BOCA RATON, FL-Another fledgling commercial real estate firm has opened its doors in a cut-throat South Florida market. Brother-and-sister team Jay Whelchel and Kristy Whelchel Hartofilis just launched Whelchel Partners Real Estate Services. The new firm specializes in commercial leasing, property management, investment sales, and other customized services.
The Whelchels previously worked as investment sales and leasing specialists at Flagler Real Estate Services. During their tenure at Flagler, the duo sold and leased more than $200 million in commercial real estate. The Whelchel’s strategy is two-fold: personalized, local service.
“Our philosophy is all real estate is local,” Hartofilis, president of Whelchel Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. “We are entrenched in the Boca Raton and South Palm Beach market. We want to stay local and spread out our wings from what we know best—our own back yard. We’ll work with property owners to find creative solutions, whether it’s more Internet marketing, different approaches to property management, or some other solution.”
Indeed, Whelchel Partners aspires to bring a wave of energy, new ideas and technology-based marketing to an industry that is typically considered traditional, stale and rigid. But with the competition rising in South Florida’s commercial market, can a brother-sister team without star power name recognition drive millions through the door?
With commercial real estate brokers smelling the blood in the distressed real estate sector, the CCIM Institute reports a record number of commercial real estate professionals are earning the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designation. A total of 936 commercial real estate and allied professionals earned the designation in 2010, a 59% increase over 2009. The total number of practitioners holding the designation is now 9,736, an increase of 17% since 2005.
There are also other new firms in the market. In August, Baltimore Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis launched commercial real estate firm L52 Realty and opened his first office near the Whelchel’s in Boca Raton. RL52 Realty is a full service commercial real estate advisory firm, helping clients buy or sell, lease and manage properties in opportunistic metropolitan markets.
Hartofilis is bullish about her new firm’s ability to compete. She says when client work with Whelchel Partners, they are working with principals of the firm—and principals who understand the unique needs of small businesses. As she sees it, her biggest challenge is keeping up with the opportunity. But Jack McCabe, principal of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach, tells GlobeSt.com that small new firms may struggle, despite the growing opportunities for distressed real estate.
“It’s a difficult time to be a start-up right now unless you are very established name in the Florida marketplace and you have an extremely well-established list of clients that you work fairly exclusively with,” McCabe says. “You are competing with the largest firms in the industry, which all have offices here. Some of the top talent in the country is located here. For those who are unknown in the marketplace, it’s going to be an uphill battle.”
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