by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
When you get three people in an office together who have over 90 years of experience in commercial real estate collectively, you’re going to get decisive answers.
At Lockwood Freeland, a small, full-service commercial leasing, sales, management, and consulting firm located on Atlantic Boulevard, they know the projects they want and they know the projects they don’t want.
“We’re not flashy,” said Bob Freeland, the executive vice president who has been working with Barbara, his wife and vice president, and Jack Lockwood, president of the firm, on-and-off for many years. Lockwood and the Freelands formed their present alliance about three years ago.
Lockwood Freeland’s niche has traditionally been turn-around properties that have been neglected or are run down.
“We’ll come in and do whatever it takes to make it work,” said Bob Freeland. “Traditionally, that means our customers are smaller firms who need exposure and ‘street visibility’ to gain momentum and increase their customer base.
“We’ll get calls from clients who need 5,000 square feet and all they can find anywhere is 2,200. We do a good job of getting our clients into a space where people can see their logo from the street.”
That means Lockwood Freeland monitors the industrial market on the Westside, the office market in Arlington and industrial and office properties on the Southside.
They are also big proponents of office condos in Baymeadows and on J. Turner Butler Boulevard, which is where they think the market is heading.
“But we believe in individualism,” said Bob Freeland. “So we look for properties that serve our clients individual needs. Many times that means greater exposure from the street as opposed to somewhere you see only the roof tops.”
Lockwood Freeland oversees about 800,000 square feet in Jacksonville. They are about to sellout a new office condo in Baymeadows, but they like to keep a low profile about deals until they go through, noting that it’s a lot easier to get burned when you don’t.
“Some guys like to throw around releases about breaking ground on new properties before they know if they’re going to get sold,” said Lockwood. “We’ve been around long enough to know that nothing is guaranteed.”
And Bob Freeland said that while they often go head-to-head with the big commercial real estate firms such as CB Richard Ellis, their pitch is more personal attention for their clients.
“About half of our business comes from property owners that are out of the city — from Boston, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Maryland,” said Barbara Freeland.
And Bob Freeland said the reason why those clients choose their firm is because they realize that real estate is a local situation.
“They want people who focus exclusively on Jacksonville so their opinions are not diluted,’ he said. “And we give them as much or as little ongoing support as they want.”
And that’s one of the aspects of running a small office that the team at Lockwood Freeland likes the most — the flexibility.
“We’re not bound by any rigid formulas for what percentage of ownership one client might want in a space,” said Barbara Freeland. If somebody calls and says they want 35 percent, that’s fine with us.”
While other commercial real estate firms continue to be courted by large international conglomerates, Lockwood Freeland resists the temptation.
“We did a deal with a major national firm a few years ago and it was a debacle,” said Bob Freeland. “We’d rather maintain autonomy and put together deals the way we want.”
He said they’ve weighed the costs and benefits of working with franchisers and they don’t think it’s worth it.
“It’s expensive and you have less freedom,” said Bob Freeland. “Each transaction is individual and should be handled differently.”
Lockwood Freeland has nine employees working in the office and on site at office buildings they manage. They said the building engineers and vendors who handle everyday maintenance, landscaping, and office management, are their best salespeople.
“They’re really the face guys on the street,” said Lockwood. “They are telling us what our client needs are day-to-day and reporting about which properties are are running smoothly and which aren’t.”
And Lockwood Freeland wants to stay local, saying that they’ve been tempted to take on projects outside Jacksonville, but want to preserve the integrity of their company, which means focusing on business here.
Lockwood Freeland plans to continue riding the growth wave in Jacksonville, always mindful of the cyclical nature of real estate. Having seen the city evolve from the 1970s, Bob Freeland said he has been consistently impressed with how sophisticated the commercial real estate market gets.
“Our city just doesn’t get hit as hard as other cities in the South when things get bad,” he said. “And we’ve seen rough times but we’ve gotten through it.”