In five years, SimonCRE has grown from a three-person operation to a thriving commercial real estate development firm with fifteen employees and an extensive portfolio of projects purchased and developed stretching from Oregon to Florida.
Founded in 2010 by Joshua Simon, the Scottsdale-based company celebrates its five year anniversary this month.
SimonCRE specializes in retail ground-up development, redevelopment, single tenant build to suits and multi-tenant development projects throughout the U.S. in primary, secondary, and tertiary markets. Simon has developed and leased more than two million square feet of retail space nationally.
Prior to founding SimonCRE, Simon spent more than six years as an independent contractor for a national development company in the capacity of a Developer and Senior Leasing Associate. His primary role was the due diligence, acquisition, design, development, and leasing for more than 1.6 million square feet of retail space located throughout the country. He played a direct and vital role in opening and growing the Arizona office from three employees to more than twenty.
Simon has always been a very active entrepreneur. Simon created a hosted VoIP company in 2010, which specialized in business communications called One Stop Voice. After almost four years of growth, Simon sold it to a publicly traded company to focus on the tremendous growth SimonCRE was experiencing.
“We have built our team based off of referrals and the combined real estate experience of my team is monumental, 180 years to be exact,” said Joshua Simon, President and Founder of SimonCRE. “Many of my colleagues were interested in my business strategy and our tremendous growth plan and wanted to be a part of it.”
SimonCRE’s early clients included EZCorp and Verizon Wireless. The company is on track to develop 33 build-to-suit projects in thirteen states this year for Dollar General, Pet Club, Verizon Wireless, EZ Pawn, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Tractor Supply Co. Simon has also invested in retail buildings with long-term leases to Hertz, Filiberto’s, Palm Beach Tan, Value Pawn, Verizon Wireless and several multi-tenant centers and retail shopping centers in several states.
SimonCRE currently has over fifty projects in the pipeline valued at over $100 million, creating thousands of jobs across the country. The projected total transactional volume will surpass $140 million in 2016. There are seven projects currently under construction in three different states.
“We are excited for what the triple net lease (NNN) market holds for the retail industry,” said Joshua Simon. “Over the past few years we have seen the market start to mature into a real niche whereby developers like us can carve out a business and specialize in redevelopment, ground up shopping center developments and build to suits.”
One of Simon’s largest acquisitions was the purchase of a 250,000 SF shopping center in Sterling Heights, MI anchored by Target and MJR Theater. A local project of significance is West 6th, the former Tempe Centerpoint. SimonCRE acted in an advisory capacity during the due diligence and also handled the leasing of the ground floor retail space.
Simon has been actively involved in many charitable organizations in the Valley. Simon has served on countless boards, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars working on charitable committees and has been nominated in over twenty publications both locally and nationally as an up and coming business leader, retail expert and entrepreneur.
