Niche player

Daren Thomas knows all about the prowess a big commercial real estate services firm like a CBRE or JLL can bring to the table. Before founding Industrial Realty Solutions in 1999, he worked with one of the industry's big guns, Cushman & Wakefield.

But in the years since Thomas broke from Cushman to create Industrial Realty, he says he's learned the formula for carving out a niche and succeeding against better capitalized companies with rosters of agents.

“My philosophy is, do one thing and do it really, really well,” says Thomas, 57, Industrial Realty's president.