Bold brokers

Commercial real estate executive Scott Dobbins discovered a quirk in the market right around the time leasing business began to dry up about two years ago.

The managing partner and founder of Tampa-based Gulf Coast Commercial, which focuses on the retail sector, Dobbins found people more often sought to sell their business, not lease space for it. Yet Dobbins thought the business brokerage industry in Tampa, and on the entire Gulf Coast, actually, was a haphazard muddle that lacked sophistication. That, Dobbins believed, presented an opportunity to capture market share.

So Dobbins and his partners launched their own business brokerage operation. Now Dobbins says Gulf Coast Commercial can assist with three phases of running a business: Help lease space for a startup, help find more space for expansion and help set up an exit plan and sell the company. Says Dobbins: “We are the only firm on the west coast of Florida that I know of that has successfully merged those three things.”