Prominent Lakeland commercial real estate firm grows

Saunders Real Estate, a top Polk County CRE firm best known for conservation easements, is expanding into Tampa, with a new office on Westshore Boulevard.

By Louis Llovio
| 8:00 a.m. August 16, 2025
| 2 Free Articles Remaining!

Dean Saunders introduces Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson at the start of the Lay of The Land, Florida Land Conference at Bonnet Springs in Lakeland.

Tampa Bay-Lakeland

Lakeland-based Saunders Real Estate is expanding into Tampa, with a new office on Westshore Boulevard.

The office will specialize in commercial and land transactions — from industrial, office and retail properties to agricultural, recreational and development land.

The office will be run by regional managing director Matt Christian, who will oversee a team of 12.

The firm, in a statement, says the move is “designed to meet skyrocketing demand for land investment opportunities, commercial property leasing and strategic commercial real estate consulting in one of Florida’s fastest growing markets.”

Saunders has been in growth mode, with its land division expanding into North Carolina earlier this year, joining Georgia, Arkansas and Alabama in non-Florida locations.

Locally, Saunders is one of the preeminent commercial real estate firms in the state.

Dean Saunders founded it in 1986 after four years in the State Legislature. In 2010, Saunders teamed up with Gary Ralston and R. Todd Dantzler to form a sister company, Saunders Ralston Dantzler.

The two eventually merged.

The company joined SVN International in 2017 and became independent again earlier this year. (Dean Saunders is known for his pioneering work on conservation easements.)

author

Louis Llovio

Louis Llovio is the deputy managing editor at the Business Observer. Before going to work at the Observer, the longtime business writer worked at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Maryland Daily Record and for the Baltimore Sun Media Group. He lives in Tampa.