Tom Strauss is widely known for his 30-year background in the commercial real estate industry, particularly in the realm of retail leasing and tenant representation. A licensed real estate broker since 1995, Tom’s extensive background began with a mid-sized developer in Northeast Ohio, where he obtained a Landlord perspective dealing with commercial development, property management, and leasing. After 13 years on the Landlord side, Tom left as Vice President of Leasing to join the Tenant side of the industry.

Tom spent the next four years as Director of Real Estate for which would become the fourth largest publicly traded retail company in their category. Tom created the Real Estate department handling all site selections, lease negotiations, and lease renewals, plus coordinated construction, lease administration, and the facility management for over 140 stores in 14 states. The company was sold in 2004 and Tom returned full time to commercial brokerage.

Tom leveraged this full-spectrum knowledge of start to finish commercial cycles to know and understand important deal point issues to both sides of a retail lease transaction.

Tom joined LandQwest Commercial in early 2006 as a Broker Associate and was named Senior Director, Retail Services in 2013. He catapulted retail leasing efforts for both institutional clients such as large commercial REIT’s and also smaller regional and individual local shopping center owners. Tom also helped in site selection as he represented many retail clients such as Ruby Tuesday, Massage Envy, World of Beer, McDonald’s and Books A Million, which resulted in numerous new store openings in Southwest Florida from Tampa to Naples.

Tom was recognized as LQ’s Top Producer in 2008 and 2011 and was awarded the prestigious CoStar Power Broker™ award for six straight years; an award recognizing top retail brokers across the United States. In 2015 Tom was hired as Vice President of Real Estate for Devonshire REIT, a privately-held, Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) out of Toledo, Ohio.

In January of 2019, Tom returned full time to LandQwest Commercial where he was named a Principal. He will strive to lead the Fort Myers Retail Division in all facets of leasing, sales, and tenant representation in Southwest Florida.