John Fahey, SVP & Managing Principal, SRS Real Estate Partners

July 2026 — In an interview with Invest:, John Fahey, senior vice president and managing principal at SRS Real Estate Partners, discussed Tampa Bay’s growth cycle, retail real estate trends, and the firm’s expansion across Florida. “Florida has become a priority for the company, and I have been happy to fly that flag over the last three years as we expand our scope and efforts throughout the state,” Fahey said.

What changes over the past year impacted SRS Real Estate Partners, and in what ways?

Everything has been pretty stable, although our markets are in major growth mode and we have continued to expand. We were fortunate to bring on a boutique team in May (ACRE Commercial Real Estate). Our support teams would probably say there was nothing stable about last year because even a five-person team can be a lot to integrate.

They are phenomenal partners and brokers, primarily focused on owner representation, and they have a lot of the more dynamic listings throughout the Tampa Bay market. That also creates work for our support team, particularly converting their collateral and marketing materials into SRS formats.

As a firm, we are growing with the market. My partner and I merged into SRS three years ago. Much like the team we just brought in, we had our own boutique firm and brought a handful of people over. From a leadership standpoint at SRS, that reflected the dramatic growth in the Tampa Bay metro area and Florida overall. Florida has become a priority for the company, and I have been happy to fly that flag over the last three years as we expand our scope and efforts throughout the state.

How would you assess the current state of Tampa Bay’s real estate market, and which trends are having the greatest impact?

The Tampa Bay metro area is in a 50-year growth cycle that has accelerated tremendously since 2020. There have been impacts in other markets that have helped drive the “great migration” to Tampa, along with markets in Texas, Nashville, the Carolinas, and Phoenix.

I am sitting in Fort Lauderdale today, and we have seen that migration here as well. But from an infrastructure standpoint, there are some limiting factors to further growth in South Florida that we do not have geographically in the Tampa Bay metro area.

The influx of people has included workforce-age residents who are bringing their talents, jobs, careers, and wealth to the market. We have seen a significant increase in incomes and wealth, as well as higher levels of professional jobs migrating to the market. That has been beneficial for overall growth in the Tampa Bay metro.

People look first and foremost to weather and water, but being a significant port city is also a great economic driver. Tampa Bay has also been fortunate to have a phenomenal university system, spearheaded by the University of South Florida, which has been a huge economic driver.

Our airport has also been a massive driver, not just for tourism but for business. When people come to do business in Tampa and realize how easy it is to get in and out, and how strong the experience is, that matters. The University of South Florida and our airport have been two massive drivers that have led people to relocate and settle, whether personally or with their businesses.

How have client priorities evolved across retail, capital markets, and advisory services?

Before joining SRS, the boutique firm that my partner and I had did a lot of work nationally for clients. Tampa, particularly in the restaurant segment of retail, has been an incubator for restaurants.

That is partly because Tampa is a melting pot with so many transplants. My parents both moved from the Midwest to the market when they were in their early 20s. Historically, people from all over the country and the world have landed in different Florida markets. That has allowed restaurants to prove themselves here because they see different palates and regional tastes.

Tampa also has a historic base of restaurant companies from a multi-unit standpoint, with Outback Steakhouse, now Bloomin’ Brands, starting and being based here. Many founders and executives from that tree have gone on to create other concepts that have been successful.

We were doing a lot of national work for some of those emerging concepts.

Over the last six or seven years, though, we have focused more on our own backyard because many clients have realized that the opportunity for growth in Florida is better than in other markets across the country. They are seeing higher performance throughout Florida and more growth opportunities here. We have really entrenched ourselves in our own backyard over the last five or six years and have seen tremendous success with that.

How are interest rates, construction costs, and market conditions affecting deal activity?

We saw an 18- to 24-month period where the combination of cost of capital and interest rates created headwinds for new development and construction. We were also seeing construction costs outpace inflation in general.

Construction costs were rising so quickly that it became difficult for developers or end users to create reasonable proformas they could hit. In a 60- to 90-day period, some specific construction line items could increase 10%, which could be a budget buster.

That was mostly in 2023 and 2024. For most of last year and halfway through 2026, we have seen some stabilization. The cost of capital has not come down much, but we are starting to see some capital freeing up at higher levels. Construction costs have not receded, but they have stabilized enough that people are confident again in their underwriting and ability to take new products to market.

We went almost three years without seeing much multi-tenant retail delivered. That kind of retail can be more speculative for developers and landlords compared with a single-tenant outparcel, where they understand who the tenant will be and the deal dynamics. Now, we are starting to see more multi-tenant shop space delivered again.

There is still a long way to go to catch up with demand, but projects are moving. In one small node on the north side of Tampa, we have three small shop-space projects coming out of the ground at the same time with different developers.

We are also seeing retailers and tenants recognize the new normal from a rent standpoint. Asking rents in the Tampa Bay metro have increased significantly over the last five to six years. Tenants are recognizing that new normal and figuring out ways to underwrite and perform deals at those higher rent numbers.

How is the labor market influencing retail expansion plans and development activity?

Retailers may be having an easier time on the labor side than restaurants. In our world, the two major components are retail and restaurant, and the growing component is service-oriented users, including wellness and fitness.

There can be some tightness in the labor market. Labor expense in the restaurant world, especially full-service restaurants, has been a challenge. Historically, Florida had been a great state to operate restaurants. The tip wage has grown tremendously through ballot initiatives, and that has made it very difficult for full-service restaurants over the last couple of years.

There are some things the Legislature is working on to rebalance that and bring it back to more normalized levels. From a labor standpoint for our clients, full-service restaurants have probably faced the biggest headwinds.

Looking ahead three to five years, what are your key goals and priorities for SRS, and what is your outlook for Tampa Bay?

We are looking to continue servicing our clients and partners at the highest level possible. We have continued to augment our teams, from brokers through support staff, so we can provide the highest level of service and partnership for the clients we represent.

We have made a concerted effort to focus more on owner representation, including representing more landlords on existing products and more developers on products coming out of the ground. We have seen great success with that, and we are starting to get close to an equal balance between tenant services and owner services.

Our capital markets team does not slow down. They would certainly love to see interest rates come down a bit, but they have been executing at a high level for a number of years.

For our side of the business, sourcing sites for tenants and leasing projects for landlords, we have made that concerted effort.

The group we just brought in is primarily landlord representation, even though they also do a decent amount of tenant representation. One of my partners, Chris Stewart, who we brought in a couple years ago, had been with a large developer handling all their leasing. He has executed at a high level for a number of clients with whom we had long-term relationships. 

In many cases, we had been on the other side of the table representing tenants leasing assets those landlords owned. Now, we are starting to handle third-party leasing for some of the larger landlords and real estate investment trusts throughout the state. That has been great. It has benefited the landlords we represent, and the additional market intelligence has also benefited the tenants we work with.