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You're correct. There's a handful of shops here and the ones that do have a presence are pretty small and very lean. I have lived here for many years and work for one of the firms I am talking about. Lmk if you have any specific questions.
Are you from the area originally? Are most people you work with from the area or go to Florida schools for undergrad? Do you come across many people from gateway markets who lateraled into the market at certain points in their career?
And I guess semi-related but if you were coming from a gateway market with a few years of experience and a remote acquisitions job to rely on for a year or 2, how would you go about breaking into the market? Is it worth looking into Florida grad schools (MSRE/D, MBA)?
The only one I've heard of is Strategic Property Partners (https://spprealestate.com/) from their Water Street project (https://waterstreettampa.com/)
Partnership between Bill Gates' family office and the owner of the Tampa Lightning? Interesting stuff
The project looks incredible. They were hiring a lot maybe 2 years ago and I almost submitted an application.
There are a lot of national developers operating in Florida, thus you will find regional offices of varying sizes (whether they are in Tampa, Orlando, or Miami/Ft. Lauderdale). There are also major homebuilding and master planned community developers there. Commercial development more limited, but lots of very strong local/regional firms. Debartolo is one that comes to mind (really a national firm, HQ in Tampa), Sembler is another.
Florida has a ton of development activity and deals, literally one of the hottest markets in the US, and the I-4 corridor is one of the hottest parts of Florida. I used to work in Florida, I know tons of people with successful real estate careers working out of the state (including Tampa, but I've never lived there). Just don't expect the firms to get much talk on WSO, this is more a primary market focused community.
Thanks for the reply. I think I like a lot of people are attracted to Florida for the cost of living factors and I definitely agree that the market is on fire, just want to make sure I can get in on the action as an outsider. Do you find that Orlando has more to offer with regards to Tampa? South Florida isn't really my jam.
I know more people in Orlando personally, but I think Tampa may have more real estate employment. From a development standpoint, those markets are so close, people tend to work them both a lot of the time. Tampa has more general finance for sure.
Feel free to PM me if you want more insight.
Ben Mallah baby! Look him up on YouTube.
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