Exclusive: JLL ramps up Tampa retail brokerage as market heats up

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer

Reporter-Tampa Bay Business Journal

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As Tampa Bay's retail real estate market heats up, one national brokerage firm is adding retail brokers to its office here.

A team of brokers from Retail Advisors is joining the Tampa office of JLL. Retail Advisors founder Andy Carlson will be a vice president with JLL; Drew Carlson andVanessa Perez join JLL as associates.

It's a milestone for JLL's Tampa office, as the company previously served retail clients in the Bay region from offices in Orlando and South Florida. The move ties into JLL's national effort to ramp up its retail platform, but it's a particularly interesting moment in Tampa Bay. Retailers are in expansion mode here, and there's very limited space available in the hottest areas— making brokerage and advisory services more important than ever.

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"We've been waiting for the right time to round out our Tampa client service offerings with retail brokerage," Doug Irmscher, Florida market leader for JLL, said in a written statement. "And now we're seeing renewed interest from retailers and investors to enter and capitalize on the market's upswing."

Carlson's team brings with it a number of household retail names, including RUE 21 and Shoe Carnival in Florida, and Men's Warehouse, Michaels, Gap, Outback Steakhouse, Pier 1 Imports, Nordstrom Rack and Shoe Carnival in Puerto Rico.

"Our office has been dominant on office, industrial and property management," said Brent Miller, managing director of JLL's Tampa office. "And a lot of our clients have needed retail services."

A number of new retailers — among them Sprouts Farmers Market, Earth Fare and Cabela's Inc. — are looking to expand here. That's a challenge in Tampa, where less than 6 percent of all retail space across the Bay region is vacant. After years of no new construction, the market has gotten tight enough that developers are starting to look at redevelopment, Carlson said.

"The development pipeline been nonexistent for several years," Carlson said, "and now developers are looking at redevelopment."