Franklin Street scored with three agents on the Power Brokers list, Chad Rupp for office leasing and Brian Bern and Ryan Derriman for retail leasing. The company, founded in 2006, also was ranked among the top sales and leasing firms. In 2015, Franklin Street completed $150 million in lease deals — including 87 retail transactions — and sold more than $300 million worth of commercial property on its way to generating more than $20 million in revenue.
Bern says market forces and timing boosted Franklin Street last year, especially on retail deals.
“Retailer demand that began in 2014 continued in 2015,” Bern says. “Landlords were reasonable in making deals with tenants, and there seemed to be a confluence of factors that contributed to success: There was confidence, demand for growth and an urgency among tenants and landlords alike to grab opportunities as they were presented.”
Bern’s top deal in 2015 was with teen retailer Five Below, which went into a redeveloped former garden center space in the Cortez Plaza East, in Bradenton, while Derriman worked to revamp the 100,000-square-foot Ovation retail center in Davenport and reverse a vacancy rate of 55%. Today, the center is fully leased. Rupp, meanwhile, had his top deal with Vology, in Clearwater. The company took down 59,514 square feet in the Bay Vista Office Park for its corporate headquarters.
