Man of the land

Had a few more sales broken his way at the Irwin Yacht & Marine Corp. in the 1970s, Bruce Erhardt might never have considered a more terrestrial occupation.

But after his father introduced him to a commercial real estate broker at J.L. Hearin, Erhardt cast off from the boat business to focus on industrial deals — just months before brokerage Cushman & Wakefield bought the firm.

Settling in with a new firm and a new job, Erhardt came across officials from the predecessor of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, who were searching for a site for a new lab in Florida.

Could Erhardt help them locate a site?

“So I put that deal together and I learned over time. Things just fell into place,” says Erhardt, 67, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield's entire land practice group in North America.

Today, Erhardt is among a handful of real estate agents along the Gulf Coast considered a pre-eminent land broker by fellow agents, property owners and users alike. In all, he has sold more than 30,000 acres with a transactional volume exceeding $1 billion.

Since 1993, he has been named the Florida Gulfcoast Commercial Association of Realtors' top producer for specialty land deals 11 times, placing second in another six years.

In the Tampa area, he and competitor Bill Eshenbaugh have for decades dominated commercial land sales the way Michael Jordan once reigned over basketball courts.

“In the land business, you need to be a chameleon to be successful,” Erhardt says. “You have to follow the product and you have to move amongst the product.”

From the lab deal, Erhardt branched out to handle office deals, tracts for retail strip centers, hotel properties, suburban apartment sites and residential subdivisions. These days he works every real estate sector save for golf courses and self-storage facilities.

And while he specialized in land deals, Erhardt soon learned he needed to have a working knowledge of every type of commercial real estate.

“I had to get to know what the numbers are for everything to be effective,” he says. “I found I was pretty good at sizing up the big picture, too. I developed the ability to both be on the ground and at the 30,000-foot level simultaneously.”

Erhardt's career got a boost in the mid-1980s, when suburban business parks began to sprout and the National Association of Office and Industrial Parks took root for developers, brokers and other industry participants to provide best practices and standards for development.

He also notes he was helped by the deregulation of the savings and loan industry, which led thrifts flush with cash to cut in some cases ambitious and poorly underwritten real estate loans.

But what has boosted Erhardt the most, he and others contend, is his integrity and an ability to genuinely connect with people.

“It seems like a no-brainer, but honesty is so important. There are brokers out there who, everything they say, you have to divide by three to get an actual number. You just can't believe them.”

He's also put a premium on not burning bridges.

“Relationships are key,” Erhardt says. “At the end of the day, this is a relationship business.”

Competitors acknowledge Erhardt's prowess, as well.

“He does a good job for his clients,” says Eshenbaugh, whose Eshenbaugh Land Co. is Erhardt's most formidable competitor in the Tampa Bay area. “He puts together good materials, and he makes it a point to know just about everyone. He's now trading, as I am, off 35-year relationships.

“Oftentimes, he's dealing with the second and even third generation of a client or family, and they come back because they know there was integrity in the deal and they had such a great experience.”

When Erhardt's two daughters were born, Eshenbaugh sent them gifts as a testament of the two brokers' enduring relationship -- albeit often on opposite sides of a deal.

While much has changed about the business since Erhardt first started brokering land deals, at least one critical component hasn't.

“I still have to work hard, starting at 7:30 a.m., often six days a week,” he says.

In a world where data analytics often drives intelligence, Erhardt still does most of his own research. His quarterly “Land Market Overview” goes beyond numbers and data with context, common sense and educated opinion and is considered a must-read for commercial buyers and sellers alike.

Erhardt still maintains a passion for boats, too — decades after trading vessels for vassals.

“But I'm not ready to ride off into the sunset — yet.”

- K.L. McQuaid