Lee & Associates expands into Miami

Lee & Associates just opened an office in Miami, marking the commercial real estate firm’s first move into South Florida.

The California-based company will enter a competitive brokerage landscape as a number of national competitors, such as CBRE and JLL, and local agencies have a strong foothold in the Miami area.

Lee & Associates, which has offices in Naples-Fort Myers and Orlando, is looking to expand to Fort Lauderdale and Tampa in the future, CEO Jeff Rinkov said. The company has traditionally had a strong foothold on the industrial market, but the Miami office will also focus on office and retail, he added.

The Miami office, at 7925 Northwest 12th Street, will be led by Matt Rotolante, the former managing director of Sperry Van Ness in Miami. Matt King, specializing in retail and multifamily, and Ivelisse Pietri, who focuses on industrial and office, both joined as senior advisers. The company also hired Charlie Steinmetz, a senior adviser specializing in in industrial sales and leasing.

The industrial segment is one of the best performing sectors of South Florida’s real estate market in recent years with low vacancy rates and growing demand due to e-commerce. Last year, almost 5.3 million square feet of industrial warehouse space changed hands in South Florida, totaling $418.7 million, according to the Commercial Industrial Association of South Florida.

Lee & Associates has more than 57 offices across the country and more than $13 billion in transaction volume in 2017, according to its website. It launched an office in Manhattan in 2011, with a focus on retail leasing, where it became one of the top retail leasing firms in the city, based on data from The Real Deal.