More often than not, you may be directed to call a broker, as the companies want to know from the outset if you are a qualified prospect.
That’s not the approach taken by Apex Commercial, a Brookfield company formed this year by Dan Jessup, who along with three counterparts left Wangard Partners, Milwaukee.
"I think we are the only real estate firm in town where you can pull an info sheet right off the Web," Jessup said.
"There is an attitude in the industry where you keep your cards to yourself," said John Czarnecki, Apex vice president.
Jessup started the company May 6 and was followed within days by other Wangard team members – including Czarnecki, marketing director Tara Hamill and Lester Birbaum, who had left Wangard in August of 2001 to start his own shop.
It didn’t take long for the fledgling team to put some serious numbers on the board. Days after hanging the shingle, Jessup brought home the Hoffman Management & Leasing Co. account.
"Their investment portfolio includes 12 buildings totaling 500,000 square feet," Jessup said. "They had never listed their properties with a broker. Their preference is that we are right within shouting distance because we communicate about the properties several times a day."
Apex and Hoffman are both located in the same Bishop’s Woods office building at 150 N. Sunnyslope Rd.
Apex’s listing total was pushed over the 1 million mark when Towne Realty listed the 182,000-square-foot building at 633 W. Wisconsin Ave. with Apex.
Jessup says the slow economy has actually increased the opportunities for young brokers interested in starting their own commercial real estate firms.
"The market is pretty soft," Jessup said. "There are a lot more opportunities in a soft market. The building owners and sellers need brokers much more than in a strong market."
Several of Apex’s listings are subleases, and Jessup implied that the trend towards subleasing creates opportunities to assist companies with no existing exposure to the real estate market.
However, Scott Revolinski said the soft market did not impact his decision to leave Polacheck Co. Inc. in September to form RFP Commercial with Inland Companies defectors Robert Flood and Ned Purtell.
"It turned out to be a good time, given various issues with where I was working," Revolinski said. "The timing came together well. At my end of the business, it doesn’t make a difference if it is a good economy or a bad economy. When prices are going up, it’s a good thing and when prices are going down, it’s a good thing. The sellers have to catch up with each other, and we help them do that."
RFP has already crested 1.5 million square feet of leased space in its portfolio, according to Purtell.
"I don’t think a good or bad market affects us," Purtell said. "People need
you more in a down market, but in
an up market, there are many times more transactions."
Nov. 8, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
