NEWPORT BEACH, CA-Thomas Company was launched Monday as a privately held commercial real estate firm by one of the nation's leading net lease investment brokers, Jeffrey Thomas. Thomas Company will serve individual and institutional investors, private equity funds, REITs and developers throughout the United States, helping them to execute transactions in the complex and growing single tenant, net leased investment marketplace. Real Capital Analytics estimates that these transactions constituted a $31 billion sector during 2012.

During his 15 years in commercial real estate, Thomas completed more than $4.2 billion in single-tenant transactions. Most recently, he was senior managing director, Net Leased Investments, at HFF. Previously, he was senior vice president with CBRE and a founding member of the company's national net leased investment group. As a recognized authority in the sector, Thomas frequently speaks at net lease conferences and is cited as a net lease market expert in real estate media.

“The net lease sector has been very attractive for many years and appears to be gaining the interest of many newcomers of late,” Thomas says. “The current low-interest rate environment has made it increasingly difficult for investors to obtain yield in traditional investment vehicles. Net leased investments' relative ease of ownership and highly accessible debt financing are enabling investors to deploy capital efficiently and we expect that volumes in 2013 may exceed $40 billion. We are seeing daily examples of sidelined capital entering the net lease space, as it becomes a mature and accepted asset class that performs well for both institutional and individual investors alike.”