Industrial Insights · Atlanta & Southeast Industrial Supply Chain
From Hall of Fame College QB to Principal at 30: Scaling an Industrial Brokerage Team
What is driving metro Atlanta past 900M+ SF while data centers bid 10x for industrial land?
What is driving metro Atlanta past 900 million square feet of industrial inventory while data centers bid up to 10x traditional industrial land prices?
Willie Candler, Principal at Lee & Associates Atlanta, joins Justin Smith, SIOR, on Industrial Insights. A four-year starting quarterback and Athletics Hall of Fame inductee at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Willie entered commercial real estate six and a half years ago as the first hire in Lee Atlanta's research associate program and now manages a 5,000,000+ square foot institutional landlord portfolio alongside a multi-market Southeast industrial outdoor storage (IOS) client. We trace how hiring Dan Wagner from CBRE accelerated Lee Atlanta's market intelligence and how Willie covers the Northwest Atlanta, I-20 West, and I-75 North corridors up to Calhoun, Dalton, and Chattanooga.
Willie also breaks down how the Port of Savannah's river deepening and Georgia's Northeast and Northwest inland rail ports save 45 minutes of highway drayage through Atlanta, how Hyundai and Rivian are reshaping Southeast automotive manufacturing, why million-square-foot leases from Nike, TikTok, and Google tightened the bulk market, why 9 out of 10 older buildings lack fenced trailer storage, how 'the Buford jump' pushed rents from $6-$7 NNN into the teens and low-$20s NNN, and how hiring a junior broker plus continuous pipeline backfilling compounded his business into the Lee Atlanta partnership at age 30.
Five takeaways from the conversation
- Starting in research builds a ground-up database advantageWillie Candler joined Lee & Associates Atlanta six and a half years ago as the first hire in its research associate program, learning every corridor and property before moving into full production and making Principal at age 30.
- Savannah's channel deepening and inland rail ports reshape Atlanta drayageContainers arriving at the Port of Savannah can move by rail directly to Georgia's Northeast and Northwest inland ports, saving roughly 45 minutes of highway drayage through metro Atlanta.
- Data centers bid up to 10x industrial land values while feeding warehouse demandWhere high-capacity power and fiber intersect across metro Atlanta, data center developers pay up to 10x traditional industrial land prices, while pipe, HVAC, and electrical contractors lease surrounding industrial buildings.
- Big-box absorption rebounded while older stock lacks trailer parkingMillion-square-foot leases from Nike, TikTok, and Google compressed bulk availability across Atlanta, while 9 out of 10 older buildings lack the fenced trailer parking modern logistics tenants require.
- Continuous pipeline backfilling and team leverage prevent post-closing dry spellsGuarding your calendar, continuously backfilling during major fee runs, and hiring a trusted junior broker allow a three-person team to manage a 5M+ SF institutional portfolio without stalling.
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Resources mentioned and visual sources
- Georgia Ports Authority: Port of Savannah Garden City Terminal, Blue Ridge Connector (Northeast Georgia), and Appalachian Regional Port (Northwest Georgia).
- Lee & Associates Atlanta: Industrial brokerage, research, and institutional landlord representation across Metro Atlanta and the Southeast.
Clips and episode trailer (15)
Episode trailer: Inside Atlanta's 900M+ SF industrial market
From West Georgia Hall of Fame quarterback to industrial brokerage
Starting at the bottom in Lee & Associates Atlanta's research program
How Lee Atlanta recruited CBRE research leader Dan Wagner
Covering Northwest Atlanta: I-20 West and I-75 North to Chattanooga
Port of Savannah channel deepening and Georgia's inland rail ports
Hyundai, Rivian, and the Southeast automotive manufacturing corridor
Atlanta's 900M+ SF market and data centers paying 10x for land
Bulk market rebound: million-SF leases from Nike, TikTok, and Google
Why 9 of 10 older buildings lack trailer parking and Atlanta's infill myth
The Buford rent jump and why owner-users pay premiums for vacant buildings
Protecting your calendar and continuously backfilling the deal pipeline
Hiring a junior broker and growing the whole fee pie
Managing a 5M+ SF institutional portfolio and Southeast IOS growth
Making Principal at 30 and turning a live-in triplex into a $500K 1031
Conversation transcript
Justin Smith
Welcome back everybody. Another episode of the Industrial Insights Podcast. I have Willie Candler with me today out of Atlanta. Lee & Associates Principal. It's a good sound that rolls right off the tongue. he's one of our fast growing partners in our office. And Atlanta is a big office with a lot of producers that are doing a ton of work. And I'm always impressed to see what you guys have cooking. And I always am impressed by your marketing, like yours personally and then your office. You guys do such a great job of being like a super professional and putting out fun stuff that's really helpful and like it helps the brand lift off. So thanks
Willie Candler
Thank
Justin Smith
for
Willie Candler
you.
Justin Smith
joining me, Willie.
Willie Candler
Absolutely, Justin. Thanks for having me. Excited to dive into to the real estate world and see what's going on.
Justin Smith
Yeah, and rumor has it, Hall of Fame quarterback from the University of West Georgia with the school's
Willie Candler
Thank
Justin Smith
all
Willie Candler
you.
Justin Smith
time leader in passing yards and touchdowns. Is this true?
Willie Candler
You know, I paid the right people during my time there, so they gave me that award. But yes, that was true. Had a great career there. You can see I have the number seven back there. got to fortunate was to start all four years after redshirting there and yeah, we had a lot of talent and always went deep into the playoffs. So it was a great career and had a lot of fun.
Justin Smith
Yeah, that's the best. I love it. I love a lot of the folks that come out of sports that get into brokerage. Like it serves you well what you've learned along the way.
Willie Candler
Yeah, no question. Discipline, you know, how to communicate with different people as far as backgrounds. You know, I was I'm from Atlanta, heart of Atlanta, and I was, you know, best friends with people from southern Mississippi, you know, southern Florida, just different life stories and to come together as a unit and you know, have the common goal that we were all looking to who achieve. It was a great experience.
Justin Smith
Yeah, and that's what we do on project work.
Willie Candler
That's it.
Justin Smith
you guys have you started this research associate, that's something you guys do that might be a little unique to Atlanta. What's that all about?
Willie Candler
Yeah, so Dave Howard, our president and CEO, he started that I think he started that in the San Diego office initially and then he jumped to the Charleston office or no longer Charleston office, but now he came from there to Atlanta and I was his first junior associate hire at the time and that was when was that? Twenty end of twenty. And so we started the program together and yeah, it was just a great foundational layer that was provided to me at the beginning of my career having no sales experience and strictly just out of college. So I majored in real estate but didn't have much of a you know background in any types of sales environment. So learned the research angle, learned all the data to support what you're talking about, and then got into more of the, you know, the legal LOI process, negotiation process, cold calling, client development, all that good stuff. So it's been a you know it's been a great foundation. It's worked really well for me so far in this young career.
Justin Smith
And then like a research in general, like a your office again does super well in research. So
Willie Candler
Yes.
Justin Smith
you guys set the tone on that I would say.
Willie Candler
Yeah, we're very fortunate. You know, I think that was certainly a point of emphasis for him coming over is like we have to really develop our research into top material that we can provide us as brokers to go out and win more business. 'Cause if you have that the data to support what you're talking about, then you know, it's such a huge advantage. So he went over and hired the head of research for CBRE National, Dan Wagner, and he came over and it was great that Nadia, his wife, was actually already at our firm and worked. she's forgive me, I forget her title, but she is she's the CEO 2.0, let's call her. So it was great for him to come over and he's really reamped our data department and you know we're putting out great thought leadership pieces and every week and really just getting out forefront of our clients and providing them with really great intel and information of what's going on.
Justin Smith
Yeah. I had met with Craig Viergever in your office, so we had a project we were talking about and we went over some of the data and the his ability to then help you have more confidence forecasting what you're about to see, right? That's the biggest
Willie Candler
Absolutely.
Justin Smith
thing that is so difficult for people and to
Willie Candler
Absolutely.
Justin Smith
have an ability to do that a little bit better or with a little more nuance is so helpful.
Willie Candler
Absolutely.
Justin Smith
and then you personally part of your beat is the I twenty. You guys figure out who's walking which beat or it's kind of just based on everybody's talent or where they come from or how did you coming from the West, that was a natural fit?
Willie Candler
Yeah, just being such a large market, I think historically our Lee Atlanta office has been kind of geographically segmented just to you know, you wanna have a focus area so you're the expert of that, you know, that designated sub market. So I joined Billy Snowden a couple of years into the business and he was Northwest I twenty West Heavy. So I
Justin Smith
Okay.
Willie Candler
joined up with him and which was i the synergy was great because yes, my college was out on the west side of Atlanta and you know, I had experience traveling up seventy five north to Calhoun, Dalton just throughout the course of my life. So it just kinda worked out well that it was a familiar, comfortable market for me. And you know, we've been focusing on that area ever since. we're starting to kind of expand our reaches here as things change and we have some older brokers starting to slow down so there's some more opportunity to kind of get out of that. you know, that one focus area. So we're broadening her our horizon a little bit and looking forward to seeing what else we can kinda tap into here.
Justin Smith
Does the port come into play? You guys hear about it? I generally
Willie Candler
At oh
Justin Smith
think
Willie Candler
yeah.
Justin Smith
of like supply
Willie Candler
Absolutely.
Justin Smith
chain decisions and like there are common places that like your part of the state and of the country like lends itself where well for people making certain decisions, much like in Southern California we may have a big population base, but then everyone has to play a different part of the region. So what how's that play into your part?
Willie Candler
Yeah, no, I think it certainly has played into the success that Atlanta has seen all throughout probably twenty nineteen on. I mean COVID happened and you know, post COVID during the kind of the slowdown, it relatively Atlanta was not hit that bad. I think we still kind of churned through and a lot of that was I think it was companies also trying to diversify their port system that they used where they were maybe West Coast heavy with their ports and they're like, you know, there were some strikes going on, I believe, and they're like, well, we don't ever want to be tied up to one singular port where, you know, if it shuts down or slows down, our business hurts from that. So Savannah certainly benefited from a lot of that and they've done a lot of great work to, you know, have development go on down there. I think they at one point and I can't believe I've been doing this for this long now, but they deepened and widened the port
Justin Smith
You got old man
Willie Candler
which
Justin Smith
stories, Willie. Yeah.
Willie Candler
it yeah, it goes by fast. I I'm dating myself as I'm a young thirty year old guy, but you know, they deepened and widened it, which was great to just support the capacity of the TEU coming in and you know, I think our the volume was at a good steady number last month, so all signs are in a good stable place right now.
Justin Smith
They got a lot of big boxes if you look on the map of little white rectangles that weren't there before.
Willie Candler
that's a lot and still coming down there, you know, probably overbuilt for the last couple of years, but I think everyone's still bullish. maybe, you know, with all the macroeconomics going on, developers are a little hesitant to start new projects down there, but until some of that gets absorbed. But I think, you know, overall on a long term thought or long term vision, I think still everyone's pretty comfortable with having a position down there.
Justin Smith
Yeah. And you'll hear people that if they need to move out of Atlanta, like to reach their customers better or to get a bigger box, where else are they most likely to go? Like for us, we just
Willie Candler
Yeah,
Justin Smith
go east
Willie Candler
that's
Justin Smith
'cause we got the ocean. It's pretty simple
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
math. yours is not quite that way.
Willie Candler
Yeah, that's a good question 'cause still to talk about the ports, we have such a great inland port system now where we've got a northeast port, we've got a northwest port, so they can just train up the the containers now and save on those drayage costs. So Yeah. if there's like a one spot, it's hard to say 'cause you've got
Justin Smith
I've
Willie Candler
mountains
Justin Smith
seen some
Willie Candler
north.
Justin Smith
automotive that of that like it goes to Alabama and that was interesting
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
to learn
Willie Candler
Absolutely.
Justin Smith
with John DeCouto of like, okay, what do the auto guys do and
Willie Candler
Absolutely.
Justin Smith
why would you be in Auburn or why would you cross that one line and
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
what's it do to change that decision?
Willie Candler
For sure, and we just want a big manufacturing plant, just announced a big project that's gonna be huge for it's kinda central south Georgia, if you will. And that was a huge win for the state and we're excited to see, you know, I think they're projecting over two thousand jobs that's gonna bring. So that was a huge win for the state. And we've had we've got Rivian, I twenty East, you know, we've got Hyundai and you know, George has been a huge car car hub for the last call it eight years now, with Kemp being kind of in charge of that. So he's done a good job.
Justin Smith
Yeah. And did you guys what's the total market is I thought I had read something that was like nine hundred thousand feet and that seemed larger than I was exp or
Willie Candler
Yeah,
Justin Smith
nine
Willie Candler
so
Justin Smith
hundred million. I was like, My goodness.
Willie Candler
yeah, we're definitely probably mid nine hundreds now, nine
Justin Smith
Scoot
Willie Candler
hundred million.
Justin Smith
over Chicago, yeah.
Willie Candler
That's right. You know, it got a little We took some of they reclassified some of the data centers and pulled out that square footage so it kind of went down in a way. but if you were to loop in kind of all the data centers, you'd certainly be climbing up north towards close to a billion. so it's a booming place.
Justin Smith
I and that's a thing. we missed that boom in though if you go to adjacent markets you'll see like ten of them or you'll see them like compete for land sites that a industrial developer would compete for, would traditionally build on.
Willie Candler
Certainly
Justin Smith
would you
Willie Candler
skew skew the land value numbers, that's for sure.
Justin Smith
Yeah.
Willie Candler
A
Justin Smith
So
Willie Candler
lot of sellers want, you know, 10x what their lands at or what the market market says the land should be, just because the you know, they'll come in and pay astronomical numbers, due to the infrastructure and them being able to get the power capacity to that site. So they'll you know, they'll throw a very large number at it and outbid everyone by a long shot. So you get some of those land sellers that see that and hear about it, they're like, Oh well my site's great for a data center, but there's a lot of steps that go into that, absolutely for sure.
Justin Smith
Yeah, the number of people that have thought that versus the number that have executed is like one in a million.
Willie Candler
Exactly. it's hard to find.
Justin Smith
But now they're telling Willie yesterday's big peak number and that's a problem for everybody. Yeah.
Willie Candler
That's it. Yep. So
Justin Smith
so you've seen him come out of the ground in some trade and then presumably we are either at the peak of that or we're in the first inning, depending on who you ask and where
Willie Candler
Yeah,
Justin Smith
that goes.
Willie Candler
it's without getting too political, Georgia just had our governor's race where you know, we had a Republican and now we just selected a Democrat and one of her major focuses is going to sign an executive order to halt all data center projects. So I think that'll be interesting to see how that affects because it is a lot of our business right now, maybe not so much the data centers themselves, but a data center adjacent companies that's you know, that's
Justin Smith
Sure. In the supply
Willie Candler
Suppliers.
Justin Smith
chain.
Willie Candler
Yeah, exactly.
Justin Smith
yeah.
Willie Candler
pipe supply, HVAC, electrical, all that. They're there are a lot of the tenants in the market right now. So we'll see kind of how that affects twenty seven as we head in there. 'Cause they've been busy.
Justin Smith
Yeah, that's we don't want we want the show to go on.
Willie Candler
As an industrial
Justin Smith
Yeah.
Willie Candler
broker, I sure do.
Justin Smith
We're searching for growth, yeah, and more
Willie Candler
That's
Justin Smith
leasing demand.
Willie Candler
it.
Justin Smith
leasing demand is what you need to go spec. What's the pipeline Like did we stop building or did we just slow it down?
Willie Candler
Yeah, I think it was slow for the last eighteen months, but you know, we've had our bulk market be absorbed big time this year. I think there's only four existing facilities now around a million feet. And we've got another full four under construction, so we could call it eight million footers around the metro now. you know, we had in it's in just this past quarter, I think Nike, TikTok and Google each sign for a million feet and Google is going bonkers, they're still out for looking for space and that's all data center related. so, you know, that's really good to see 'cause the bulk market has been pretty slow in the last couple of years. So it's certainly the driver of the size range right now.
Justin Smith
Have you done one of these deals yet, Willie? I'm an aspiring
Willie Candler
I don't know if I'd
Justin Smith
million
Willie Candler
be here
Justin Smith
square
Willie Candler
right
Justin Smith
footer,
Willie Candler
now if I
Justin Smith
yeah.
Willie Candler
did one of those. I might be on vacation. No, I have not. I'm looking to get my hands on one, but you know, those are some great hard accounts to find. So just gotta keep knocking on the door.
Justin Smith
No doubt. Yeah. Well you got the product, so they got a place to land. That's half the battle.
Willie Candler
That's it. Absolutely.
Justin Smith
doing some work for a national client in Atlanta that needed trailer storage. We're in the northeast. They're in like a fifty or a sixty and could they could move. their landlord was gonna sell to an institution and
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
then we tried to find buildings with trailer parking and room for a dozen trailers or two dozen trailers and it was
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
super difficult. Like one out of ten maybe. And that one didn't look like it was gonna work for us.
Willie Candler
Yeah,
Justin Smith
So
Willie Candler
I believe it.
Justin Smith
I could see like we don't build those, right? We only build the two hundreds and up or something like that.
Willie Candler
Yeah, I would say, you know, really and it's funny when a when an a developer who's not as in experienced or doesn't have a whole lot of experience in Atlanta comes and says, you know, I'd love for an infill site and I go, Well, those don't exist anymore, right? So that goes to kind of the type of building product that you're talking about, whereas infill is pretty old these days around the metro. So the further you get is where you can tap into more of the newer construction, higher clear, larger truck courts, all of that. So you know, it's hard I had similar story. I was working with a client who was looking for a certain depth on their truck court and it just didn't exist close by where they wanted to be. You know, we needed to go up past Buford, which is thirty, forty-five minutes, no traffic outside of the city. So you know, it's certainly the circle around the metro is continuing to expand year after year.
Justin Smith
Is that where they ended up landing?
Willie Candler
We're at lease and we had to have the hard conversation that we're not gonna find what they wanna find if we wanna go if we if they wanna be where they wanna be. So we were able to
Justin Smith
Yes.
Willie Candler
kind of meet in the middle and you know, I sometimes as a broker you well know this, you just need to set the expectation from the get go and say, Hey guys, you know, this doesn't really exist, so here are our options. So
Justin Smith
Yeah.
Willie Candler
fingers
Justin Smith
It
Willie Candler
crossed.
Justin Smith
yeah, what's the best basket of goods that you can put together for their situation?
Willie Candler
Say hey, I hit on, you know, three out of five big points of emphasis for you. I'll give you a nice bottle of scotch like Justin and we'll be good to go.
Justin Smith
Yes, sir. And then we the other Atlanta one we got was a food producer. We'd done a deal with Troy Wisse in New Jersey buying a building and that was such a great experience. And then it was time to buy here again in the northeast and trying to buy also short on supply, also tough to find, reasonable priced older buildings, and that
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
was kind of its own unique challenge of having someone who's well established, well capitalized, and then not yet willing to make the Buford jump or the proverbial Buford jump of
Willie Candler
Yeah,
Justin Smith
like not
Willie Candler
it's
Justin Smith
having
Willie Candler
a challenge.
Justin Smith
that flexibility or not mentally being prepared to pay the location price along with
Willie Candler
Think
Justin Smith
the dollars and cents.
Willie Candler
that's right. I mean, even you know, if you were gonna buy an institutional building, you might be able to get, you know, just through the daily networking that we do with these institutional groups, they might say, Yeah, we'll sell, but it's gonna be for a premium, right? So it's that's a challenge as a broker to be able to find your client what they need and find it within a their price point basically, you know. So
Justin Smith
Yeah. If we so that's the challenge that's out there. Like with your
Willie Candler
Not an
Justin Smith
press
Willie Candler
easy business. Whoever said it was easy they didn't do a lot of deals.
Justin Smith
Oh, that's after fighting super hard to go get those clients in the first place.
Willie Candler
That's right. Beating
Justin Smith
Yeah.
Willie Candler
your head in the wall.
Justin Smith
Yeah. So you have gone from aspirational to you've hit the reality of being successful in the market and then now it's time to continue to grow and set your sites higher. So
Willie Candler
Right.
Justin Smith
What things where are you at mentally and like what does it take to grow these days and perhaps also more importantly, like what do you need to stop doing in order to achieve that growth?
Willie Candler
Yeah, that's a great question. Many
Justin Smith
Golf
Willie Candler
layers
Justin Smith
is we're not gonna make you stop golfing, that's okay.
Willie Candler
Yeah, many layers to that. I would say now, you know, I I've really started to understand what my time is worth and the type of deals that I want to focus on because what the you know, the payout and what they pay you. And I think sometimes the smaller deals take longer than the larger deals and you're getting, you know, nowhere near the value or the check at the end of the day, which you know, this is what we do for bit you know, to our livelihood, so that's important. so I I've started to hone in on kinda deals that I think are worth my time, respectfully worth my time and you know, being able to kind of vet a deal early on and understanding if it's it does have a life or if it's just somebody who's kinda tire kicking and not you know, not gonna be able to you know, execute at the end of the day. So that's certainly one thing that I've I'm still learning but getting a lot better at. And you
Justin Smith
It's like
Willie Candler
know,
Justin Smith
a
Willie Candler
I
Justin Smith
sixth
Willie Candler
think
Justin Smith
sense that you develop where
Willie Candler
absol
Justin Smith
you're like, okay, this doesn't feel right, or you're like, this is
Willie Candler
Yeah. And
Justin Smith
worth
Willie Candler
there are
Justin Smith
the
Willie Candler
surprises.
Justin Smith
risk or worth the
Willie Candler
There
Justin Smith
investment.
Willie Candler
Yeah, I still get surprises where I'm like, this deal has no legs and then all of a sudden, you know, it comes out of nowhere and we're at least. So, you know, it doesn't mean I know it everything or I'm wrong, I'll admit it. But you start to get better at it for sure. and I think, you know, kinda second part of your question, I think it's really easy to get busy and to just say, Hey, I'm really busy, but if you know, if you're not continuously backfilling, you know, you're gonna hit a period where you're like, oh, you know, it's time to get back on the phone or get back on the horn and really starting to kind of build back your pipeline. So if you could be really consistent throughout that process, whether you have a lot going on or not, I think it's you know, you will just have a steady book of business. And it's hard. I mean I there's a periods where I wanna go play golf and just say, I'm tired today, I'm out. But I think if you can, you know, find a middle ground and push through some of those days and, you know, make those extra couple of calls or check in with so and so that you haven't checked in with in a while with a while, you know, it's only gonna bode well for your business.
Justin Smith
Yeah, I would imagine as you look to expand the area you work to, that'll make you have to make more decisions like that.
Willie Candler
Absolutely. And you know, I've got a great team. I've got Billy Snowden and then we hired a junior on our team this year, and that's been a great resource for us. He's really taken a lot off our plate and especially mine. I think you know I was doing a lot of reporting with all of our leasing calls that we had to do and rate tracking and everything that goes into, you know, those reports that ownerships want to have when you hop on the call, and he's been able to take a lot of that. off my plate, which has really freed me up. So you know, there's a lot of truth into building your team and understanding that yes, you know, you might be splitting your commission three ways, but at the end of the day you're also retaining or winning more business so it pays for itself. So that's been a great asset, tool, resource for us this year.
Justin Smith
Did you know you wanted to do that and you were ready, or was it the right person came along and you were like, Well, let's make room.
Willie Candler
Yeah, I would say both. I think I was certainly ready to hand over the reporting duty because I am a client facing person. I am not a guy who wants to sit
Justin Smith
Yes.
Willie Candler
behind the computer and
Justin Smith
Get this
Willie Candler
crunch
Justin Smith
face in front
Willie Candler
up
Justin Smith
of more people.
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
Yeah.
Willie Candler
I wanna go yeah, I wanna go, you know, talk shop and get out of the office. Whereas he's very good with data entry and reporting and he's super talented with Excel and formulas and all of our tracking. So that he's you know, he actually interned with us over the summer, maybe two summers ago. So we kinda had our eye on him, from the get go 'cause he caught on really quickly and was you know, we could see him as being a valuable resource for us.
Justin Smith
Yeah. I went from me to me and an assistant and then to hiring on a junior. And then me junior became more of a senior and then it was time to hire or not or figure out what we're going to do and we ended up hiring a third person. So it was one admin, three producers. And it is interesting when you take the pie analogy and you make a nice line down the middle of your pie and then once the pie's been cut then you're like Okay. What would this look like with three and with
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
seniors and juniors and mid level producers? And that's all something we were able to figure out and then adjust annually, which has been a great way of doing it following Craig Coppola's advice in
Willie Candler
Mm-hmm.
Justin Smith
our Phoenix office,
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
who's a great mentor and like has gone as far down the rabbit hole as it gets with teams and splits
Willie Candler
Yeah, hard to
Justin Smith
and
Willie Candler
beat
Justin Smith
thoughts.
Willie Candler
him.
Justin Smith
Yeah.
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
So such a tremendous resource. And then of course now is like gosh, what if you tripped and fell on someone that was super talented? Is there room for four? Is four crazy? Like it's hard to imagine, but surely there's a way. And so we're in the mental like each round of growth like comes with its own things to take into account.
Willie Candler
For sure. Yeah, it's as Dave Howard says, It's your business Inc., you're the CEO, so you've got to make those decisions on, you know, how you can best grow and support your yourself and your team. So it's Always ever changing.
Justin Smith
Yeah. And book of business wise, you said you do you got some institutional work that you do with Billy. would you say you're fifty in terms of the square feet or the number of deals or the total dollars? Or how
Willie Candler
Yeah,
Justin Smith
would ya
Willie Candler
I would
Justin Smith
make sense
Willie Candler
yeah,
Justin Smith
of that?
Willie Candler
so I would say our business is about fifty percent landlord work to fifty percent tenant rep. I might be even more heavier on the landlord side, maybe sixty forty, let's call it. so he had some pretty good portfolio when I first started working with him and then we've been able to grow that as well and we're around or over five million feet right now of portfolio work, so that's been great and we're trying to Of course add to that and find you know, the really in Atlanta you really have to find a site, bring it to a developer and they'll award you the listing. you know, yes, you can go pitch for product when, you know, it trades hands, but it's just especially lately there's not a whole lot of buildings that have traded. so you those opportunities are not as not as, you know, rampant as others. So so yeah, we do you know, we've got a pretty good portfolio on the landlord side and then tenant rep, you know, always trying to grow and find clients that are repeat clients, right? I think he's got a great a couple of groups that he works with more on a national side and I've been able to get hot this year with an IOS group that's been rampant and growing on the kind of the southeast. So we've been really I've been really fortunate to do a handful of deals with them this year. So it's been a good scenario for sure.
Justin Smith
Love that. There's nothing better than
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
picking one up and then getting to do a lot of work with people that you get to know real well and that
Willie Candler
That's
Justin Smith
like
Willie Candler
it.
Justin Smith
you can really speak on their behalf like and make a positive impact for them like over and with different teams and different locales. That's pretty cool stuff.
Willie Candler
Yeah, and I love I've been able to work with some other Lee offices this year, which has been great. You know, I love kinda checking out different markets and just seeing how they do business and been able to really use the Lee network and it's been great.
Justin Smith
You guys got a strong group around you. Ours we have one every twenty miles in Southern California just to
Willie Candler
Yeah,
Justin Smith
make sure
Willie Candler
I'm
Justin Smith
like
Willie Candler
not
Justin Smith
we really got it on lock.
Willie Candler
that's
Justin Smith
Where
Willie Candler
it.
Justin Smith
you guys gotta go across a state or across a couple cities.
Willie Candler
That's it.
Justin Smith
Yeah. Love that. shallow bay, small bay, that's a thing. Is that hot? Are people trying to get it? Is it all picked over now or what's the state of You
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
and I make all these commissions, we gotta go get some shallow bay.
Willie Candler
That's right. They pay the bills, right? We talk about singles and maybe doubles. So those are great a little assets to have or spaces to have. I think that's a really good question you bring up. I would say it was probably one of the hottest asset classes from twenty to twenty two. I think, you know, with the move out of the office environment, I think you saw a lot of industries start to move into more flex, shallow bay type buildings to house both needs. Now because costs have gotten so high, a lot of those smaller tenants have such pressure now with their rent that you know, I think they're it's certainly weighing heavier on them and you know, it's it's interesting. I think we're seeing some vacancy levels starting to tick up in that so smaller size range. And you know, like I said, bulk's been certainly more of the market driver right now for space that's being absorbed and Not as much space is being taken down on the smaller suites and it's because they're having so much pressure on the rent. and it's we're tracking it. It'll be interesting to see if it you know, if rates continue to climb, have we outpaced has rent outpaced what people can afford or small businesses? And you know, it's certainly a hot topic
Justin Smith
It's
Willie Candler
issue
Justin Smith
always
Willie Candler
right
Justin Smith
yes.
Willie Candler
now.
Justin Smith
Or
Willie Candler
Yeah, right. Yeah.
Justin Smith
to some
Willie Candler
Oh yeah,
Justin Smith
extent
Willie Candler
any tense,
Justin Smith
it's as much
Willie Candler
always.
Justin Smith
as it can be.
Willie Candler
That's right. So it'll be we'll see how it affects twenty seven 'cause that vacancy number's starting to climb for sure.
Justin Smith
Yeah. Did you guys level off or go down? Like for us peak to trough was like thirty five to forty percent. and then if you go to some markets that are booming, like it didn't go down. It just stopped
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
going up so much.
Willie Candler
Yeah, I would say I don't necess it maybe some sub markets or some areas went down. I think generally though, everything was steady and might even maybe some of the hot markets might have climbed, but I think now we're certainly at the plea the peak. You know, I think the only way to go is down from here. So
Justin Smith
Oh no.
Willie Candler
Yeah. We'll see.
Justin Smith
Yeah. It's hard to know. And then tell me about investing. You're younger, maybe it's a little too soon or have you gotten your first one or
Willie Candler
Yeah, so
Justin Smith
what do you
Willie Candler
I
Justin Smith
envision
Willie Candler
have
Justin Smith
for that for yourself?
Willie Candler
Yeah, that's definitely on the mindset, the forefront. I have looked into a couple of things but have not pulled the trigger. fortunately I am on the docket for partnership at the end of the year here, which is a big milestone. Thank
Justin Smith
Yeah,
Willie Candler
you. Yes.
Justin Smith
congratulations.
Willie Candler
So, you know, that is a large investment in itself. so that is probably where my vision is right now or where kind of focused on, but Yeah, would love to start putting in to deals and, you know, building up a portfolio. I know it's you know, we've talked about it a lot in the Lee brand nationally and you know, that's certainly something that I wanna get involved in. So, you know, you gotta kinda map out where you wanna focus. Can't do everything at once, but it's certainly on the forefront.
Justin Smith
Love it. That'll be exciting to see what you get into. it's of course different for everybody at their stretch of time when it's their turn to do it and where you're at in the market and what's available and what looks interesting. For me it was a single families for a period of time and then triplex, like a small a multi unit apartment to live in was like oh man, that didn't sound like a great idea. Let's get married and move into a small apartment. But
Willie Candler
Trust me, honey, I know what I'm doing.
Justin Smith
Yeah, but then we cleaned it up, we rented it out, we ended up selling it on the upswing and then it turned into our first multi tenant property. And so it was pretty cool to just like a climb the ladder in the asset sense and then do my first 1031 exchange and then actually have a pile of equity to roll into something. And a lot of that was by virtue of the cycle
Willie Candler
Mm-hmm.
Justin Smith
where who I bought that triplex from He sold it for what he had bought it for and he had an interest only loan. So presumably he was getting the cash flow, but he wasn't paying down principal. So to
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
then have me five years later own it for five years and then walk out of that with five hundred grand and
Willie Candler
Yeah.
Justin Smith
think of like, wow, that's the difference of being mindful of the cycle or like of timing working out in your favor. So
Willie Candler
For sure.
Justin Smith
same
Willie Candler
No,
Justin Smith
asset,
Willie Candler
that's also.
Justin Smith
same market, same dynamic, same neighborhood.
Willie Candler
Just all timing. Yeah, that's awesome.
Justin Smith
Yeah. So excited to see you do that. well cool. I think that's all I got for you, Willie. Yeah, and on a high note with you getting promoted and that's a big deal. That's a big deal
Willie Candler
thank
Justin Smith
for everyone
Willie Candler
you.
Justin Smith
when they make it to that part in the company 'cause now growing a team, partner in the firm, it's a great time to like take your leadership skills and take 'em to the next level and grow the business.
Willie Candler
Well thank you. Yes, looking forward to you know, it's the pressure's on now, right? You gotta continue to build the business and have a you know, my goal is to be better the next year than I was in the previous. So that's the mindset headed into twenty seven and it's you know, it's been a great twenty six and you know, just looking to continue to grow in the business.
Justin Smith
Yeah. Love it. Well I wish you well, Willie. Thanks for joining me today.
Willie Candler
Thanks, Justin. Great to see ya.