Work Harder

In 2006, Heidi Tuttle-Beisner was in her ninth year of commercial real estate work in Pasco and northern Hillsborough counties when she was told the firm she worked for was closing in three weeks. It was the second gut punch for the mother of four as her mother had died unexpectedly three weeks earlier.

Tuttle-Beisner did what all good entrepreneurs do -- she got up off the floor and started her own business, getting her broker's license just in time to open shop when the other firm closed. She took most of the agents from the defunct firm and started Commercial Asset Partners in Trinity, in Pasco County just north of the Pinellas County line.

“There was no plan. In three weeks I had to figure it all out,” she says of those wild days, then puts as positive a take as possible on the timing. “I had a pretty strong presence up here and some money in the bank from the good days.”

June 2006 was hardly an advantageous moment to launch a real estate firm. In fact, a worse time is hard to imagine. Of course that was not known then, and probably just as well. But as the market correction turned into a market crash and the recession set in, CAP relied on its connections in the market and willingness to do anything necessary to make a deal work.

Basically, the all-female firm just wanted it more.

“It was referral business, relationships and strong market presence ... we had to work harder. Basically, we still work harder,” Tuttle-Beisner says. “We work three times harder for less than half the money” of the boom years.

As more competing commercial real estate firms went out of business, CAP continued working. Some of the original agents did not survive, and some new agents have come onboard.

And now the firm, with six agents, is in expansion mode. Through a fortunate series of events, CAP brought on veteran Pinellas commercial Realtor Paula Clair Smith in 2011 and is looking to add agents in the Clearwater/Largo area and central Tampa and eastern Hillsborough County. Smith negotiated the $7.1 million real estate deal that was part of bringing Draper Laboratories to St. Petersburg.

Tuttle-Beisner and Smith are both survivors in their markets, established and involved in real estate issues. Tuttle-Beisner is president of the Gulf Coast Commercial Association of Realtors — Smith is on the board of directors — and commercial chairwoman of the Florida Realtors. She recently met with Gov. Rick Scott in Tallahassee, along with other commercial Realtors from around the state, to discuss the condition of the market and what needs to be done.

Tuttle-Beisner's firm is small, but she has been a top producer within the Gulf Coast Commercial Association of Realtors for the past five years. As evidence of her firm's flexibility and willingness to do what it takes, she has won in a different category each year.

The women say that both Pasco and Pinellas markets are picking up, but they face quite different dynamics and futures.

Pasco is in the transformation stage from bedroom community to more commercial and industrial mix, drawing large companies such as T. Rowe Price and Raymond James to major office investments.

Tuttle-Beisner says that the Pasco County Economic Development Corp. has a bundle of incentives that are not matched by any others in the Tampa Bay area. She wields those incentives and another batch from the state like a weapon in trying to close deals in Pasco. “I use them every week, basically,” she says.

She says the county has created a much more business-friendly permitting and regulatory environment, and with the recovery slowly taking root, it is paying off. She is the primary broker for the ComPark 75 development along Interstate 75 near State Road 54. About 700,000 square feet of vertical development are planned for the 60-acre site.

Pinellas is a different story, Smith says, for the more urbanized county has not responded like surrounding counties to make it easier for businesses to operate. Plus, Pinellas is plagued by having dozens of small municipalities in it in addition to St. Pete and Clearwater, adding to the regulatory difficulties.

“It's still cumbersome to get things done in Pinellas,” she says.

And yet there are areas beginning to cook there, too. The Carillon office park is 10% or less vacant and she expects to see some spec office buildings go up there. And there is some movement in downtown St. Pete to renovate for more modern office needs — such as is being done at the 12-story City Center office complex.

Smith calls it the “Google” effect -- making office space wider and more open, fewer offices, hallways and cubicles.

Whatever the trends and the real estate economy though, the CAP leadership intends to shift with them to continue to survive and grow.