Market notes: Gary Tasman

GARY TASMAN
Executive Director, Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Property Southwest Florida

Tasman, 54, founded the Fort Myers affiliate of Cushman & Wakefield seven years ago. He has has been involved in the region's commercial real estate market since 1994.

I'd characterize the commercial real estate market in Lee County as: One that is gradually improving, and lately that rate of improvement has been increasing. The wealth effect in Collier (County) is a large part of what drives the commercial market in Lee County. Collier is well known nationwide, it's a wealthy enclave, but Lee is the bigger population center. So there's a symbiotic relationship there. The fundamentals that drive this market are basically threefold: tourism, residential growth and, in turn, related commercial growth. And of late officials here have been working to expand the economic base, to focus more on higher wage job creation. Companies like Gartner, Alta Resources and Hertz are the result.