Eakin Partners was formed by Tom Harwell, Chad Bottorff, Barry Smith, and John Eakin. Each of these principals brings a unique ability and experience level to the company
Eakin Partners has a depth of leasing professionals. Tom Harwell leads the sales and marketing team of 7 real estate agents. These highly experienced individuals rank the highest year after year for top revenues generated per agent.
In the summer of 2001, Eakin Partners developed Virginia Way Plaza, an 80,000 SF building located in Maryland Farms. In 2002, Eakin Partners acquired Burton Hills for its investment partnership, EP Real Estate Fund. Roundabout Plaza, completed in 2004, houses one of Nashville's most prominent law firms, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings. In 2005 Eakin Partners began the development of SunTrust Plaza in downtown Nashville which was completed in December 2007. This 340,000 SF building located next to the Ryman Auditorium includes tenants such as SunTrust Bank, Stites & Harbison, Universal Music and Panera Bread.
Chairman, John W. Eakin, has developed over 3.6 million square feet of office product in the Nashville market. In 25 years and with three different companies, Eakin has developed signature properties in the Airport, Green Hills, Brentwood, West End and Downtown submarkets. John W. Eakin's career began with American General after graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1977. From 1980 to 1987 John was president of Carroll Properties and successfully developed over 1 million square feet of Class A office space. In 1987 John formed Eakin & Smith , which became Nashville's dominant Office Developer, Leasing and Management Company. In April 1996 John merged Eakin & Smith with Highwoods Properties (HIW) in a transaction in excess of $100 million. John was a Board Member, Senior Vice President, and served on Highwoods Investment Committee.
President, Barry R. Smith, is a graduate of Purdue University. Smith has dominated the office leasing market in Nashville over the past 10 years. In his 23-year career, he has negotiated approximately 4 million square feet of office leases. While he was with Grubb & Ellis he consistently ranked in the top 20 of over 2,000 brokers nationwide. He was named NAIOP "Broker of the Year" in both 2001 and 2006 and he was awarded the " Office Lease of the Year" in 2005. Smith leads the office leasing team, which is the most productive per agent of any in the Nashville market.
