Annual Austin Retail: Around The Retail Experience

Founded in 1998, Whitestone now has a market cap of $363M and properties around Texas and Arizona under James' command. James also has a past of being a Military Police Officer with the US Army, but nowadays spends his free time flying with his private pilot's license. In fact, aviation is so important to him that in 1999, James formed and served as CEO for Eagle's Wings Aviation, which purchased troubled aviation services businesses.

Wes is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where he earned a Bachelor of Science and Texas State University where he earned a Master in Business Administration. He is also licensed Texas Real Estate Broker with over twenty years of experience. Wes manages Austin and San Antonio for Lincoln’s retail division and is involved with the acquisition, development, leasing, marketing and disposition of commercial retail property. Wes has also been involved with the development of over 1,100,000 square feet of retail space valued at approximately $200 million. Such projects include the Shops at the Galleria, a 535,000 square foot power center anchored by Lowe’s, Best Buy, Michaels, Marshalls, World Market, PetSmart, Old Navy, and Office Max and Red Oak Village, a 310,000 square foot center anchored by Sam’s Club, Best Buy, Ross, Marshall’s, PetSmart, and Bed Bath & Beyond, and Northcross Mall, a 280,000 square foot center anchored by Super Wal-Mart. In addition, Wes has been involved with the acquisition and disposition of over 4,000,000 square feet of property valued in excess of $500 million, has completed hundreds of lease transactions totaling millions of square feet, and has spearheaded the acquisition of nearly 50 pad sites for ground up development in both the Austin and San Antonio markets for clients such as Wachovia Bank and Taco Cabana. Wes is a member of Urban Land Institute (ULI), International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), and Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA).

Cole is a Vice President with EDGE Realty Partners in Austin. His primary focus is on landlord and developer representation with an emphasis on power, grocery, neighborhood and specialty projects throughout the Texas market. Cole has represented some of the largest national and regional landlords including Simon Property Group, Inc., H-E-B Grocery Company, LP, Archon Group and Jones Lang LaSalle. He has over 10 years of commercial real estate experience and is consistently recognized as a top producer by the Austin Business Journal and CoStar. Before joining EDGE, Cole was a Principal with Retail Solutions for five and a half years where he helped grow the leasing portfolio to over three million square feet and managed a leasing team that averaged more than 100 transactions per year. Prior to Retail Solutions, Cole was with Endeavor Real Estate Group where he worked on a two million square foot portfolio of power and grocery anchored retail space. In addition to landlord representation, Cole has assisted a number of national tenants with site selection and lease negotiation, including Wells Fargo, Ace Hardware, Firehouse Subs and Koko Fit Club. Cole received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Texas Christian University and his Juris Doctorate from South Texas College of Law. In his free time, Cole enjoys spending time with his wife, Jennie, and their three sons, Hayes, Chase & Cade.

Adam’s expertise includes tenant representation for local, regional, and national retailers, as well as leasing and project representation for a complete range of retail project types. He has represented growing local brands like Snap Kitchen and Royal Blue Grocery, first-in-market concepts like East Hampton Sandwich Co. and Chop’t, and anchors including Crunch Fitness and Violet Crown Cinema. Prior to joining Endeavor in 2014, Adam was a Senior Vice President and Director of Brokerage for The Weitzman Group in Austin, where he was consistently recognized as one the company’s top ten Texas producers. Adam has earned CoStar’s Power Broker award in the retail leasing category every year since 2009, and can regularly be found in the top ten of the Austin Business Journal’s retail leasing “Heavy Hitter” list.

Matt Epple is Partner - Development and Brokerage for the Austin office of Weitzman. Epple identifies and executes development and acquisition opportunities for the for the company in Central Texas. He also oversees the Austin office’s brokerage team and works with its members to extend the firm's reach and presence with clients, prospects and the overall industry at large. Currently, the office’s brokerage team is responsible for leasing more than 10 million square feet of space in projects ranging from office buildings, small neighborhood strips to large regional-draw power and specialty retail destinations. Epple also directs the Corporate Services Division in Austin, which offers office tenant representation services, and specializes in retail tenant representation, investment sales, and project representation. Clients he represents include Chase Bank, Sam’s Club (disposition), Wingstop, Anytime Fitness and a number of local Austin businesses. Epple ranked in Weitzman's statewide Top 10 Producers for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021. In 2006, his first year with the firm, he was recognized as Rookie of the Year for Weitzman on a companywide basis. In addition, CoStar has recognized Epple numerous times as a Power Broker based on transaction volume. He has also been ranked as a Heavy Hitter in the Austin Business Journal multiple times. Epple has been a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers, the Real Estate Council of Austin, the Commercial Brokers Association (CBA), and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). Epple was appointed to the RECA Leadership Development Council in 2008. He also is a member of the University of Texas Real Estate Finance and Investment Center (REFIC). Epple received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin.