One of the Good Guys

Scott Crooks (left) and Dick Bryant (right) in front of the "Gatekeeper" in Dick's office at Bryant Commercial Real Estate.

Good luck finding someone with a snide, snarky or untoward comment regarding Dick Bryant. He jokes that he makes employees sign a contract stating they'll always speak highly of him or he'll take their assets, but his list of admirers and a team that's followed him from Portman Barry in the '80s to Bryant & Associates in the '90s to Bryant Commercial Real Estate this decade tells the real story.

Bryant started the original Bryant & Associates in 1991 and later sold the firm to The St. Joe Co.'s Advantis. After leaving Advantis in 2004, Bryant decided to start an investment firm, but his old team wanted to get the old band back together, so to speak, and Bryant Commercial was born January 1, 2005. Ultimately, many of Bryant's original crew - Scott Crooks, Mark Hollan, John DeCouto, Rick Tumlin, Nadia Wagner ... the list is endless - joined the new firm.

That unity and trust creates a rare bond and culture that helps maintain focus and diminish the distractions a tough market and economy inevitably bring, Bryant said. It also creates a cooperative atmosphere in dealing with complex transactions, as well as financial institutions and distressed assets.

"Those exterior problems of the market don't have as great an impact on a group as cohesive as ours," Bryant said. "We really do have a family environment, and there's a lot of trust."

Bryant Commercial now has a staff of 34 - 28 brokers, six staff - and plans to add a few more this year as the market incrementally improves.

"It's beginning to break a little, and we're beginning to see a break in the negativism and people being overly cautious," Bryant said.