Fresh start

Kurt Keaton played football at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he learned what it was like to win on a big stage. After a mandatory stint in the military, he spent 16 years climbing the corporate ladder at JLL, one of the largest commercial real estate services firms in the world.

There, Keaton rose from managing commercial properties in Atlanta to managing JLL's diverse 30 million-square-foot portfolio and multiple offices throughout Florida. By 2013, he was managing investor and institutional clients' properties nationally.

But at the beginning of this year, Keaton shocked his colleagues, his clients and the Florida commercial real estate community when he left JLL for Tampa-based Franklin Street, a relative startup created by an entrepreneur a decade ago only now in his thirties.