As the 2024 Year Ends my thoughts turn to our company’s history, our learning curve and where we are today. It has put us in a unique position to use our 54 years of experience combined with today’s digital age to bring real value to our clients.

We started in a paper centric world and learned the lessons the hard way, Typewriters, carbon paper and white out. We went to the courthouse to Xerox copies of buildings and site information. We had no computers or cell phones. Just carried quarters for the pay phones. Information on the Atlanta market was all that was within our personal reach. We could drive to meet owners and tenants and get building information. There were no other databases.

Over the years we have transacted tens of thousands of leases and sales in the industrial, office and retail sectors. We dealt with all the issues one could encounter and memorialized the lessons learned into our practice.

Today we are fully into the digital world and the benefits are huge. We have instant data to every market in the United States and nearby countries. We can now do leases and sales in every US city and state. Data that was difficult to get in the past is instantly available through our data systems. The real estate issues have not changed but need a more sophisticated approach that only experience can provide. We have gone from 1-page contracts to 50 or 100 pages. The 3-page lease is now routinely 50 pages or more. We now use digital forms and make changes as each transaction is different.

We have built up relationships all over the United States and deal with companies and investors from all parts of the world. Recent transactions have been with clients from Mainland China, India, Africa, Vietnam, South Korea, Europe, Isreal and the Middle East. The digital world reaches everywhere. Our marketing channels instantly go all over the world creating a broad base of clients and prospects.

What has not changed are the relationships and experience needed today. It is not unusual to handle ten to fifty transactions for one client. We have clients from 40 years ago. We have one lease where we have done 19 amendments over 36 years. One of our largest Property Management clients is located in Mainland China. We recently completed an industrial lease in Calgary, Canada. Our investment group recently sold retails centers in Michigan, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama, as well as Georgia.

We have years of working relationships with financial institutions, law firms, accountants, architects, engineers, contractors and can bring to any transaction where needed. Our property management group has managed over 50 million square feet over the years, so we know all the property operating issues our owners, tenants and investors encounter.

Any advantage of size and number of office locations that our larger competitors used to have has now disappeared. [Our Nationwide digital information data services that are detailed, accurate, current, and updated and our longer tenured senior staff has shifted the advantage back to us.] We can instantly access every commercial building in the United States from our desktop, or even mobile devices. We access all the information of the buildings and local market conditions, rental rates, pricing, photos, plans, comparables, availability, current status, and owners contact information. This allows us to work thousands of miles away, the same as projects next door.

We are most blessed by the digital age, our company history, our people, and the country where we live.

Don Perry, CEO