Stirling Properties Ranks Among Top 10 Commercial Real Estate Firms in Alabama
Business Alabama recently published their 2015 Top Rank issue and I am happy to report that just a year and a half after opening our first office in Mobile, Alabama, Stirling Properties is ranked among the Top 10 Commercial Real Estate Firms in the State of Alabama.
Since establishing our Mobile office in October 2013, we have worked tirelessly to expand our presence throughout Alabama and eastward into the Florida market. Here are a few highlights:
- CEO Marty Mayer delivered last year’s ACREcon keynote address, introducing Stirling Properties and highlighting the rise of the Gulf Coast.
- We acquired John Toomey & Company, Inc., a commercial real estate company in Mobile with over 20 years’ experience, integrating 1.8 million square feet into our existing managed and leased portfolio.
- Just last month, we relocated our Mobile office into a larger 5,100 square-foot space at One St. Louis Centre in downtown Mobile, a building we also manage and lease.
- At the end of 2014, we opened a new office in Pensacola, Florida, in SunTrust Tower, an office building we also manage and lease.
- In the beginning of this month, we were awarded a contract for leasing and property management of Santa Rosa Mall in Mary Esther/Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
We now total over 2.5 million square-feet of managed properties and 34 employees/brokers in Alabama and Florida – in just a year and a half. I am extremely proud of our latest Alabama ranking and, most importantly, what the Stirling Team has accomplished in the Alabama and Florida markets over this short time frame. We are strongly committed to serving the entire Gulf South and look forward to serving our clients throughout Alabama and Florida from our Mobile, Pensacola and Mary Esther/Fort Walton Beach offices.
Stay tuned for another exciting announcement in the next few weeks!
President’s Message: Change and Progress
Our 40th year is now in full swing! Recently, we officially celebrated this milestone during our annual Stirling Honors recognition luncheon. My message for the day centered around Tony Robins’ quote “Change is Inevitable. Progress is Optional.” Stirling has survived and prospered over the years and it is clear that Stirling opted to choose progress. Here’s what 40 years looks like in a 4 minute video:[wpvideo k1cJ0dhf] During Stirling Honors, I also highlighted many of our recent achievements across the entire spectrum of our company:
- Commercial Brokerage: 2014 was a record year across all business lines – office, retail, industrial and investment sales – with volume up 65%!
- Magnolia Marketplace, New Orleans, LA: With partners JCH Development, we recently celebrated the grand opening on the site of a former housing project almost 10 years after Hurricane Katrina – significant not only for the location but the timing
- Ambassador Town Center, Lafayette, LA: Our 2nd joint venture with CBL is under construction with the official groundbreaking ceremony this month
- Fremaux Town Center, Slidell, LA: Phase I opened a year ago; Phase II is well underway with a scheduled October opening
- Academy Sports + Outdoors, Lake Charles, LA: Under construction with scheduled Summer opening
- Premier Centre, Mandeville, LA: Successfully landed our 1st Whole Foods deal, to open January 2016
- Offices at Mid-City Market, New Orleans, LA: Historic tax credit rehab adjacent to Mid-City Market, anchor Gallo Mechanical set to occupy and open by year end 2015
- Walgreens, Terrytown & Metairie, LA: Terrytown opened a year ago and was our first build-to-sell; fee development Metairie at Vets & Power Blvds is under construction
- Perkins Rowe, Baton Rouge, LA: Awarded leasing and management contract last year; condos now on the market, new block of apartments available this summer, office activity is brisk and more retailers/deals in the works
- Ansley Place, Houma, LA: Acquired the 246-unit Class A luxury garden-style apartment complex for $27.3 Million last year
- Alabama/Florida Expansion: Since opening in Mobile less than 2 years ago, we have acquired John Toomey & Company Inc. in Mobile, opened a Pensacola office and expanded/consolidated the Mobile office into One St. Louis Centre in Downtown Mobile; totaling 34 employees/brokers and 2.5 million square feet managed
- Santa Rosa Mall, Mary Esther, FL: Recently awarded contract for leasing and property management of this 734,000 square-foot enclosed mall
Reflecting back on these accomplishments in light of the 40th anniversary of our company, it underscores the fact that change is most certainly inevitable and makes me proud that we have chosen the option to progress.
I know that the future will continue to present us with twists and turns and unexpected new challenges; however, I am confident that we will face these challenges with the knowledge that we have built a strong foundation, rooted solidly in values which are timeless, consistent and enduring.
Indeed change is inevitable…and at Stirling Properties progress is not optional!
Stirling Properties Completes Acquisition and Financing to Develop Offices at Mid-City Market in New Orleans
Stirling Properties is excited to announce the execution of development financing and construction commencement for the Offices at Mid-City Market, a 54,000 square foot, mixed-use complex in the burgeoning Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans
The Offices at Mid-City Market will feature approximately 31,000 square feet of prime office space along with 9,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The building design will include parking, additional greenspace and water management. Prior to closing the construction loan the building was nearly 50% pre-leased.
Gallo Mechanical, LLC, a leading mechanical contracting company in the Gulf South, will be the first office tenant, encompassing 16,000 square feet. Gallo is relocating their corporate headquarters from Metairie to New Orleans. “We are excited to be moving our headquarters back to New Orleans as we celebrate our 70th anniversary this year!” stated David Gallo, President and CEO. Orangetheory Fitness, a fitness studio that specializes in hour-long group interval training workouts, will open their first Louisiana location at Offices at Mid-City Market comprising of 3,000 square feet.
“We are excited about the ability to continue the enhancement of the quality of life in Mid-City, one of New Orleans’ many unique and exciting neighborhoods,” stated Lewis Stirling, Executive Vice President for Stirling Properties.
Located adjacent to Stirling’s recently completed Mid-City Market development, this building encompassing an entire city block was originally constructed in 1954 and was most recently the home of Loubat Foodservice Equipment Company. Stirling Properties plans to maintain the historic integrity of the existing structure while renovating the interior into a combination of office and retail space and thus bringing a prominent neighborhood building back into commerce.
Fidelity Bank of New Orleans provided financing and Stirling will utilize the same architectural firm that designed Mid-City Market, VergesRome Architects. Ryan Gootee General Contractors will commence construction in April and the first tenants will take occupancy before the end of this year.
Stirling’s recent projects in New Orleans include: Magnolia Marketplace, a 106,000 square-foot shopping center located at the corner of S. Claiborne Avenue and Toledano Street; Mid-City Market, a 108,000 square-foot Winn-Dixie anchored shopping center located at North Carrollton Avenue and Bienville Street; as well as the full renovation of the former American Legion building located on Magazine Street into a new 13,000 square foot Walgreens Marquee Store. Since 2011, Stirling Properties has invested over $120 million in the City of New Orleans.
For more information and leasing opportunities, contact Mac Bauer at mbauer@stirlingprop.com or 504-620-8131.
End of Life (EOL), Have you made your plans?
Thanks to the overwhelming media hype last year, we all know by now that Windows XP went End of Life and out-of-support by Microsoft on April 8, 2014, but did you know that Microsoft Windows 2003 is going End of Life on July 14th of this year?
Do you have a file server in your office that is still running on Windows 2003? Are any of your key control systems, hvac or other automation systems running on Windows 2000 or 2003? Seems like every time Stirling starts managing a new property, we run into a slew of Windows XP computers and/or an old Windows 2003 Server or two.
What’s the big deal? Why should we care if software goes End of Life? We all see the sensationalized hacks that are publicized in the media which are sometimes just hype, what they miss is the whole industry that’s grown up around exploiting your operating systems and software. It’s the old game of cat and mouse or whack a mole, but updated for our digital world. Criminals find holes that they can exploit and then companies like Microsoft release a patch to fix the hole. If you stay up-to-date with the patches, you’re in ok shape. The problem comes when a product goes End of Life – the criminals are still finding and exploiting the security holes, but Microsoft is no longer issuing patches to fix the holes so if you’re running an Operating System or software that’s no longer supported, you’re throwing a big neon sign out to the world that says please exploit my systems.
Running an old version of Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office or some other productivity software that’s no longer supported? Same problem, probably need to look into upgrading.
Is your automation system running an old version of Windows? Might want to check with your vendor to find out what needs to be done to get you up-to-date. Looking at installing a new Automation System? If the dollars add up, ask about systems that run on proprietary hardware and software, instead of Windows. Windows is a great general purpose operating system, but part of what makes it so versatile, also makes it a huge risk for security exploits.
We no longer live in a world where we can put systems out and forget about them. We need to stay up-to-date on the patches, know the End of Life dates and keep your automation systems under contract so you can keep them up-to-date.
First Steps for Property Services and Information Technology
We’ve received a lot of feedback from an earlier Stirling post (Property Management, Information Technology and the New Paradigm) about the amount of work required to update Information Technology Infrastructure for today’s world. A few people keyed in on the amount of work required when their Information Technology Projects had taken a back seat to other priorities in the last five years, ten years or forever.
Some had asked for a cheat sheet on what they should do first or what questions they should be asking their property services company about their Information Technology Systems. This list is far from comprehensive – merely first steps, but if Stirling had just taken over a new property or if I was starting from scratch, this would be my initial list of things to check or you can hit your Property Services company up to find out what they were doing in regards to Information Technology:
Do I have a next generation firewall at my offices?
Are my automation systems firewalled and segmented away from my office computers (i.e. postage machines, hvac systems, video directories, card access systems)?
Not very effective anymore, but still a first step, do all my computers have anti-virus protection?
If my computers haven’t been running anti-virus, who will format the hard drive and reset it back to the factory default image, then add anti-virus protection and load all my documents back?
Do we have, at the very least, basic spam filtering to try and eliminate the ZeroHour emails and do we have Sender Policy Framework (SPF) setup?
And finally, this really isn’t about security, but to offer up some lagniappe for the New Year, check into finally getting rid of your old analog telephone system to see what features you would gain and how much you would save with a Voice over IP (VoIP) System. Check into either a legitimate cloud provider or see if your property services company can add you to their system – adding your property to their system should be simple.
Obviously this is a very basic list, but whether your property is managed by Stirling or not, feel free to shoot me an email if you have questions and I’ll try to point you in the right direction. When it comes to Internet Security, we’re all in this together.
President’s Message: Celebrating 40 Years
As we begin 2015, I am excited to announce that Stirling Properties will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of its founding. As I reflect on this significant milestone, I take pride in all we have overcome and accomplished and I am thankful for all of our dedicated team throughout the years that led us to this point.
In 1975 (before some of our current employees were even born), Jimmy Maurin and Roger Ogden started a real estate company focused on developing shopping centers. The following year, Chip Songy joined them. It was their vision and spirit of entrepreneurship that established such a solid foundation from which we have built the Stirling Properties of today – a full-service commercial real estate company focused on the Gulf South. It is their legacy that we carry forward and continue to grow. To them, we will always be grateful.
While so much has changed in the world, in our markets, and in our company over the years, the culture and values at Stirling Properties remain firmly rooted in integrity, professionalism, teamwork and commitment to our industry and the communities we serve. Through ups and downs in the market, hurricane recovery and economic uncertainty, putting our clients first continues to be our top priority. As we grow, these values will always guide us.
And none of this would be possible without the dedication and hard work of the Stirling Team. It is because of the Stirling Team that we are able to accomplish so much each and every year and I am thrilled Stirling Properties has such an incredible group of professionals. As we embark on our 40th year, I look forward to a year full of progress and success, built upon the foundation developed over the last 40 years.
