POWER BROKERS: Lee & Associates

Lee & Associates, a national commercial real estate firm with more than 50 offices across the U.S., dominated the Power Brokers' Industrial Leasing Brokers category for 2015, capturing four of 13 slots.

Agents Derek L. Bornhorst, Robert Johnston, Jerry Messonnier and Bob White all made the cut, according to CoStar.

The company was also listed as a top leasing firm overall for the Southwest Florida market.

“The best thing about 2015 to me was that the trend continued of prices stabilizing and increasing from the dark days of the past decade,” says Messonnier, Lee & Associates' Fort Myers-Naples office president

“We've had steady increases and we're now getting back to a point where users are buying properties rather than just opportunistic investors,” he adds.

“We haven't gotten back to the peak of the past decade, though, and I'm glad for that because those numbers were just not sustainable in many cases, not realistic from a lease rate or a construction cost standpoint. I think we're back now to a fair and steady market.”

Messonnier cites Intelliflex in Fort Myers, a 69-unit, three-building flex industrial project, as evidence of the market's rebound. In 2015, Lee agents sold 67 of the properties' units on behalf of a Michigan-based owner, many to end users in construction-related trades, for between $65 and $75 per square foot, he says.