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Ron Struthers was in his mid-30s when General Development Corp. transferred its successful sales manager from his native Canada to Port Charlotte to close single-family home deals, the start of a career that eventually led him into commercial real estate.
More than three decades later, Struthers is among the top tier of commercial real estate brokers in Charlotte County. He's an agent who juggles dozens of listings.
Last year alone, Struthers completed 37 deals with a transactional volume of $13.5 million, ranking him among the top commercial agents statewide with Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT.
“It's a lot of juggling,” says Struthers. “But to me, the business has always been just a mindset. I tend to carry between 50 and 55 listings at a time, and 55 listings is crazy, but I'm crazy.
But my whole focus is not on commissions or number of listings, but on service to the customer. I've walked away from deals I felt didn't make sense, even though I could have made money.”
Struthers decided to shift from residential sales to commercial brokerage work after concluding the Charlotte County market had few commercial agents.
“Less competition that way,” he says.
Leveraging community contacts made while at GDC with the Kiwanis Club and other civic groups, Struthers began knocking on doors and researching land records, occupational licenses, plats, maps and other property appraiser data.
A friend who owned Busy Bee Cabinets and was planning on moving the business to North Port gave him his first commercial listing. He found a printing company to acquire Busy Bee's 12,000-square-foot building within six weeks.
Shortly thereafter, Struthers met a fellow agent who introduced him to the CCIM Institute, a group that provides education to commercial agents to further their knowledge base. Less than 7% of all commercial agents nationwide pass the classes required to receive a CCIM designation.
Struthers obtained his in 18 months.
Today, Struthers is president of CCIM's Southwest Florida district, which comprises a five-county region including Charlotte and Collier counties.
Clients say Struthers is detail oriented and works hard on their behalf.
“He's not just what I call a lister — an agent who gets a property listing and then sits back and waits for a tenant or a buyer to come along,” says Bob Cheyney, owner of Cheyney Enterprises, which controls commercial space in Charlotte County.
“He really works for his clients. He's always targeting the market and going out and looking.”
Struthers planned to move from Charlotte to Sarasota County in 2004, but when Hurricane Charley hit and the economic recession set in, Struthers found himself back in his old haunts.
“Hurricane Charley took out a lot of commercial buildings in Charlotte, and a lot of space was empty,” he says. “I knew a lot of people who wanted to get into space there, contractors especially, and people who wanted to sell their properties rather than re-do them. At the same time, warehouses and flex spaces were filling because every contractor in the world wanted to be there then.”
Struthers worked for the next six years with the CBRE affiliate in Fort Myers, leaving when the company jettisoned the national flag and became CRE Consultants.
He thought briefly about opening his own company, but concluded that corporate name recognition was worthwhile for the Charlotte market, and he didn't want to have to focus on administrative tasks.
“I'm a pretty good salesman,” Struthers says. “I'm good at the marketing end of the business, so I decided I should stick to my strengths.”
The conclusion led him to Coldwell Banker.
Today, he contends the Charlotte market is recovering, and that site selectors and national retailers and developers are once again scouring properties for sites. Redevelopment is occurring, too.
And despite the renewed activity, Struthers doesn't foresee another crash.
But as Struthers enters his seventh decade — he turns 70 later this month — he's looking to slow down. To that end, he's brought on a pair of younger agents, Natalie Rodriguez and Aaron Kessinger, to train.
“My goal is to teach them all the good habits of commercial real estate: How to list a property, how to keep a listing, how to effectively market,” he says.
And perhaps not surprisingly, part of Struthers' deal with Kessinger and Rodriguez is they each have to work toward getting their CCIM designation.
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