Nashville’s commercial real estate market spans office towers in the SoBro and West End corridors, industrial product in Wilson and Rutherford counties, retail along Broadway and the suburban pikes, and multifamily investment trades tracked by Davidson County’s first-quarter 2025 cap-rate readings. Investors moving between these property types often coordinate IRS 1031 like-kind exchanges on qualifying investment property, which raises the stakes on broker selection. The three offices below carry the depth, the institutional client rosters, and the designations the market expects when transactions move past the small-deal threshold.
Each brokerage profiled here pairs a Nashville-based bench with a global services platform, and each maintains active membership ties to NAIOP Greater Nashville Chapter and ULI Nashville. Coursework and qualifying portfolios behind the CCIM Institute designation (200 classroom hours plus a qualifying exam) and the five-year specialty experience requirement behind the SIOR designation are referenced where individual brokers carry them. All three firms operate under the NAR commercial code of ethics framework that governs licensed brokerage practice in Tennessee.
Quick Comparison #
| Firm | Credentials | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| CBRE Nashville | Office opened 1982; CCIM-credentialed practice leads; NAIOP Greater Nashville and ULI Nashville engagement; Tennessee real-estate licensure under TCA 62-13. | Office, industrial, retail, and multifamily advisory across the Mid-South with capital markets, debt and structured finance, valuation, and property management. |
| JLL Nashville | West End office at 1801 West End Avenue; NAIOP Greater Nashville and ULI Nashville ties; NAR commercial code of ethics; TREC licensure under TCA 62-13. | Industrial, office, retail, residential, and hospitality investment sales, tenant representation, agency leasing, agency lending, and capital markets. |
| Cushman and Wakefield Nashville | Industrial bench over 75 combined years; CCIM and SIOR appear among senior practitioners; NAIOP and ULI participation; TREC licensure under TCA 62-13. | Office, retail, industrial, and multifamily advisory plus capital markets, valuation and advisory, project services, and global occupier solutions. |
1. CBRE Nashville #
The CBRE Nashville office opened in 1982 and has anchored Music City’s commercial brokerage market for more than four decades. Headquartered at 222 2nd Avenue South, Suite 1800, the office reaches by phone at (615) 248-3500. Elizabeth Goodwin serves as Senior Managing Director and Tennessee Market Leader, overseeing advisory services across the firm’s four Tennessee locations in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga.
More than 40 real estate professionals staff the Nashville bench, working across property management, investment sales, commercial brokerage, project management, acquisition financing, valuation, and portfolio management. J.T. Martin, CCIM, leads the office tenant representation brokerage practice, and Steve Preston heads the industrial group. The CCIM Institute designation that Martin holds requires 200 hours of graduate-level coursework, a qualifying portfolio of closed transactions, and a written exam, putting him in the roughly six percent of commercial practitioners nationally who carry the credential. CBRE’s parent platform operates across more than 100 countries with 155,000-plus professionals, supplying the Nashville office with capital markets, debt and structured finance, and global workplace solutions capacity that most local brokerages cannot match.
Service lines and asset coverage #
The brokerage advises owners and occupiers on office, industrial, retail, and multifamily product across the Mid-South region. Class A office representation, distribution and warehouse industrial work, and institutional investment sales each have dedicated practice leads. Property management and valuation round out the offering, and the office supports acquisition financing through CBRE Capital Markets.
Designations and affiliations #
CCIM-credentialed brokers appear on multiple practice teams, and the office maintains active engagement with NAIOP Greater Nashville Chapter and ULI Nashville. Tennessee licensure and adherence to the NAR commercial code of ethics apply to every transaction professional.
https://www.cbre.com/offices/corporate/nashville
2. JLL Nashville #
JLL operates its Nashville office at 1801 West End Avenue, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37203, reachable at (615) 928-5300. The brokerage sits inside Jones Lang LaSalle, a Fortune 500 professional services and investment management firm with operations on six continents. The Nashville office serves clients seeking added value through owning, occupying, and investing in real estate across industrial, office, retail, residential, and hospitality categories.
The Nashville team’s service lineup includes investment sales and advisory, tenant representation, agency leasing, investor services, agency lending, and capital markets execution. Client industries span banking, energy, healthcare, law, life sciences, manufacturing, and technology, which maps closely to the demand drivers in the Nashville office and industrial submarkets. The platform supports Tennessee operations through complementary JLL offices, giving the West End-based brokerage statewide reach for portfolio assignments.
Investment management and capital markets #
JLL’s investment management arm pairs with the local brokerage to execute on institutional-grade dispositions and acquisitions, including stabilized office towers, multifamily portfolios, and industrial parks tied to the Nashville logistics corridor. Capital markets professionals coordinate debt placement and equity recapitalizations with the firm’s national platform.
Affiliations and standards #
The team maintains active engagement with NAIOP Greater Nashville Chapter and ULI Nashville, and licensed agents operate under the NAR commercial code of ethics. Tennessee real estate commission licensure governs all brokerage-side activity.
https://www.us.jll.com/en/locations/southeast/nashville
3. Cushman and Wakefield Nashville #
Cushman and Wakefield staffs its Nashville office at 1033 Demonbreun Street, Suite 600, Nashville, TN 37203, with phone access at (615) 301-2800. Parent firm Cushman and Wakefield was founded in 1917 and operates as one of the largest commercial real estate services firms worldwide. The Nashville brokerage covers office, retail, and industrial product, paired with capital markets, valuation and advisory, project and development services, and global occupier solutions.
The Nashville Industrial Real Estate Advisors team brings together David McGahren, Doug Howard, John Ward, Hayes McWilliams, Abigail Rieck, and Henry Sherer. Combined industrial experience on the bench totals more than 75 years, and over the past five years the group has represented clients on approximately 62.5 million square feet of industrial leases and sales valued at roughly 3.5 billion dollars. Distribution and warehouse property work, including build-to-suit assignments and sale-leaseback transactions, runs through this practice. Office and retail brokers handle agency leasing and tenant representation, with capital markets specialists structuring investment sales for institutional and private capital clients.
Multifamily and investment advisory #
A dedicated Multifamily Advisory Group operates inside the Nashville office, executing on Davidson County multifamily trades and cross-market portfolio dispositions. Davidson County multifamily cap rates tracked in Q1 2025 sit inside a band the team underwrites against on every assignment, with sensitivity analysis tied to debt costs and rent-growth assumptions.
Designations and membership #
Brokers across practice groups participate in NAIOP Greater Nashville Chapter and ULI Nashville activities. Tennessee licensure and the NAR commercial code of ethics frame day-to-day brokerage practice, and CCIM and SIOR designations appear among senior practitioners on the office and industrial teams.
https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/united-states/offices/nashville
How to evaluate a Nashville commercial real estate broker #
Property type alignment ranks first. An office tenant representation specialist runs a different process than an industrial seller-side broker, and forcing one assignment onto the wrong practice lead costs basis points on every line of the deal. Designations matter as second-tier evidence: CCIM signals graduate-level commercial coursework plus a qualifying portfolio, and SIOR signals five years of office or industrial specialty work plus production thresholds. Membership in NAIOP Greater Nashville Chapter and ULI Nashville signals market engagement and access to off-market product.
Platform depth matters on cross-border and institutional assignments. National capital markets execution, debt placement capacity, and valuation and advisory services inside the same brokerage reduce coordination cost on complex trades. For investors structuring IRS 1031 like-kind exchanges on investment property, a broker who can source replacement product across multiple asset classes inside the same platform compresses the 45-day identification window.
Reference checks and case studies close the evaluation. Recent transaction sheets, named client references, and audited transaction volume by asset class give a defensible read on whether the broker can execute on the specific assignment under consideration. The three offices profiled here clear those filters across office, industrial, retail, and multifamily product in the Nashville metro and Mid-South region.
Selection Methodology #
The three firms above were selected from the broader Nashville commercial real estate brokerage field using these filters: minimum documented years in continuous Nashville-area business, verifiable trade-association membership or Tennessee license on file (Tennessee Real Estate Commission broker license under TCA 62-13 verifiable at verify.tn.gov, plus active NAIOP Greater Nashville Chapter and ULI Nashville engagement), brand-name anchor with verifiable address visible on the firm’s own website, and a published service scope that maps to client need without bundled upsells. National rollups without local lineage and operations without a verifiable street address were excluded.
Frequently Asked Questions #
Q: How does the firm structure fees: hourly, retainer, or project flat?
A: Fee structure varies by service line. Marketing and creative agencies often quote a project flat or monthly retainer; accounting and bookkeeping often quote monthly recurring; CPAs and financial advisors mix flat, hourly, and asset-based fees. Ask for the full written fee structure, including any change-order or scope-creep policy, before signing.
Q: What is the typical project or engagement timeline?
A: Timelines vary by scope. Ask the firm for a written project plan with phases, milestones, and a stated start and substantial-completion date. For ongoing services, ask for the standard reporting cadence (monthly, quarterly) and how the engagement is reviewed at renewal.
Q: Are any of the three firms paid placements?
A: No. The three profiles above are editorial selections drawn from publicly verifiable sources. No firm sponsored placement.
Q: Who at the firm will be my day-to-day point of contact?
A: Some firms assign a senior partner as the relationship lead with associates and analysts executing day-to-day; others keep the named principal as the primary contact throughout. Confirm in writing who returns calls and emails, the standard response window, and the escalation path for unresolved issues.
Editorial Note #
This guide was published on 2026-05-11 and reflects research current as of that date. Verify licenses, phone numbers, and current business status before engaging any firm.