Fort Worth CRE Firms Merge, Hit the Ground Running
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Two mainstays of the Fort Worth CRE scene have decided to merge their operations and launch a new outfit — Team & Vasseur Commercial Real Estate.
Once competitors in the market, industry professionals Charles “C.B.” Team and Nathan Vasseur decided to join forces and throw their collective weight behind the joint project. And what better place is there to flex their CRE credentials and hometown experience than the greater Fort Worth area?
“There’s a whole bunch of growth going on here. It’s really staggering,” Team told CandysDirt.com.
He and Vasseur are looking to capitalize on that growth, which has shown little sign of slowing in recent years. Fort Worth is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. More people means more business, and more business means more CRE in need of development and leasing.
They’re well poised to do it (considering their pedigrees) and are already hard at work delivering brokerage and property management services, with an investment services platform coming down the road.
Growing Up Fort Worth
A fifth-generation Fort Worthian, Team’s roots in the city go back to 1905 when his family was in the horse and mule business. Outside of going to college at UT Austin, he said he’s spent his whole life in Cowtown.
“I’d say Fort Worth has done a great job of growing out. I think there’s going to be some growing pains when they have to start growing up, but that’s right on the horizon,” Team said. “We’re already seeing major thoroughfares and the central business district and areas adjacent to it learning how to grow up and not just out, which I think is mandatory for a city our size.”
Vasseur is also a lifelong resident of Fort Worth who happened to attend UT Austin. Real estate is in his blood. His father Gary has been in the business going on about 56 years.
“I was more or less raised in the real estate business,” he said, noting that he officially jumped into the industry right after college. He and his father eventually launched Vasseur Commercial Real Estate some 10 years ago. That operation, along with Ellis & Tinsley, Inc., now comprises Team & Vasseur Commercial Real Estate (TVCRE).
Team bought into Ellis & Tinsley after working for the firm for seven years, buying co-founder Vic Tinsley’s half of the company when the guy decided to retire in 2013.
Between owners, brokers, and staff, there’s literally more than a century of locally-based experience going into TVCRE.
‘Face-to-Face Handshake Service’
Vasseur and Team had known each other for a while before they decided to partner up. Friendly rivalry, however, eventually gave way to a shared vision for strategic growth over lunch one day when they asked each other what they saw as the future for their respective companies.
“We kind of decided that they were very similar,” Team recalled. “We have tried to provide a very high level of service at both of our firms. We saw how that was an important niche to service — the individual, the family, the smaller owner, not a large corporation making decisions somewhere else.”
More than a dozen brokers have come together from the two companies as part of the merger. Vasseur and Team feel they have a strong, specialized core of personnel with the right experience to tackle the opportunities the greater Fort Worth market has to offer.
“Our goal is not to have, you know, 40-50 agents running all over town. We’d rather have 15-20 good, experienced producers that all know what they’re doing,” Vasseur said.
The merger was technically executed back in January, but now, after landing on the brand TVCRE and setting up shop at an office in a newly renovated property on West Vickery Boulevard, Team and Vasseur are looking to build off their previous success and leverage the local insight they’ve accumulated across generations.
“We feel we’re really able to provide our clients the best service here. I like to say we’re concentrating on putting faces to names. Our clients — small business owners, individuals, families — we try to provide them with the best kind of face-to-face handshake service you can find in commercial real estate this side of DFW Airport,” Team said.
Vasseur and Team are serving as principals at TVCRE. Vasseur’s father Gary is vice president, and Bill Ellis (the other half of Ellis & Tinsley) is staying on as an owner.
