GlobeSt.com
Last Updated: June 30, 2010 11:41pm ET
By Hortense Leon
TAMPA, FL-SRS Real Estate Partners, a Dallas-based retail real estate company, which specializes in tenant representation, is expanding its reach in Florida. In mid-May, it opened a Tampa office, in addition to the offices it already had in Orlando and Sunrise.
According to John Artope, senior vice president at SRS Real Estate Partners, who is based in Orlando, but who works in both offices, says that while there are only two people in the new Tampa office, Garrett Williams and Jeremy Kral, both vice presidents, “we will grow with the demand.”
“The real estate market won’t stay depressed forever and we are seeing more demand at all levels–national, regional and local today,” says Artope.
In mid-June, SRS Real Estate, which was formerly known as Staubach Retail, completed a deal with Dave & Busters, says Artope. The Dallas-based restaurant/entertainment company purchased 3.3 acres through an Orlando-based REIT, National Retail Properties, for $8.1 million on International Drive in Orlando, about 85 miles from Tampa. The REIT will build a 35,000-square-foot Dave & Busters which will be corporate-owned, says Artope. The deal will involve a sale-leaseback agreement.
In addition to Dave & Busters, “We are working with a number of regional and national restaurants and retailer chains who are looking for space,” says Artope, who expects to see more improvement in the retail market as the year progresses.
Back in Tampa, Garrett Williams and Jeremy Kral, the two newly-installed SRS Real Estate Tampa brokers, are both experienced on the tenant and landlord side, says Atrope. Kral also has experience in Geographical Information Systems (GIS), which is a mapping software. He was a senior retail/restaurant specialist with Colliers Arnold before joining SRS Real Estate and before that served as the firm’s executive director of market analytics and GIS.
Garrett Williams is a local area retail veteran. Previously, he was a broker with Colliers Arnold in Tampa for five years where he was recognized as the top producer in 2008.