Inside View: Mark Robinson, Mid-America Real Estate

Retail sales and leasing specialist, Mid-America Real Estate-Minnesota

Mark Robinson, 28, grew up around commercial real estate; his dad was a broker in West Des Moines, Iowa. Before long Robinson started on his own path. He bought his first property — a single-family home that he rented out — while still in college. He acquired it with money he made from selling the lawn care and snow removal business he'd launched. After college, Robinson landed at Paster Enterprises, a shopping center development and management firm. It was 2008. "I was fortunate enough to get a job before everybody found out that everything was hitting the fan," he says.

Robinson joined Mid-America Real Estate-Minnesota in 2012 and specializes in the sale and leasing of small to midsize shopping centers. He's helping to grow the firm's retail investment sales division. Robinson caught the attention of the Minnesota Commercial Association of Real Estate, which presented him with its Rising Star award for 2013. The award is given annually to a broker with less than five years of industry experience who brings "new ideas, hard work and enthusiasm to the profession."

Q: What does the award mean to you?

A: It's very humbling that people thought of me in that way and saw potential.

Q: You're aiming to do more sales transactions?

A: Yes. I've been primarily doing landlord representation, but in 2014 we're trying to grow the sales department locally. Our Chicago office is one of the largest retail brokerage firms in the Midwest.

A: In the last 12 months, you're finally starting to see some good movement in the Class B and C properties. The A product started filling up 24 to 36 months ago.

Q: You're expecting more sales as things improve?

A: I think we'll see more transaction volume where you have full properties. There's plenty of capital out there chasing properties, including institutional funds and local buyers. So there's plenty of equity and plenty of debt financing.

Q: How are you drumming up sales?

A: We've built up a brand and book of clients where we're managing around 100 shopping centers in the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. When centers get filled up, some of our clients are going to want to sell. Also, a lot of our tenant rep guys work with credit tenants and developers, and often developers look to sell. There's a lot of opportunity … but you're still going to have to pick up the phone and use existing relationships to find owners looking to sell.