NAI Burns Scalo has acquired a Southwest Florida commercial real estate firm as the Pittsburgh-based commercial real estate company expands its brokerage, property management, construction and investment platform across Florida.
The company said Tuesday it acquired Fort Myers-based Commercial Property Southwest Florida, a longtime Cushman & Wakefield affiliate founded by industry veteran Gary Tasman. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The acquisition gives NAI Burns Scalo a second major office on Florida’s Gulf Coast and strengthens an expansion effort that began in 2025 when the company opened a Tampa office and hired longtime Florida real estate executive Tim Rivers to lead statewide operations.
Company leaders said they ultimately want to build a platform capable of investing roughly $250 million annually in the markets where it operates.
Founded 70 years ago in Pittsburgh, NAI Burns Scalo provides brokerage, property management, construction and investment services while owning several million square feet of commercial real estate. Its construction division generates roughly $100 million in annual revenue.
The acquisition allows the company to bring all of its business lines into Southwest Florida, including construction, as it expands beyond traditional brokerage services.
The move stems from a strategic shift that began several years ago when company leaders concluded they were too concentrated in both office properties and western Pennsylvania. At the time, roughly 90% of the company’s portfolio was tied to office assets. Executives set a goal of reducing that concentration to about 40% while increasing investments in industrial, multifamily, mixed-use and condominium projects.
“We came down to one word,” said Brian Walker, president of NAI Burns Scalo. “It was diversification.”
Walker said the decision followed an extensive review of growth markets across North America. While serving as chairman of NAIOP Global in 2024, he visited 29 markets across the United States and Canada and spent 135 nights on the road evaluating growth patterns, capital flows and development activity.
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Florida emerged as the firm’s preferred expansion market. NAI Burns Scalo selected Tampa as its entry point, hired Rivers in June 2025 and has since grown the office to about a dozen employees. During the same period, the company nearly doubled in size, growing from roughly 80 employees to nearly 150.
Walker said the company believed success in Florida required local leadership and local decision-making.
“We must be a local real estate firm, not a Pittsburgh company that wanted to do business in Florida,” he said.
Before opening in Tampa, NAI Burns Scalo secured NAI Global territory rights covering a 13-county region that stretches from Hernando County through the Tampa Bay area and south to Fort Myers, with coverage extending east to Lake Okeechobee.
As the company developed its Florida strategy, Walker said executives concluded they needed a Fort Myers office and a local team with deep ties to the region’s business, government and civic leadership.
That search led them to Tasman, who has spent more than three decades building relationships throughout Southwest Florida.
Walker said he and CEO Jim Scalo have developed more than $2 billion in real estate over the past two decades and intend to bring that experience to Florida as the company expands its brokerage, investment and development activities in the state.
In addition to brokerage and advisory work, NAI Burns Scalo deploys its own capital alongside clients and pursues projects as an owner, investor and developer.
“We want to be on both sides of the table to be a fully integrated platform,” Walker said.
Tasman said Southwest Florida continues to attract residents and employers at a pace few markets can match.
“We’re one, two or three in job creation and population growth in the country all the time,” Tasman said. “They’re coming whether we get ready for that or not.”
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He said local governments have spent years preserving environmentally sensitive land while concentrating development into multiple employment centers designed to reduce commute times and support future growth. Understanding those priorities, along with maintaining relationships with business, civic and political leaders, remains critical for companies looking to invest in the region, he said.
Rivers said those fundamentals are why he views the I-75 corridor stretching from Tampa Bay through Southwest Florida much the way developers viewed the I-4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando two decades ago.
“Southwest Florida is really a dynamic market from Tampa to Fort Myers,” Rivers said. “The opportunity is incredible.”
“There’s still a tremendous amount of runway left.”
As the company evaluates opportunities across the region, Walker said he and Tasman recently spent more than a day meeting with county commissioners, municipal officials and business leaders to discuss where growth is headed and what types of projects communities want to see. The meetings included four of the region’s five county commissions, along with former elected officials and local leaders.
Tasman said those conversations are occurring alongside interest from existing tenants and investors connected to NAI Burns Scalo’s operations outside Florida who are already looking for opportunities in the state.
While the company is evaluating office, industrial, multifamily and mixed-use opportunities, Rivers said the office sector has drawn particular attention because many investors have avoided the asset class nationally even as Southwest Florida has posted some of the country’s lowest vacancy rates and roughly 33% rent growth.
“We’re looking for opportunities for what’s next,” Tasman said. “We’re going to be very disciplined. We’re not just going to throw money around because we have it.”
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