It started with one person.
Now, Landmark Commercial Real Estate stands as a team of 36 with a prominent place in Wichita’s real estate industry as it celebrates its 30th year in business this week.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been 30 years,” said Brad Saville, Landmark’s founder and CEO. “But when I started thinking back about some of the projects that our office has worked on, that does seem like a long time ago. It’s fun to be able to say that we’ve made an impact on the city and see projects that we worked on, many years ago, come to life.”
Those projects have included handling the leasing and sales of several notable Waterfront properties and pulling in big national tenants into major east and west Wichita developments. Landmark also played a key role in developing the mixed-used Spaghetti Works District downtown and the redevelopment at Kellogg and West.
Beyond specific projects, Saville said seeing the team grow — and having brokers stay on board with Landmark for the long-term — has been rewarding.
“Our culture at Landmark is very important to me, and many of our Landmark team members have been with the company for longer than 10 years, some 15, some even 20, which I guess means we are doing good work and having some fun along the way,” Saville said.
Landmark’s journey in the early 1990s started with an office at 7701 E. Kellogg, but just a few years later it moved downtown into the Lassen Office building at 155 N. Market St. It’s stayed in the city’s core ever since.
Landmark Commercial Real Estate’s current headquarters are at 156 N. Emporia, and the firm last year added the Landmark Lounge next door for training and events.
The addition of the Lounge occurred around the time Landmark added Josh Turner as president — with previous president Kevin Dreiling taking the same position at Turner’s former firm, J.P. Weigand & Sons.
Saville said Turner has been able to focus on helping teach newer agents.
“He has several classes a month to train everybody on different aspects of the business,” Saville said. “Then, with his leadership, I’m able to spend a little more creative time and just provide more wisdom to the agents on how to get deals done — especially the younger ones.”
After Landmark initially focused on retail and restaurants in its early years, Saville said the firm expanded its work in other sectors, specifically highlighting the addition of Ted Branson, and his industrial expertise, in 2009.
Landmark — which works in leasing, sales, property management and development services — continued to grow from there.
“We’re really well-rounded now with a lot of people doing different things,” Saville said.
Landmark Commercial Real Estate is the No. 3 largest Wichita-area commercial real estate firm, according to WBJ data.
Saville said one challenge to Landmark’s growth in Wichita is the city’s smaller size — relative to other regional metros — combined with strong competition provided by other firms.
But, he added, the firm isn’t done expanding its impact.
It’s looking into developing its presence in other Midwest markets, such as Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Saville said, though those plans are still in their early stages.
“We’ve got some of our agents that are kind of interested in spreading their wings out a little bit and doing some more outside of Wichita,” he said.
