Inside View: David Stokes, Cassidy Turley

Vice president, Cassidy Turley

David Stokes, vice president at Cassidy Turley's Minneapolis office, has received the company's Leading Edge award — one of its highest honors. The award is presented to professionals who exhibit such qualities as "exceptional personal performance, leading by example and supporting others."

Stokes, a 25-year commercial real estate veteran, joined Cassidy Turley in 2006. He specializes in selling and leasing industrial properties. In the past year, he closed 20 transactions worth more than $14.7 million. Stokes, 58, was the 2010 Industrial Broker of the Year for the local office. He's also active in the community and has volunteered for numerous industry associations. Stokes's prior experience includes a decade in industrial brokerage at Minnetonka-based Welsh Cos. and a decade at the St. Paul Port Authority. The St. Louis native also has a master's degree in city planning.

Q: With the economy showing signs of improvement, are more companies pulling the trigger on buying industrial buildings?

A: I'm doing more sales than leasing. The sales side has picked up dramatically in the last nine months. A year ago, there was so much business uncertainty. Nobody wanted to commit capital long term for anything. That could be inventory or equipment, and it definitely applied to buildings. Everybody was saying, 'When do I quit falling off this cliff?' Nine months ago, people starting saying, 'OK, my new world is this. I can envision it. I can plan for it. I know what it's going to be.' Everybody got to the new normal, and they got to the point where they're comfortable with capital commitments. There was more confidence in their client and consumer markets to do things, and interest rates were low and they saw it as a great time to buy a building.

Q: Is that increasing confidence applying to leasing industrial space as well?

A: Yes. If you were leasing, you'd only do a one- or two-year renewal. Once things turned around, the leasing side went from two- to five-year deals.

A: Gamet Manufacturing in St. Paul bought a 58,000-square-foot building in Brooklyn Park. When we were looking, there were at least 15 properties on the market that would work for them. I looked into them. [All but three] were about to be sold, under contract or already sold, and this was a three-month window. These are buildings that had been on the market for two or three years. … That's just one example of several sales that have closed in the last six months; whereas the year before, it was on hold. We have several more closings in the next two months.