While Stan Johnson Company has become synonymous with net lease property brokerage, when many people think about our business, they think of retail properties. And with good reason—we're experts in that market, having brokered some $4 billion of net lease retail assets over the years.

But the fact is that Stan Johnson Company's track record is equally solid in successfully representing buyers and sellers in the office and industrial sectors. We have closed $2.1 billion of net lease office property transactions, and another $2 billion of net lease industrial asset deals. We're proud to have brokered sales of 125 FedEx distribution facilities—more than any of our competitors—but our experience shows that we are just as adept at brokering the full spectrum of net lease office and industrial deals, with transactions ranging in size from $4 million to $400 million for properties leased to a diverse roster of quality tenants and located in geographic markets spanning the entire country.

One of the more recent FedEx deals we closed was the sale of a newly built, 128,706-square-foot facility in Otay Mesa, Calif., a premier distribution submarket in San Diego. Representing its merchant developer, Stan Johnson Company marketed the property broadly and as a result received a number of competitive bids. The strategy paid off in identifying an out-of-the-box buyer—a non-profit organization—that was able to close all cash.

While that FedEx deal illustrates our successful traditional listing business, Stan Johnson Company is likewise proficient in brokering property sales on a private placement basis—roughly half of the office and industrial deals we close are brokered this way. We recognize and respect that not everyone wants their deal publicized with broad exposure; we have significant experience in safely and effectively identifying qualified buyers for properties using this method. A recent example: Waddell & Reed's regional headquarters in Overland Park, Kan., a 107,320-square-foot class A office building. Our efforts garnered a competitive bid environment and the deal closed quickly. We represented both the seller and the buyer, each a source of private equity capital.

Although the volume of single-tenant property sales has declined just like the broader commercial real estate market over the past few years, net lease assets, with their dependable cash flow, are proving to be highly appealing to investors and are accounting for a larger portion of the overall transaction market. The single-tenant office market is faring particularly well compared to its multi-tenant counterpart; according to Real Capital Analytics Inc., 2009 sales volume of single-tenant office properties declined 27% over the prior year, not nearly as much as the multi-tenant market, which declined a whopping 75%. Likewise, weighted average cap rates for single-tenant office rose 91 basis points during that period, compared to a 263 basis point increase for multi-tenant office assets. While not as dramatic, similar trends can be found in the single-tenant industrial market, where weighted average cap rates increased 115 basis points, compared to 153 basis points for multi-tenant properties, and transaction volume declined by 60%, compared to a 63% decline for multi-tenant industrial properties.

Despite some sellers' recalcitrance, we see proof every day that there is a viable market for office and industrial properties. Cap rates have stabilized, there is a growing availability of debt on reasonable terms, and yield expectations of potential buyers have begun to plateau to more realistic levels—forming the basic building blocks of the capital stack that get deals to the closing table.

We see an immense amount of equity sitting on the sidelines, ready, willing and able to invest in net lease office and industrial assets. That equity is coming from a variety of sources—institutional buyers such as REITs, pension fund and life companies; a large pool of private equity groups, both large and small; high net worth individuals who are experienced real estate investors; and overseas capital. Stan Johnson Company has access to a deep pool of buyers and possesses the know-how to advise our clients in handling the larger, more structured deals that office and industrial properties represent—the resources and skills that result in getting deals done in today's market.