Niche player

Daren Thomas knows all about the prowess a big commercial real estate services firm like a CBRE or JLL can bring to the table. Before founding Industrial Realty Solutions in 1999, he worked with one of the industry's big guns, Cushman & Wakefield.

But in the years since Thomas broke from Cushman to create Industrial Realty, he says he's learned the formula for carving out a niche and succeeding against better capitalized companies with rosters of agents.

“My philosophy is, do one thing and do it really, really well,” says Thomas, 57, Industrial Realty's president.

That focus, on Pinellas County industrial product, combined with market knowledge and the ability to be nimble and provide personalized service, have set Industrial Realty apart.
For the past two years, Thomas has been ranked as the region's top industrial broker by the Florida Gulfcoast Commercial Association of Realtors.

Over the past decade, he has either been first or second in FGCAR's annual Pinnacle Awards, and in the past two decades, he's been ranked among the top five brokers 15 times — outpacing most rivals.

“I would stack our resume up against anyone in the industry,” Thomas says. “When you look at our results, over many years, it's hard not to choose us.”

Clients agree.

“Deron really went to bat for us,” says John Sparks, owner of Cool Spaces Storage LLC, an Alabama-based company that develops climate-controlled self-storage facilities.

“I think anytime you can get a specialist, they know the inner workings of things better than a general practitioner. And with a smaller company, there's often more drive,” he adds. “Sometimes, with a bigger company, you can get lost in the shuffle. And Deron, he knows that market frontwards and backwards.”

Sparks became frustrated in his search for a suitable Gulf Coast building to buy and was about to give up when a friend referred him to Thomas, who suggested a pair of buildings totaling 46,000 square feet near Tyrone Square Mall.

He also has the ability to develop additional space on an adjacent four acres.

“The buildings and the site ended up being perfect for me and my company,” he says.

Paul Rose, president of Toronto-based Androcan Inc., a holding company, had a similar experience with Thomas' firm.

“Deron goes the extra mile for you always,” Rose says. “He essentially became our partner in Florida, and being in Canada, we really wanted someone we could trust down in Florida.
He provided a level of service I don't think we would have gotten from a bigger brokerage company.”

It hasn't always been that way, though.

Just out of college, Thomas was a St. Louis Cardinals' baseball prospect when a broken hand led him to a sales job with a beer distributor. Passed over for a promotion he felt he deserved, Thomas reached out to a friend at CB Commercial Real Estate Group.

He, in turn, put Thomas in touch with G.T. Cozad, one of St. Louis' top commercial brokers, who had just opened his own shop there, focusing on industrial real estate. Thomas became one of 14 associates at the Cozad Group.

His first year, at age 29, he made $2,500. His wife, a nurse, supported the couple while Thomas plugged away.

“It was very tenuous there for awhile, very tough,” Thomas says. “But it was also good experience. I learned the value of market knowledge, and the value of becoming an expert in something.”

By year three, Thomas had hit the equivalent of a commercial real estate home run, when he sold a manufacturing plant and collected a $113,000 commission.

That success got the notice of Cushman & Wakefield, which came calling in 1989.

But Thomas saw economic storm clouds forming; St. Louis was shrinking, and a recession was looming. In 1992, he relocated to Florida and eventually rejoined Cushman & Wakefield in its Tampa office.

Being the relative newcomer, though, meant Thomas would have to farm Pinellas County, an area known more for smaller, so-called “flex” projects.

Most industrial brokers were drawn to the East Tampa area and the Interstate 4 corridor, a swath populated by mammoth distribution centers and large land deals where agents could make big commissions executing a few select deals.

Thomas preferred Pinellas, though. There was less competition, for one, and flex buildings often commanded higher rental rates. He'd spend the next six years honing his expertise at Cushman & Wakefield before venturing out on his own.

The impetus there came when Gary Harrod, a former Trammell Crow Co. executive who'd started his own development company, called Thomas to lease a new, multibuilding project he was constructing.

In all, Harrod Properties would build 300,000 square feet on the 15 acres it had purchased.

Through the years, Thomas says he developed a “proprietary database” with knowledge he's gleaned from doing deal after deal, a data set enhanced by the development of the internet.

“The internet really leveled the playing field for us,” Thomas says.

He also differentiated his nascent firm by investing heavily in direct marketing mailers to potential clients — a tool many competitors gave up on when online marketing and email became prevalent a decade or so ago.

“It's not cheap, but it works, and it's helped set us apart,” Thomas says.

Still, he realizes commercial real estate remains at its heart a relationship-driven business.

“We're still out talking to people one-on-one,” he says.

Industrial Realty's continued success prompted Thomas' son, Tyler, to join the firm in 2014, after earning a law degree from Florida State University.

“I realized the law wasn't all it was cracked up to be,” says the younger Thomas, 28.

Even so, his law education has helped with contracts and critical thinking about real estate. His father is helping fill in some blanks, too.

This year, spurred on by repeat business, referrals from existing clients, a recent 124,000-square-foot lease renewal for shopping network HSN and other deals, Thomas says Industrial
Realty had its best first-half ever. He declines to provide transactional volume or revenue, however.

“I still enjoy the hunt, and it's a numbers game, which I like,” Thomas says.

“And I think we compete very well because of our history.”

Industrial Realty Solutions' Keys to Success
1. Focus
2. Market knowledge
3. A proven reputation
4. Personalized service
5. Ability to be nimble
6. Hard work
7. Specialized marketing