooks. "The deals tend to be smaller and need to be worked through, hence the need for workout specialists. We anticipate making some very big growth moves over the next couple of months and next few quarters."